Manette Trogani Snow always wondered why her father, Martin “Pop” Trogani punished his children by forcing them to kneel on raw rice, arms outstretched, with a stack of books piled high on their hands. In a quest to understand why Pop treated Manette and her eleven siblings so horribly, she unearthed not only her own family’s hidden histories, but also a previously unknown chapter in US history about racism, immigration, and war.
In a fascinating memoir created from a twenty-five-year mission to excavate information from archives, articles, books, and interviews, Manette chronicles her journey through a childhood darkened by fear, brutality, secrets, and lies while detailing the story of her father’s family’s experiences as the only known survivors—despite being starved and tortured during the Japanese occupation of World War II—of an orchestrated campaign to expel them from the United States under the Filipino Repatriation Act of 1935. Included throughout are a treasure trove of personal and historic images, as well as additional insights obtained after the completion of Manette’s extensive research.
American Aswang intertwines the true story of a Filipino-American girl’s challenging coming-of-age journey with the often horrific experiences of her father’s family as they were repatriated to the Philippines.