So I entered for your college at 1969, graduate in 1972 and then started Santa Cruz 1972, till spring of 19. Why did I just say 1974? Yeah. Okay. Sorry about that. So 1969 to 1972, and then 72 to 74 and Santa Cruz. Well, I was excited that Santa Cruz had some exciting programs and professors that I wanted to learn from. They had some Filipino classes, mostly Philippine classes from the archeology department. They didn't have any Asian American [studies]. And my first year and then the student Asian American students started requesting that there be classes in Asian American studies. And we were excited that there was the first one.

But it was sad that the professor only thought of Asian Americans from the Chinese and Japanese race. She didn't think that Filipinos qualified to be part of the Asian race, and so that caused myself and my class Filipino classmates to protest, demonstrate and also we demand that she be removed. And then, of course, from that experience, the colleges of the university opened up to what can we do to help you with this desire to learn more about yourself from the American experience? And so the school gave us a place in Third World Studies, and we were able to produce our own works with regards to the Filipino farmworkers in the nearby towns of Santa Cruz, Watsonville and and so it was a way of fulfilling experience that gave us a chance to know more about ourselves through the oral history process.

The height of the Vietnam War was in the time when I was at Foothill College and for whatever reason, I got dragged to go into this this rally. And and the people were talking about not only about what was happening in Vietnam, the genocide that was happening, the abuse and so forth. But also they talked about the civil rights and the rights of minorities and how they were being denied and receiving the type of basic education that the white students were getting. And that triggered the interest and got me to become an activist. And then pretty soon I became more of a extremist because I was extreme by ready to, you know, throw rocks and take down some buildings like the counterparts of those at Stanford University. They were the extreme radicals, and they had their share of demonstrations and the abuse that the police was doing to them.

(Interviewer) And did you participate in any clubs or other activities? Such plays, football in college?

Yeah, Yeah. After football, when we started understanding our self-identity, the best way to do it is to organize. So we organize our club related to Asian American experience. And then, of course, that club demanded that we receive the same benefits that are MEChA or our Chicanos and our Black students were receiving as far as educational services. And because we got the support with the Black and the Chicanos, the school had to, I say give us that opportunity. And they did. And that's when the beginning of Asian American studies kicked in. We were able to imagine students hiring your professors, you know, and administrators. But it was a great experience. I remember Dr. Warren was a history teacher, and I asked him, how come we don't have any, you know, Asian American classes? And I said, because we don't have the qualified Asian American teachers. And I said, "well, that's not fair. You know, in fact, it's prejudice, because I know they're out there." And so to to I say, appease me, he says, "Okay, I tell you what, here's a key." And I said, "yes." "It goes to that room." "Yes. "You go teach the class." And I said, "What?" "Yeah, since, you know, a little bit more than most of the other Filipino students; you're going to teach Filipino American experience." And I was like, dumbfounded. But I took up the challenge and it was rare because students do not teach at that. Yeah, of course. And have your own classroom and so forth and so on. So I thank him for giving me that opportunity, which led me to of course become a teacher in high school.

(Interviewer) How were you impacted by the anti war and civil rights movement and how would this come to impact your lifelong community activism?

It has been my foundation as an activist. At that time in Foothill College, I was not an activist. I was a radical. The extreme of activism, right? So, uh, so everything I do is to think of whether or not correct acts of correction needs to be done in the environment, in the system and the workplace. And if it does, then I should be one of the first to step up and confront it. And then now I confronted but find the solutions. So that it will, you know, it will put into place the answers that the system probably doesn't want to find anyway. So that's that was my, uh, level of activism is to create it as a foundation of everything that I see as work, as education and just spiritual. My, my number one activist, you want to know, is Jesus Christ. If you understand Jesus Christ, not from a faith, he was a radical. He was an activist. He fought for the poor, you know, and risked his life so that others can, you know, have a chance to succeed. That's my number one activist.

Well, when I was a radical, I was willing to go to jail and create havoc, maybe a little bit of anarchism. But as I matured and aged, I realized that I need to be a role model for the future activists so that they can step up and follow the the the rules of engagement and be effective using that engagement. So I think that that that reflects on on my son who, you know, basically patterned his social and educational and personal development to the point now he's my mentor. His activism is so what I call pure as a grassroot organizer, and I'm how do you say I'm proud with joy and that he's making changes and also helping those who continue can make changes, as you know, they see fit.

