Exactly a year ago today, we asked Fr Alejo if he would take a second Fulbright cohort. Now, here we are, a year later, on our way back to ADDU with an exciting group of new teachers.

Melissa, from our 06 cohort, facilitated our bonding session during pre-departure orientation by starting with this exercise: write a six-word memoir that defines you.

This is who we are:
1. In search of language outside History
2. I'm a walnut farmer; I'm nuts
3. Multicultural woman giving laughter, light, love
4. Love the struggle, live for freedom
5. Standing at crossroads, everywhere to go
6. 50% for, 50% against, 10% ignore
7. Transplanted Seattlelite, educational cultural worker
8. Breezing, Dunes, Owing, Winning, Dancing, Naivete
9. Slurpie not casino, teacher not doctor!
10. Supernatural forcess buttress the visible world
11. Bartender, my cup's empty. fill her up
12 Bay Area rescues disillusioned suburbanite
13. Amazing journey for Detroit Jewish girl

Amazing, no?!!

Tape 3: Cubales continued: To decolonize is to tell and write one's own story, that in the telling and writing others may be encouraged to tell their own (Strobel, 2000). Reproducing the process of decolonization through PEP. PEP sites in K-12. Decoloniation as Critical Race Pedagogy. Developing a Critical Creative Lesson Plan.

Penelope Flores: Teacher Education Programs. Group work on identifying subject matter to integrate into a lesson plan.

Melissa Ambrose: Dialogue around questions that come up in the classroom: Why are Filipinos also called Asians? Impact of the history of imperialism and colonialism on students' perception that "Filipinos haven't done anything important." So what are teachers teaching and what are students learning?

Fr. Alejo: Synthesis: Kapwa as theorya nd practice. Pakikipagkapwa as methodology.
Start from the experience of rejection of kapwa connectedness. As methodology - a liberating methodology, a deliberate mission and practice of empowering Pinoys.

Basic education issues in the Philippines: corruption (data: list of corrupt agencies in the Phil). monies lost to corruption. Haunting question to a State University (UP) - 90% of UP Medicine grads are coming to the US to serve Americans and not the Filipinos who sacrificed for their education and training.

Evening Program, June 15. Fr. Alejo: Contributions of Kapwa and Loob to Multicultural Education (transcript to follow)

Wow -- seven tapes of the Kapwa conference to review today! Even though feeling a bit schizophrenic these days due to jetlag and other reasons I have a feeling that watching these tapes will bring me back to the Center of who I am and what I do.

Tape 1: Holly Calica - introducing the concept of KAPWA through art; Allyson Tintiangco Cubales and Dawn Mabalon - connecting community history (Little Manila in Stockton) to curriculum needs in an integral way and not just as "spice" to the curriculum.

Tape 2: Dawn: "The Philippines doesn't teach about racism so when immigrants come here, they don't understand the racial discourse here." Need to teach students how to ask critical questions.

Fr. Alejo: Kapwa is becoming, a process, an interaction; it's dynamic, it's moving, it's unfinished; attaches, reattaches, weaving bodies and arms and legs together...It has history, geography. It is developed at certain periods of migration, evacuation, being together during difficult times. It is narrated and mapped. It can be translated into novels, histories, jokes. Handed over from grandfathers to children and grandchildren.

It is experienced in collective experience and pain as in hard work, death, house demolition, discrimination, racism, and the peole's joint memory of pain. Also experience of joy, of being together, of being photographed together.

Kapwa is achieved in the collective movement of the body, in collective or communal work in the field, vineyards, sports, joining the army, etc.

Kapwa is denied through silence, through not being taught in the classrooms, not being mentioned in the textbooks, not being talked about.

PAtricia Halagao: Theorizing from Pain. Think about a painful experience in your life and how did it impact your present life. How do we theorize from pain? Theory as Liberatory Practice (bell hooks: I longed to passionately to teach differently from the way I had been taught since high school). Theory transforms our lives.

Experienced pain of racism, discrimination, marginalization, invisibility, disconnect. The colonial world is compartmentalized e.g. European quarters, native quarters.

Use of balagtasan/poetic jousting to express self.

