Lina was born in 1952 on the central Visayan island of Negros. Her father worked as a supervisor in La Carlota Central, a huge sugar mill. Her family moved to the neighboring island of Cebu in 1959, where Papa retired on land he had bought. Nanay, her mother, returned to Negros to do business in 1960, and Lina followed in 1962 but lived with a relative, as Nanay had no home of her own.
In the next four years Lina changed households seven times, living with Nanay, relatives or friends of the family. On one occasion she escaped an abusive home. Here are her words: “I ran into the night at 1 a.m.. It was the time of the Passion celebrations and people were singing late at the house of Lola Ela. I didn’t know her but I went in and sat, and after the singing I asked her if I could stay with her. ‘I have many mouths to feed.’ ‘I can work.’ ‘There’s no bed.’ ‘I can sleep with the one who has polio.’ ‘OK.’ And so I was taken in by Lola Ela!”
When Lina finished high school, Nanay brought her to live with Lolo and Lola, distant relatives in the same town. Here Lina found stability, helping take care of the house and her new grandparents in exchange for room and board. Her uncle Ver was a missionary, and Lina traveled with his family to live in a leper colony on a small island near Palawan in the west, to Mindanao in the south, to Lagawe in the far northern mountains. Somehow she also completed college as valedictorian, and Lolo then gave her a ticket to Manila to continue her studies.
Through these experiences, and many more to follow, Lina learned how it feels to be welcomed well or not welcomed at all. In 10 years of work with refugees from Southeast Asia, from 1986 to 1996, she extended her heart not only to the refugees but to all who came to the refugee camp, including my family. Lina taught us Tagalog, she helped us understand the culture we had come to, she traveled with us.
Lina also worked with a nearby village of Aeta, a tribal people, who had been displaced by the refugee camp, to bring them some of the benefits that the refugees enjoyed: running water, electricity, a school and a church.
Lina’s welcome is not just something she extends when she is a host. It is what she carries within her, an openness of heart and a generosity rooted in her experience and her deep Christian faith. She has spoken of “bukas palad,” the outstretched hand that is a gesture of offering, not of begging. This is the attitude she brings to life.
David Blair and Lina Hervas, an immigrant from the Philippines who has worked with refugees from Southeast Asia who are moving to the U.S., live in Harrisville. Hervas will speak at the upcoming Community Conversation on Welcoming.