Growing up kana-Pinoy
Manila Days is a 50,000 word hybrid memoir of a missionary girl growing up in Manila, at the edge of American empire. The daughter of labor-focused Presbyterian missionaries to the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP), I offer readers a kana-Pinoy narrative of familial, religious, and political life from 1957 – 1972. The book is set against an increasing – and discomfiting – awareness of what it means to be an American and a missionary kid in a post-colonial world.
Poetic, wounded, funny, Kerry relays her quirky worldview and deep need to belong. So when Jesus whispers, “if it’s not magic, don’t believe,” it’s permission to blend tree spirits, Narnia portals, and the biblical prophets of class struggle. And what does being “Blue Seal” mean to a mixed up band of-nationalist kana-pinoy missionary kids rejecting American counterparts – the military brats, the business burgis, the evangelicals. Who were we in the First Quarter Storm? Were we allies, the enemy, or both?
In Manila Days, I try to stay honest about my privilege and placement. There are a corpus of “mk” stories and a burgeoning industry for TCKs – third culture kids. This story lays down the banig–mat– for what comes next: academic studies at the University of Chicago, speaking in tongues, facing queer identity, working with refugees, attending Seminary in New York, teaching Global Studies, and spiritual travelogues in conflict zones where non-humans and obscured entities collide.