Sulat Kay Nanay (Letter for Mom)

Throughout the week, we've been celebrating Mother's Day by honouring our community's stories and asking 12 Pina/xys to write a letter for their Nanays or a Nanay in their lives.

To be truthfully honest, it was hard for us to read and digitize all these letters, as so many of the narratives hit home. While there are stories of grief, trauma, regret, loss, there were also feelings of gratitude, healing, care and (so much) love. When we started this project, we certainly did not expect for it to be this emotional, to be this powerful. We could only hope that these stories are resonating and meaningful to you, as they are for us.

This Mother's Day, we celebrate all nanays. We celebrate the Nanays who share their resilience to their anaks (children) everyday. The Nanays we lost. The Nanays who have lost. The Nanays who time and time again have never failed to sacrifice, to teach, to love unconditionally.

To all our contributers, our community, maraming salamat for the gift of your voice, the gift of your and/or your Nanay's story. We are extremely honoured to hold space for each and one of them. 💖

So here are 12 Pina/xy  letters to Nanays in honour of Mother's day.

To the Nanays who never fail to uplift us and our culture:

To the strong, resilient moms in our lives who continue to inspire and empower:

To the mothers we’ve lost, who have lost, and whose relationships we’re still trying to find:

To the Nanays we just can’t thank enough:

And here’s to holding the love and the pain, the thoughtful yet complicated relationships, the trauma and the healing all at once, this mother’s day: