Maligayang Kaarawan

It’s said that it takes a village to raise a child. I certainly am no different. In Pilipino, one wishes someone "maligayang kaarawan", which literally means "happy day of being". Today, I am so happy with who I am becoming. My family and friends, both past and present, have contributed greatly to my life. My teachers and mentors all created new wrinkles in my brain, coinciding with each new piece of knowledge. Many other people who I have not had direct interactions with have influenced the environment around me. Negative or positive interactions and experiences have all shaped who I have become today. The great thing is that I know that my past does not have to equal my future. I’ve always been a dreamer. A long time ago, when I learned that the age requirement to become President of the United States was 35, I focused on this birthday and the 2016 elections. Since then, my life has had its ups and downs, and I'm not nearly as close to taking my place at the White House as I expected to be, but I’m definitely starting my 35^th year of life on an upward trajectory. For my birthday, tell someone you love them, reconcile with someone you’ve had a breakdown with, and help me build my nephew’s college fund. All of these things are gifts that will keep on giving. 

Season 2, Episode 2—Championship Weekend with Lavelle, Resolutions, Tissue Adaptation, Wardrobes, Contact Maintenance, Passwords, Playtime, Social Networking for Good and Good Food, Reboots, History, 42, Martin Luther King, Jr., Social Justice, Skin Ton

In this episode, Kishaun and Bobby are joined by guest Lavelle, to discuss resolutions, child and adult interests, and social justice across multiple realms athttp://justthinkinpodcast.blogspot.com.

Check out this episode!

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated. He died in the arms of Asian Pacific American activist Yuri Kochiyama. 

“Remember that consciousness is power. Consciousness is education and knowledge. Consciousness is becoming aware. It is the perfect vehicle for students. Consciousness-raising is pertinent for power, and be sure that power will not be abusively used, but used for building trust and goodwill domestically and internationally. Tomorrow’s world is yours to build.” -Yuri Kochiyama

Delano Manongs

California Education Code Section 51008 reads:

The State Board of Education shall ensure that the state curriculum and framework, where appropriate, include instruction on Cesar Chavez and the history of the farm labor movement in the United States, and the role of immigrants, including Filipino Americans, in that movement, and that the state criteria for selecting textbooks include information to guide the selection of textbooks that contain sections that highlight the life and contributions of Cesar Chavez, the history of the farm labor movement in the United States, and the role of immigrants, including Filipino Americans, in that movement.

In an effort to promote the creation and availability of instructional materials aligned with this law, please support Delano Manongs, a documentary that "tells the story of farm labor organizer Larry Itliong and a group of Filipino farm workers who instigated one of the American farm labor movement’s finest hours – The Delano Grape Strike of 1965 that brought about the creation of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW). While the movement is known for Cesar Chavez’s leadership and considered a Chicano movement, Filipinos played a pivotal role that began it all. Filipino labor organizer, Larry Itliong, a five foot five cigar-chomping union veteran, organized a group of 1500 Filipinos to strike against the grape growers of Delano, California."

For eight days the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) "struck alone, getting thrown out of their labor camp homes, and facing violence from growers’ hired thugs and the sheriff’s department. Yet Larry’s story and the story of the Filipinos and their union organizing efforts that began in the 1920s in the US have virtually been forgotten. Told from Larry Itliong’s perspective, the documentary follows Larry’s life arriving in the US at age 15 and immediately becoming involved with Filipino labor unions in the canneries and farm fields on the West Coast. The story of Larry and the Delano Filipinos is a history unknown to most Filipinos in the US."

For more information on the documentary and how to support it, please visit the Delano Manongs Web site at http://www.delanomanongs.com/.

On This Day In History: February 16

On February 16, 1995, the brotherhood of Chi Rho Omicron was founded by Oscar Gonzales, Joe Bautista, Marc Dolor, Jay R. Ladran, Berto Palma, Augustine C. Tuliao, and Florencio G. Costales at California State University, Fresno. 
Fraternal organizations have long been part of the fabric of the Filipino American community. In the 1920s and 1930s, Filipinos faced racism, poverty, and alienation in the United States of America (USA). One of the ways they coped with these challenges was to form Filipino fraternal organizations like the Caballeros de Dimas-alang, the Legionarios del Trabajo, the Gran Oriente, and the Filipino Federation of America. These organizations provided them a tight-knit sense of community reminiscent of the strong family ties they left back home. One of the roles such organizations played was, for example, to provide full payment for members' funerals; this was particularly crucial for the large percentage of Filipinos who lived out the latter half of their lives as aging, childless bachelors. The organizations created a sense of belonging and community in the USA. 
During the 1990s, there was a resurgence of Filipino American pride, and while college entry rates were high for Filipino Americans, matriculation rates for Filipino Americans were much lower. This was reflective of the incredible pressures placed on Filipino Americans as victims of the model minority myth, cultural expectations to enter specific fields, and silent sacrifices made by Filipino American students, all creating tension within students not conducive to college completion. 

Leaning On Virtue Everyday (LOVE)

The Pilipino language has three words for love. One is gusto. Gusto is a sort of aesthetic love. It has come to mean a romantic love and it stands with all of its beauty. However, when we speak of loving those who oppose us, we’re not talking about gusto. The Pilipino language also has mahal and this is a sort of reciprocal love between personal friends. This is a vital, valuable love. However, when we talk of loving those who oppose you and those who seek to defeat you we are not talking about gusto or mahal. The Pilipino language has another word for love and it is ibig. Ibig is an understanding, creative, redemptive good will for all. Biblical theologians would say it is the love of God working in the minds of humanity. It is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. When you come to love on this level you begin to love people not because they are likable, not because they do things that attract you, but because God loves them. To ibig is to love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. It is the type of love that stands at the center of the movement that we carry on—ibig.

A Socially Just America is Beautiful

A former United States Congressman commented about the America the Beautiful Coca Cola commercial, saying, "Coca Cola missed the mark in my opinion. If we cannot be proud enough as a country to sing 'America the Beautiful' in English in a commercial during the Super Bowl, by a company as American as they come--doggone we are on the road to perdition. This was a truly disturbing commercial for me, what say you?" Well, I say tick tock Congressman. Your time, and the time of people that think like you, who feel that America should be English-only or that America is yours to take back--as if it was yours to own in the first place--is limited. See, for those of us indigenous peoples who spoke another language before this land was called America, or people who bring other languages with us when we immigrate to America, or learn other languages while we live in America, or want to learn other languages and take the best of other cultures and syncretize it all together because this world is globalized--it's our America too, and a socially just America is beautiful.