International Examiner November 5, 2014

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FREE EST. 1974 —SEATTLE VOLUME 41, NUMBER 21 — NOVEMBER 5, 2014 – NOVEMBER 18, 2014

BRUCE LEE A GLOBAL ICON

FORGED IN SEATTLE

THE LEGACYOF ACTIVISMCONTINUES

Bulosan at desk with typewriter, ca. 1950s.University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, POR0020.

‘WE ARE REVOLUTIONARIES’

CARLOSBULOSAN

2 — November 5, 2014 – November 18, 2014 INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE OPINION

IESTAFF

Established in 1974, the International Examiner is the only non-profit pan-Asian American media organization in the country. Named after the International District in Seattle, the “IE” strives to create awareness within and for our APA communities. 409 Maynard Ave. S. #203, Seattle, WA 98104. (206) 624-3925. [email protected].

IE BOARD OF DIRECTORSRon Chew, President

Steve Kipp, Vice President Gary Iwamoto, Secretary Maria Batayola, Treasurer

Arlene Oki, At-Large

ADVERTISING MANAGER Kathy Ho

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BUSINESS MANAGEREllen Suzuki

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CREATIVE DIRECTORRyan [email protected]

EDITOR IN CHIEFTravis Quezon

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ARTS EDITORAlan Chong Lau

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HERITAGE EDITORJacqueline Wu

VIDEOGRAPHERTuyen Kim Than

PROOFREADERAnna Carriveau

CONTRIBUTORSAtia Musazay Izumi Hansen

Sam Hylas Nina Huang

Andrew Hedden Roxanne Ray

Susan Kunimatsu Tamiko Nimura

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The article, “City’s exploration of municipal broadband is far-reaching,” in the October 15, 2014 issue stated that building and maintaining a city-owned municipal network would cost Seattle $500. The amount should have read $500 million. The correction has been made in the online version of the article. The International Examiner regrets the error.

Correction

Open letter to the mayor: Why is SPD silent on hate crime?The following is an open letter sent to Seattle Mayor Ed Murray on October

28 by Frank Irigon of OCA—Greater Seattle Chapter. The letter pertains to a September 28 incident in which Asian women near the University of Washington were allegedly targeted with insults and thrown objects.

Dear Mayor Ed Murray,

On behalf of OCA-Greater Seattle Chapter, I want to express our extreme disappointment and outrage that it’s been almost a month since this hate crime was perpetrated upon defenseless Asian female students in the University District. We were hoping that your office and the Seattle Police Department would have shared this same outrage and put forward a statement that this type of racist behavior would not be tolerated in the City of Seattle. But we were wrong and again our community feels marginalized. Not one word came from you or the SPD. Nor how the SPD was going to collaborate with the UW Police to prevent this from happening again.

We are requesting a meeting with you and Chief Kathleen O’Toole to discuss this and other issues that we have with the SPD. From recruitment, retention, promotion, and a lack of Asians in command positions. The last being Capt. Ronald Mochizuki who was promoted by then Chief Norm Stamper after our community met with him and that was eons ago.

We are looking forward to meeting with you and the chief to discuss how to make Seattle a safe place for all people regardless of their race to live, study, and to enjoy life in America.

Frank Irigon, OCA—Greater Seattle

The following is an initial response by Deputy Mayor Hyeok Kim on October 30. The city and API community leaders are currently trying to organize a meeting.

Dear Frank Irigon,Thanks for your [letter]. Mayor Murray thinks it would be very important to meet,

as he shares the community’s concerns about bias and hate crimes in our city, and is very disturbed by what happened in the incident you describe. He has asked Chief O’Toole to join him and (schedule permitting) Cuc Vu, his Director of the Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs, as well as Patty Lally, his Director of the Office for Civil Rights.

Hyeok Kim, City of Seatte Deputy Mayor

The following is a subsequent response by SPD Deputy Chief Carmen Best on November 1.

Dear Frank Irigon,I want to let you know the Seattle Police Department takes all incidents of hate crime

very seriously and we were as incensed as anyone by the acts that were described to us regarding the University Way NE incident. I wanted to make sure that you know of the specifics of the incident and the SPD response. The following is a summary of the SPD response:

• On September 28, 2014, Seattle Police responded to a reported Bias Crime in the area of [4700 block of University Way NE].

• The owner of a café (victim) observed subject throwing items from an upper floor of an apartment which is directly above the café. The victim observed the items (lit cigarettes and beer cans) were thrown at a couple of Asian females who were walking on the sidewalk. The suspects also were using racial derogatory language towards the females.

• The victim confronted the subjects over the matter. One of the subjects poked him in the neck and used a racial derogatory term and told him he (victim) was in his (suspect’s) country. The suspect also made verbal threats to kill the victim.

• Seattle Police immediately responded and completed a Malicious Harassment Report.

• The case was assigned to the Bias Crimes Detective on September 29, 2014.• The Bias Crimes detective interviewed the victim and two identified suspects who

live at [the building in the 4700 block of University Way NE].• The victim made it clear that he did not want to pursue the matter further, because

he prayed about it and has forgiven the suspects.• The two unidentified Asian females have not been located or reported the incident

to police.• Currently the case is cleared Exceptional due to the victim not wanting to assist in

the prosecution.• In the event that victim wishes to proceed, we will be able to move the case forward.In regards to Asian officer promotions, I will provide official information to you at a

later time, but I know that Lt. Randy Yamanaka, Lt. Paul Leung, and Captain Eric Sano are relatively recent promotees that were promoted to command level positions well after Captain Ron Mochizuki.

I look forward to working with you and others in the community to assist us in recruiting Asian officers to the SPD and encouraging them to take the promotional exams. We are committed to having an ethnically diverse police department that represents the communities we serve.

Carmen Best,SPD Deputy Chief

A Seattle Police car parked near 2nd Avenue in downtown. • Photo by Matthew Zalewski

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER November 5, 2014 – November 18, 2014 — 3

IE NEWS

By Atia MusazayIE Contributor

Today, it can be hard to imagine a Seattle in which Asian Americans were barred from certain places of work based on their ethnicity. But not even 50 years ago, ad-ministrators at Seattle Central Community College refused to hire Asian Americans for work.

In response, a crowd of Asian Americans marched into the administration office in 1971 chanting, “What do we want? Asians now!” and holding signs reading “Quiet Asians? Hell no!”

This story and other tales of civil rights struggles were the topic of October’s “Think & Drink” programs held bimonth-ly in cities throughout Washington. The idea behind the program was to introduce thought-provoking topics in a casual set-ting, such as pubs and tasting rooms. The goal is to generate lively and stimulating conversation.

“Earlier in the year, we produced a pro-gram tackling Seattle’s civil rights history from the 1960s onward,” said Zaki Ab-delhamid, program manager for Humani-ties Washington, which is the host of the forums. “Our research led us to the rich and often untold story of Seattle’s Asian American civil rights history.”

