An Interview with Ella deCastro Baron on Her New Book, "Subo and Baon: A Memoir in Bites"
October is Filipino History Month! This Book Encourages Us to Dig a Little Deeper into what Filipino Culture and Values have “Imported” into American Livelihood
I had the great good fortune to sit down with Ella deCastro Baron, a local writer, teacher, activist, and amazing human on the publication of her latest book, Subo and Baon: A Memoir in Bites, that just came out on City Works Press and can be bought here. In this work, deCastro Baron invites us to a communal meal, a roundtable collection of creative nonfiction. The subo (handfed bites) and baon (food to go) she serves are kitchen counter-stories marinated in Filipino American identity, faith, family, chronic illness, and the complex fullness of being, becoming. These are generous texts, full of delicious observations and searing commentaries on what it means to be human in this current configuration of American culture.
Kelly Mayhew: Tell us about Subo and Baon: A Memoir in Bites. How would you categorize this book? What’s it about? What motivated you to write it?
Ella de Castro Baron: Imagine a family-style table filled with potluck dishes. This book, a “memoir in bites,” is a spread of nonlinear, creative nonfiction texts. Folks are invited to this “round table” to read and be nourished by the prose, poetry, braided essays, and other forms (like a quiz, a meditation, and Filipino poetics). The “shape” of this book resembles the shape of my life as a second generation Filipino American. These are kitchen counter-stories about Filipino-ness, family, faith, illness and the complexities of being, becoming. Readers can read in any order to “sample” the offerings as they have time, energy, and hopefully, hunger for these stories.
In a way, the “how” this book is written and assembled is just as important as “why” I wrote about true stories this way. Form and content are in conversation with each other.
KM: What are the broad themes and/or issues that the memoir addresses? Of course you don’t want to give too much away, but are there any big ideas that you address in the book?
EDB: This memoir is about being a child of immigrants, being raised as an Americanized Filipino. My stories are deconstructing and decolonizing the ongoing harms of the United States as a “benevolent” empire over the Philippines. This entrenchment with evangelical Christianity (aka Christian nationalism) has shaken me awake and away.
I try to open portals on whether it is possible to recover, re-member an indigenous mindset where we can live in mutuality with ourselves, other people and more-than-human kin rather than in transactions with colonial capitalism. I write about an inherited dis-ease that is more than “skin deep” (see my monsters story, “Aswang as a Second Language”). I scratch deeper than I’ve believed I could.
With these rumblings come grief-tending and cultivating kapwa in communities. Kapwa is the Filipino value of “seeing ourselves in each other,” of “deep interconnection.” I hope my book’s themes invite folks to witness and be witnessed around this “meal.”
KM: Talk a bit about your style as a writer. In your previous book, Itchy, Brown Girl Seeks Employment (City Works Press) you cover such a stunning range of memoir, personal history, and culture with an interesting lens. What can you tell us about your style as a writer? Why do you write the way you do? Are there any influences that shaped your approach?
EDB: Writing spaces like Urban Haiku, Corporeal Writing, and my chosen creative family help me to stop listening to gatekeeping voices that yap there is only one “right” way to write a memoir. We are polyphonic, dissonant, convergent. Mycelial.
I witness and write from my body and spirit’s point of view, not just my mind, and this includes wisdom from my ancestors of “blood, love, and spirit.” My writing is narrative, intergenerational, funny even in traumatic moments (most likely as an adaptive skill). What I witness includes the more-than-human (e.g. an ancient crocodile), spectral, and very (very) honest reflections.
I’m convinced that the way and how I write can and should be attuned to what I’m writing. My teachers and co-conspirators show me that my truest storytelling nature is “genre-queer.” I experience more urgency and freedom when I follow the way a story wants to be expressed: in words, visual art, dance, ceremony, mixed media. In these communities, I hope there is also a bite to eat and capacious hearts to hold and witness us! I hope all writers and artists feel the same agency of power and joy when they make art.
KM: You deal with deeply personal, cultural, spiritual issues in your writing. Talk a bit about the importance of your ethnicity as a Filipina American and why it’s important to get more of those voices out there.
EDB: When I walk into a room as a brown-skinned cisgender female, my body is political. I was born and raised in California and still get told now, “You speak English so well!” Even as Filipino Americans are the third largest Asian group in the United States, we are perpetual foreigners to many (see U.S. history; see COVID anti-AAPI hate crimes). There are not enough stories about our peoples’ sacrifices and contributions towards equity, justice, and healing.
I finished the manuscript in earnest when I learned, during the first years of COVID, that the large, continuous population of nurses from the Philippines–a source of disposable human labor in wars and crises–has direct origins in Americanized nursing schools in the Philippines. My sister and cousins are nurses. This is personal (see “Bahala Na” essay).
Everyone, notably BIPOC who are marginalized despite being the global majority, has a story to tell. Storytelling is an antidote to racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and white supremacy.
Our stories are vitamins and medicine, soul food, community comfort, and care.
KM: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
EDB: October is Filipino American History Month! I encourage us to learn, listen, share a meal and story, read, and dig a little deeper into what Filipino culture and values have “imported” into American livelihood!
Here are some community events where I will be sharing from my book:
Wed, 10/23. “Sariling Atin: Talk Story” at SD Mesa College, Wednesday 10/23, 9:35-12:35, Room G-101. Free Storytelling showcase with San Diego Mesa College students, faculty, and community
Thur, 10/24. “Sariling Atin: Talk Story” VIRTUAL (Zoom) showcase. Thursday 10/24, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Free storytelling event celebrating Filipino American History Month. Registration: tinyurl.com/talkstoryzoom
Sat, 10/26. “Filipino American History Month Poetry Reading,” Saturday 10/26, 2-3:15 pm at the SD Public Library University Heights Branch, 4193 Park Blvd. Free.
With Daniela Sow, Jenn Derilo, Jasson Magabo Perez, Karen Marie Maliwat
Tue, 10/29. “Sariling Atin: We Are Our Stories” event at San Diego City College, Tuesday, 10/29, 9:35-11 a.m. Room MS-140. Free. With Jason Magabo Perez, Trish Guevarra, Jenn Derilo, and more