Manong Manang

[Sherman Desrosiers]

ManongMah-noh-ng) is an Ilokano term principally given to the first-born male in a Filipino nuclear family. However, it can also be used to title an older brother, older male cousin, or older male relative in an extended family. The feminine "manang" is a term given to an older sister. It is a term of respect, similar but secondary to Dad or Mom, but not comparable to Mister or Ma'am, which expresses no elevated affection. A hierarchical marker, it is used to refer to any male who is older than the speaker within his or her family but it could also be used for men outside the family to convey respect.

Additionally, the male partner of an older sibling may be referred to as a manong irrespective of the speaker's age relative to the partner (i.e., a male younger than the speaker may be called manong by virtue of status and not by age difference) although this is not always necessary.

Manong/manang is arguably the derivative of the Spanish word for brother/sister - "hermano" and "hermana". The addition of "ng" and loss of "her" could have been for a variety of reasons such as regional slang.

Manong can also refer to the Ilocano manongs, laborers who migrated to the United States to work in plantations in the 1930s. Stories of the manong, Filipino migrants displaced from their homeland and faced with the racism and challenges of a foreign land, is a common theme in many Filipino-American writers' works. These include most prominently, Carlos Bulosan (America Is in the Heart), a Filipino migrant himself, and several stories by Bienvenido Santos "Scent of Apples" and "The Day the Dancers Came").

Stockton was at the epicenter of Filipino migration in the 1920s, but as a queer and gender non-binary person who grew up in the city generations later, Donald Donaire did not feel supported by the Filipinx community.

Only when Donaire left Stockton in 2011 and studied at UC San Diego did they learn about the strong legacy of Filipino organizing and activism in their hometown. Now Donaire is one of several Filipinx people who have returned to Stockton as part of a new generation of leaders in the city working to reclaim their history.

The asparagus workers formed a union called the Filipino Agricultural Labor Association, or FALA, to protest their pay cut. Since they worked and lived in company camps on the farms, the striking workers had no place to stay and no food to eat.

As Little Manila began to flourish with independent, family-owned businesses and community spaces, the landscape of agricultural work began to change; a large influx of Latinx farm laborers came to the Central Valley. The workers began to form their own unions and organizing bodies and banded together with the Filipinos to bolster their strength in numbers.

Little Manila was in grave danger. As more of the manangs and manongs passed, the Filipinx people in Stockton were not only losing their oral historians, but the physical spaces they worked to build together were disappearing, too. The city tore down most of the last remaining block of Little Manila during the Gateway Project in 1999.

Delvo and Mabalon had left Stockton to study at San Francisco State University and UCLA, respectively, where they each found a deep love for ethnic studies and learned about the history of Little Manila and Filipino farm laborers in the Central Valley.

They created an organization called Little Manila Rising (formerly the Little Manila Foundation) to prevent further destruction of the neighborhood, and in 2001 they were successful at getting the city to designate Little Manila as a historical site.

Over the next two decades, Little Manila Rising grew as a historical preservation organization, and implemented an after-school program in partnership with groups like the Filipino American National Historical Society.

In 2018, Mabalon passed from an asthma attack, which was a shock to the many people who organized with her, learned from her and were inspired by her. The most recent version of the California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen), which identifies communities with multiple sources of pollution, showed that Stockton is in the 100th percentile of asthma-related issues, in large part due to long-term exposure to pollutants. Those pollutants can also be trace to the cross-town freeway that replaced much of Little Manila.

In her honor, Delvo and Little Manila Rising expanded its focus to include public health and mental health education, environmental justice, immigration rights and educational outreach for COVID-19 in South Stockton, including organizing testing and vaccination centers.

When Donaire returned in 2015, they worked as a youth educator with the Little Manila After School Program (LMASP), which holds workshops for students and partners with other cultural groups, including Healing Pilipinx Uplifting Self & Others, Little Manila Dance Collective and the Kulintang Academy.

Watsonville is in the Heart (WIITH) is a community-engaged research initiative based at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). WIITH is a collaboration between the Tobera Project, a grassroots Filipino American organization in Watsonville, UCSC faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, and descendants of the Pajaro Valley manong and manang generation. Manong (older brother) and Manang (older sister) generation refers to the first group of Filipino migrants to settle in the Pajaro Valley between the 1920s and 1940s.

