Announcing UniPro's President Elect 2014-2015

On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, we are very excited to announce Iris Zalun as President for Pilipino American Unity for Progress' Fiscal Year 2014-2015! Iris began her career with UniPro when she was a senior at Fordham University in 2010. It was evident from the beginning how passionate she was for the Pilipino community through her constant attendance at events and her unselfish willingness to volunteer for the presented cause. Through the years, she displayed her strong leadership abilities and quickly started motivating UniPro to establish a role within the community, one that is revered as a purposeful and trusting non-profit.It was hard for her cohorts to overlook her ambition and they immediately sought her out for the huge honor of Co-Chairing Summit in 2012. Her organizational skills and sheer tenacity led her to bring more than 250 delegates, helping UniPro maintain our role as a purposeful force within in the community. She served for 2 years as UniPro Vice President (while also preserving her Directorship roles for multiple programs), where she was able to increase our staff member count and improve the turnover rate skillfully.She has traveled the nation to represent UniPro with poise, accepted well deserved awards and confidently spoke on behalf of us all.

Her potential for the organization is indispensable and we are looking forward to her BIG plans for the upcoming year(s). It is with no doubt in our minds that she will fulfill her goals and bring UniPro to the next level of greatness we all know it's capable of, especially with her leadership.

Please help us in a very much deserved congratulations to Iris Zalun for her role as President!

The Movement is Now: Fil-Am Creative Culture

When you hear the words Pilipino American, what do you picture?

Depending on who you are, you might imagine nurses and immigrants, or maybe even college students adding their hip hop flair to the tinikling. Some might imagine their enormously loud and character-filled families. Some might not be able to imagine anything at all.

Now picture this- a bustling community of sprightly creatives, scratching the inescapable itch to catalyze change. There are artists, entrepreneurs, technicians, writers, and everything in between. They are innovators of all shapes, sizes and skin shades, illustrating diversity as vast as the Philippines itself.

That’s what I picture, and I am not alone.

A movement, a creative culture is happening, my friends. I’m talking tectonic plates. Like the shift from Pangaea, but much faster and technologically pumped. Like never before, Asian Americans are gaining momentum in mainstream media outlets. Since 2010, HBO has been showcasing “East of Main Street,” a documentary series featuring the real stories of Asian Americans, in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Just last month, NBC Asian American was launched, providing the community a major news platform specifically catered to our interests. “Fresh Off the Boat” will be premiering this Fall on ABC, making it the first sitcom about an Asian American family to be picked up in twenty years. People are finally starting to pay attention. They’re wisening up and realizing what kind of power the fastest growing ethnic group in America has, with 19 million people strong. And us Fil-Ams (the second largest Asian American group at 3.4 million), are riding the wave.

So why is this a big deal? Growing up, I rarely ever saw faces that looked like mine in TV shows, in movies, or in the news. What does that absence say? That the stories and perspectives of an entire race of people just don’t really matter. Or don’t even exist. I didn’t have champion role models that shared my same background, no beacons of light illuminating what someone like me could be capable of.

As Pilipino Americans, we have to make sure that we see our own faces in glittering stories of success. Our reputation of being the ‘model minority’ has left us neglected and our colonial mentality has had us hiding in the shadows. But no more! We are slowly but surely striding into the spotlight, obliterating stereotypes and showing the world who we really are through the power of our creativity.

The impulse to create and manifest ourselves into something tangible, something that can improve our world is universal. Fil-Ams are no exception to the rule. I’ve been lucky enough to meet and work with Pilipino American change agents through organizations like UniPro, NextDayBetter, and FilAm ARTS, and have been watching this extraordinary network of people who put passion first expand and evolve. Tons of restaurateurs are putting Pilipino fusion food on the map, entrepreneurs are forging cutting-edge startups meant to engage and help the global Pilipino community, and the surge of Pilipino-centered productions of music and theatre have led many to say that we are in the midst of a Pilipino arts renaissance. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The Pilipino American creative community is a well of talent and ingenuity. We are just as artistic, innovative, and relentless as the rest of them, and the world needs to know that. If we could spotlight and cultivate this culture of visionaries into becoming the norm rather than the exception, imagine what we could build and accomplish. Then imagine the chain reaction.

Photo Credit: partyearth.com

Fil-Am in Japan: Eight Years Later

There's three places that you'll find Pilipinos: churches, casinos, and hospitals.

It was a saying that my fellow Fil-Am friend would say whenever we welcome a new member of our little Pilipino community in Sapporo. Of course it sounds very general but I couldn't say that we were helping fight the stereotype: we were a group that hung out after the English mass at Sapporo Cathedral. In my senior year of high school, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Japan. Eight years have since passed and I've made an effort to visit while on my way in our out of the Philippines but it took me that long until I would return for something more than an the likes of an errand run at Akihabara. While it took longer than I anticipated, I returned with a perspective that has since overcome most of an identity crises, was widened by my travels but still eager to engage with and learn more from the Pilipino-Japanese community.

