BUSINESSMAN Donald John Trump’s ascension to the US presidency worried both the Blanco and Laguardia families in Cebu who have sacrificed a lot to move to America.
On learning about Trump’s victory last Wednesday afternoon, 20-year-old Jersey Blanco, his brother, his mother Christine and two of his distant aunts talked with their US-based relatives at their home in Sacred Heart Village, Barangay Banawa, Cebu City.
“Our relatives in San Francisco gave us updates on their situation on election night. I swear I saw my aunt, who works in a coffee shop in San Francisco, cry in front of her web camera the moment we all learned Trump won,” Jersey said.
He said he knew about the struggles his aunt, Jonah Blanco, had been through after moving to the US.
“When she narrated to me how’s her life in the US, it’s really devastating to hear. Life out there is not that easy at all,” Jersey said.
Jersey said his aunt had jobs in more than five states across the US during her first three years there, and there were times when his mother would send money to her so she can make it through another week.
“Aunt Jonah is my father’s sister. She has no dependents, but she followed my grandparents’ advice to migrate there to secure her future’s safety. She lives independently at first, but now, she is living with my grandparents,” Jersey said.
Based on stories by his relatives, Jersey pictured California as a place where everyone is welcomed, regardless of race, religion and sex.
But he learned about the threats posed by white supremacists to Filipino immigrants in San Francisco who were encouraged by Trump’s tirades against foreigners.
“Aunt Jonah told me how Filipinos are harassed by white extremists. Fortunately, she has not experienced anything of that kind, but she fears them now. She fears for her own safety and for our grandparents,” Jersey said.
Jersey and his mother are worried that their relatives may be deported since only their grandmother was declared as a valid US citizen while the rest remained as green card holders.
“I hope all my kin can have their citizenship approved because we fear that when they get deported, things will take a turn for the worse,” Jersey said.
Three generations of Blancos, who lived in Sibonga town, Cebu, now made San Francisco, California, their home since the early 1990s.
The Blancos maintained a poultry farm, a coco lumber business and other business interests in their 10-hectare land since the 1950s; and most of the family were lawyers, doctors and dentists who joined Jersey’s grandparents to the US.
Jersey said his mother Christine Blanco was unable to join her siblings since she was pregnant at the time.
He said she raised him and her sibling in Cebu and had plans of flying to California last April but were unable to do so.
For the Laguardias, a Trump presidency may affect the livelihood of one of their own in Chicago, Illinois.
Terrence Laguardia said his aunt, Lucille Laguardia-Ponce, had just landed a job as a caregiver there.
“To get my aunt to Chicago has been tough, and I think the idea of her being deported back to the Philippines is worse. We fear something awful may happen to her, and she may be deported on short notice without her expecting it,” he said.