Ilagar
Meet Sally Ferrer
Sally Ferrer was born and raised in Cavite, Philippines on October 30, 1949. She came from a huge family with nine brothers and sisters. Her mother, Stella, was a homemaker and a produce vendor. Her father, Phil, was a teacher at a local, elementary school. She and her family had been Roman Catholics, as Roman Catholicism remains the dominant religion in the Philippines. However, in 1956, her father, Phil, had converted the family to Iglesia ni Kristo . This authoritarian church had succeeded in attracting potential converts like, Phil and his family, through its use of mass rallies or revival meetings.
From the time Sally was born and until she attended high school, she had learned to speak up to six different languages. She is very fluent in Filipino (based on Tagalog) which is the official language and the commonly spoken language in Luzon—the northern part of the Philippines. Other dialects she knows are Pangasinan and Illocano. When she went to college in the South or Mindanao, she quickly adapted to the languages spoken over there. She had learned to speak a little bit of Illongo (which is actually the language in the Central or Visayas region) and Cebuano. In fact, there are seventy to one hundred fifty different languages and dialects and several language groups in the country (Ng and Wilson 1223). Moreover, Sally manages to learn and speak English fluently, mainly since most official transactions in the country are carried-out in English .
In March 1971, Sally received her diploma (equivalent to Associate degree) in Nursing at Zamboanga General Hospital in Zamboanga City in Mindanao. She went back to Luzon in Manila—the capital of the country—to obtain her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing at Philippine Women’s University. In addition, because she had a degree similar to Associate’s, she was able to get a job as a nurse at Quezon Institute Hospital.
In Manila, Sally met her-soon-to-be-husband Ramon, who was a student at University of Santo Tomas. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. He also achieved an Associate degree in TV Technician. In addition, he was in the military—Philippine Air Force—for fourteen years where he attained the highest rank as a major. While Sally and Ramon were walking by at a mini-mall in Manila, the two heard news from some bystanders who were mumbling about an agency that recruits Filipino citizens to travel out of the country and work in the United States due to the shortage of nurses. Recruiters like, Orientex Travel Agency, promoted a plan called, "Fly now, pay later," slogan and a form of advertisement to attract nurses to go abroad. Such appealing ad persuaded Sally to apply immediately. At that time, Sally and Ramon did not have enough money for her to go overseas. Perhaps this plan would give them the opportunity for greater economic security as they considered having their own family.
After the interview from the agency and the nursing representative at a hospital in Mississippi, USA, they had chosen Sally to take a trip to the United States to work as a nurse. Consequently, she gave-up her goal to finish-up her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing. In March 1973, after her marriage to Ramon at the City Hall in a court and on the next day, Sally boarded on a plane to the US. She was twenty-three years old.
Sally and four other Filipina nurses had joined her to fly on a TWA plane. Their first stop was in Hong Kong. Then from Hong Kong, they headed to Honolulu, Hawaii; Honolulu was their second stop. Their third stop was in Los Angeles. Their fourth and final stop was in Jackson, Mississippi. Sally and the other nurses were picked-up by the caretakers of the motel they were planning to stay and live-in for a while. Sally lived in Natchez, Mississippi where she worked as a nurse at Jefferson Davis Memorial Hospital. In May 1974, Sally and her co nurse who was also her roommate and friend (she came with Sally to the US) decided to move to a different hospital and state to gain experience. They resided in Mt. Holly, New Jersey. In Mt. Holly, Sally and her friend worked at Burlington County Memorial Hospital. Once, she attended a Catholic church where she converted herself back to Catholicism only because she felt that she had a choice to change her religion compared to the time she lived in the Philippines where her father made such decision for her. Sally lived in New Jersey for two years and until 1976 only because she decided to go home to the Philippines to start a family.
From 1976 to 1981, Sally stopped working to nurture her three children. Her eldest was a girl who was born in 1976, her middle child was a boy who was born in 1978 and her youngest was another girl who was born in 1980. In 1981 and after seven years of being a homemaker, Sally hired some nannies to take care of her children so that she could be able to work again since her husband’s job in the military was not enough to support their three children financially.
However, Sally was not satisfied enough of her salary. So in 1987, she decided to leave the Philippines again and this time to Saudi Arabia. From the Philippines, she flew to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. She worked at King Faisal Hospital where she had to care for children with cancer. Her job at the hospital, from November 1987 to June 1991, lasted approximately four years since she would go back to the Philippines to visit her family whenever she had a vacation.
Unexpectedly, while in the Philippines in 1990, Sally received a notification on her immigrant and permanent visa petition status to come to the United States. Because she had filed the petition since 1976, she assumed that the odds of getting the approval would be less to none. In spite of her assumptions, she received an approval for her status with the help of her auntfrom California—who was willing to sponsor her along with her family. So on July 21, 1991, Sally along with her family (husband and three children) boarded on Philippine Airlines plane. From Manila to Honolulu, they stopped in Honolulu. Then from Honolulu to San Francisco, CA, where Sally and her family waited at the San Francisco International Airport to get picked-up by her cousins who resided in East Bay. Her aunt was also kind enough to let them stay in her house in the East Bay for two weeks. Sally was forty-one years old.
