40 Years of History and History-Making:
The UH Manoa Ilokano Program
The Fil-Am Observer Staff
Part of the diasporic narrative of the people of the Philippines in the United States is the accounting of programs that have served their various communities in exile.
Of landmark achievement, for instance, is the Operation Manong that paved the way for a respectful recognition of the contributions of the many hardworking people of Philippine descent, such as the Visayans and the Ilokanos.
The two groups have come to Hawaii to eke out a life far better than they had in the homeland.
And they have found a better one over here, thanks to their industry and perseverance, and their untold, at times unnamable, sacrifices
It was a catchall phrase—this search for the good life as a reason for leaving the familiar landmarks of the land of one’s birth.
But this grand reason has the ability to capture the mixed motivations of those who had come here more than one hundred years ago—and these mixed motivations can still be encapsulated by that phrase.
But history was not always on the side of these people of the Philippines.
The tragic histories of execution, and other forms of oppression, in the fields and outside the fields, are now ingredients of the larger story of the presence of the various peoples of the Philippines in the State of Hawaii.
But the accounts of their resistance and persistence are everywhere to give instruction to the next generations of people of the Philippines, immigrants and local-born alike.
One of the institutions that have survived all through the years is the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Established in 1972, it began to offer Ilokano courses to children of immigrants who came to the university to further their studies.
Many of these students have now become professionals, and are now leaders of the community in their own right.
The forty years of service to the students and the community—the forty years of bearing witness to what language and culture resources can do to enrich the larger community of Hawaii—are years of struggle and surprise.
Tapped to lead in designing the Ilokano Program that in later years was called the UH Manoa Ilokano, Philippine Drama and Film Program, was Professor Precy Espiritu.
For more than thirty years until her retirement from teaching in 2006, Professor Espiritu expanded the program until it became a degree-granting program in 2002.
The fact that Ilokano is being taught with academic rigor is something that the various universities in the Philippines have missed for the last forty years that the UH Ilokano Program has consistently been offering Ilokano courses each semester.
As a direct result of the institution of a national language, Ilokano has since been practically banned in the Philippine basic education infrastructure.
In the name of unqualified nationalism, and in the name of the sacrosanct national language, all Philippine languages—the mother languages of the children who are going to the schools—have been practically banned.
Empirical studies document the prohibition, directly and tacitly, by the fine-system being imposed upon students caught speaking a word in the Ilokano language, his very own language.
The going rate is at five pesos per word, according to some educators who are in the know.
The State of Hawaii, in 1972, adopted a different tack to the whole story.
After years of denial and deprivation as a result of many factors, including the cultural denigration of Ilokanos themselves, the Ilokano language finally gained a public space in the halls of academia as an academic and foreign language course, one that could take its place side by side with the other major languages of the world, including the majors languages of Asia, languages that have strong connections to the economy, politics, and culture of Hawaii.
The one-course program became two courses, and the two-course, one-year program became two years, until it became a full-blown bachelor’s degree program under the rubric of Philippine language and literature.
All through the years, students have come and gone—and those who passed its portals went out to the world and brought with them a renewed appreciation of what the Ilokano language can offer, of what the Ilokano culture can share, and of what the university program can do to students who are interested to reclaim their heritage, or students who want to learn more about the language and culture of their parents.
Part, therefore, of the Filipino-American History Month Celebration is the institution of the Ilokano language at the university.
Prior to 1972, the Ilokano people had to wait for seventy-four years before their language could take its own place in the academic discourse of the university.
Coming in 1906, with the centennial of their coming to Hawaii celebrated in 2006, the absence of the language of the plantation workers in the intellectual discourse of the state is something that begs explanation.
The children born of these plantation workers did not have access to the intellectual resources of their ancestors.
Some did not even have access to the language of their parents, by reason of the systemic denial by the educational institution—the schools—of the children of these workers of their own heritage language, a repeat, or duplication, of what was happening in the homeland.
The Tagalog Program of the University, instituted in 1971 through the leadership of Dr. Teresita Ramos, antedated the Ilokano Program for a year.
It was also Professor Ramos, cognizant of the need for the intellectual space for Ilokano discourse and practice, that made it sure that the Ilokano Program would have a good start, and hence, giving the free rein to Professor Espiritu to develop the Ilokano Program and push for its growth and development through all the years.
Many students of the Ilokano Program speak fondly of their own experiences as students of this program.
Three of these students, Julius Soria, Abe Flores, and Jeffrey Acido have joined the instructional faculty.
Other graduates of the program are either working as interpreters, youth development workers, teachers of Ilokano language in Waipahu High School and Farrington High School, both on Oahu, or government workers.
In partnership with other civic and culture organizations, the UH Ilokano Program has been in the forefront in mother language advocacy, in heritage language education, in cultural nationalism, and in cultural pluralism and diversity.
In 2006, the Ilokano Program began the Nakem Conferences, a movement that aims to pursue the very aims of diversity and the need to celebrate—and cerebrate—it.
Today, Nakem Conferences movement has grown, and has spread all over the Philippines.
In the summer of 2012, it will hold its 7th International Conference on “Pag-angkon: Our Right to Our Language, Our Right to Education That Emancipates,” in Tacloban City, Philippines.
More needs to be done, and one of them is to continue erasing totally the acquired—even learned—cultural denigration of the Ilokanos, their hatred of their language and culture, a hatred that makes them conveniently deny they are Ilokanos, a hatred that makes them bury any sign that they have anything to do with the Ilokano language and culture.
Even at the 105th year of the presence of the Ilokanos in Hawaii, we continue to experience this denigration everyday.
For it is not easy becoming the doormat of history.
