McReynolds, Patricia Justiniani 1926–

PERSONAL: Born September 17, 1926, in Santa Cruz, CA; daughter of Jose Piccio and Ruth Gudlov (Kongsvold) Justiniani; married Richard W. Haynes, January 3, 1948 (marriage ended April 22, 1969); married Cliff McReynolds (an artist), August 8, 1970; children: (first marriage) Lisa L. Haynes Winsett, Matthew R., Daria C. Haynes Wohali, Maria M. Haynes Langmaack. Ethnicity: "Filipino-Norwegian." Education: University of California, Los Angeles, B.A., 1947; San Diego State University, M.A., 1980. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Roman Catholic. Hobbies and other interests: Hiking, painting, travel.

ADDRESSES: Home—6311 Dowling Dr., La Jolla, CA 92037.

CAREER: University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, teacher of Mexican art history and ethnic arts in the classroom, 1975–79; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, archivist of slides and tapes and coordinator of research, 1979–81; San Diego State University, San Diego, teacher of art history, 1981 and 1984; National University, San Diego, teacher of art history, 1984–87; Mira Costa College, Oceanside, CA, teacher of western art history, 1981–90, teacher of traditional art history, 1990–2005. Filipino Folk Arts Program, program director, 1980–83; San Diego Museum of Man, member; guest on media programs; public speaker.

MEMBER: Filipino-American Historical Society, Sierra Club, San Diego Museum of Man, Balboa Park's House of the Philippines.

AWARDS, HONORS: Philippine Arts Film grant, Grass Roots Council, San Diego State University, 1978; award for short fiction, Tidepools: Journal of Ideas, 1993.

WRITINGS:

Almost Americans: A Quest for Dignity (memoir), Red Crane Books (Santa Fe, NM), 1997.

Contributor to periodicals, including Tidepools: Journal of Ideas, Arts of Asia, and East Wind.

SIDELIGHTS: Patricia Justiniani McReynolds once told CA: "To paraphrase a remark by Alice Walker, it has been a duty of my conscience as an educated, third-world woman—the reason for my education—to write a book like Almost Americans: A Quest for Dignity. My book emerged from that statement, as well as from the works of Maxine Hong Kingston, Isabel Allende, V.S. Naipal, and others. Their issues of immigration, colonization, and identity led me, a half-Filipino American, to write my contribution on the little-known Philippines and its emigrants.

"As a writer, art historian, and teacher, I had been publishing articles on the comparatively unknown arts of the Philippines (and other oceanic and Native American cultures). While reading the works of the authors I have mentioned above, I realized that the stories my father and mother had told me of their old countries and their immigration would fill a hole in the history of invisible Filipino-Americans. I believed, too, that my life growing up biracial in early twentieth-century America would add to the understanding of all mixed-race people in the United States.

"My writing continues telling stories of the Philippines, its people, colonization, immigration, the search for belonging and community, in personal tales that are also universal."