The myth of the “quiet Asian,” which stereotyped Asians as shy and passive to-ward their rights, was prevalent in the 20th century and further fueled Asian Ameri-cans to action. Titled “Loud and Proud: Washington State’s Asian American Civil Rights Movement,” the two Think and Drink sessions held in Seattle in October attempted to shed light on the active role of Asian Americans in Seattle’s Civil Rights movement.

Connie So, American Ethnic Studies Pro-fessor at the University of Washington, and Kevin Owyang, the filmmaker behind the Wing Luke Museum documentary In Strug-gle, spoke at “Loud and Proud” discussions. Tonya Mosley, a Seattle journalist with Al Jazeera America, The Huffington Post and KUOW, moderated the discussion.

Owyang said he was surprised to hear about the unique struggles Asian Ameri-cans faced in Washington state compared to the East Coast where he was raised.

“I want to believe that people see me for who I am and that my race does not alter their perception,” Owyang said. “[But] we are not in a utopia where race doesn’t matter and we are not in a time where my race is the singular determi-nant of my relationship with people.”

According to Owyang, these discus-sions help bring clarity for people tar-geted by racism and for the people with whom they interact.

The discussions’ attendees, who ranged in number from 25 to 40, heard the tale of a Japanese American from Washington who resisted being moved to concentration camps in 1942, at great risk to his own safety. The 1960s, which saw the rise of peaceful anti-war and civil rights protests, also inspired Asian Americans to peacefully demonstrate.

Al Sugiyama, co-founder of the Orien-tal Students Union at Seattle Central Com-munity College, said he and activist Frank Irigon were motivated to protest the col-lege’s bigoted rules by the desire to build a future in which their children don’t have to struggle.

“It really doesn’t matter the color of your skin or your nationality ... it comes right down to, are you progressive enough to understand the issue,” Sugi-yama said in the documentary produced by Owyang. “Progress is such that you have to keep moving forward and push-ing. Otherwise it’s either going to stop or come tumbling back.”

Decades later, it has become clear to these lifelong activists that the grass-roots movement is continuing but with different issues at bay.

“That’s one thing people have to un-derstand sometimes about a movement,” Irigon said. “A lot of it was based on friendship and love for one another than based on ideology. It’s just that we be-lieved in one another.”

By Izumi HansenIE Contributor

Human services, particularly home-lessness, were on the top of activists’ minds Thursday, October 23, at the fi-nal public hearing for Seattle’s proposed budget.

About half the City Council members listened to more than 100 speakers over three and a half hours. Speakers affiliated with the Seattle Human Services Coali-tion, wearing orange scarves, called for funding for homeless groups, as well as programs related to mental health, street violence, and other human services. Other people asked for financial support for art programs, neighborhood improve-ment and zoo elephant protection.

“If you don’t end homelessness the numbers are going to grow. We are fac-ing a huge crisis in this city,” said Susan Russell, a vendor of Real Change News. “We need the funds put into place to sup-ply shelter and affordable housing.”

Attendees wanting more funding for homeless services held up photocopied “Notice and Order to Remove” notices is-sued by the city for the makeshift home-less encampment in Ravenna. “Without shelter, people die” was written on the back of the notices displayed at the hear-ing.

A collection of 3,123 pairs of shoes outside city hall represented the number of homeless men and women tallied in King County one night last January. Real Change News representatives brought a paper coffin to their presentation.

The City Council is currently in the process of changing Mayor Ed Murray’s proposed budget. The council has re-ceived community input via mail, phone, and letters along with two public hear-ings. They have also heard testimony from departments since October 7. The council will adopt the final budget in late November.

Mayor Murray’s proposed budget al-locates $2.75 million to human services. This includes $600,000 for employment programs and rapid housing placement for 150 homeless adults, and $410,000 for housing subsidies for long-term shelter residents.

These funds, however, are not enough for all current homeless assistance pro-grams, including the Urban Rest Stop, which provides free restrooms, laundry, and hygienic services to the homeless in two Seattle locations.

Shiraz Mohammed, a participant of the homeless program Share, said the biggest problem facing homeless people in Seat-tle was a lack of funding for housing, em-ployment, and mental-health programs.

“A lot of these groups have come to-gether to put up a united front,” Moham-med said.

An estimated 9,000 people are home-less in King County, according to Seattle King County Coalition on Homeless-ness. They found a 14 percent increase in unsheltered homeless people from the previous year during their “One Night Count” in January.

According to the mayor’s proposed budget, the general fund will grow by 3.5 percent in 2015 and 3.9 percent in 2016 because of steady economic growth.

The Human Services Department pro-posed funding is scheduled to decrease three percent over the next two years while the Office of Housing has a pro-posed three percent funding increase.

The first public hearing was held Oc-tober 7 and activists sought financial support for the $15 minimum wage and worker wage protection, in addition to other human services support.

Labor activists approve of the new Office of Labor Standards proposed by Mayor Murray, but question the funding provided to the office. The new office will enforce the $15 minimum wage law as well as current wage theft laws in ad-dition to educating workers about their rights.

Mayor Murray wants $510,698 for the office for 2015, and an additional $150,000 in 2016.

According to Investigate Northwest, San Francisco, the only American city with a comparable city office, provides $3.7 million for the Office of Labor Stan-dards Enforcement, which serves about 100,000 more people than Seattle’s office will serve.

Councilmembers Sally Bagshaw, Jean Godden, Mike O’Brien, and Nick Licata stayed for the entire public hear-ing. Councilmembers Tim Burgess, Tom Rasmussen, and Kshama Sawant left the hearing early. Councilmember Bruce Harrell was absent due to a family death and councilmember Sally Clark had a prior engagement.

Public comments for the budget can be submitted to the council before No-vember 24, when the council adopts the budget.

More information about the city bud-get and public comment submission can be found at: http://www.seattle.gov/council/budget.

Forum highlights civil rights struggle unique to Seattle

Human service activists request more funding from City Council

Representatives from Real Change News carry a newspaper coffin during their testimony to the Seattle City Council. • Photo by Izumi Hansen


IE NEWS

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LET GO. RIDE THE WAVE.

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By Nina HuangIE Contributor

The 2014 Pre-Conquest Indigenous Cultures and the Aftermath (PICA) Conference is a collaborative celebration of the histories of local multiracial and multicultural groups. In 2013, PICA was created as a collaborative effort between a group of students, faculty, and community members from the University of Washington’s American Ethnic Studies department, OCA-Greater Seattle (formerly Organization of Chinese Americans), and Heritage University of Yakima, Washington.

“PICA is an opportunity for all people of color to learn about our history as told by people of color,” said Angelo Salgado, PICA’s 2014 chair.

This year’s conference focuses on the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“[The legislation] is a pivotal act in U.S. history and we want to celebrate and share the stories that rarely get taught in the American school systems,” Salgado said.

The three-day event will include fi lms, presentations, entertainment, food, and more.

OCA—Greater Seattle vice president and UW Ethnic Studies professor Connie So met with Heritage University’s Winona Wynn last April to discuss plans for a coalition event to celebrate ethnic cultures.

