Between Worlds: Author Lillian Cui Garcia is Making an Impact
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FriesenPress is honoured to have assisted many writers of colour with sharing their stories over the years. In celebration of Asian Heritage Month, we’re amplifying the voices of some incredible Asian FriesenPress authors.
Teaching and learning are two essential aspects of Asian Heritage Month. It’s a time to celebrate the achievements made in the past, but it’s also a time to listen and ask ourselves: how can we build a more equitable and just world in the future?
Retired teacher, public servant, and FriesenPress author Lillian Cui Garcia is answering that question through both words and actions. Lillian’s two books, A Teacher Between Worlds and An Immigrant Goes Back Home to Cebu, are essay collections that reflect upon the life journey of a Filipino immigrant in Canada, and her return home after many years abroad. In the years following her retirement, Lillian has decided to give back to the country that helped make her who she is today.
We spoke with Lillian from her home in Terrace, B.C. to learn more about the philanthropic work she and her husband conduct in the Philippines, the chance encounter that inspired her writing, and why publishing a book is like making cookies.
What inspired you to write your first book, A Teacher Between Worlds?
I had never thought about producing a book. Never. Then, one day, a former student came by my house and told me that I was a good teacher, and that many of my students felt the same. At that moment, I thought “Perhaps others could learn from how I taught my students,” and decided to try to write a book. There's a mystery of how destiny and free will flow together, you know?
When I retired, I started writing essays [about my life]. As I got better and better at writing, I would share them with friends. And when my husband liked [my work], I said, "Oh, this must be a good essay!" But never until that moment when my student said, "You were a good teacher and we all loved you," did I think I would write a book. That was the eureka moment.
A Teacher Between Worlds is a celebration of the opportunity to be in this great country, and to be able to go back to [the Philippines] — a country I love so much. I happened to be fortunate to have been offered a good job in Alberta. I was a researcher — a policy analyst — there. Imagine, in the ’70s and ’80s: I got a job like that, because I had a master's degree and I could write. It was a good job. It allowed me to raise a family here.
Later, I came with my husband to Terrace, B.C., because he was hired as a culinary instructor at the college here. Unexpectedly, I was also hired as a teacher there. It was a star-blessed life. So, given all that I’d learned, I had to write that book.
You began working on your follow-up, An Immigrant Goes Back Home to Cebu, almost immediately after A Teacher Between Worlds was published. What spurred you on to write that book?
I was really inspired by the feedback I received from my first book. I really could write, and the people who read it said, "Boy, we really liked [A Teacher Between Worlds]."
I wrote An Immigrant Goes Back Home to Cebu because I'm going back home for good. People may not understand why I’m leaving my beautiful life here in Canada. An Immigrant Goes Back Home to Cebu is meant to help people understand. I have to go where I am most useful — I still have a deep, spiritual tie to my homeland.
After my husband and I sell our house here in Terrace (which I think will come about next year), we can pay our mortgage and hopefully have some money left to continue the outreach projects my parents did. We are more useful there, sharing what we can spare because the poor there have little, if any, social assistance.
You mention continuing the work of your parents. Since your retirement, you and your husband set up the Roberto and Vicenta Cui Foundation to give back to your home community in the Philippines. Why was that important?
My books are as much a celebration of the beautiful Canada that accepted me as I am. In going back to the Philippines, I realized I could do a lot there. There are so many less fortunate people there. My husband and I decided to share our retirement income, which is modest, with little activities there — which is a big part of An Immigrant Goes to Cebu.
We have a soup kitchen in a school [in the Philippines]. We have a program that provides food to people living on the streets. We’ve built three public toilets in struggling neighbourhoods and, hopefully, we will build a transition house for abused women in the Philippines. That is the plan.
We named the foundation after my parents, who were the greatest people in the world. They made me the way I am, and that’s why we called it the Roberto and Vicenta Cui Foundation. That transition house which I am envisioning now will be named after them.
We're not millionaires. We don't have that kind of money. But if you can share, you should share.
You mentioned writing as a policy analyst, but when did you start writing for pleasure?
I started writing essays (not as good as the ones I write now) after my retirement in 2012 … because I had nothing to do!
I usually write at night time — I carried over my teaching prep time as my writing time, between 10 pm to 2 am.
Have you learned anything from the writing and publishing process that you didn’t expect?
It taught me to be humble. Writing a book means you have to accept that you can do something well, but at the same time not strut around saying, "Look at me, look at me.” Because there are others who are gifted in other areas as well — they just don't write.
That was the number one thing I learned: humility. To me, publishing my books made me more humble, and made me realize that many people could be bright in other ways. It’s just the way we all are. I just so happen to be bright in writing.
Have you received feedback from readers about the books? What do they think?
I go by my husband’s reaction first, because he knows most of my stories. When he says, "I was moved. I almost cried," then I know it’s a good one.
There are few reviews online for A Teacher Between Worlds. They're very good reviews — and I don't even have to pay them! My readers just write good reviews. They say it's really moving. It’s so nice to hear that they like my writings.
As someone with modest ambitions when they started writing, that must have felt wonderful.
It's just like making cookies. You give your cookies to somebody, and they say, "Oh, dear, these are good cookies." And then what do you do? You bake some more cookies to give them. It makes them happy. It also makes me happy to know that I'm giving them a part of myself.
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Lillian Cui Garcia’s essay collections are available now on the FriesenPress Bookstore