Pinoy Teach (1996). Conceptual framework. Decolonizing Framework and Pedagogy (Strobel). Name, Reflect, Act (Strobel); Implications of a Decolonizing Curriculum

Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales: Ethnic Studies Perspective (vizaviz Multicultural Ed). History of PEP (Pinoy Educational Partnerships). Third World Liberation Front. Development of Asian American Studies/Fil Am Studies

As the KAPWA conference at Sonoma State University on June 15 and 16, 2007 brought the Fulbright Hays grant to a formal close, our relationship with Fr. Alejo and all the projects he is involved in continues. A post conference blogpost will follow soon but first am posting a year-old letter below.

July 2006

Dear Paring Bert,

Back home safely and getting over jetlag. Classes started yesterday but it’s been difficult to concentrate. Instead I’ve started to read Derrick Jensen’s two-volume work on The Problem of Civilization. Jensen is an environmental activist, a poet-philosopher, an integral thinker and his works reflect a succinct critique of Modernity and Western Civilization via the lens of the indigenous world view. This current volume is an expansion of his previous works -–A Language Older Than Words, and The Culture of Make Believe.

I bring this to your attention because your work is part of a growing discourse on the morality and ethics required to bring the modern world back into a sane and sustainable path – one that honors the Land. I like your use of the language/theory of "cultural energy" as generated by the interstitial spaces occupied by indigenous peoples, peoples of color, and poor people who are often rendered invisible and powerless by the powerful; I appreciate this re-direction of energy away from opposition and resistance to energy that creates because it can and must.

In the case of Fil Ams, however, we continually struggle to develop a repertoire of simultaneous responses (creation plus resistance) because we live in the belly of the beast. In watching how you deal with the myriad demands on your time and energy by diverse causes and concerns, one lesson I draw from you is the sense of openness and nonjudgmental attitude that comes from the place of Faith in your life. This is what I meant when I said in one of our sessions that the people we have encountered in Davao inspire me and give me hope with their sense of spirituality – one that draws from a deeper well that I can only name as "indigenous and shamanic" even though it has the veneer of Catholic Christianity. (Or as Karl Gaspar would say – "organic mysticism.")

Our group’s sojourn to Davao was transformative on many levels. For sure the participants will not only develop curriculum materials but will be better teachers because of how they were personally invested (and challenged) to deal with the knowledge they had to take in, e.g. history of colonialism, imperialism, white supremacy, indigenous struggles, globalization, cultural survival, etc). I, too, feel an inner shift but the direction of that shift is currently ambiguous and will need more clarification in days/years to come.

As you celebrate your birthday, please remember us with fondness and affection and know that the gifts you have given us will have rippling consequential effects for a very long time. We can smile now as we look back on that dare more than a year ago: "will you host a Fulbright group of teachers?" like it was a shotgun sort of question. You said "yes" on faith…and then Melotte was given to you. Who knows what other gifts of Energy will come our way (or ADDU’s, or Mindanawon’s) as a result of our joint venture?

This is my long-winded but sincere way of thanking you again. As you are fond of declaring (and I paraphrase): Let our desires be known, be embodied, and brought into fruition!

Love and Peace,
Leny

June 15 and 16 Filipino American curriculum conference information here:

The San Francisco, CA Fil Am Ethno Tour
Tourguide: MC Canlas, Community Strategist
Organization: Bayanihan Community Center

Our Fulbright group decided to meet in San Francisco on Nov. 11, 2006 for an ethno tour of the Fil Am historical sites in San Francisco, Ca. Many of us are not from San Francisco, and even the teachers from San Francisco have never heard of the "Fil Am ethno tour."

The tour starts at the Bayanihan Community Center (BCC) located on 6th and Mission St in the South of Market. This is the building that houses the Veterans Equity Center, Arkipelago Books, and the BCC. It was owned by the Borja family and it was a residential hotel when it was sold. The Borja family negotiated with the buyer that the first floor and basement should remain as Filipino Community spaces. The entire building is called Bayanihan House. The Filipino American Development Foundation (FADF) is the main nonprofit organization that oversees the activities of the above resources.

Nov. 11 is Veterans Day. When we arrived at 10:30am, there were groups of college students and Fil Am vets with their families with the placards and banners about to board a San Francisco tram headed for the Veterans Day Parade. It was great to see this intergenerational gathering.