Yeah, you know, activism comes in different shapes and forms, and my belief of activism is that there has to be an end result. There has to be an ending to your effort and that you have to have something to show for. And so in UC Santa Cruz, which would be connected to also Foothill College, was the fact that there was a denial level of identity, denial of having us learn about ourselves. Denial of having a curriculum where educators providing us knowledge and so that triggered my desire to produce or publish a book on the Filipino American experience. That was my senior year at UC Santa Cruz. The reaction from my classmates and other folks has been, you know you don't publish a book. You know, in your undergraduate, you do it when you go to graduate school or Ph.D.. And I said, Why? Because that's the way the tradition is. I said, Well, I don't have to wait that long, you know, And we have an opportunity. So I went to my provost, John Markum, another mentor, and I said, "Why can't we do it?" He says, "Well, I don't see a problem. And he said, In fact, I tell you what, I'll help you publish it, you know, with the funds." And I said, "Oh my God, that was fantastic." And so I got four of my classmates and their their lower, lower grades. You know, they're juniors while I'm a senior and sophomore, and they join in on this idea. And so we we wrote this book with contributing authors from other parts of, you know, the United States and came up with this anthology. And the title was title by the famous Dr. Fred Cordova, the historian from Seattle. And and so now this book is somewhat out of print, but it's one of the most expensive books on Filipino American experience. And the book is only 67 pages, and yet it costs over $85. But because when I designed the book, you wanted to make sure that that book was going to be, we you say, relevant not five years from now, not ten, but over 30 years. And so to this day, the book is relevant to even third generation Filipinos who are now trying reading it. And those who had the book, they will not give it up. I have tried to buy it off of them, but it's it's a treasure, I guess. And that's why they're they're keeping it to themselves as a keepsake book.

Yeah, the Delano Manong Park was an important achievement by the young Filipino Americans. One of the organization is LEAD [Leadership, Education, Activism and Dialogue]Pilipino. They led to get this new development where it's required to have a place, a park, and to have it named after a Filipino theme. And one of the young leaders thought it would be great to honor the Manongs, and especially those that started the grape strike in Delano. And that's how it got the word Delano Manongs Park. So now it's complete; it's been open to the public. And now the Filipinos again have another sense of pride and belonging. And that's important. When you've been basically denied from many generations to almost even now, that they feel that the city has opened up and that were part of the life and and the society inside this city.

My thought and being part of an organization is what can I contribute? And using my grassroots experience as well as social programing, I would choose the type of organization that would fit my contributions. So one of them is the National Federation of Philippine American Associations, which is the advocacy organization for 3000 Filipino American organizations throughout the United States. And because of that, I was able to implement a component to deal with the hate crimes against Asian Americans, which quite a few Filipinos have been victims of the perpetrators who want to inflict hate. And then, of course, I'm also part I'm an entrepreneur, so I'm part of the Federation of Philippine American Chambers of Commerce, and I was their executive director for seven years and developing designing business models so that we can help the startups as well as those to sustain longevity among the Filipino businesses, as well as connect their motherland and how to do business in the Philippines.

(Interviewer) And through that activism, you were also advocating for legislation. Can you talk a little bit about your legislative advocacy?

Yeah, I can recall three at least in 1974, a group of Filipino leaders, about seven of us were pushing our state senator to identify Filipinos as Filipinos in all two categories in state documentations and services and so on programing. And so that was a first to have legislation passed, passed by Governor Reagan. And and now Filipinos can be identified as Filipinos rather than all the other categories that were confusing to our identity. But it was also the next step to have the Chinese, the Japanese or Vietnamese too, to do the same. And so now if you look at today's state forms, you'll see that there's at least seven, eight different ethnicities of Asian American descent. And then, of course, my activism with the Filipinos who fought in World War Two, and how there was a Rescission act against those that served in the war because they were not American citizens. And so we fought against that, as well as the recognition of all the Filipino American veterans who fought in the war. And therefore, the outcome was that a law was passed to allow Filipinos to receive the gold medal award for their service in the war. And as well as benefits that they deserve. And then and then one other legislation before that was to have Filipino veterans allowed to bring their SSI, Social Security and bring it back to the Philippines where you couldn't do it before, so now they could take that back home and live a very comfortable life because of the cost of living was less in the Philippines and having $500 would go a long ways to their livelihood.