It is not easy becoming the subject matter of an immigrant history that does not even want to remember itself.
It is for this reason that during this Fililipino-American History Month—a commitment to memory and to memory making, a commitment to resist forgetting—becomes urgent.
In May 2012, the UH Ilokano Language and Literature Program will hit its 40th year.
In the years to come, another good 40 years would assure us of Hawaii’s commitment to diversity and heritage, and another 40 years afterwards would make the UH Ilokano Program a commitment for all time.
Six or seven instructional faculty now run the university’s Ilokano Program at any given time.
These are the new breed of leaders who inherited the wisdom and vision of the first leaders who have since retired.
From a faculty of one and a handful of students, the Ilokano Program has grown and hopefully, it will continue to grow even as it assists, and partners with, other llokano Programs in schools and colleges, in Hawaii, and outside Hawaii.
FAO Features/
October 2011
Preserving Philippine Languages- Part 5
PRESERVING ILOKANO AND OTHER LANGUAGES, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND CULTURAL DEMOCRACY
Fifth of a Series
The path we took at Nakem was never easy; it is not yet easy until today, this we now know full well.
When Ricky Nolasco was chair of the Commission on the Filipino Language, we made it sure that he knew what we were doing at Nakem.
For two consecutive years, in 2007 and 2008, we asked him to come to our conference and lend his name to the cause, which he did, and for which Nakem will always be grateful.
We sometimes feel that Nakem pushed him to side with our cause at the expense of his position as chair of the commission.
All told, what Nakem did and what Nakem continues to do in the interest of the goals of Education for All in 2015 is a commitment first to our peoples of the Amianan.
We are clear on this.
The six EFA Goals can never be vague to us as these are concerns that have not left us even when we were discriminated against, even when the tolerance for our languages and cultures was not the virtue that we saw, heard, and experienced during all these educational regimes that did not regard the difference and diversity that we offered as something of value to the development of our cultural and political citizenship.
Nakem could not be vague with what universal primary education was.
We went to school sharing seats with others, even walking barefoot for hours to experience the traces of words that were not ours, to go through the rite of getting into a world we do not understand because the words in that world were not ours.
Nakem could not be vague with increasing adult literacy: we owe it to our communities that our adults could read and write in the Ilokano language again.
With about eight million people in the country and millions more abroad, we have only a single monolingual magazine to speak of, with a weekly circulation of 50,000.
This means that a fraction of one percent (or .6%) only reads—or buys. Given that people share their reading materials with others, we can extrapolate and increase the number of readers to four per magazines per week.
We have these facts: the original number based on the weekly circulation reveals that: 6250 out of one million read.
With the multiplier, we have: 25,000 out of one million read. So here we say, “Houston, we have a problem!”
This problem, of course, is compounded by the fact that many of our magazines and newspapers do not live long because: (a) the number of readership has always been a problem and (b) the overall environment for adult education does not support the learning process in the Ilokano language.
There are of course business issues related to the failure of these publications but this is not concern of this paper at this time.
Nakem could not be vague with the need for an education that is geared towards gender equality.
While the issue of gender equality takes as a subtext the issue of patriarchal privileges, our people are not blind to the immediacy of responding to inequalities resulting from these privileges.
We have not succeeded in all respects and that we need to educate ourselves further along these lines.
But given the right mix of motivations and incentives such as the learning environment, we will evolve a fairer and more just society for our people.
Our language, certainly, is not pure but polluted as every language is, but the fact that it accords respect for varieties of gender, for the equality of the sexes, and for the recognition of the virtue of acceptance and tolerance is enough data to make us proceed with our reading of this world of gender parity.
To be continued
Published in FAO
October 2011
Fifth of a Series
The path we took at Nakem was never easy; it is not yet easy until today, this we now know full well.
When Ricky Nolasco was chair of the Commission on the Filipino Language, we made it sure that he knew what we were doing at Nakem.
For two consecutive years, in 2007 and 2008, we asked him to come to our conference and lend his name to the cause, which he did, and for which Nakem will always be grateful.
We sometimes feel that Nakem pushed him to side with our cause at the expense of his position as chair of the commission.
All told, what Nakem did and what Nakem continues to do in the interest of the goals of Education for All in 2015 is a commitment first to our peoples of the Amianan.
We are clear on this.
The six EFA Goals can never be vague to us as these are concerns that have not left us even when we were discriminated against, even when the tolerance for our languages and cultures was not the virtue that we saw, heard, and experienced during all these educational regimes that did not regard the difference and diversity that we offered as something of value to the development of our cultural and political citizenship.
Nakem could not be vague with what universal primary education was.
We went to school sharing seats with others, even walking barefoot for hours to experience the traces of words that were not ours, to go through the rite of getting into a world we do not understand because the words in that world were not ours.
Nakem could not be vague with increasing adult literacy: we owe it to our communities that our adults could read and write in the Ilokano language again.
With about eight million people in the country and millions more abroad, we have only a single monolingual magazine to speak of, with a weekly circulation of 50,000.
This means that a fraction of one percent (or .6%) only reads—or buys. Given that people share their reading materials with others, we can extrapolate and increase the number of readers to four per magazines per week.
We have these facts: the original number based on the weekly circulation reveals that: 6250 out of one million read.
With the multiplier, we have: 25,000 out of one million read. So here we say, “Houston, we have a problem!”
This problem, of course, is compounded by the fact that many of our magazines and newspapers do not live long because: (a) the number of readership has always been a problem and (b) the overall environment for adult education does not support the learning process in the Ilokano language.
There are of course business issues related to the failure of these publications but this is not concern of this paper at this time.