The Filipino farm workers who immigrated to the United States in the 1920s and the 1930s were called manongs then, and are forever remembered as manongs now. Many of them were from the Ilocos, whose language uses the term in the sense of older brother. They were not, they could not have been, all older brothers, but they were old familiars, and deserving of respect.

But in Filipino culture, the role of the older sibling is burdened by real responsibilities; the manang and the manong are like surrogate parents, who help look after, who help raise, and in some instances who help pay for the education of, the younger siblings.

This must have been why the nickname for Maria Ressa, Glenda Gloria, Chay Hofilea, and Beth Frondoso stuck; the members of the organization do not see them as parents but as older sisters. They are persons of real authority, but their leadership is not an exercise in control but rather in participation, in a shared responsibility. Theirs is the authority of the older sibling.

A few years ago, at an open-air forum at De La Salle University, I noticed some manongs and manangs cleaning in one distant corridor while the program was underway, and it occurred to me that that chance image was telling me something important, something real, about journalists, and by extension about journalism itself.

We should not begrudge ourselves the small and large victories that come our way; we should not be falsely modest when we are occasionally referred to as champions of the freedom of expression, crusaders for truth, the conscience of the nation. But at the same time we should not get carried away; we are, at core, utility workers.

Adjust lang the garlic, siling labuyo and onions to your liking. The first time I made it, saktong pampulutan. I used 1 medium red onion, 4 cloves of garlic, and 2 siling labuyo. Kulang pa sa anghang for me hahaha. I adjusted this for the general taste and for kids kasi.

it might be easier and give better consistency/texture to heat half the liquid with the sugar and soy sauce first, while separately dissolving the flour and cornstarch with the other half of the water. Once the soy-sugar mixture starts boiling, carefully pour in the flour-starch slurry while stirring. this would ensure that all the starches are properly gelatinized and cooked.

I am a parish priest (pastor) of a big Filipino-American parish near Washington, DC (Maryland) I am planning to serve fishballs with this recipe for the sauce on the feast of San Lorenzo Ruiz next month.

Thanks for sharing this recipe. I have looking for it for a long time so I can make it myself at home. I do not want to partake of the sauce provided by manong because of the Hepa virus that it might contain. How about the recipe of the fishball itself? Do you know any?

Cut up the fish into cubes. Put all the ingredients except for the ice cubes in a food processor or blender and blend for about 2 mins. Or until smooth. Then add the ice cubes and continue to blend for another 3 mins or so. The paste should be a lot of elasticity and thick. The paste should be very smooth with no solid pieces of fish. Scoop the paste into a bowl and refrigirate for about an hour before using.

Prep for fishball:

Add grated carrots,minced onions/scallions and minced parsley into the cold fish paste and be sure to mix it very well. Then form the fishballs and cook them in boiling water for 3-5mins depending on the size you formed. Once they floated that means they are cooked.

Thanks for the awesome looking recipe I am sure it taste just as good. My problem is the fish balls, where can I buy those? Can I order them online? Or do you also have recipe??I live in Kansas and all we have down here is BBQ. lol

just want to share my variation on how this sauce is done.

In a heavy sauce pan heat

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tablespoon butter

add 2 tablespoon all purpose flour and stir until flour is light brown. set aside.

saute in 1 tablespoon oil the chopped medium sized onion, chilli and 2 cloves minced garlic until soft. This will bring out the spice flavors.

pour 4 cups of sprite or water, add the butter and flour mix and stir well. season with 4 tablespoon soy sauce and 1 teaspoon salt.

add the 3/4 cup brown sugar and continue stirring.

dissolve 2 tablespoon corn starch with 2 tablespoon water and add to thicken shine your sauce. after a minute remove from heat and continue stirring for another minute. Let cool.

Thanks! Nagdagdag me 3-4 tbsp each ng cornstach saka ng flour nakuha ko na din ung lapot niya. Ginamit ko po kasi is ung cups ng 4 water.. yes ako din nahihiwagaan bakit di nagswak first try ko but Im so happy I found this site. Thank you so much po for sharing!

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