Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 19:3 (Summer 2005)
Article: The Heartbeat of a World Citizen
Author: Priscilla Lasmarias Kelso

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PP 19:3 (Summer 2005) p. 16

The Heartbeat of a World Citizen

Priscilla Lasmarias Kelso

PRISCILLA LASMARIAS KELSO, a teacher of literature and writing, is also a consultant for international programs in Boston. As an international scholar from the Philippines at Stanford University, she did her research on the theme of sin and redemption in the novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne. She has published essays on identity, culture, and the Christian journey. In New England, she grows a garden of mixed blooms—hibiscus, gardenias, marigolds, and day lilies.

The recurrent dream takes me back to my grandmother’s house in one of the central islands in the Philippines. There is feasting and much laughter. I am surrounded by my extended family—cousins and aunts and uncles. In the midst of this gathering, I suddenly realize that I have to leave for America. Then I am at the airport, anxious about having to say goodbye. Next to me are unsorted pieces of luggage and packages, scattered at my feet. I am perturbed by the absence of order and by the cacophony of my surroundings. Then my mother, gently touching my shoulder and pointing to the pile of mismatched luggage, says: “Priscilla, these are gifts for you.”

In my life journey as an Asian American woman who has lived in two cultures—in the post-colonial milieu of a country in the developing world and in the post-modern setting of cities like Boston, I have gradually begun to embrace the meaning of that recurrent dream. It resonates with the universal search for identity, with the promise and peril of leaving home, and, finally, with the understanding that even the unsorted pieces of every life are ultimately part of God’s gift.

My name—Priscilla Lasmarias Kelso—reflects the polyglot mix of my ancestry and history. Priscilla, with its biblical and New England overtones, was a name given to me when the Philippines was under American rule. Lasmarias, the name given to my clan when the Philippines was a colony of Spain for over 300 years, symbolizes the three Marys at the foot of the cross—Mary Magdalene; Mary, the mother of James; and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Kelso, the Scottish family name of my husband, Bart, represents the European branch of my family tree. In this confluence of East and West, I am continuing to find my place as a biblical feminist and as a citizen of the world.

Egalitarian Beginnings

Throughout history women have built their lives on the scaffolding of those who have lived before them. Mine includes the life of my grandmother, who was a powerful presence in my childhood and who shaped my concept of the strength that women bring to the drama of survival as they rebuild from rubble. My grandmother, Cecilia, exemplified for me the unswerving drive to keep on living after she was...

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