Nakem could not be vague with the need for an education that is geared towards gender equality.
While the issue of gender equality takes as a subtext the issue of patriarchal privileges, our people are not blind to the immediacy of responding to inequalities resulting from these privileges.
We have not succeeded in all respects and that we need to educate ourselves further along these lines.
But given the right mix of motivations and incentives such as the learning environment, we will evolve a fairer and more just society for our people.
Our language, certainly, is not pure but polluted as every language is, but the fact that it accords respect for varieties of gender, for the equality of the sexes, and for the recognition of the virtue of acceptance and tolerance is enough data to make us proceed with our reading of this world of gender parity.
To be continued
Published in FAO
October 2011
Observer Editorial
THE ILOKANO PROGRAM OF THE UNIVERSITY:
SERVING THE NEW GENERATION,
SERVING THE COMMUNITY
The University of Hawaii’s Ilokano Language and Literature Program will turn 40 next year. This year marks a kick-off that presents the best of the program’s students and the best it offers to the community.
Passing through the portals of the program were students who have come unto their own, now becoming their own person, for which reason the program can never be prouder.
Peerless—there is not any single university anywhere else, not in the United States, not in the Philippines, where studies on the Ilokano “language, literature, and life” is being taught with academic rigor—the UH Manoa Ilokano Program has proven time and again that (a) instruction is the key to academic training and the preparation of students to appreciating life-long learning, (b) research makes faculty and students on the look out for what is best out there, the best that is yet to be known, and (c) extension work with the community and all other sectors in and outside the university is what relevance makes—relevance that ought to be the twin of every heritage (or academic) program.
Starting from a handful of students in 1972, students who were curious what kind of language was being spoken at their homes, and sometimes, at their back, the UH Ilokano Program has grown to hundreds, averaging 150 students every semester for the last five years.
Even with budget cuts and all other financial recourse universities all over the country are resorting to balance their budget, the UH Ilokano Program has proven to be a resilient program, with students coming in knocking to get enrolled especially in its culture-oriented courses.
It is not easy to sustain a heritage program like this one.
The challenges are all over the place, including the onslaught of an attitude that favors one national language, a thinking that has become rampant since the 30s with the institution of a single language as a national language, and giving it an army and a navy, and all the resources that are required to develop and make that language dominant, and in the process, indirectly killing the other languages of a country.
The facts of the case of linguicide are real—with the Philippines on the road to homogenizing everything from language to thought-formation.
The UH Ilokano Program, together with other advocates, has done its share to help avert this woeful condition in the homeland with its advocacy for mother language education.
While the focus of the UH Ilokano Program is the education of the heritage and foreign language learners of Ilokano at the university, it has joined forces with other language and culture advocates to advance the cause of cultural pluralism and diversity, in the Philippines, in Hawaii, and elsewhere.
To this end, the UH Ilokano Program has been instrumental in the putting up of the Nakem Conferences, now a movement that has a country chapter in the Philippines, the Nakem Conferences Philippines.
In partnership with other educators, researchers, cultural workers, and students, Nakem Conferences has since held six international conferences, all meant to advance the cause of language and culture rights, the right to be educated in the mother language, the right to have access to one’s own language, and the right to preserve, promote, and perform one’s own culture in one’s own language.
These tasks are no mean feat during the difficult times of belt-tightening, cost cutting, recession, unemployment, and widespread poverty even in a rich country like the United States.
But the UH Ilokano Program, with the help of the community, has gone a long way to serve the new generation of Ilokano Americans, the new generation of students wanting to specialize in studies on the Ilokanos and the peoples of Amianan, and the new generation of students, who despite the much-touted globalization, have refused to acknowledge that a homogenized view of the world is the best view, but instead have found ways to get to value otherness, difference, diversity, and multiplicity.
In all these, the UH Ilokano Program bears witness to history, particularly to the Ilokano American history in the islands, a history that is itself implicated in the history of the people of Hawaii, and the history of the United States in Hawaii and the Pacific.
Extend that logic to other Ilokanos in the continental United States, and that pride could be the same—the pride that can only come from resisting the destructive attack of similarity and sameness without any qualification.
The UH Ilokano Program remains steadfast to its commitment to bearing witness to history, to history-making, to the reclaiming of heritage, and to the struggle for a liberating education for all Ilokano and Ilokano-descended people in Hawaii and all over the world.
FAO Editorial
Oct 2011
SERVING THE NEW GENERATION,
SERVING THE COMMUNITY
The University of Hawaii’s Ilokano Language and Literature Program will turn 40 next year. This year marks a kick-off that presents the best of the program’s students and the best it offers to the community.
Passing through the portals of the program were students who have come unto their own, now becoming their own person, for which reason the program can never be prouder.
Peerless—there is not any single university anywhere else, not in the United States, not in the Philippines, where studies on the Ilokano “language, literature, and life” is being taught with academic rigor—the UH Manoa Ilokano Program has proven time and again that (a) instruction is the key to academic training and the preparation of students to appreciating life-long learning, (b) research makes faculty and students on the look out for what is best out there, the best that is yet to be known, and (c) extension work with the community and all other sectors in and outside the university is what relevance makes—relevance that ought to be the twin of every heritage (or academic) program.
Starting from a handful of students in 1972, students who were curious what kind of language was being spoken at their homes, and sometimes, at their back, the UH Ilokano Program has grown to hundreds, averaging 150 students every semester for the last five years.
Even with budget cuts and all other financial recourse universities all over the country are resorting to balance their budget, the UH Ilokano Program has proven to be a resilient program, with students coming in knocking to get enrolled especially in its culture-oriented courses.
