Diary of an Ilocano Boy Explores Childhood Trauma and Belonging Between Two Cultures

David S. Salazar Jr.’s childhood memoir brings humor, Ilocano memory, and Hawaiian Pidgin to an immigrant boy’s life in Na’alehu, Hawaii.

NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, October 10, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The move from rural Cabugao, Ilocos Sur, Philippines, to plantation-era Na’alehu, Hawaii, brought more than a change of home for David, known as Amboy. In Diary of an Ilocano Boy: Between the Pasagad and the Banyan Tree, David S. Salazar Jr. recounts a childhood in which immigration, language barriers, and school life unfolded alongside family violence.

Covering kindergarten through eighth grade, the memoir explores the search for belonging while confronting dangers within the family. Teachers, friends, and relatives helped Amboy navigate those years. Their support sits alongside accounts of alcoholism, neglect, physical abuse, and his father’s infidelity, giving the narrative room for both connection and distress.

School and friendship are part of the childhood David remembers, not separate from the pressures he faced at home.

One pivotal episode takes place in the summer of 1982, after seventh grade. Sent by his mother to find his father, Amboy discovered him with another woman and fled to the town cemetery. The Superman T-shirt he wore that day became linked to his determination to become Super Amboy, stronger and able to protect his mother and defend himself against his father.

Humor, Hawaiian Pidgin, and Ilocano memory distinguish the memoir’s approach to painful material. Na’alehu emerges from David’s recollections as a place of happiness as well as difficulty. For readers interested in immigrant childhoods and cultural identity, the book connects the practical challenges of language and assimilation with the personal task of finding a place between two cultures.

David had long contemplated writing about his upbringing but worried about exposing his insecurities. He identifies Hurricane Lala as the painful trigger that brought memories back and inspired the memoir. His purpose in revisiting them is to encourage resilience and draw attention to the profound effects of childhood trauma, including emotional wounds that persist into adulthood.

His intended audience includes young adults, parents, teachers, school counselors, social workers, behavioral therapists, and mental health workers.

David hopes his experiences will deepen understanding of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and how it differs from PTSD, and connect it to his broader purpose of helping mental health professionals and educators understand deeply rooted emotional pain that can begin in childhood and continue into adulthood.

He also hopes to encourage consideration of whether early intervention for children experiencing trauma at home can help them toward better adult lives. These are the author’s educational aims, rooted in his personal account of family dysfunction.

Alongside that focus, David asks readers to be open to the plight of immigrants coming to the United States. His account brings cultural adjustment and childhood adversity into the same frame, with attention to the people who helped him endure and the wounds that did not simply disappear as he grew older.

David S. Salazar Jr. emigrated from the Philippine countryside to Na’alehu, Hawaii, in September 1974. Known in childhood as Amboy, he draws on his upbringing for this memoir.

Available now.

Get your copy here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HLKQBVSL

For review copies, interview requests, or additional information, please contact:

David S Salazar Jr.
BrightKey PR
saladsjr@gmail.com

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