Teaching Cultural Appreciation with Children’s Books with Joy Francisco
By Jacqui Le and Alexis Constantino
Photos Courtesy of Joy Francisco
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPT/OCT 2023 BY LOTUS MAG
Jocelyn “Joy” Francisco is a licensed clinical psychologist and the author of Little Yellow Jeepney, among many other Filipino children’s books. In her postdoc, she worked with children and adolescents, centering on the neurodiverse population in diagnosing and assessing for learning exceptionalities. She used children’s books to help teach socio-emotional learning and social communication skills, which sparked her interest in writing her own children’s books. As a first generation Filipina American who grew up feeling connected to her culture, Joy wanted to find a way to preserve that and pass it down to her children, which led to her first book, Little Yellow Jeepney.
Her career as a psychologist has impacted her books in many ways. When working with children and adolescents, she focused more on teaching social communication skills and addressing their needs. It wasn’t until she moved back to San Diego and started connecting with Asian and Filipino American therapists. “I noticed there was such a need to be able to serve our population because there's already the stigma with mental health. I began to focus more on helping others heal from generational trauma.” To help make this cultural connection, Joy turned to writing children’s books as a platform.
Little Yellow Jeepney
A jeepney travels through Manila and visits different historical sites.
“There's a strong connection with jeepneys in particular, not just because it's a popular form of transportation in the Philippines, but my father was actually a jeepney driver when he was 18 years old. And he had actually met my mother while he was driving a jeepney and the rest is history.”
The Bitter Melon
Similar to other children’s books like The Bad Seed and The Good Egg but with a cultural twist to teach readers about identifying their emotions, practicing self-compassion, and that they’re not defined by their emotions.
“As Asians, we are not typically allowed to show emotion. We're not allowed to cry and anger is the emotion we commonly see from our parents most, not necessarily empathy. And so this bitter melon notices, ‘Wait a minute, there's other melons who are sweet. I want to be able to feel like that.’”
Damdaman
Inspired by a plant native to the Philippines called makahiya or a “shy guy”, this book is all about emotions and teaches kids about different emotions.
“Part of me as a psychologist wanted to educate and provide socioemotional learning to children and even adults within our culture. We have a lot of emotions and there's a lot of power in being able to identify your emotions and honor them, rather than avoid and ‘sweep it under the rug.’ A lot of the clients I work with, that's the foundation we start off with: being able to honor, identify and label emotions; being able to accept and sit with the emotion rather than let our nervous system go into fight or flight mode because it’s uncomfortable or difficult to tolerate.”
Damdaman is a portmanteau of the two words damdamin, which means feelings in Filipino, and halaman, which means plants.
Makahiya = when you touch it, its leaves actually close as if it were extremely embarrassed about physical contact, hence its name: "makahiya" is derived from the Filipino word "shame" or "shyness" (hiya).
Some Tagalog Vocab
Gigil = cute aggression
“Picture a baby who's chunky and you just want to squeeze it! It’s an aggressive, cute feeling.”
Kilig = nervous excitement
“It could be considered like butterflies in your stomach but in a positive, swoonworthy way rather than the usual nervous or anxious feeling.”
Kayumanggi = brown
“A fun word to say but it’s such a long word for the color brown!”
Mabuhay = live or live well
“You may hear it when you’re welcomed in the Philippines! It’s like you’re wishing someone well everytime you say it.”
Joy dove deeper into her culture while writing her books. “Every time I create a book or put the ideas together, I definitely learn more and more about the culture.” As an example, she explained that when writing Oh My Kulay!, a book about colors, she learned that a lot of the words she grew up with, like berde and asul for green and blue, were actually influenced by the Spanish while the Tagalog language had its own set of words for colors, like bughaw and luntian, also for green and blue. “It’s definitely been such an opportunity to learn more about the culture, the history and the language.”
She further talks about the importance of gaining a better understanding of the culture in connection to the Filipino language itself. “When you're able to understand the language or know the language, I feel like there's almost a deeper connection to the culture. My hope is with these books, people are inspired to learn more of the language and in turn, learn more about the culture.” Joy then mentions how discouraging it is to hear that parents today still choose to not teach their children the language due to acculturation and concerns for them getting confused at school. “So I do feel like the language is important in connecting to the culture and after hearing everyone's stories when they approach me, wishing that they had learned the language from their parents, I imagine it would strengthen their connection rather than create a language barrier.”
Balikbayan Box: Journey to the Philippines
“Because of where the Philippines is located and due to climate change, they're often hit by typhoons and natural disasters. So I was inspired to create a digital book called Balikbayan Box: Journey to the Philippines to raise funds to be given to different organizations. It's about a balikbayan box, a box full of items to be sent back to the Philippines, and the pasalubong or souvenirs inside the box. I asked that you “pay as you can”, 100% of the proceeds went to charities that directly support organizations rebuilding the livelihood of Filipino farmers, fisherfolk, families and vulnerable communities, who are most affected by these natural disasters. For a whole year, the money raised each month went to different organizations.”
1 week of meals to 33 families
9 months of meals to children participating in alternative education
24 weeks of counseling sessions for up to 105 children
Grocery packs, one-month bill subsidy, and hermetic technology bags for 33 farmers and their families
P16,000 towards immediate and long-term aid
Hygiene packages to 12 families in Negros
Support to the Mansungi Geopark Project efforts to “provide green livelihood for locals, prevent landslides and floods, and bring back clean water for the surrounding areas.”
Funding the freedom for a rescued child through Destiny Rescue
Healing to the Asian-American communities from systems that continue to perpetuate the trauma we experience
Support to The Filipino School’s efforts to help rebuild Samala Marquez in Cavite, Philippines
6 families with survival packs for one week
6 homes with clean, safe, and affordable solar powered lighting for five years
Support to Mother Earth Foundation to actively engage in addressing waste and toxic pollution, climate change, and other health and environmental justice issues
Support to Waves for Water Philippines towards the implementation of water filtration systems, the construction of repair or bore-hole wells, and/or rainwater harvesting systems
Support to The Center for Art, New Ventures and Sustainable Development in providing books to 30 children
A month’s worth of educational expenses, food, clothing, and other basic necessities for a child at Meritxell
As a result of the Typhoon Rai (Odette), 46,000+ families were affected, destroying farms, coconut trees, fishing boats, houses and businesses. P5000 went towards Lokal Lab’s immediate relief aid and long-term plan for livelihood rehabilitation, regrowth of forest areas, construction of typhoon resilient homes.
Coming Soon…
“As part of the language series, the next book we're working on is called Mali-nom-nom-nom. Everyone knows what “nom, nom, nom” refers to but malinamnam in Tagalog means tasty, savory, delicious. So this one is going to be about food but it's introducing opposites using food; specifically Filipino food. I imagine people will be hungry!”
Fun Fact
“Most recently, I’ve wanted to learn sign language and it’s interesting because there’s actually Filipino sign language. Did you know that there are more than 300 sign languages?”
Jacqueline Le is a San Diego resident rediscovering herself by doing inner child work and being brave. She loves potatoes in all forms. Boil 'em. Mash 'em. Stick' em in a stew. You can find her either reading, thrifting, playing with her dog Ollie, or clowning around at the ice rink. You can check out her adult skating journey @petite.potato.on.ice.
Alexis Constantino is one of the co-founders of Lotus Magazine where she enjoys working with the team as well as connecting with people within the community. She is also a local piano teacher in San Diego, teaching kids from elementary to high school and anyone who's willing to learn! In her free time, Alexis loves immersing herself in books, traveling to new places, and eating great food.