It is not easy to sustain a heritage program like this one.
The challenges are all over the place, including the onslaught of an attitude that favors one national language, a thinking that has become rampant since the 30s with the institution of a single language as a national language, and giving it an army and a navy, and all the resources that are required to develop and make that language dominant, and in the process, indirectly killing the other languages of a country.
The facts of the case of linguicide are real—with the Philippines on the road to homogenizing everything from language to thought-formation.
The UH Ilokano Program, together with other advocates, has done its share to help avert this woeful condition in the homeland with its advocacy for mother language education.
While the focus of the UH Ilokano Program is the education of the heritage and foreign language learners of Ilokano at the university, it has joined forces with other language and culture advocates to advance the cause of cultural pluralism and diversity, in the Philippines, in Hawaii, and elsewhere.
To this end, the UH Ilokano Program has been instrumental in the putting up of the Nakem Conferences, now a movement that has a country chapter in the Philippines, the Nakem Conferences Philippines.
In partnership with other educators, researchers, cultural workers, and students, Nakem Conferences has since held six international conferences, all meant to advance the cause of language and culture rights, the right to be educated in the mother language, the right to have access to one’s own language, and the right to preserve, promote, and perform one’s own culture in one’s own language.
These tasks are no mean feat during the difficult times of belt-tightening, cost cutting, recession, unemployment, and widespread poverty even in a rich country like the United States.
But the UH Ilokano Program, with the help of the community, has gone a long way to serve the new generation of Ilokano Americans, the new generation of students wanting to specialize in studies on the Ilokanos and the peoples of Amianan, and the new generation of students, who despite the much-touted globalization, have refused to acknowledge that a homogenized view of the world is the best view, but instead have found ways to get to value otherness, difference, diversity, and multiplicity.
In all these, the UH Ilokano Program bears witness to history, particularly to the Ilokano American history in the islands, a history that is itself implicated in the history of the people of Hawaii, and the history of the United States in Hawaii and the Pacific.
Extend that logic to other Ilokanos in the continental United States, and that pride could be the same—the pride that can only come from resisting the destructive attack of similarity and sameness without any qualification.
The UH Ilokano Program remains steadfast to its commitment to bearing witness to history, to history-making, to the reclaiming of heritage, and to the struggle for a liberating education for all Ilokano and Ilokano-descended people in Hawaii and all over the world.
FAO Editorial
Oct 2011
Welga Piece/ Hyatt Strike
WELGA! WELGA!
By A. Solver Agcaoili
(for the Hyatt Regency Strike; performed by students and workers of the hotel at the road pavements of Waikiki, September 13, 2011)
Chorus 1:
Welga, welga, agwelga
Dakami ket agwelga
Agwelga ta irupir
Karbenganmi, irupir!
Welga, welga, agwelga
Dakami ket agwelga
Agwelga ta irupir
Karbenganmi, irupir!
Chorus 2:
Abuso, abuso, abusero!
Hyatt, Hyatt, abusero!
Give us dignity, give us life
Give us liberty, give our jobs!
Narrator 1:
We have come in here to show our solidarity with our hotel workers. We are students learning to find our way in the real world.
Worker 1:
Immaykami tapno makikammayet kadakayo. Immaykami tapno iti nagan ti panagkaykaysa a panangirupir kadagiti kalintegantayo ket ti namaymaysa met a pagbanagan daytoy a panagwelgatayo.
Worker 2:
For them to take our jobs is the same as taking away our chance to live with dignity.
Worker 3:
They have subcontracted our jobs to other subcontracting companies. And the subcontracting employees are getting less than what they work for.
Child of Worker 1:
My mother leaves early in the evening.
Child of Worker 2:
I do not see her till late at night.
Child of Worker 3:
She shows me her callused hands.
Worker 4:
Look at my hands. They are the hands of people who work all day. This callus is one for the tourist from Asia. This callus is for the tourist from the mainland.
Worker:
Look at my hands! This callus is for the tourist from Europe! This callus is for the tourist who has all money in the world—all!
Chorus 1:
Kalio, Kalio, kalkalio
Agkalio ti imayo!
Kalio, kalio, kalkalio
Kalio-kalio ti imayo!
Chorus 2:
Show me your hands!
Show me your hands!
Student 1:
(Sings)
Mother, mother, how many beds did you fix today?
Mother, mother, how many rooms di you clean today?
Did you ever eat your lunch?
Did you ever eat your lunch?
Child of Worker 1:
She tells me of the beds she fixed today.
Worker 1:
Sixteen! Sixteen! No, seventeen!
Child of Worker 4:
She tells me of the rooms she cleaned today.
Chorus--ALL:
Sixteen, seventeen,
Fourteen, fifteen,
Sixteen, seventeen
Fourteen, fifteen!
Worker 5:
Out of our labor comes their profit.
Out of our sweat comes their money.
Out of our sacrifice comes their dollars.
While we are left here by ourselves.
Chorus 1:
Kalio, Kalio, kalkalio
Agkalio ti imayo!
Kalio, kalio, kalkalio
Kalio-kalio ti imayo!
Student:
We need all these business ventures. We need all the business initiatives. We need the capital coming into our state. But to say that our labor should be last before capital…
Worker 6:
Out of our labor comes their profit.
Out of our sweat comes their money.
Out of our sacrifice comes their dollars.
While we are left here by ourselves.
Worker 7:
The cost of living in Hawaii is more than twice the average cost in the land.
The credit card debt is third highest in the country.
Where are we going to get the money to put put on our tables?
Worker 8:
How are we going to raise of children?
How are we going to send them to school?
How are we going to pay our mortgage?
