Taglish, that mix of Tagalog and English we all grew up switching between, is not a watered-down version of anything. For Buwan ng Wika, a look at the Filipino we kept, the Filipino we lost, and the noises our parents made when we broke something. There's a specific look that crosses a Filipino-American face when someone asks, "Do you speak Tagalog?" It's not a yes. It's not a no. It's a wince, a shrug, and then the phrase that half our community has memorized like a passcode: nakakaintindi...

Walk into the hall at Pista Sa Nayon and the first thing that reaches you is the sound. The bright, trembling notes of a rondalla, that traditional ensemble of Filipino string instruments whose quick, shimmering melodies have carried town celebrations for generations. Then the voices: titos and titas calling names across the room, kids weaving between tables, the easy overlap of Tagalog and English and the occasional word of Bisaya or Ilocano. For one night, a hall in Parma becomes a nayon, a...

On June 12, 1898, in a town called Kawit, a man stood on a balcony and declared an entire nation free. The Philippine flag was unfurled for the first time. A band played Marcha Nacional Filipina, a melody that would later become Lupang Hinirang, the national anthem. General Emilio Aguinaldo, the first president of this new republic, read the Acta de la Proclamación de la Independencia del Pueblo Filipino: the Declaration of Philippine Independence. And then the hard part began. Because here's...