The month of November was important for them because it included Native American Heritage Month. So said they wanted to emphasize the events that took place before the conquest. This conference is also an opportunity for people to share their personal stories of struggle.

Last year’s inaugural event focused on the international heroes of Asia and celebrated cultures prior to the colonization.

This year’s schedule includes the Native American Heritage Month Potlatch on Friday, November 7 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at South Shore K-8 School. There will be a presentation on the legacy of Billy Frank, Jr. and the Judge Boldt decision, a presentation on Bernie Whitebear, and other activities.

On Saturday, November 8 from 9:00 a.m. to noon, Purple Dot Café will be hosting “40 Year Celebration: Community Builders in Action,” which includes a showing of International Examiner’s new offi ce in the Bush Hotel. There will also be a showing of fi lms about human traffi cking and other relevant issues.

“Journalism is still important and it’s taking new forms,” said Ron Chew, International Examiner’s board president and OCA-Greater Seattle board member. “The International Examiner is experimenting with a more vibrant online

presence, integrating videos, and public forms of communications in its news delivery. It’s an exciting time.”

Early pioneers of the newspaper were community activists who wanted to provide a vehicle for promoting the restoration and preservation of the International District.

Early in the newspaper’s history, in 1975, the Alaska Cannery Workers Association (ACWA) acquired the International Examiner. The ACWA was founded by Nemesio and Silme Domingo and other young Asian and Native American cannery workers as a way to combat racial discrimination in the canneries. Once the newspaper had grown enough to be self-suffi cient, the International Examiner parted ways with ACWA and became an independent entity in 1978.

“The International Examiner has been a solid voice for social justice and community empowerment for 40 years,” said Chew, also a former editor of the newspaper.

The International Examiner recently moved from the Nippon Kan building to the Bush Hotel in September. Chew explained that it was a great opportunity to move closer to the heart of the neighborhood and the Bush Hotel was a good location because it is an International District landmark and was the home of the community center back in 1975.

Another aspect of the PICA conference involves an OCA Luncheon on November 11, Veteran’s Day. The luncheon will honor veterans at Venus Chinese Restaurant from 10:30 a.m. to noon. There will be a civil rights tribute to notable activists who helped shaped our communities, with special guests from the Cathay Post. Chew will also be speaking at this event.

“This conference was built on the need to collaborate,” Salgado said. “The ideas do not solely land on the organizers. We rely on the ideas of the community and many get involved in the planning of the events. It’s also space where individuals and groups can share their stories in a showcase of different forms. This is done using oral stories, dance, art, food, music and any medium one chooses to share. To make it accessible to everyone, we wanted to make the events free for all.”

Salgado said he hopes that the conference will inspire others to share their stories because those stories are what connects us all. “[Stories] are a tool of empowerment and they need to be shared,” he said.

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PICA conference to highlight 1964 Civil Rights Act, celebrate activists and stories of struggle


By Andrew HeddenIE Special Contributor

Today, Carlos Bulosan is a central figure in Filipino American history. His book America is in the Heart is a staple in American Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies classes. His words and image appear in murals and exhibits throughout Seattle’s International District. Scholars, artists and activists continue to look to Carlos for inspiration. So it’s easy to forget how many factors conspired to silence Bulosan and ensure his words and deeds would never be known. It is thanks to the hard work of various progressive labor, ethnic, cultural, and political communities—the same communities that inspired and sustained Bulosan—that we remember him today.

A new exhibit at the University of Washington Libraries, “Author, Poet and Worker: The World of Carlos Bulosan,” profiles Bulosan and the many overlapping communities he was a part of. As a labor organizer and a self-consciously radical writer, deeply interested in anti-colonial political struggles on-going in the Philippines, Bulosan was hounded by the FBI. Blacklisted, often in poor health, and unable to work, he lived much of his life in poverty. But a large circle of friends, including radical activists and authors, members of the cannery workers union, ILWU, Local 37, and others, supported him, recognized the importance of his contributions, and made his work possible.

Author, poet, and worker: The world of Carlos Bulosan

Throughout his life, Bulosan was lackadaisical about retaining copies of his work. Moving from hotel to hotel or sleeping on friends’ couches, especially in his later years, he often simply had nowhere to keep it. Much of his poetry was written into his letters and correspondence. Whole manuscripts were left to friends for safe-keeping or sent to prospective publishers and never returned. In the years after Bulosan’s passing, a group of his friends formed a Manuscript

Committee, hunting down copies of his work by placing appeals in union circulars and local newspapers and writing to his former publishers (the FBI, continuing to surveil Bulosan even in death, took notice and clipped the Committee’s appeal from The Seattle Times to place in his file). The papers collected by the Manuscript Committee ultimately made their way to the University of Washington Special Collections, where they remain preserved to this day.

The exhibit “Author, Poet, and Worker” draws on Bulosan’s papers, as well as those of his friends and associates, to place his life in the larger contexts of Seattle, the West Coast, and the world. The exhibit begins with the American occupation of the Philippines, which shaped Bulosan’s high school education and led to his ultimate arrival in Seattle in 1930. It traces his harrowing years in the Great Depression, his involvement in radical left-wing labor and literary circles, to his breakthrough success as a best-selling novelist during World War II. Then the exhibit moves on to Seattle, where Bulosan spent the last half-decade of his life until his untimely passing in 1956. Here the exhibit shows Bulosan’s work for the Filipino cannery workers union, his growing concern with Philippine anti-colonial struggles, and the larger radical community of friends and comrades that sustained him. The exhibit also displays selections from his extensive FBI file. Finally, the exhibit illustrates Bulosan’s legacy, taking a look at the many people who have been inspired by his words and deeds.

The exhibit opens November 7, 2014 and runs until March 13, 2015. It is lo-cated in the University of Washington Special Collections Lobby, located in the basement of Allen Library South on the University’s Seattle campus. An open-ing reception, sponsored by the Inland-boatmen’s Union of the Pacific, Region 37, will take place Friday, November 14 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Husky Union Building (HUB), Room 145.

Bulosan, 1951. University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, POR1438.

The Manuscript Committee hunted down copies of Carlos Bulosan’s work after his passing. • Courtesy Photo The “Author, Poet, and Worker: The World of Carlos Bulosan” exhibit opens November 7 . • Courtesy Photo


The following is a republication of a story by activist Gene Viernes that originally ran in the International Examiner in May 1978 (Volume 5, No. 4, Pages 6-7). Viernes tells the story of Chris Mensalvas, the real life inspiration for the character of Jose in Carlos Bulosan’s America is in the Heart.

By Gene ViernesFrom the IE Archives

A little man supporting himself with a cane was speaking to a crowd in Hing Hay Park. It was May Day, International Workers Day, 1975. He was the same man who had spoken at a University of Washington Asian American Studies class, the 1976 Filipino Peoples Far West Convention labor workshop, and many other community events. This man’s name was Chris Mensalvas.

He captivated the audience with his projecting voice and unique style. He captivated them with what he had to say. He was only 5 feet tall, barely able to stand, but as sharp as any of the spectators in the crowd.

