Pinoy in America: The stateside life in the time of Barack Obama, Facebook and Pacquiao-mania

Lorenzo Paran III chronicles his first years as an immigrant, a period of learning and unlearning that many others have gone through before him and many more undoubtedly will after him. He shares the stories—always poignant, always moving—of the Filipinos he meets as he tries to carve out a home in a new land: old-timers eager to share the voice of experience; young guns audaciously taking on the challenges but also opportunities in the complex landscape that is America; the proverbial Filipinos who are “more American than Americans”; and second- or third-generation Filipinos reaching out to their parents’ homeland.

Paran discovers, too, that just because you’ve spoken English, gone to McDonald’s and watched Hollywood movies all your life doesn’t mean you’ll instantly fit right in in America. Quite the contrary—but thinking you will makes the story more interesting.