How are we going to pay our rent?
Chorus 2:
Out of our labor comes their profit.
Out of our sweat comes their money.
Out of our sacrifice comes their dollars.
While we are left here by ourselves.
Chorus 1:
Kalio, Kalio, kalkalio
Agkalio ti imayo!
Kalio, kalio, kalkalio
Kalio-kalio ti imayo!
Worker 9:
While we work so hard, the Goldman Sachs earns millions.
While we work so hard, the owners of Hyatt are able to earn millions by selling their stocks.
Chorus 1:
Kalio, Kalio, kalkalio
Agkalio ti imayo!
Kalio, kalio, kalkalio
Kalio-kalio ti imayo!
Chorus 1:
Welga, welga, agwelga
Dakami ket agwelga
Agwelga ta irupir
Karbenganmi, irupir!
Welga, welga, agwelga
Dakami ket agwelga
Agwelga ta irupir
Karbenganmi, irupir!
By A. Solver Agcaoili
(for the Hyatt Regency Strike; performed by students and workers of the hotel at the road pavements of Waikiki, September 13, 2011)
Chorus 1:
Welga, welga, agwelga
Dakami ket agwelga
Agwelga ta irupir
Karbenganmi, irupir!
Welga, welga, agwelga
Dakami ket agwelga
Agwelga ta irupir
Karbenganmi, irupir!
Chorus 2:
Abuso, abuso, abusero!
Hyatt, Hyatt, abusero!
Give us dignity, give us life
Give us liberty, give our jobs!
Narrator 1:
We have come in here to show our solidarity with our hotel workers. We are students learning to find our way in the real world.
Worker 1:
Immaykami tapno makikammayet kadakayo. Immaykami tapno iti nagan ti panagkaykaysa a panangirupir kadagiti kalintegantayo ket ti namaymaysa met a pagbanagan daytoy a panagwelgatayo.
Worker 2:
For them to take our jobs is the same as taking away our chance to live with dignity.
Worker 3:
They have subcontracted our jobs to other subcontracting companies. And the subcontracting employees are getting less than what they work for.
Child of Worker 1:
My mother leaves early in the evening.
Child of Worker 2:
I do not see her till late at night.
Child of Worker 3:
She shows me her callused hands.
Worker 4:
Look at my hands. They are the hands of people who work all day. This callus is one for the tourist from Asia. This callus is for the tourist from the mainland.
Worker:
Look at my hands! This callus is for the tourist from Europe! This callus is for the tourist who has all money in the world—all!
Chorus 1:
Kalio, Kalio, kalkalio
Agkalio ti imayo!
Kalio, kalio, kalkalio
Kalio-kalio ti imayo!
Chorus 2:
Show me your hands!
Show me your hands!
Student 1:
(Sings)
Mother, mother, how many beds did you fix today?
Mother, mother, how many rooms di you clean today?
Did you ever eat your lunch?
Did you ever eat your lunch?
Child of Worker 1:
She tells me of the beds she fixed today.
Worker 1:
Sixteen! Sixteen! No, seventeen!
Child of Worker 4:
She tells me of the rooms she cleaned today.
Chorus--ALL:
Sixteen, seventeen,
Fourteen, fifteen,
Sixteen, seventeen
Fourteen, fifteen!
Worker 5:
Out of our labor comes their profit.
Out of our sweat comes their money.
Out of our sacrifice comes their dollars.
While we are left here by ourselves.
Chorus 1:
Kalio, Kalio, kalkalio
Agkalio ti imayo!
Kalio, kalio, kalkalio
Kalio-kalio ti imayo!
Student:
We need all these business ventures. We need all the business initiatives. We need the capital coming into our state. But to say that our labor should be last before capital…
Worker 6:
Out of our labor comes their profit.
Out of our sweat comes their money.
Out of our sacrifice comes their dollars.
While we are left here by ourselves.
Worker 7:
The cost of living in Hawaii is more than twice the average cost in the land.
The credit card debt is third highest in the country.
Where are we going to get the money to put put on our tables?
Worker 8:
How are we going to raise of children?
How are we going to send them to school?
How are we going to pay our mortgage?
How are we going to pay our rent?
Chorus 2:
Out of our labor comes their profit.
Out of our sweat comes their money.
Out of our sacrifice comes their dollars.
While we are left here by ourselves.
Chorus 1:
Kalio, Kalio, kalkalio
Agkalio ti imayo!
Kalio, kalio, kalkalio
Kalio-kalio ti imayo!
Worker 9:
While we work so hard, the Goldman Sachs earns millions.
While we work so hard, the owners of Hyatt are able to earn millions by selling their stocks.
Chorus 1:
Kalio, Kalio, kalkalio
Agkalio ti imayo!
Kalio, kalio, kalkalio
Kalio-kalio ti imayo!
Chorus 1:
Welga, welga, agwelga
Dakami ket agwelga
Agwelga ta irupir
Karbenganmi, irupir!
Welga, welga, agwelga
Dakami ket agwelga
Agwelga ta irupir
Karbenganmi, irupir!
Welga! Welga!
To live in another land, take up all the accidents of becoming one with the people of your new land, including giving up your own citizenship right in your former homeland, and yet witness the same vestiges of greed and selfishness that can only come from unrestrained capitalism is something that comes with a shock value.
It is most immoral, and the immorality is concrete.
Even in Los Angeles, I took part in those mass mobilizations when at one point Los Angeles, and therefore California, turned hostile to immigrants, with or without the proper immigration documents.
I witnessed the surge of people, like the waters of Sierra Madre surging to fill up the puny rivers of polluted Manila to create what could be a deluge never seen before.
