Itsumi Nagakura - Week 8 - A04

The Roles of Asian-American Mothers.

After reading ""Mothering is Liberation: Giving Birth to Alagaan Pedagogy (Pedagogy of Care)" by Allyson Tintianco-Cubales, is was reminded of the extra burdens immigrant mothers have to go through. I am in no way trying to undermine mothers who are not immigrants because being a mother is hard. But as immigrants, these women not only have to endure roles of child-bearers and caretakers, but they also have to be the breadwinners and the cultural bearers. As immigrants, I imagine that it is not easy for them to get jobs and make money while having kids. Even though the common gender roles in Asian cultures are that the men make the money, Asian women would have to participate in bringing bread to the table, which adds to their number of responsibilities. Not only that but by acclimating themselves in a different culture, they would also have to be the ones who teach their children cultural values and traditions. It is not easy understanding multiple cultures when you grow up in them because they intertwine and become complicated. I imagine it is not easy teaching your children unique cultural traditions either when they are caught up in the one you are alienated from. Not only that but even as caretakers, Asian immigrant mothers are known as "Tiger Mothers" and their exceeded monitoring and strict teaching, it doesn't make anything easier.

For their daughters, when they become mothers, they may not have to endure some of the burdens their own mothers faced, but they still have the choice/responsibility to take-up the role as breadwinners and cultural bearers to their children. For someone like Tintianco-Cubales, having to deal with the responsibility to your children and your students, as we know that professors of Asian descent have to take on care work for their students, sounds somewhat overwhelming. To feel guilty for that seems understandable but should not be the norm. Tintianco-Cubales handled her multiple responsibilities well, but Asian-American women should not feel guilty that they do not have the capacity to deal with all this care work because they already have added responsibilities. 

Works Cited

Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2020). Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars resistance and renewal in the academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. (Kindle Version) 

Nealon, S. (2014, September 22). Hold on, Tiger Mom. Retrieved from https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/hold-tiger-mom