Chris would often tell stories of the cultural barriers the manongs faced when they first arrived in this country. He told of an encounter he and his friends had with an American restaurant menu written in English. What were these American foods: hash browns, sunnyside-up eggs, pork chops, mashed potatoes, meat loaf, and hotcakes. Chris and his friends chose hotcakes. For dinner, still afraid, still intimidated by the awesomeness of America, they chose hotcakes again. Then again, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Soon, Chris said, “the cook quit. Too many hotcakes.”

First EncountersChris told of the manongs’ first

encounters with American hotels. They had slept on the floor the first night. In the morning, Chris had complained to the manager about the lack of beds. The manager laughed at the newly-arrived immigrants. The beds, the manager said, were wall beds, to be folded down when they were needed.

Young people will remember this man for his stores of hotcakes and beds.

To the manongs in the crowd he was more than the man who told those stories. To the manongs, he was an inspiration: one of their kababayan, one of their former leaders. He symbolized everything they had lived through and fought for.

But this man, Chris Mensalvas, died on April 11 of smoke inhalation suffered from a fire in his Downtower Apartments room.

He was born in San Manuel, Pangasinan on June 24, 1909. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Juan Mensalvas, named him Christopher Delarna Mensalvas. He was the third youngest son in a family of seven.

Chris Mensalvas: Daring to dream

A scan of an illustration by Jeff Hanada that accompanied Gene Viernes’ story on Chris Mensalvas in May 1978.

The Philippines, at the time, had just ended an eight year war: two years against the Spaniards and six years against Americans. The United States was the victor, the Philippines the spoils. The U.S. soon set up the Philippines as an American colony with American rulers, an American political system, and American schools.

Chris was raised in such a school. He attended Lingayen, the only school in the province of Pangasinan. He grew to hero-worship George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Patrick Henry. He dreamt of success and riches. He became an excellent student, possessing exceptional oratorical skills.

His father, a small landowner who farmed for a living, shared Chris’s dream of success. And America, at the time, seemed an answer to their mutual dream. Chris’s father sold a small plot of land and a caraboa. With the money, Chris boarded a steamship bound for America.

Chris found himself in the steerage section along with 300 other Filipinos, many of whom had been recruited as stoop labor for America’s farm factories. They were answering the call of contractors: “Let’s go to the U.S. Come on, there’s good life over there. You people have no good life here.” And the contractors were right; the Philippines had no stable economy and unemployment flourished. Unlimited job opportunities were available in America.

On their trip, they were fed “slop.” Occasionally they received fish. Of the 300 Filipinos riding in steerage, 30 died. The bodies of those who died were dumped overboard. Chris was one of the many survivors who experienced only seasickness.

Chris’s ship arrived in Seattle in 1927. A 30-day voyage. Once on the docks, they were met by labor contractors who led them to the fields of California and the Yakima Valley, or the canneries of Alaska. Chris worked as a stoop laborer for two years, patiently waiting for the chance to pursue his dream.

Chris enrolled at UCLA in Los Angeles. He maintained a part-time job as a “school boy.” This provided him room and board and some spending money.

Chris studied hard, hoping to become a lawyer, yet he found time to participate in community events. He founded the Pangasinan Association of Los Angeles and was its first President. He was also elected as president of a multi-organization sponsored “Jose Rizal Day.”

Hard TimesHard times came upon the United

States with the stock market collapse of 1929, the year Chris had started school. By 1932, he left school, not having enough money to pay for tuition.

He also found it futile to pursue a career in law.

In America, Filipinos could not practice law or medicine. Filipinos could not own land and, because of anti-miscegenation laws, Filipinos could not marry whites.

Disenchanted with the “American Dream,” Chris returned to the fields. He brought with him a new belief, a new dream that he had acquired in Los Angeles. While a student at UCLA, he had ventured into a bookstore owned by the International Workers of the World (IWW). He soon became a frequent customer, asking many questions, getting many answers.

He joined other Filipinos and formed the “Committee for the Protection of Filipino Rights.” The committee was concerned with the denial of rights to fellow Filipinos. One right the committee targeted was the right for Filipinos to organize.

Times were rough for Filipinos. They had just survived a series of pre-Depression racist attacks: Wapato and

Kent, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Stockton and Watsonville, California. Whites had attempted to rid America of its brown “invaders.”

The Depression hardships came in additional forms. Filipinos were forced to work for pennies an hour; they had to live collectively to survive. Many were eating in soup lines and sleeping in all-night movies. Victims of an exploitative society. Worse yet, victims of their own countrymen.

Some of their countrymen were contractors, the very same men who had met Filipinos on the docks, led them to the fields, paying them only a fraction of what they were supposed to get, and sometimes stealing even this.

Workers forced to work out of necessity were divided and, therefore, helpless. It was men like Chris Mensalvas who began the change. Using the knowledge he had acquired from the IWW and working in conjunction with the “Committee for the Protection of Filipino Rights,” he began organizing in the fields. Mounting lettuce crates, he gave speeches on the need for organization, preaching the principle: “With unity comes strength.”

Carlos BulosanHe called for meetings in deserted

barns or anywhere else the owners weren’t apt to find them. It was during this period that Chris spent a lot of time with Carlos Bulosan, the famous Filipino poet and author. Together, they published a newspaper in Pismo Beach.

With their efforts and those of men like them, Filipino workers began forming unions. The unions were founded by men who had come to America to share a dream, but who only found poverty and racism.

The farmers responded. Chronicled in Carlos Bulosan’s book, America is in the Heart, are many examples of vigilante action against the Filipino farm workers. In the book, Chris Mensalvas was portrayed as Jose, experiencing many beatings, shootings and near death experiences. Chris carried a scar to his grave: his leg was amputated as he tried to evade a vigilante group.

Filipino workers responded by organizing even more workers, not only Filipinos, but workers of all races. The working class concept was not new to Filipino organizers.

Some of the unions practicing this concept were the Cannery Workers and Field Laborers locals on the West Coast —Seattle (Local 18257), Portland (Local 226), and San Francisco (Local 20565). These three American Federation of Labor Unions led the way toward re-affiliation with the more progressive international unions, the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

MENSALVAS: Continued on page 7 . . .


The American Federation of Labor still had racial and skill barriers which kept workers divided. The Cannery Workers and Field Laborers union saw the need to go beyond those barriers. They led the way in forming the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packinghouse, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA). Between the three cannery workers locals and their 6,000 members, they provided up to one-half the funds to create UCAPAWA.

Another union leading the struggle for workers rights was the Filipino Labor Union Incorporated. It was chartered in 1934 and shortly thereafter re-affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.

The Filipino Labor Union Incorporated led the way in creating 10 branches, with several thousand members. Together with white and Mexican workers unions, the Filipino Labor Union Incorporated led strike after strike. Sometimes the strikes were successful. Sometimes growers recruited strikebreakers and forced strikes out of town and the Filipino Labor Union Incorporated was forced to give in.

