CNN — As a first-generation child of Filipino American immigrants, I grew up with wistful stories my parents told of their homeland, rich in details from their childhoods spent in a country that seemed as foreign to me as the fictitious lands described in fairytales. These stories were told in a tone that encapsulated both a yearning to seize opportunity in the West and for a life where they didn’t feel like outsiders — where conformity to American culture was not a daily burden.

Many of these stories centered on my paternal great uncle, Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay, and his role cementing the barong Tagalog, a sheer button-down shirt often emblazoned with hand stitched embroidery, as the country’s official formal wear.