Unlike eight years ago, my stay this time around lasted only three weeks. For most, it'd look like an extended vacation perfect enough to do a Japan Rail Pass but for me it ended up being a short internship with a small start-up preparing university students for the post-graduate life. During my time with the start-up, I couldn't help but notice a trend amongst English-speaking students and even one of my colleagues: they took ESL programs in the Philippines. When I first lived in Japan, I remember the Department of Tourism promoting the growth of English schools as a way to help increase foreign visitors to the country and while the initiative seems proportionally more well-known for Koreans looking for cheaper immersion alternatives, I was surprised to see that there were many more Japanese young adults that take advantage of such offerings as well as seeing how these programs have since grown!

Speaking of traveling and the Department of Tourism, the aftermath of the "It's More Fun in the Philippines" campaign seemed to take further hold within the country, at least when it came to marketing. A decade ago, I would remember when the DoT had a budget that barely cracked a million USD, Cebu Pacific received it's first rights to operate flights into Japan a few times a week, and Philippine Airlines still using a Geocities-esque website for Japanese travelers.

Now we see the likes of PAL advertising on the Yamanote Line (the busiest rail line operated by JR East in Tokyo) alongside their expansion into the country, Cebu Pacific now operates to three cities, and ANA is using one of its valuable landing and takeoff slots at Haneda Airport to start a second Japan-Manila flight (I held my breath hoping that their first flight out of Narita wouldn't get the axe despite starting just three weeks before the 2011 East Tohoku Earthquake), and now the DoT (partnered with PAL) being able to afford to sponsor a travel cafe giving diners a taste of the Philippines! While Japan has since been eclipsed by Korea in terms of tourism revenue and has just been edged out by China, it still is a market that is valued and seen with potential.

One thing I noticed even more during this experience as well as trips that followed since my first stay was one group of Pilipinos in Japan: Japayukis. A slang term used to describe non-Japanese Asian entertainers, Pilipinos make up a considerable portion of this group. Walking into Shinjuku's Kabukicho red light district wouldn't be complete without seeing a sign or tout advertising a Pilipina hostess club.

During my final weekend in the country, I attended an event hosted by the Association of Filipino Students in Japan (AFSJ) and the Philippine Embassy known as Pinoy Talks. I've been meaning to meet with AFSJ ever since I was a member of the Hokkaido Association of Filipino Students (HAFS) and the Pinoy Talks forum gave me that chance after nearly a decade of eagerness. The eclectic mix of topics discussed included Mabini's Decalogue, personal finance for OFWs, and how to handle depression in a foreign country. Thankfully for my comprehension, much of the discussion was in English but I couldn't deny the comfort in hearing the familiarity of the occasional Tagalog after spending weeks working in Japanese!

Unlike Sapporo, the Pilipino community in Tokyo is larger by leaps and bounds, enough to have sizable groups and clubs for certain regions of the Philippines unlike the much more general Samahan Pilipino ng Hokkaido or HAFS. In the greater Kanto area, there’s even a Fil-Am group, albeit one that caters to servicemen and women based in the local American bases. One group I grew close with was the Philippine Association of Panay Islands, a group compromised of kababayan from the home island of my parents and whose leader was presented the Mabini segment of Pinoy Talks.

As I tried to find my way to Meguro Church for the group’s meet-up, the Japanese I would hear would eventually make way for the occasional Tagalog which would then get louder and eventually switch to the regional dialect of Hiligaynon…I knew I was getting close. Much of the group that I met was mainly compromised by those whose occupation I would normally associate with Pilipinos in Hong Kong or Singapore but not in Japan: domestic helper. Many of them have been in the country for over a decade or two, longer than I imagined for those who aren’t married to Japanese spouses. Another job that I noticed among the Pilipinos I met is teaching English, an occupation that could have potential for OFWs. I'd listen to their experiences as I was treated to the familiar hospitality of being constantly fed; hearing differing viewpoints on the lifestyle choices of Japayukis while dining on bistek with a chopstick was certainly something I’ll constantly look back to!

After a couple of hours enjoying the company of these Tokyo-based Ilonggos, I had to continue my whirlwind tour of last day meet-ups with other friends. As I was escorted by Kuya Josel, the association president and presenter of the Mabini Decalogue presentation the day before, I couldn’t help but realize how I ended my experiences with Pilipinos in Japan the same way I began it when I lived there for the first time...in a church.

Speaking of stereotypes...

(From the anime Nobunagun)

Women Can't Have It All

In a recent interview with The Atlantic, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi claimed that women need to give up certain aspects of motherhood in order to have a career. Women and their careers are always in the hot seat because traditionally, women were required to take care of the house and the children, and if a woman didn’t, she would be seen as a terrible mother.