In 1936, during a Salinas shed packers strike, the Filipino Labor Union Inc. began favoring a policy of racial exclusion, opposing co-operation with other labor organizations.

Chris Mensalvas, Sr., the secretary, led a movement to oppose such a stand. When the leadership refused to listen, Chris and his backers split from the Filipino Labor Union Incorporated and formed the Filipino Labor Union. It was this union led by Chris, Sr., that joined CWFLU unions in forming UCAPAWA-CIO.

At the founding Congress held in Denver in 1937, Chris was appointed one of UCAPAWA’s staff organizers. His life for the next following years consisted of following the migratory path of farm

workers up and down the West Coast. He organized the unorganized and assisted unions involved in strikes, negotiations or re-affiliations.

To PortlandDuring World War II Chris moved

to Portland. His brother Julio had been President of Local 226. Chris found work in a Portland hospital, but he quit in 1944 to become the business agent of Local 226.

During the War the employer-employee relationship was confined to non-wage issues. The War Labor Board created no-strike, no-raise-in-wages restraints. It was also a time during which the United States was pushed toward equalizing conditions between minorities and whites. In the early 1940s, a Black man had taken his challenge of the anti-miscegenation laws to the Supreme Court. He won. His victory led to the legalization of minority men marrying white women.

Chris remarried. (He had married a Mexican woman during the Depression. They had a son and, soon after, acquired a divorce.) He married a Caucasian,

Margie Leitz and they gave birth to Patsy in January, 1945; Chris, Jr., in September, 1946; and Michael in August, 1947. Margie Mensalvas was ill during her pregnancy with Michael; and she lost her life shortly after giving birth to Michael.

The war ended and once again employers insisted on lowering wages. The conditions in the canneries remained exploitative.

With the return of the Filipino War veterans came a new pride, new expectations. For those returning to the life an Alaskero, reality shattered any expectations of being treated differently. Filipinos were paid lower wages, forced to do the harder jobs. They were Filipinos, and Filipinos road in steerage passage, while whites traveled first class.

SS Santa CruzIt was on one such ship that Chris

Mensalvas, Sr., again rose to lead workers against exploitation. The SS Santa Cruz had run aground, leaving 1,200 cannery workers in Alaska. They were already mad because of crowded conditions, filth, and inadequate living facilities. The workers began complaining.

When they finally boarded ship, they found their possessions had been ransacked, their valuables stolen. They formed a rank and file committee to take their complaint to the union.

The union was based in Seattle; the Portland and San Francisco locals had been phased out in an amalgamation move during the war. The Seattle rank and file committee led by Leo Lorenzo Mario Hermosa, and Chris Mensalvas presented its demands to the union in fall of 1946.

Fall turned to Winter, Winter to Spring. Nothing was done to satisfy the workers’ anger. At the first meeting of 1947, the growing conflict between the rank and file and leadership erupted. The vice-president shot at a member of the rank and file.

Luckily no one was hurt, but it made the workers more determined to gain justice. It also spelled the end to the reigning leadership. Soon after, the international officers intervened. The leadership was transferred to a temporary administrative committee.

McCarthy eraDual unionism flourished for the next

two years. To complicate the internal struggle taking place an external force began making its presence known. It was the McCarthy Era. Ernesto Mangaoang, the business agent of Local 7, was placed under arrest, charged with being a member of the Communist Party, which the government said advocated the overthrow of the government by force or violence.

Chris Mensalvas, editor of Local 7 News and also an admitted member of the Communist Party, was also arrested. Local 7 cannery workers stood behind their officers. Meanwhile, Local 7 re-affiliated with the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, becoming Local 7-C ILWU. Chris Mensalvas was elected president in 1950. He remained president for the next nine years. Hindered by the Immigration and State Departments, Chris began plans to move to the Philippines.

(During this period he married Irene Mensalvas. She is presently residing in Equador.) In 1956, they sent their daughter, Patsy and son, Chris, to stay with Julio, now living in Binoloan, Pangasinan. Chris, warned of the possible danger in returning to the Philippines, instead moved to Hawai‘i. There he participated in the Longshoremen’s Union as business agent and staff organizer.

While in Hawai‘i, Chris sent for his kids and returned to Seattle. He settled down in Seattle’s Chinatown, running for various offices in the Cannery Workers Field Labor Union. He served as trustee as late as 1976.

. . . MENSALVAS: Continued from page 6

A scan of a photo of Chris Mensalvas that originally ran in May 1978. • File Photo

A conference to mark the centennial birth of Carlos BulosanEmpire is in the Heart

IE News Services“Empire is in the Heart” is a free one-

day conference on the life and works of Carlos Bulosan. The conference seeks to encourage different ways of reckoning with the legacies of Bulosan both in the U.S. and in the Philippines. It also seeks to address the relationship between his artistic and political approaches and his place in understanding the braided histories of labor migration, racial formation, Filipino diasporic imagination, and imperial expansion.

The conference takes place Friday, November 14 at the University of Washington HUB, Room 145, and will be followed by a reception marking the opening of a new exhibit opening in the UW Libraries titled, Author, Poet and

Worker: The World of Carlos Bulosan. The reception will be hosted by the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific and feature several speakers addressing the relevance of Bulosan to activism today.

9:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. Doors open. Coffee and pastries.

9:45 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Introduction by Vicente Rafael, University of Washington.

10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Panel I: Bu-losan in and for the World—Transnational Radicalism and Local Politics. Panelists include Moon Ho-Jung, Rick Baldoz, Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, and Andrew Hedden.

12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Lunch break.1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Panel II: Fictive

Knots—Bulosan on Revolution and Race. Panelists include Marilyn C. Alquizola, Vince Schleitwiler, and Francisco Benitez.

3:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. Coffee Break.3:45 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Panel III:

Bulosan’s Legacy—The Rights of Labor. Panelists include Michael McCann, George Lovell, Valerie Francisco, and Francisco Benitez.

5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Closing remarks and further discussions featuring Peter Bacho.

5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Following the conference will be an opening reception for the Labor Archives of Washington special exhibit, Author, Poet, and Worker: The World of Carlos Bulosan. The reception will feature speakers connecting Bulosan’s legacy to the activism of today. Sponsored by the Inlandboatmen’s Union, Region 37.

For more information, visit https://depts.washington.edu/history/events/empire-heart-conference-carlos-bulosan.

The following organizations supported this event: Carlos Bulosan Centennial Committee, Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, the Labor Archives of Washington, Inlandboatmen’s Union, Region 37, the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Departments of English, History, Political Science, the Jackson School of International Studies, the Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, and the Southeast Asian Studies Center at the University of Washington, and Prof. Lane Hirabayahsi, UCLA, Asian American Studies Department.


. . . RALLY: Continued from page 8

By Ron ChewIE Special Contributor

At the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, three local union organizers who got their start as young activists in the early 1970s recently reflected on the influence of author Carlos Bulosan on their early social justice work.

