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Pinoy Capital: The Filipino Nation in Daly City, by Benito M. Vergata, Jr. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2009. 220pp. $25.95 paper. ISBN: 9781592136650.
Pinoy Capital is an ethnography of Filipino Americans and various social institutions within Daly City, California. On the surface it appears as if this book informs its readers about the daily lives of a particular immigrant and /or ethnic community within the United States and thus, contributes to our understandings of "the immigrant experience in the United States." However, Benito Vergara accomplishes much more than this.
Through unstructured interviews, textual analysis and historicizing of Filipino American newspapers (particularly the long-running and influential Philippine Neivs) alongside a critical analysis of how ABSCBN's The Filipino Channel, popular Filipino films and books depict Filipino permanent residents, political exiles, and/or naturalized citizens in the United States, American-born Filipinos, and Filipinos in the Philippines, Vergara shows the simultaneous constructions and articulations of nation, values, identities, and how these concepts themselves have been and are used in justifying emigration policies and other socio-political processes. Indeed, the seemingly innocuous title of the book (Pinoy Capital: The Filipino Nation in Daly City) is a double-entendre: it could simply refer to one city that Filipinos around the world point to as a welcoming place for all Filipinos (including American-born) in the United States or it could refer to the fact that, because of neoliberal economic treaties and policies, one of the Philippines' most lucrative exports is laborers - many of whom end up in DaIy City. With keen eyes and wit, Vergara carefully observes, describes and assesses not only his...