In August 1991, Sally and her husband, Ramon, felt confident enough to live on their own and so they picked-out an apartment in the East Bay. Within less than a year and in June 1992, Sally and her family moved to South Bay, where they progressively improved. Hence, as years go by, Sally Ferrer’s overall, transnational labor experiences reflect the increase in Filipino women as overseas contract workers and the transformation of traditional gender roles of women as wives and mothers.
A Filipina’s Search for a “Better Life” and Desire to Assist Her Mother
Sally’s migration for work to the United States during the “post 1965 immigration phenomena” signifies the life-goals of Filipino women and their concept of a better life. She states a couple of reasons why she moved to America: It has already been my dream to go to the US since I was in high school. Once, I even told my mom that I have a chance to immigrate to the US, but I have to go to school first and get a degree, so that [I will] be able to go to the US and get a good job. Thus, I can [also] help my family back home, especially my mom who is really working hard. She owns a small business in our town located in the southern part of the Philippines [Mindanao].
The mother-daughter relationship between Sally and Stella is nothing similar to Elaine and her mother—Lau Woon Ching—because Stella is the“nicest mom.” Perhaps Sally does not recall being hit by her. However, like Sally, Elaine grew-up to be independent. She has stopped relying on her mother, at an early age (Mar 44). Furthermore, the fact that her mother could not speak English was a disadvantage, but Elaine, eventually, helped as her English-Chinese translator (Mar 186-187).
Elaine’s independent quality is somewhat similar to Sally’s experience when she has been traveling on her own since the tender age of thirteen. Because Sally and Elaine come from Asian countries, it is not surprising to know that they must help their families. Collectivistic society is common in Asian cultures, in which a person will work for the benefit of the entire group, whereas in Western societies (such as United States), individualistic tends to rule, in which the emphasis is on the individual with less concern for the group (for example, a person will work to benefit oneself) (Kibria 99).
In contrast, Sally’s opportunity to assist her family started when she migrated with an H-1 visa permit to the US and per “Government Regulation” in the Philippines in March 1973. By the time the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 went into effect, “Asian medical professionals [—including a large number of nurses—had immigrated] to the [US]” (Reimers 101). American hospitals started to recruit Filipina nurses under a governmental program that allowed foreign nurses to practice without having to pass state licensing exams. According to Sally, the only test they had to take was the English Proficiency, in which many Filipina nurses had passed since the Philippines’ Nursing Program was similar to the US’; the courses were taught in English and the books came from the US.
At Jackson Airport in Mississippi, Sally and her co nurses arrived and greeted by the hospital director and the nursing director, Faye. The five Filipina nurses worked and resided in Natchez. Even though she had only lived in a motel, she mentioned that the living condition seemed pleasant and the people were very accommodating. The US hospitals in inner cities, like Jefferson Davis, experienced shortages of nurses, so they turned to the Philippines and other Asian nations to provide the hospital with such demands. Thus, many Filipina nurses would migrate to the US due to the higher salaries American hospitals had to offer (Reimers 101). Even if Sally’s earnings as a temporary nurse were adequate, an hour of work here would still be equivalent to a day in the Philippines! She quickly noticed the improved salary in the US and thus she controlled her earnings sensibly so that she could send remittances back home. Her husband, Ramon managed their savings account and he made sure that they saved enough money for their own family. Her parents, Stella and Phil, were also grateful for their daughter’s support. The money they received from her enabled them to remodel and expand their eatery in Mindanao. Moreover, for three years, while residing in the US, she would contact her husband and family (parents and siblings) in the Philippines by either writing them letters or calling them on a long-distance, telephone.
More job opportunities came along to many Filipinas in the US, but the jobs were only temporary positions. Sally, who came from a devoted, Christian family, found a job. Because she was hired right away with free housing provided, she considered this as a blessing. On the contrary, not all the good things lasted when a particular, newly hired doctor at the hospital came with a family and so, he needed a house nearby. The doctor—whom Sally had never met—occupied the house they were living in and he advised them to move out. She did not really understand the situation, she felt powerless, and so, she and her co nurse did not have much choice but to find an apartment. Nevertheless, Sally’s strong Christian faith is just like Lau Woon Ching's strong belief in luck. Once her family moved to an apartment in Aurora, her mother was pleased to hear that they could keep the old furniture and refrigerator (Mar 187). Whether good things are luck or they are blessings from God, no matter how diverse religions and practices of spirituality and faith in Asia, they still share the commonality of helping Asian women like Elaine’s mother and Sally adjust to life in the US. Indeed, a sense of faith seemed to have helped Sally deal with settling in to US and hardships or rather personal and social transformations by providing a safe and comfortable environment in which she can socialize, share information, and assist each other. Hence, her reliance on Catholicism represents as a source of solidarity in Sally’s life.
Although Sally had the chance to stay in the US longer, she and her husband had already planned from the beginning that she would only stay in the US until 1976 (approximately three years). She left the states in 1976 and coincidentally, the Health Professions Educational Assistance Act severely limited the number of immigrants to the United States (Reimers 101). In any case, the law had no affect in Sally’s departure because she wanted to go home to start a family.