The officers—Rich Gurtiza, Terri Mast and John Foz—first came to the labor movement as young workers dispatched from Seattle to the Alaska salmon canneries during the Civil Rights era when many young college-age Filipino Americans were making the trek with their friends, brothers, fathers, and uncles to work in the fish processing canneries up North. They are among the last cannery union officers of that era still connected to the Alaska seafood industry.

At the start of their careers, the young activists found an eerie similarity between the segregation and discrimination they faced in Alaska and the conditions depicted a generation earlier in Bulosan’s 1946 autobiographical novel, America is in the Heart. They were quickly inspired to work for change.

“I can’t remember when I first read the book—it may have been when I was a student at San Francisco State University— but Bulosan’s book was definitely a ‘must-

read’ for anyone seeking their identity as a Filipino American,” Foz said. “It was very impactful. As far as Filipino American literature in the 1970s, there is no other book that can compare.”

Foz said he had a paternal uncle, who died of lung cancer in the late 1960s, who hailed from the same generation as Bulosan. “He lived during the Depression and worked as a busboy in San Francisco at St. Francis Hotel on Union Square,” Foz recalled. “He had worked on the sugar plantations in Hawai‘i and has

written letters about being attacked by strikebreakers with guns.”

Gurtiza said his father—like many other Filipino immigrants living in the Yakima Valley—had also suffered through the hardship of the Depression, traveling to the San Joaquin Valley in Southern California to work in the fields of Stockton and “surviving in labor camps on limited rations of basic food supplies.”

Mast, a Seattle native, said she was fortunate to have known and learned from some of Bulosan’s peers—including union attorney Barry Hatten and his wife Mary Gibson, and Josephine Patrick, Bulosan’s girlfriend—during her early years of activism. “They shared stories about Carlos and passed on books to me like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” she said. “That’s how I got politicized. I also really got a flavor of who Carlos was and how he used the pen as his weapon.”

Inspired by the experience of those who preceded them (and the eloquent prose of Bulosan) Gurtiza, Mast, and Foz came together with other young activists—most prominently Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes—to fight for union and industry reform. The activists filed three landmark class action discrimination lawsuits against the cannery companies in Alaska in the early 1970s, then later captured leadership positions in their union, Local

Carlos Bulosan continues to inspire legacy of activism

How many years did we fight the Beast together,

You in your violent way, in your troublous world,

I in my quiet way, with songs of love?

Over the years we fought apart and together,

Scarring our lives, breaking our hearts,

For the shining heart of a heartless world:

For the nameless multitude in our beautiful land,

For the worker and the unemployed,

For the colored and the foreign born:

And we won, we will win,

Because we for truth, for beauty, for life,

We fight for the splendor of love…

They are afraid, my brother,

They are afraid of our mighty fists, my brother,

37 of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU).

Bulosan was a close friend of former Union President Chris Mensalvas and had been the principal writer and editor of the 1952 edition of the ILWU Yearbook. By the 1970s, Mensalvas had retired and was living in the Downtowner Apartments on the edge of the International District. The budding young union activists reclaimed Mensalvas one of their mentors. Mensalvas’s son, Chris Jr., a cannery worker like his father, worked closely with the activists as well.

In 1977, Gene Viernes wrote a seven-part series on the history of the Alaska salmon canning industry and the cannery union. A key source document which guided his research was the 1952 Yearbook. Viernes and the young activists began writing and printing union organizing leaflets in the spirit of the earlier militant rank-and-file reformers, many of whom were still alive and living in the International District or nearby.

“I think we learned from Carlos and that generation the importance of using the written word and publications to reach out to other workers,” Mast said. “That’s why we started printing out the rank-and-file newsletter. Our members were all

They are afraid of the magnificence of our works, my brother,

They are even afraid of our songs of love, my brother.

So on this day of your birthday,

I am happy that the glissando of time has compacted,

At last,

Our early promises in that faraway city of our youth,

That I alone can totally remember,

That I alone can destroy with stroke of my hand:

So joy to your world and all that lives in it,

Joy, joy to your coming years,

Joy to your unrelenting heart and mind,

Joy to your brown hands that suffered so much,

More than mine did, having suffered another terror,

The terror of the mirroring soul:

Joy to your wife,

Joy to your children,

Joy to your friends,

Joy, joy, joy,

Joy to all the world,

And for all this joy let me have one little joy

To guide my mind that remembers her always,

The quiet little one that moved my heart

To remember, always to remember, the song of love…

They are afraid, my brother,

They are afraid of our mighty fists, my brother,

They are afraid of the magnificence of our works, my brother,

They are even afraid of our songs of love, my brother.

The Words of Carlos Bulosan

Song for Chris Mensalvas BirthdayBy Carlos Bulosan

LEGACY: Continued on page 9 . . .

Bulosan at desk with typewriter, ca. 1950s. University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, POR0020.


spread out and we had to have a strategy to reach them.”

Mast noted that when the earlier group of Local 37 offi cers, including Mensalvas, were brought up on charges of “un-American activities” and threatened with deportation, one of Bulosan’s poems was used as a fundraiser to support them.

For Gurtiza, who attended Central Washington State College with Viernes, there was a profound local connection. “Gene was the one who introduced me to America is in the Heart,” Gurtiza said. “I realized that part of the book actually takes place in the Yakima Valley.”

Although Domingo and Viernes were gunned down in the cannery union hall in Seattle in 1981 at the height of their organizing efforts, Gurtiza, Mast, and Foz have remained at the forefront of the movement to preserve workers rights and social justice in the 33 years since the murders.

Gurtiza, has served as regional director of Region 37 of the IBU since 1993. Mast, the widow of Domingo, has been secretary-treasurer of the IBU since 1993. Foz also works at the IBU and serves on the board of International Community Health Services.

Are the words of Bulosan—which provided a potent spur to action for the

. . . LEGACY: Continued from page 8

young activists in the 1970s—still as pertinent in today’s changed society?

Mast and Foz believe so.“If you look at the living and working

conditions of farm workers, it really hasn’t changed much from what Carlos wrote about,” said Mast. “In some ways, it’s probably worse. That’s why his book is still relevant.”

Foz agreed: “The book and what it talked about is entirely relevant if you look also at the ongoing organizing work that’s happening on the international level. The stratifi cation of workers by class is something that’s happening on a global scale. It was at the core of what Carlos was writing about. We’re still dealing with that today.”

The International Examiner offi ce has moved to the heart of the

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Bulosan in hat, ca. 1940s. University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, POR0018.


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By Jacqueline WuIE Heritage Editor

I was first introduced to the works of Carlos Bulosan when I took Asian American Studies 101 at the University of Washington. Bulosan’s writings were not what I expected. They were raw and real. Bulosan’s prose elucidates the gap between the American Dream and the reality that became a nightmare for many immigrants, people of color, poor, and any marginalized minority. Even now, there are still moments where I find difficulty in grasping Bulosan. Not because his thoughts are esoteric or syntax complex, but because of what Bulosan experienced. Bulosan’ pieces transcend time because they are histories and memories that we can’t and shouldn’t forget. They’re memories and parallels of what was American and what America should be.