The people did not come to the United States to sit on their hands and steal from the coffers of California, in much the same way that the hotel workers of Waikiki, ninety percent of them Ilokanos, did not come to steal from the coffers of them big time hotel owners, some of whom went bankrupt and had to the bailed out like Goldman Sachs, now the big-time owner of Hyatt Regency, the same hotel whose workers are now striking.
Tonight's persformance is one of rage, righteous as righteous can be.
It is the Philippines all over again, with us joining hands with the people fighting for their just rewards.
The sinister ways of unbridled capitalism are that: sinister as sinister can be.
The tactic is this: lay off the workers, and in their stead put in a new hire paid so little because that worker does not work directly under the hotel any longer but from a labor subcontracting company. So she is paid less so that the subcontracting company could be paid more.
That is how it goes now: subcontract labor, as if labor is now a commodity that can be traded, sold, bought.
From the fact sheets I gathered, I wrote a guerilla theatre piece, Welga! Welga!
The piece would see its premier performance on the pavements of Hyatt and in the adjoining hotel, both overlooking the famous Waikiki beach.
What an irony this: while others are enjoying the sunset view, others are suffering the view.
While others are frolicking under the warm sun in the early morning, others have started to turn these hotels into clean spaces of more fun.
But these other who do the bed fixing and cleaning do not ever have the chance to enjoy these clean spaces: these are for others to enjoy--and to have fun!
Some hotel workers are cleaning so many rooms they do not even have the chance to eat their lunch.
The stories are many--and the stories need to be told.
So tonight, we brought in our students and together with the Local 5 Union Workers, they rehearsed Welga! Welga!.
And then their performance of a lifetime.
For all the rehearsing, I lost my voice, and had to run home to drink of the cup of salabat from the cup of suffering of our Ilokanos of Hawaii. Losing one's voice is not that bad, when you know you have become one with the people.
The plantations have not closed shop.
They have transformed into hotels, motels, resorts, and other fancy names they call these houses of greed, profit, and labor abuse.
Waikiki, HI
Sept 13, 2011
It is most immoral, and the immorality is concrete.
Even in Los Angeles, I took part in those mass mobilizations when at one point Los Angeles, and therefore California, turned hostile to immigrants, with or without the proper immigration documents.
I witnessed the surge of people, like the waters of Sierra Madre surging to fill up the puny rivers of polluted Manila to create what could be a deluge never seen before.
The people did not come to the United States to sit on their hands and steal from the coffers of California, in much the same way that the hotel workers of Waikiki, ninety percent of them Ilokanos, did not come to steal from the coffers of them big time hotel owners, some of whom went bankrupt and had to the bailed out like Goldman Sachs, now the big-time owner of Hyatt Regency, the same hotel whose workers are now striking.
Tonight's persformance is one of rage, righteous as righteous can be.
It is the Philippines all over again, with us joining hands with the people fighting for their just rewards.
The sinister ways of unbridled capitalism are that: sinister as sinister can be.
The tactic is this: lay off the workers, and in their stead put in a new hire paid so little because that worker does not work directly under the hotel any longer but from a labor subcontracting company. So she is paid less so that the subcontracting company could be paid more.
That is how it goes now: subcontract labor, as if labor is now a commodity that can be traded, sold, bought.
From the fact sheets I gathered, I wrote a guerilla theatre piece, Welga! Welga!
The piece would see its premier performance on the pavements of Hyatt and in the adjoining hotel, both overlooking the famous Waikiki beach.
What an irony this: while others are enjoying the sunset view, others are suffering the view.
While others are frolicking under the warm sun in the early morning, others have started to turn these hotels into clean spaces of more fun.
But these other who do the bed fixing and cleaning do not ever have the chance to enjoy these clean spaces: these are for others to enjoy--and to have fun!
Some hotel workers are cleaning so many rooms they do not even have the chance to eat their lunch.
The stories are many--and the stories need to be told.
So tonight, we brought in our students and together with the Local 5 Union Workers, they rehearsed Welga! Welga!.
And then their performance of a lifetime.
For all the rehearsing, I lost my voice, and had to run home to drink of the cup of salabat from the cup of suffering of our Ilokanos of Hawaii. Losing one's voice is not that bad, when you know you have become one with the people.
The plantations have not closed shop.
They have transformed into hotels, motels, resorts, and other fancy names they call these houses of greed, profit, and labor abuse.
Waikiki, HI
Sept 13, 2011
Panagpaburek iti Dara
Kastoy ti panagpaburek iti dara:
agaludoyka nga umisem
tapno amin a saiddek
ket iti ungot
nga ipaitalimeng.
Sadiay, iti lukong daytoy,
sadiay a bilangen amin
a saiddek, kada balikas,
kada aweng nga iti panawen
ket ti babawi ti panangirurumen.
Kas koma ita nga aldaw:
iti Golden Coin, iti daytoy
nga oras ti panagsasarak,
isuda iti falso ti am-amangaw,
sika iti karit ti imbag.
Ngem agburek ta agburek
ti dara nga iti adu a tawen
ket inkan pinabpaburekan.
Aron dagiti sao, kas ti aluten
nga iti kada sungrod ket ti alipaga
ti pananglimlimo, isuda
iti basbas ti privado nga ulbod,
sika iti namnama ti pudno.
Ket ita a panagsasarak
ket ti rubrob ti dalikan,
isuda iti madagdagullit
a panamagsisilpoda iti riro,
sika iti kakaisuna a pauyo
nga iti ulimek ti sulinek ket kadua
iti ngatangata ti pannakairubo.
