Francheska Arellano

An encounter I had in elementary school inspired the piece, Pan De Ube. As I get older, I become more aware and familiar with xenophobia, especially towards ethnic foods. Pan de Ube is a sweet bread roll layered with Ube or purple yam, a popular Filipino breakfast food or snack. I wrote this piece to bring awareness and connect with an audience who had experienced microaggression towards the lunches brought to school. Pan De Ube demonstrates my inventiveness as a writer in which I take a real-life experience and angle the focus to emphasize the problem. By using sensory language I work to paint a picture of the scene and express the character’s emotions through their actions. I believe the biggest takeaway this piece demonstrates for me as a writer is how many real-life experiences I include in my writing and how I enjoy evaluating a memory to look at a different angle. I also tend to choose my own experiences to connect with others who may have similar experiences.