Indra Nooyi’s claim about motherhood versus career does pose some challenges for the fight against the stereotypical traditional family dynamic. Should such a line exists, one that designates how far a mother can go in her career without giving up her role as a mother? What about the opposite—how much dedication does a mother need without giving up her career?

To most parents, the children come first, but should there be a line? Is there no line? Without having had any children at my young age, I can’t possibly comprehend the difficulties that mothers and fathers face.

When Nooyi talks about her daughter’s constant disappointment when she misses her school functions, she says, “… you have to cope, because you die with guilt….” Nooyi has developed an intricate coping mechanism that involves her parenting through her receptionist. Her children would call the office for permission to play Nintendo to which the receptionist would ask a series of questions until she gets a satisfactory answer. Although not ideal, this is how Nooyi manages to be a mother and the CEO of PepsiCo.

On the flip side, can men have it all? Even as women make strides to establish themselves as legitimate colleagues, if they neglect their child even for a minute, it is deemed worse than if a father did the same.

An article in Psychology Today outlines the differences between the expectations of motherhood versus fatherhood. “The modern mother, no matter how many nontraditional duties she assumes, is still seen as the family's primary nurturer and emotional guardian. It's in her genes. It's in her soul. But mainstream Western society accords no corresponding position to the modern father. Aside from chromosomes and feeling somewhat responsible for household income, there's no similarly celebrated deep link between father and child, no widely recognized ‘paternal instinct.’”

Recent times, especially movies and shows, have tried their best to reform that view and bring the role of the father to a comparable degree to that of the mother. The “celebrated” role of motherhood and fatherhood put a great stress on the bonding factor between parent and child, but one can’t help but see the obvious societal disapproval if the mother neglects rather than the father.

Women can’t have it all. If they follow their dreams, they are guilty. If they dedicate themselves to their children, they are guilty. No matter what, perhaps coping mechanisms really are the only way women can deal with the guilt.

Photo Credit: Mario Anzuoni (Reuters/Corbis) and ClipArtBest.com

Response to Models.com "Rise of the Asian Male Supermodel"

Last month, Models.com published a photo article done by photographers Idris & Tony entitled “Rise of the Asian Male Supermodel.” With the intent to shine the light on a gender and a race that is significantly underrepresented in the modeling industry, the photographers did a photo shoot with the likes of Sung Jin Park, Phillip Huang, JaeYoo and Daisuke Ueda.

Once I saw the headline, I immediately clicked the link. Firstly, “Rise of the Asian Male Supermodel” are not words you usually see in the same line. Secondly, I guess it hit a little close to home for me and I was intrigued.

I think by Pilipino standards, I look “mixed,” - thanks to my parents for those genes, I suppose. I have a fairer complexion, a bit mestizo-looking despite being full Pilipino. Ever since I can remember, most Pilipino adults that I encountered have told me to “just be a model or an artista.” It’s okay - you can roll your eyes at this part. At family parties, my mom would introduce me to friends and I was programmed to say “Thank you po” every time I’d hear “Ay ang guapo mo iho!” Later on, when asked what I planned on studying, no one really wanted to listen to my responses about being a journalist (which is what I originally pursued in college); they would jokingly tell me to go back home and just be a model or a celebrity... in the Philippines. 

Never have I ever heard someone say “You should be a model here in the States.” Not that I think my 5’6” stature or my lack of a six pack would really work to my advantage if I did pursue something like that here, but I do find it interesting that a Pilipino guy like me could only be deemed “marketable” among fellow Pilipinos and not on a world stage.

So when I scrolled down through the photo article and reached the bottom of the page, I was a bit bummed that out of 15 supermodels featured, not a single one was Pilipino. The text of the interview with Idris & Tony mentioned that they had also wanted to shoot Paolo Roldan, a Pilipino-Canadian supermodel who has been featured in Vogue, but weren’t able to do so in this series. But otherwise, where were the Pilipinos? Where were the guys that look like me? Where were the guys whose titos and titas told them they should be models? Where were the guys to serve as role models for young Pinoy men trying to break into the industry? 

Perhaps there just aren't any. And that’s a shame.

Another thing I found interesting in the article was that a lot of the models featured are mixed, mostly Eurasian. So yes, there is a rise of the Asian Male Supermodel, yet how authentic is that headline? I get it though -- “The Sort-Of-But-Not-Really Rise of the Asian Male Supermodel” takes up way too many characters to be easily tweeted.

I do appreciate the spirit of the photo article and the dialogue that Idris & Tony aim to spark within the fashion community. They can’t be faulted for not including a Pilipino male supermodel if there simply is none.

However, I think this absence of Pinoy supermodels in the international scene might be perpetrated by how Pilipinos view their own. Look up a BENCH runway show and you’ll see quite a few quality guys. If they’re good enough for home, they’re certainly good enough for the rest of the world. And it all starts with believing that might actually be true.

Photo Credit: models.com