Calamansi Friend by Andrew Thornton

Calamansi Friend by Andrew Thornton

Hand-sculpted from polymer clay then decorated and painted. Signed and dated by the artist on back. 

Approximate size: 40mm x 30mm.

From Andrew: 

When I was growing up, I was bullied relentlessly. It happened in the classroom and out of it. There were people who would scream things from their cars or throw bottles at me when I would walk home from school. I didn’t understand the things they said and would tell my mom. She would get so mad. When she immigrated from the Philippines, it was during the Civil Rights movement and she had to overcome a lot of prejudice and adversity.

You never knew what would set people off. One day it might be my shoes or clothes or the food I would bring. My mom would pack my lunch. She’d pack sticky purple rice wrapped in banana leaves or a Tupperware with fish, rice, and halves of calamansi to squeeze on top. Sometimes there was dried cuttlefish or a handful of a milky candy called White Rabbit. It was wrapped in rice paper that you could eat and would dissolve on your tongue. Eventually the bullying got so bad that my teacher would preemptively take my lunches and sat me in the hallway. The desk was in front of the air conditioning vent and I would sit there hungry and shivering. 

I begged my mom to make me “American food”. I begged for peanut butter sandwiches with the crusts cut off instead of pandesal and bologna and cheese instead of lumpia. I would beg for Gushers instead of babingka and Heinz ketchup instead of Jufran. I just wanted to fit in. I would say, “no one else’s mom packs pancit!” I would cry and cry. She relented and I got square pizza and canned fruit salad. I no longer picked calamansi before school.

In hindsight, I see now that she was just packing my favorites. 

I made these little calamansi friends out of polymer clay. If you aren’t familiar with calamansi, they are small citrus fruits that are super tart with a sweet edible peeling.