Activism in some people is just to make something aware. I want to have not only awareness but to produce an end result. And public policy is the what we call the highest level of end result that if something like the veterans receiving benefits becomes the law, then you have created a permanent change. Whereas in some cases you make awareness and there's change. But it's not permanent. It's, you know, it could be a temporary free and therefore the next generation has to come in and then continue to be activists to make sure that it has more permanency. Well, here in my position, I want to make it permanent. As we close the achievement of making people aware and creating a change for the benefit of those who we are fighting for.

But but to be a master planner is to me an important part of all communities. And there's different types of master plan and some master plans, we're talking about how to design to improve the communications between our communities. And so how do you create that using technology, using certain skills and so on and so forth? The other kind of master plan is building what we call communities and what do communities need so that it completes the system so that every resident is served and every type of resident, whether they're children or seniors, are going to benefit from that master plan. It could be that that master plan includes electric vehicles so that you reduce pollution to protecting the natural wildlife that's in there. Like, that's why I went to Santa Cruz, because that's one of the important things about Santa Cruz, is that they have a strong environmental design. Rather than chopping down that beautiful redwood, can we build around it? Can we have a part of our community? That's. That's what I say master plan is all about. And because of that, in the development of the North Side Community Center, as well as the Mabuhay Senior Apartments, the projects got not one but two of what we call the Oscars in development, architecture and design. It's called the Gold Nugget. So I have two, and that's rare and few. And in fact when I received those two, all of those that were in the Convention of Asian American ancestry, they all ran to me and they congratulated me and I felt weird because Why? Why? Yeah. And I asked them why. Because you're the first that ever received this, you know. And I said, Well, what happened to you guys? And they sort of implied that, well, you know, we're not the right color. I said, Oh, okay, I understand.

(Interviewer) And what are your thoughts about the recurring anti-Asian hate activity happening now?

Yeah. So if you know your history, you know that this has been going on. In fact, it was worse when our first generation of immigrants came from China, Japan, Philippines, India because there were no laws to protect that. Now, 2023, there are laws, but are the laws being applied to protect us? In many cases, no. I know that, even right here. So what does that say? We elect people who care, who take the time to understand the law so that not only are you protecting certain people, you need to protect everybody. So when that hate hits a Chinese, Filipino, LGBTQ, a Jewish person, you already know how to apply change. That's the activism that we need to do with those who are supposed to be to represent the law. And we know that nothing's perfect. I've been in the court systems and I can tell you there's prejudice, even though justice is supposed to be blind. That's not true. So we need to make sure that people who are sitting in those judicial seats are people that have the highest faith in the rule of law and that, you know, equality is the highest standard no matter who you are, because I still see it. And that's why you're right that the legislative and the public policy, getting people in those right seats will make a difference. I don't want to put a name out there, but I think you know who I'm talking about. You get the wrong person and it can make the country upside down. I know that from the Philippines, when they when they elected a person who had no public policy experience, who is a former actor and does his it didn't even have a high school degree. He didn't know how to manage the law. So it helped. It corrected corruption. It helped the abusive people that took advantage of others and so on.

(Interviewer) And so you have experienced prejudice and racism. And what would you say were some of the moments that defined you and what would your advice be to young people who who are facing prejudice in the workplace or, you know, throughout their life?

