by Maya Echavez Butalid
On the early morning of August 13, 1983, I stepped out of Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It was still in the middle of summer, and not just an ordinary summer day. There was supposed to be a heat wave. But I felt the cold penetrating even up to the core of my bones. What a cold country! I had never felt such coldness before. Ever.
With just a half-full maleta, Carlo, my husband and I went towards the buses which would take us to Utrecht. There, we would be fetched by comrades of the European department of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). This was the start of what we thought was temporary : our stay in Europe.
Coming from the youth section of the CPP we were deployed to Europe to help out CPP’s international work. Carlo did solidarity work for the Philippines, while I was assigned to help build the diplomatic relations of the CPP and the National Democratic Front (NDF). In the course of our stay in The Netherlands, we also inter-acted with the overseas Filipino communities and became active in their various organizations.
Now after 23 years, as I look back, much has changed in our lives. For one, both Carlo and I have stepped out of the movement in 1993. Without elaborating further on the reasons, I would just say that we no longer agreed on the policies and ways of conduct of the movement as pushed forward by its leaders. Of course, this went not uneventful.On the 20th anniversary of the NDF in April 1993, the Executive Committee of the European Department of both the CPP and NDF formally dissociated itself from the CPP / NDF. While most of those who dissociated from the CPP / NDF continued to do solidarity work for the Philippines, I decided to totally stop my political involvement with regards the Philippines.
And since I had two growing daughters I decided to work seriously towards my integration into Dutch society. To be able to raise my daughters effectively, I felt the need to also take roots in the society where they are. Then I can understand the context where they are growing up, which is very much different from mine. And as my two daughters continued to grow up, so did my integration into the Dutch society continue to broaden and deepen.
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