ABOUT
Sino ako? (Who am I?)
I am a visibly able-bodied, thin person with a feminine expression of my gender. I have brown skin and very dark brown eyes, and black hair. In my photo, I wear a tan v-neck sweater that shows a traditional Visayan tattoo or “patik” across my collarbones. Spiritual protocol guides me to omit visually describing my patik.
In my native languages of Tagalog and Hiligaynon, pronouns have no gender. The pronoun “siya” is used to refer to persons of all genders, and to all living beings. In the English language, my pronouns are she/her/hers and they/them/theirs. What are yours?
My life and work are grounded in the concept of “ka”. Below is the ancient Tagalog symbol (Baybayin system) for the syllable “ka”. It can be described as a straight vertical line with curved horizontal lines at both ends of it. "Ka" is used in many other languages spoken in the islands known as the Philippines.
As it turns out, the first syllable in my given name “Carla” sounds just like “ka”!
“Ka” is many things, and inevitably, one thing. It is:
a Tagalog pre-fix used to denote relation of self to the other, and the concept of “kapwa” as discussed in Virgilio G. Enriquez’s Sikolohiyang Pilipino
“(Enriquez) defined kapwa as a recognition of shared identity, an inner self shared with others.”
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316081561_Filipino_Psychology_Sikolohiyang_Pilipino
“The Tagalog prefix ka- indicates that a noun is a person and an activity partner that's relative to the root word”
“implies companionship or partnership when prefixed to a root
ka- + sama (“to accompany”) → kasama (“partner”)
implies similarity or interaction when prefixed to a root noun
ka- + mukha (“face”) → kamukha (“someone/something similar; look-alike”)
ka- + away (“fight”) → kaaway (“enemy”)”
Ka is in all of us, and all of us are in ka.
Symbol in Baybayin for "ka", generated from the Baybayin brush font by Kristian Kabuay.