The first story was “My father goes to court” by Carlos Bulosan. The story depicts how the Filipinos value their family. The story also portrayed certain aspects of what a Filipino family is. Filipinos are known to be light-hearted and happy people. Unlike in western culture, they’re very stern and serious type of people. Filipinos dedicate most of their time to their family. It is very unlikely for a Filipino to miss a family dinner or a Sunday get-together. Even if every family member is busy with their work or school, they still try to find time for the family. On western civilization, they rarely had time to see each other even if they live on the same roof.

The bonding of a Filipino family is what binds them to be a close-nit group, and I think that’s what molds their characters into becoming happy, light-hearted type of people. Each Filipino is being influenced with their environment, and one main environment of every Filipino is their family.

In “How my brother Leon brought home a wife” by Manuel Arguilla, the second story, points out traditions of a Filipino family and country-style living. Traditions are very important for the elderly. Most of them rely on traditions because that’s what they believed to be important. Traditions mold them as their basis on every aspect in life.

One main tradition that was pointed out in the story is the Filipinos hospitality. Filipinos are known to be hospitable; I for one am guilty for this. I find myself to be a hospitable person, because whenever I have guests in our house, I try to make them feel comfortable in our home. I offer them refreshments even if they didn’t asked for one, I really try to make guests feel at home with my home. That’s because my mother taught me how to be hospitable. She trained me to entertain guests at an early age. She doesn’t tolerate me to hide from the people whenever we have visitors in our home; instead she exposed me and lets me deal with them. Same goes with me becoming a guest in a home of another family, I’ve learned to empathize and to reciprocate.

If I were to create a literary piece to describe a Filipino family, I would make a description to how it reflects my own family. I think what the writers portrayed in their works reflects reality of their own because writing needs keen observation with your surroundings. I find the descriptions of these two writers true becuase I for one find those values in my own self. Filipinos have been family-oriented since civilization was created. We like feasts even in simple dinner or get-togethers. We traditionally adopted spanish influence like during holidays (Yultide season is one example). We like having a fiesta and it shows our hospitality. It just shows how close-nit filipinos can be. Being happy people that we are is also a true trait of a Filipino.

We like to smile, we like to spend our time with our family that even if we are married, most of us still chooses to live with our parents or buy a house near our parents house or create a compound. That's a Filipino label for me. Hahaha... But I guess things are slowly evolving now and people are becoming more and more liberated and independent nowadays with the help of technology. We are all living in a fast-paced life nowadays and independence is part of it, it's a must. Maybe we are not really close-nit anymore but we still find time to spend even a little time with our family.