RP2 : Quotidian Activities

In “Migrancy, Modernity, Mobility: Quotidian Struggles and Queer Diasporic Intimacy,” Martin F. Manalansan discusses his research regarding “Filipino gay immigrant men living in the New York City area, (146)” and suggests when quotidian struggles are looked at one could recognize a difference from the more “conventional narrative” of gay and lesbian people (147). He further contends that when these quotidian activities are analyzed one is shown, “the complexities of various intersections and borderlands of race, gender, class, and sexuality in diasporic and immigrant groups,” which is necessary to understand in order to understand the experience of marginalized Filipino gay immigrant men (147).  For instance, Manalansan describes the story of Alden, a Filipino gay man who describes that his apartment tells about his life in America, which is different than the experience he tells from his homeland in the Philippines. Alden’s apartment represents his rounded dichotomous life in America having on one side of the home his “Filipino corner” and opposite he had a poster of a naked man, which he wouldn’t consider having in the Philippines, (151).  Even though the apartment physically displays a dichotomy in Alden’s life in America one could argue that if taken as a whole the home encompasses the complexity of race, gender, class and sexuality as Manalansan is analyzing.

Moreover, Manalansan continues to discuss a second story about Roldan, another Filipino gay man, who he follows for some time and records his quotidian activities. He finds that Roldan stressed over being caught for cross-dressing because it could potentially jeopardize his stay in America, which is crucial to his world’s survival. His quotidian activities represent the complexities of being a Filipino gay immigrant man who provides for family in his homeland and shows how intertwined his Filipino and American life are because separation is not possible. Manalansan writes, “Following Lefebvre, I finally submit that the everyday struggles of queer subjects within a globalizing world form a strategic path leading to a teleological determined home but rather to other more exciting possibilities,” which shines a positive light in contrast to the conventional narrative of failed aspirations (157-158). Manalansan’s use of Alden and Roldan is essential to understanding his argument made about  how the more normative story about gay immigrant men do not appropriately show how these mens lives are influenced in a rounded way in there quotidian activities, in regards to the combination of pressures relaying towards race, gender, class, and sexuality. The use of these lives full of different factors that influence their Filipino gay immigrant experience as a whole reflects the combination of variables necessary for the survival of these people.