One of the reasons why we are able to discuss Bulosan today is because his writings were preserved. Countless other contemporaries who shared Bulosan’s love for the Philippines, hope for America, and experiences through racism are lost and forgotten.

To truly understand Bulosan and what his experiences mean to Filipino/Filipino Americans, laborers, and activists, one must read Bulosan and the works that influenced him.

Suggested Reading

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

For a self-taught man, Bulosan was well read. Communist ideology influenced his thoughts, works, and activism in union organizing.

America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan

Bulosan’s most famous piece of work. Schol-ars have de-bated that it is part fiction, part auto-bi-ographical, and part stories that Bulosan borrowed from others. Nonetheless, it is the most read and memorable work.

On Becoming Filipino: Selected Writing of Carlos Bulosan by E. San Juan

E. San Juan is a leading scholar on Bulosan and Filipino Americans. His selections and commentary on Bulosan works are insightful into understanding the man.

Asian Americans: An Interpretive History by Sucheng Chan

This is a text-book document-ing the history of Asian Ameri-cans.

Little Manila is in the Heart: The Making of the Filipina/o American Community in Stockton, California by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon Stockton

California was one of the many agricultural locations that the first wave of migratory Filipino workers gravitated to during the cannery off season. To balance out the instability of constantly

moving to follow the crops or fish, bachelor communities were formed for socializing and support.

Remembering Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes: The Legacy of Filipino American Activism by Ron Chew

Ron Chew’s book documents the legacy of Bulosan and other Alaskeros like Chris Mensalvas onto a new generation of Filipi-no activists, primarily Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes. The book explores the trans-formations that ILWU Local 37 undergoes from the 1950s with McCarthyism and the Red Scare to union corruption, Rank and File reform, and murder.

Suggested Viewing

Dollar A Day, 10 Cents A Dance by Mark Schwartz

A documentary on the struggle of Filipino American immigrants from 1924 to 1935.

Bulosan: A reading guide to the poet and union activist


IE ARTS

By Roxanne RayIE Contributor

The recent harvest moon—which many termed a “supermoon”—brought our planet Earth’s satellite into rare focus, and a new dance performance will again direct attention to our moon.

In early November, the Three Yells Performance Company, founded by Artistic Director Veronica Lee-Baik, will present Moon Falling at Velocity Dance Center.

But instead of an outsized moon, this new piece aims at highlighting an “irreversible new moon phase,” which Lee-Baik suggests has both literal and metaphorical meanings.

“During a new moon phase, the moon is not visible and is often seen in silhouette,” Lee-Baik said. “I use that term to signify the darkness that will continue if we ignore the pressing issues of climate change.”

Caring for our environment is one of the many layers incorporated into this piece. Initially inspired by a painting of a bleeding moon created by her nine-year-old son, Lee-Baik has woven additional ideas into her choreography.

“Moon Falling deals with issues of today that are very real, very pressing,” she said. “There is a definite urgency in trying

to deliver this message and be a strong and convincing voice for what is going on in our environment.”

This urgency has only gotten stronger since Lee-Baik took a hiatus from her company, which she originally formed in 1999, and gave birth to her son. Now, she

Moon Falling: Lee-Baik brings environmental message

Lee-Baik. • Photo by Beth Williamson Laird

By Susan KunimatsuIE Contributor

In a just a few decades, India has trans-formed itself from one of the world’s poor-est countries into an emerging economic power, a leader in digital technology, and an exporter of contemporary media. This explosive pace of change has produced a culture of contrasts: wealthy and poor; Hindu, Christian, and secular. Attitudes to-ward gender and class are rapidly evolving. Indian art today is a rich, at times jarring amalgamation of old and new: painted min-iatures and billboard-sized photographs, Hindu literary epics, and Bollywood mov-ies. City Dwellers: Contemporary Art from India, currently on view at the Seattle Art Museum, showcases a dozen visual art-ists from India whose work engages these contrasts.

Photography played a historically impor-tant role in mediating western perceptions of India. It was used to document, but also to romanticize and stereoptype. Nine of the artists in the show are photographers, tak-ing varying approaches to their country’s fraught relationship with their medium. Some are documentarians, dispassionately recording ways of life receding in the face of change.

Jitish Kallat’s photo-panorama, Artist Making Local Call (2005), is a self-portrait taken at a neighborhood phone kiosk, a

City Dwellers: Contemporary Indian art offers unique insightonce-ubiquitous small business that is being wiped out by the spread of cell phones. Sooni Taraporevala, a member of the Zoroastrian minority centered in Mumbai, poetically re-cords the day-to-day life of her dwindling re-ligious community in her decades-long series, Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India. Dhruv Malhotra’s Sleepers series (2007–2012) de-picts a reality of urban life today: people spending the night in public places for rea-sons ranging from poignant (homelessness) to practical (protecting property). Heightened lighting and saturated color give a surreal at-mosphere to these all-too-real images.

Other artists construct scenes that juxta-pose traditional and contemporary aspects of Indian culture, incongruous visual meta-phors for how past and present co-exist. In his large photomontage, Include Me Out II (2011), Vivek Vilasini repopulates a go-pura, a Hindu temple tower, replacing the sculptures of religious figures with security guards and tourists, including himself. Nan-dini Valli Muthiah’s Definitive Reincarnate series (2003–2006), places the Hindu god Krishna in modern urban settings: trium-phantly walking in a crowded street or rid-ing in a convertible; sitting somberly in a hotel room. Manjunath Kamath’s Overdose triptych (2009) packs western and Indian cultural icons from Picasso to Superman, Lakshmi to the sacred Brahma bull, along-side modern-day visitors in an art gallery.

Some of the most radical change has been

said, “I’m more concerned with being a voice for the pressing issues that our society is bombarded with.”

Formerly a performer, Lee-Baik now focuses on choreography and running her performance company. “I don’t perform anymore. I don’t feel the need to,” she said. “I have an amazing and highly capable group of performers who are doing a fantastic job translating what I’m trying to communicate through their bodies. I’m grateful that I am able to come back and continue to make work.”

A strong part of this work is its multi-disciplinary focus, and Lee-Baik said her company continues to “explore the infinite possibilities of dance in relation to other mediums.”

She doesn’t envision this emphasis changing. “I don’t see a piece of work without all the other disciplines attached to it,” she said. “It is always a holistic approach.”

In addition to this approach, Lee-Baik also incorporates characteristic breath and vocal work. “What I call the articulation of the ‘breath out,’ which is distinct to my work, is always a challenge for most performers,” she said.

“Here, the performer has to execute a ‘breath out’ or exhale with vocalizing,” she explained. “In the beginning, it al-

ways sounds either like a gasp for breath or coughing up a hairball: lots of embar-rassment, feelings of self-consciousness, and nerves, but as time goes on and with continual work on channeling the use of the ‘qi,’ we always, as a group, witness tremendous growth in confidence—more grounding and dynamism in our move-ments.”

Lee-Baik has also recently pursued growth in the community support for her company, by utilizing Kickstarter to financially support this performance of Moon Falling. “There is no denying the power of the internet,” she said.

