Joseph Certeza moved from Guam 2 years ago and is currently a student at De Anza College in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is his article on the school’s first Pacific Islander Event.

It was De Anza College’s first Pacific Islander event, from my experience at De Anza.

The main purpose of the workshop was to create awareness about the Pacific Islander community around the bay, and to break down the stereotypes of Pacific Islanders being the football player, the hula dancers, or having the luau.

A class spent their lecture at this event. Teachers gave extra credit for those who attended. The first 10 minutes people started coming in, which crowded the doorway. The room was decorated with poster boards about Guam, which was produced by Erica and Famoksaiyan.

The way Erica and Jean planned the event which shared a lot of information about Pacific Islander experience. It was interesting that in the beginning they called someone up to the stage, and asked him a question about who he is. It lead to the point for him that he was confused himself, because as a Filipino he is often classified as Asian, when they are not. Filipinos personally do not like to be called Asians, but he is then troubled that since the Philippine is a group of islands in the Pacific, wouldn’t he be a Pacific Islander too. It brings up the question “What is a Pacific Islander?”, and the only way to see who we are is through how we live our lives, in America and in the islands.

Erica (Chamorro) performed an Acoustic piece, “Back to Guåhan”. It brought the event to a unique setting; it is like how music can transport the audience another world.

Then she presented Vika (Samoan), who is Professor of Pacific Islander Studies at San Francisco City College. He also just finished his dissertation at Berkeley with Michael this year. Then Loa (Tongan-American), who works with Pacific Islander inmates behind bars and she is continuing school at UC Berkeley. Then her partner in this event, Jean Meleasine ( Samoan/mixed Polynesian) who is a photographer and community advocate for Silicon De-bug.

The next portion of the event was presented by Jean with a spoken word video, “Go To School” by Drew Vai. He poetically spoke of life in America, and how he has to balance his life between school and family. “In class, the teacher asked, would you kill for your family?, and he, without thought, raised his hand” In our lives, our family is put before school. We skip school, we drop out of school. We try to do good for our families, but let’s do good for our families by finishing school. Making them proud, because that is usually what is asked for our generation to do.”

After the spoken word piece, Erica and Jean divided the room into 8-9 groups. Again the room was packed at this point. The question that was asked is that “In your groups, you have markers and paper, so answer this question: “What are stereotypes that define pacific islanders? And based on the video, what have you learned about Pacific Islanders?” I have to say personally, the answers were really impressive. I would love to share the responses but I did not record them, and Erica would be the one to get the responses from. Towards the end, it hit 12:30pm and a large number of students had to leave for other classes, but around 20 plus students and faculty stuck around. From there group presentations started. It is amazing to see people who actually stayed with the group, and how engaged they eventually became.

Since it was a small group it was better to develop the workshop into a dialogue. We discussed about social movements on the islands, and Loa shared the civil conflicts in Tonga. Crazy thing is that Tonga is going under dramatic change, where other countries had to step in and give ‘AID’. Other than that I shared with, what I believe, is Guam’s cultural renaissance.

Through the site you guys have created, I see how Guam is changing socially within the community. Jayton has given the opportunity for music to develop in the youth, which in my mind I am saying “FINALLY!” Also how spoken word has taken Guam in another way of expressing oneself, and the increasing popularity for spoken word. Then I shared with them that our language was dying out, but through the help of people and organizations, like Camp Hurao, the islands native language is able to be revitalized.

Before hand I broke down the history of our island, and the present day Guam. Then I shared some of the conflict today, one being that we have a military presence on the island.

The dialog continued with comparison to Hawaii and how, up till now, we are still being colonized. Then it lead to “What are some of the actions that De Anza can take?” What we suggested is first creating a space for Pacific Islanders, and providing them with the right education, like a class. A good start was that I asked them to help me with a Pacific Islander Club, which there are 267 Pacific Islander students enrolled this year out of 27,000 plus students. Outreaching is difficult, because the students are apathetic or too caught up in family and work. During the process of the club, a Pacific Islander Studies course is suggested to be proposed this summer for Fall 2011.

The time eventually ended, with more things needed to be discussed about. Teachers had special interest in Vika’s efforts to create a Pacific Islander Center at SF City College.

Other than that, that is what I can remember.

This site man is something, you know. I got more involved with community organizing since I saw this site, and I cannot wait to move back home.

Si Yu’os Ma’ase
Joey<-->