MC started the tour with a powerpoint presentation about Manila Town. Starting with a historical background about the structure and spatial arrangement of barangays/villages in precolonial times, MC shared how these arrangements shifted during Spanish colonial period where the plaza became the center of community life. The plaza-barangay relationship is reconfigured in Filipino diasporic communities in a sort of reversal. MC likens the plaza to the suburban community like Daly City and the South of Market as the barangay -- the center of rural life where bayanihan values are still strong as this is usually the entry point for newly-arrived immigrants from the Philippines.

Usually unbeknownst to the newly arrived immigrant is the rich Filipino history in San Francisco: the I-Hotel, Delta Hotel, the streets named after Mabini, Bonifacio, Lapi-lapu, the Filmore, the Dewey marker, The Filipino Education Center, Fil Am community service providers – health services, legal services, Victoria Manalo Graves Park, Tutubi Children’s Park, St Patrick’s Church, Bindlestiff Theater, KulArts.

As immigrants eventually move from the South of Market (barangay) to the suburbs (plaza), the immigrants take with them their cultural experiences and maintain an ongoing ties between the suburb and the city.

Until the Filipino American Development Foundation (where MC is the Community Strategist) conceptualized a Manila Town in the South of Market and framed it with indigenous concepts of Bayanihan (working together), Barangay (basic community unit), Looban (inner core community), Kanlungan (nurture), Karangalan (cultural integrity and pride), Malasakit (caring for each other), Katatagan (social sustainability) – was it able to articulate the need to appropriate and negotiate with development agencies, government agencies, developers, cultural agencies – the spaces of visibility for the Fil Am Community. What was even more important is the “buy-in” by the community – a vision that wasn’t really that difficult to invest in.

Perhaps I was merely witnessing a more mature community, a decolonized community, a community with a wealth of resources (financial, cultural, political, human capital, and intellectual), a community with a vision that transcends the common pitfalls of organizing projects of this scale. A community that is able to take its seat at the big table and stake its claim.

We dropped by St Patrick’s Church to check if MC has any participants for an 11:30am parol lantern workshops. We arrived just at the Catechism class was on its way out and we were introduced to a Filipino nun who taught the class. A buffet lunch was being served as we proceeded with the tour. But first a stop next door at a Fil Am-owned Japanese subsidiary of a cream puff store. We ordered the green tea flavor of the week. Next stop: Bloomingdale?

MC took us to the new Bloomingdale 5th Floor where the Filipino Cultural Center is (or is going to be) located. Bloomingdale has agreed to provide a space for FCC at the rental cost of $1/year. The catch? FCC will have to spend for the finishing touches to the space – about $1.5M. FADF will have to raise this amount of money. So far, the scheduled opening of FCC in January 2007 may be unlikely as the money is still being raised. But everywhere all the signs point the way to the Filipino Cultural Center.

This is the way MC explained it: Whereas ethnic towns are usually spatially-designated and demarcated, the imprint of Filipino American history and the continuing presence of Fil Ams in San Francisco (and beyond) can be seen in the spaces where Filipinos have made their mark within and among the city’s commercial and cultural heritage sites.

When we returned to the BCC, the veterans and the college students were having lunch, working on petitions for the passage of the Veteran Equity Bill, and college students taking cha-cha lessons from the Veterans or their wives. What a beautiful sight!

Next time you are in San Francisco, ask for an ethno tour.

Today is COlumbus Day in the U.S.A. It is observed in some states and not in others. In Colorado, I'm keeping an eye on the American Indian Movement's response.

I'm reading American Holocaust by David Stannard. This is quite a revelation to me because, although I've read many books and watched movies about genocides and Holocausts, I must say I've not read detailed accounts of the gory details of how the 100M Indians on this continent were almost all exterminated. And even if I know something about Christian ideology being coopted by empire-builders, I've not quite delved into how "sex, race, and holy wars" go together.

And so today I'm glad that the Philippines hasn't yet declared Magellan Day. However, I am sad that until now, I have remained un-informed and mis-informed of the same gory details that Magellan in the Philippines inflicted on my people.

The memories of these atrocities are still alive in my subconscious. They haunt my dream world.

Paring Bert wrote the lyrics to this anti-graft and corruption song. It is in Pilipino and challenges folks to become moral/ethical examples of anti-corruption. The song features a few real political figures and common folks who are transformed and now fight against corruption. Enjoy!