It hits you in the face when someone says to you, hey, n***, and you and you sit there and I go, What? And what do I say? What do I do? Do I just jump on this guy for calling me such a racist word? That's the highest level of prejudice to demean you to a name that is like caca. Okay. But people use that when you're trying to get to move up and they say, oh, you know what? You don't need to be here. Oh, I know. It's okay. Really. You don't belong here. And when I brought my classmates, my my minority classmates who basically sat out outside the quad where they privileged white students hang out, and because I'm the so-called, you know, football star and they allow me to sit there as their token and remember that token, I've been token many times and bring my my Filipino, Black, Hispanic [friends] into the center of the quad and two white people prominent student leaders said to me, Then what are you doing? I said, I'm bringing my friends here. I said, You know, they don't belong here. And and I said, Why not? Well, they're not our kind. And I said, Well, why am I? Oh, well, you're different. And I had to threaten them with they're going to be allowed to come here. And if you stop them, you're going to have to address with me. And that changed the complexion of breaking the color barrier and the the isolation of those who supposedly don't belong in their privileged environment. Yeah. So when you go through all of that, you know, you should be angry, you should be hateful towards those who have drawn that at you. But like my mom: No, you're not. You're going to find a way to correct it. I said, okay, Mom. Yeah. Because I never want my mom or dad to come to my high school or my junior high school and go to the principal's office. And the principal had to tell them that your son screwed up. Maybe, Right? So I never had to have my parents, which when I was in view high school, many students were caught up in that and I had to help them, you know, because some teachers were mean, but really prejudiced. Students were also practicing prejudice. And so the students wouldn't take it anymore. And so, yes, I had to suspend them, but I would take them aside and counsel them. I understand. I've been there. You just need to know that I didn't have someone like me. You do. So before you throw a punch, come to me first. And that way I can protect you from being embarrassed or shame and your parents having to come to school and. And. And just feel like, you know, they failed.

I was at a conference, Filipino American conference, and I heard very angry young Filipinos for. But I didn't get a chance to study it. But they basically said, we don't need to know about our history and the people before us. I said, Really? You know, we're going to make up our own of who we are. And I feel that that's going to be a lost cause, because then because then they're going to be lost in the direction of where to go, to be a better person, to build a better community. Right. And so these young folks, as I study where they're coming from, we're coming from nonpopulated communities of Filipino like San Francisco and San Jose. We practice the culture of bounding. Those students may not had that opportunity. So they're spreading their their pain and their anger because they were denied to appreciate a better person of who they are culturally, socially, where with those have families that understand how to do so. So if I can say this, we maintain building those who came before us and that we share it from a culture of bonding so that we can succeed. Oh, by the way, you know that I created three dance companies, right? No? So Filipino folk dance has become my mantra of change. I use folk dance as a way to create cultural activism so that the more we're out there and the more we tell stories about who we are from our cultural forms of movement and attire and and voice, it will improve the relationship of the non-Filipino to the Filipino. So so some of my dance companies include non-Filipinos because they can relate, they can appreciate and they want to enjoy. So that's one of the things that I'm hoping that we have more humanness, more cultures, you know, in building a better community.

(Interviewer) So would you say it's fair to say the story that you like to leave behind for future generation is definitely understanding the cultures that have been here before, that continue to evolve and how important that is for them and their future.

And one word and what you just said needs to be emphasized respect. So you have to respect those who came before you as well as I respect those who are coming behind me. When you have that character of respect, like, you know, people call me manong. Why? Because it's a sign of respect. And when they did that in my school and the students, the non-Filipino student says to the principal, Mr. Sanchez, how come the Filipino students get to call him Manong? We what that means? How come we can't do that and say so? The principal says, you ask Mr. Menor, you know, ask him. So that's the non-Filipino students came to me, said, Mr. Menor, ""We want to call you manong."" I said, ""Really? Why?"" ""Well, we want to be equal to the Filipinos."" Oh, okay. So then, you know, they call me manong. And then the teachers came to me and said, ""Hey, what's this thing with this manong? How come they're calling you manong with the first name before you had to call Mr. Smith? Mr. Johns, Mrs. Villasenor. And I would say the reason why they call me by my first name because you had to hear the word before it was that they call me manong, which means, sir, Mr. You know, a sign of respect. Really? Yeah. Okay. Well, I want that. I said, Well, then tell your students so now the white teachers are getting called Manong Bill, Manong Sam. And it created an environment of acceptance and unity and reduced the division of prejudice and suspicion. So the campus became, as we were evaluated from the state, this is a very good campus of of what we call a school climate. That school climate. This school is very, uh, ideal in learning and, and that came from my mentors, you know, Arthur Pearl. He was professor of education, to Mr. Sanchez. Dr. Sakamoto. You know, so think about those mentors like I said, respect those that came before you and appreciate the gifts that they gave you, including your mom and dad. And that I think, will go a long ways.