Sumrekka iti bangketa ita a malem
tapno iwarasmo dagiti kaasim
kadagiti mababain nga isem,
sika iti balligi ti apuy,
isuda iti keltay ti kayo
nga iti alipaga ket manursuron.
Waipahu, HI
Septiembre 4, 2011
agaludoyka nga umisem
tapno amin a saiddek
ket iti ungot
nga ipaitalimeng.
Sadiay, iti lukong daytoy,
sadiay a bilangen amin
a saiddek, kada balikas,
kada aweng nga iti panawen
ket ti babawi ti panangirurumen.
Kas koma ita nga aldaw:
iti Golden Coin, iti daytoy
nga oras ti panagsasarak,
isuda iti falso ti am-amangaw,
sika iti karit ti imbag.
Ngem agburek ta agburek
ti dara nga iti adu a tawen
ket inkan pinabpaburekan.
Aron dagiti sao, kas ti aluten
nga iti kada sungrod ket ti alipaga
ti pananglimlimo, isuda
iti basbas ti privado nga ulbod,
sika iti namnama ti pudno.
Ket ita a panagsasarak
ket ti rubrob ti dalikan,
isuda iti madagdagullit
a panamagsisilpoda iti riro,
sika iti kakaisuna a pauyo
nga iti ulimek ti sulinek ket kadua
iti ngatangata ti pannakairubo.
Sumrekka iti bangketa ita a malem
tapno iwarasmo dagiti kaasim
kadagiti mababain nga isem,
sika iti balligi ti apuy,
isuda iti keltay ti kayo
nga iti alipaga ket manursuron.
Waipahu, HI
Septiembre 4, 2011
2012 Nakem International Conference
First Announcement: 7th Nakem International Conference
7th Nakem International Conference
Leyte Normal University, Tacloban City
May 23-25, 2012
“OUR RIGHT TO OUR LANGUAGES,
OUR RIGHT TO EDUCATION THAT EMANCIPATES”
Hosted and Sponsored by
Leyte Normal University
Jointly sponsored by
University of Hawaii Ilokano Program
University of Northern Philippines
Ifugao State University
Mariano Marcos State University
Nakem Conferences Philippines
Nakem Conferences International
St. Mary’s University
University of Northern Philippines
Convened by
Evelyn C. Cruzada, Leyte Normal University
Aurelio S. Agcaoil, University of Hawaii
Bonifacio V. Ramos, St. Mary’s University
Alegria T. Visaya, Mariano Marcos State University
RATIONALE
The 7th Nakem Conference, “Pag-angkon: Our Right to Our Languages, Our Right to Education that Emancipates,” aims to highlight the link between language and education, and between the right of peoples to their languages and to an education that emancipates. Arguing from the framework that diversity matters to an education that makes sense to citizens, the conference revisits the issues of nation-state, citizenship, and cultural literacy, and tests these issues against the ideals of an education that forms citizens, that makes citizens sensitive to difference, and that makes educands literate in their culture and the cultures of other people.
The use of the Waray pag-angkon—claiming—designates the clear-cut political direction of the conference: it univocally states the non-negotiable right of peoples to the dwelling-place of their souls, their languages and cultures, rights that are protected by various international covenants, and rights that, because of flawed government policies, have been denied of the various ethnolinguistic groups and communities in the Philippines and elsewhere. The act of pang-angkon is thus a categorical imperative for all peoples of the world in search of a form of education that makes sense, and it makes sense because it emancipates.
The specific aims of the conference are:
• To revaluate the role of the language of the community in the education of students;
• To redefine the meaning and practice of emancipatory education in the context of cultural diversity and difference; and
• To provide a venue for the exchange and diffusion of the best educational practices that employ the language of the community.
Paper Proposal Requirements
Paper proposals submitted for consideration by the Abstract Selection Committee must zero in on the theme or the specific goals of the conferences.
Some topics for considerations are:
• Auxiliary language for a non-auxiliary learning
• The cultural citizen in the Visayan classroom
• The cultural citizen in the Luzon classroom
• The cultural citizen in the Mindanao classroom
• Indigeneity and emancipatory education
• The case of diversity and difference in Philippine education
• Education for cultural pluralism
• Best practices in the use of the language of the community
• Best practices in MTB-MLE
• A second look on the Visayan, Luzon, or Mindanao educand
• Return to the basics: Why our languages matter in our education as citizens
• Literate in my language, literate in my culture, and educated for
for the future
• The future of Philippine languages and the future of Philippine education
• Towards a Philippine education that emancipates
Only abstracts of 300 words are accepted for presentation at the 7th Nakem International Conference.
Each abstract must zero in on the theme, or one or more of the topics listed in this Call for Paper.
All abstracts must be sent to all the following on or before December 31, 2011:
Abstract Selection Committee, 7th Nakem, nakem2012@gmail.com;
Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, chair, U of Hawaii, aurelioa@hawaii.edu; Bonifacio V. Ramos, co-chair, St. Mary’s U, bonifacio50@yahoo.com; and Alegria Tan Visaya, co-chair, Mariano Marcos State U, atvisaya@yahoo.com.
Notice of acceptance of abstracts will be emailed to conference paper proponents on or before January 31, 2012.
Notices will be emailed. Only e-versions of Notices of Acceptance will be sent. No other versions will be used; hence, all proponents are advised to have their email addresses.
For inquiries in the Visayas and Mindanao, email Dr Evelyn Cruzada, President, Leyte Normal University, Tacloban City, evlida12@yahoo.com; or Voltaire Oyzon, member, 7th Nakem Steering Committee, v.oyzon@gmail.com; or Michael Carlo Villas, mykllvillas@yahoo.com.
