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Nice Barong

I have mentioned it on occasion, but I sometimes get mistaken for a Filipino person. Honestly, I'm never surprised when it happens. For one, it's happened enough times that I recognize that it is a thing. For another, I have a complexion that looks very much like what a stereotypical Filipino person looks like. All in all, it sort of makes sense. Still, it's amusing when it happens.

What makes it all the more confusing for people passing by is that I sometimes hang out with a whole lot of other Filipinos. For example, any time I am with the Mild Wife's family, I happen to be one of many people who are/look Filipino. Given the context clues, I can't fault someone for assuming that I am simply another one of the family. I mean, there are people in the family who are lighter than me in skin tone and there are people in the family who have a darker complexion than me. I'm somewhere smack dab in the middle, so it's a perfectly reasonable assumption.

If you happened to click on the link in the first paragraph, you will also know that I am the proud owner of a barong. That's a distinctly Filipino item of clothing, so it's fair to assume that someone who wears one is of Filipino descent. In my case, I do it out of respect for the Mild Wife and her culture, but someone who just sees me walking by won't know that. All they see are the visual cues, which deceive them into thinking that I am Filipino.

The latest time this happened was recently, when the Mild Wife and I attended the FilBookFest. In this case, we actually attended the gala on the opening night, so I wore my barong. It seemed like a good time to break it out, and I did so with the full approval of the Mild Wife.

The funny bit happened when some random lady who saw me walking by commented to me in what I can only assume was tagalog. I sort of blinked slowly in confusion, so she switched to English to tell me, "that's a nice barong." Well, thank you. My father-in-law got it for me, and he got me a good one. I've always liked how it looked, and apparently others noticed, too. Still, the facts that I sort of stared with a deer-in-headlights moment and that the lady had to switch languages to make herself understood made me chuckle. I told the Mild Wife about it later, and she immediately knew what had happened. We both shared a good laugh.

I think I'm going to have to find other opportunities to wear that barong. It just makes the nice all that much better.

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