For additional inquiries, you can write to the members of the 2012 7th Nakem International Conferece LNU Steering Committee:
Firie Jill Ramos, firelady547@yahoo.com;
Michael Carlo C. Villas, mykllvillas@yahoo.com;
Rutchell B. Enriquez, rutchenriquez@gmail.com;
Facundo Rey Ladiao, reyladiao@gmail.com;
Jonas P. Villas, jonasvillas@yahoo.com;
Mel Brian Berida, melberida@yahoo.com;
Ariel Salarda, arielgsalarda@yahoo.com; and
Ian Phil Canlas, lordphil2003@yahoo.com.
REFS
First posting/first announcement
2012 7th Nakem International Conference
Leyte Normal U, May 23-25, 2012
Pag-angkon: Our Right to Our Languages, Our Right to Education
That Emancipates
7th Nakem International Conference
Leyte Normal University, Tacloban City
May 23-25, 2012
“OUR RIGHT TO OUR LANGUAGES,
OUR RIGHT TO EDUCATION THAT EMANCIPATES”
Hosted and Sponsored by
Leyte Normal University
Jointly sponsored by
University of Hawaii Ilokano Program
University of Northern Philippines
Ifugao State University
Mariano Marcos State University
Nakem Conferences Philippines
Nakem Conferences International
St. Mary’s University
University of Northern Philippines
Convened by
Evelyn C. Cruzada, Leyte Normal University
Aurelio S. Agcaoil, University of Hawaii
Bonifacio V. Ramos, St. Mary’s University
Alegria T. Visaya, Mariano Marcos State University
RATIONALE
The 7th Nakem Conference, “Pag-angkon: Our Right to Our Languages, Our Right to Education that Emancipates,” aims to highlight the link between language and education, and between the right of peoples to their languages and to an education that emancipates. Arguing from the framework that diversity matters to an education that makes sense to citizens, the conference revisits the issues of nation-state, citizenship, and cultural literacy, and tests these issues against the ideals of an education that forms citizens, that makes citizens sensitive to difference, and that makes educands literate in their culture and the cultures of other people.
The use of the Waray pag-angkon—claiming—designates the clear-cut political direction of the conference: it univocally states the non-negotiable right of peoples to the dwelling-place of their souls, their languages and cultures, rights that are protected by various international covenants, and rights that, because of flawed government policies, have been denied of the various ethnolinguistic groups and communities in the Philippines and elsewhere. The act of pang-angkon is thus a categorical imperative for all peoples of the world in search of a form of education that makes sense, and it makes sense because it emancipates.
The specific aims of the conference are:
• To revaluate the role of the language of the community in the education of students;
• To redefine the meaning and practice of emancipatory education in the context of cultural diversity and difference; and
• To provide a venue for the exchange and diffusion of the best educational practices that employ the language of the community.
Paper Proposal Requirements
Paper proposals submitted for consideration by the Abstract Selection Committee must zero in on the theme or the specific goals of the conferences.
Some topics for considerations are:
• Auxiliary language for a non-auxiliary learning
• The cultural citizen in the Visayan classroom
• The cultural citizen in the Luzon classroom
• The cultural citizen in the Mindanao classroom
• Indigeneity and emancipatory education
• The case of diversity and difference in Philippine education
• Education for cultural pluralism
• Best practices in the use of the language of the community
• Best practices in MTB-MLE
• A second look on the Visayan, Luzon, or Mindanao educand
• Return to the basics: Why our languages matter in our education as citizens
• Literate in my language, literate in my culture, and educated for
for the future
• The future of Philippine languages and the future of Philippine education
• Towards a Philippine education that emancipates
Only abstracts of 300 words are accepted for presentation at the 7th Nakem International Conference.
Each abstract must zero in on the theme, or one or more of the topics listed in this Call for Paper.
All abstracts must be sent to all the following on or before December 31, 2011:
Abstract Selection Committee, 7th Nakem, nakem2012@gmail.com;
Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, chair, U of Hawaii, aurelioa@hawaii.edu; Bonifacio V. Ramos, co-chair, St. Mary’s U, bonifacio50@yahoo.com; and Alegria Tan Visaya, co-chair, Mariano Marcos State U, atvisaya@yahoo.com.
Notice of acceptance of abstracts will be emailed to conference paper proponents on or before January 31, 2012.
Notices will be emailed. Only e-versions of Notices of Acceptance will be sent. No other versions will be used; hence, all proponents are advised to have their email addresses.
For inquiries in the Visayas and Mindanao, email Dr Evelyn Cruzada, President, Leyte Normal University, Tacloban City, evlida12@yahoo.com; or Voltaire Oyzon, member, 7th Nakem Steering Committee, v.oyzon@gmail.com; or Michael Carlo Villas, mykllvillas@yahoo.com.
For additional inquiries, you can write to the members of the 2012 7th Nakem International Conferece LNU Steering Committee:
Firie Jill Ramos, firelady547@yahoo.com;
Michael Carlo C. Villas, mykllvillas@yahoo.com;
Rutchell B. Enriquez, rutchenriquez@gmail.com;
Facundo Rey Ladiao, reyladiao@gmail.com;
Jonas P. Villas, jonasvillas@yahoo.com;
Mel Brian Berida, melberida@yahoo.com;
Ariel Salarda, arielgsalarda@yahoo.com; and
Ian Phil Canlas, lordphil2003@yahoo.com.
REFS
First posting/first announcement
2012 7th Nakem International Conference
Leyte Normal U, May 23-25, 2012
Pag-angkon: Our Right to Our Languages, Our Right to Education
That Emancipates
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