This support materialized much faster than she expected. “It took us six out of a total of 42 days to reach our goal!” Lee-Baik said. “I feel so blessed for the love and sup-port that everyone has shown The Three Yells.”

With that support, Lee-Baik now hopes to tour Moon Falling to other cities and bring her environmental concerns to a larger audience. “I realize that I cannot be frivolous with this subject matter,” she said.

Moon Falling will be presented on November 7 and 8 at 8:00 p.m. and November 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Velocity Dance Center, 1621 12th Avenue, Seattle. For tickets and more information, visit moonfalling.brownpapertickets.com.

in the role of women in India, and women artists have found subject matter in new lifestyles and attitudes. Dayanita Singh spent a decade photographing upper middle class women for her Ladies of Calcutta series. Straightforward large-format black-and-white portraits taken in the women’s homes, their clothing, envi-ronment and demeanor tell their stories. Family portraits illustrate the changes over generations. Several of the women have careers in historically male profes-sions: sitarist, property manager, magi-cian. Pushpamala N. and Clare Arni play on stereotypes in their series, Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs (2000-2004). Their method is reminiscent of American photographer Cindy Sherman, recreating existing im-ages from diverse sources: anthropologi-cal photographs, 19th century paintings, 20th century films, religious icons and police mug shots in which a costumed Pushpamala N. plays the female role.

Although there are only three sculp-tures in the show, they present some of its most striking images. Debanjan Roy’s In-dia Shining V (Gandhi with iPod) (2008) is a succinct, scathing indictment of con-temporary values. Mahatma Gandhi fa-mously espoused a lifestyle of simplicity, humility, and respect for tradition. Roy renders him in high-gloss red fiberglass, an iPod in place of his cotton spindle, vi-

sually contradicting those values by replac-ing them with symbols of modern Indians’ self-absorption and obsession with technol-ogy. By constructing his Scooter (2007) of gold discs, Valay Shende turns that icon of consumer aspiration into a stunning object that appears both precious and expensive. In a quieter voice, Alwar Balasubramani-am’s installation Untitled (Self in Progress) (2001) suggests that, in transforming one-self, a person (or a country) runs the risk of losing their identity.

All the artists in this show were born af-ter World War II and live in India’s large ur-ban centers. Most are university-educated; several have studied, worked and exhibited in the United States and Europe. Catharina Manchanda, SAM’s curator of contempo-rary art, characterizes them as international artists whose primary audience is Indian. They are uniquely positioned to observe their culture from inside and out, simulta-neously. For many viewers, City Dwellers will be their first in-depth look at contem-porary Indian art. The artists’ use of con-temporary media and references to global culture will help a North American audi-ence to connect with their work.

City Dwellers: Contemporary Art from India will be at the Seattle Art Museum through February 15, 2015. For more in-formation, visit www.seattleartmuseum.org.


IE ARTS

By Roxanne RayIE Contributor

The con artist is a long-standing character in theatre and film, and now Pork Filled Productions brings us a whole family of these experts in Carla Ching’s play Fast Company.

The Kwans in Ching’s play are like many Chinese American families, with typically domestic tensions—but unlike others, their conflicts center on the dangers and satisfactions of the con game.

Playwright Carla Ching developed this play in response to a personal challenge. “Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) in NY puts out a call every year for proposals on plays about science through their EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation commissioning process to create plays that highlight science,” Ching said. “Game Theory was intriguing to me—the notion that you could study decision-making and get an edge on a competitor. I began to think about how to fold this into a play.”

Inspired by EST’s call for proposals, by her own family life in which games such as mah jong and poker were part of the fabric of family potlucks, and by the 2001 comedy film, The Royal Tenenbaums, Ching created a family in which the sons and daughter learned con skills from their parents and then took those skills a step further.

Pork Filled Productions producer Roger Tang is enthusiastic about presenting this play to Seattle audiences. “I’d been keeping an eye on Carla Ching’s work,” Tang said. “In particular, I was eyeing Fast Company, because it was different and fresh for Asian Americans.”

Once Tang read the full script, he said he was convinced that Fast Company would make a great follow-up to Pork Filled’s previous production of The Clockwork Professor. “It proved to be everything we wanted in our next script: fast, funny, stylish and ultra-contemporary,” Tang said. “It’s not an exaggeration to say we were beating down Carla’s door to do this.”

The particular subject matter of this play suited the Pork Filled producing team well. “Since all the of the producers are nerds and geeks in our own right, having a smart story that weaves in game theory, con artistry, and comic books was too good to pass up,” said May Nguyen, another Pork Filled Productions producer.

But Nguyen emphasized that the play is about more than games. “The richly defined characters sold us on Fast Company, too,” she said. “This is a play that gives Asian American actors full, dimensional characters they can really sink their teeth into. It’s an ensemble piece in the best sense. Everyone gets to shine in roles you do not typically see on stage.”

The actors agree. “I think theatre is at its greatest when extremely intelligent characters try to outwit each other,” said Kevin Lin, who plays the role of son Francis. “This will be one of the smallest

casts I have ever performed with, and the fact that the play is about a family of con artists means that everyone will have to be on their toes.”

With the character of Francis, playwright Ching shows how the con need not be monolithic. “Francis is one of the most talented con artists in the game but he has given it up to pursue illusions and magic,” Lin said. “He takes great pride in this work and the play allows the audience to see some of Francis’s prowess.”

Francis’s sister Blue, however, is headed in an entirely different direction. She has moved from plying “the Lure,” in which a woman seduces a typically male target, to an entirely new game—but actor Sarah Porkalob has decided that her character Blue is not ashamed of her past. “The women in this play are incredibly strong,” Porkalob said. “As a feminist, I am also drawn to stories of women who blur the lines between ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ gender roles.”

Blue does just that. “Blue is a woman making the life she wants for herself,” Porkalob said. “She is willing to make sacrifices because every step she takes, every word she says, is aimed toward the bigger goal, which is being the best. She is a young woman who knows what she wants.”

And apparently, Blue learned from the best: her mother Mable, a complicated woman, according to actor Mariko Kita.

“Mable is kind of scary and hateful and wrong and has no business being a parent,” Kita said. But this maternal figure still has depth. “I connect with Mable and I get her.”

Kita understands that this could be a challenge for audience members, she said.

“Mable could be portrayed and perceived as a caricature, monochromatic in her crustiness,” Kita said. “My challenge is to bring dimension to this person so that you will get her too.”

Bringing this grifter family together into a plausible drama onstage is director Amy Poisson, who has collaborated on the project with Ching. “I revised the play in consultation with Amy Poisson,” Ching said, “based on her seeing the drafts from the productions at South Coast Rep and Ensemble Studio Theatre and we’ve tried to hone this one to be the best of both.”

Ching’s participation has continued into the rehearsal process. “As script questions or thoughts come up, they consult with me,” she added. “I also get all the rehearsal reports, so I try to be as available as possible to re-write or troubleshoot as needed.” And she’s excited to travel to Seattle to see the production.

The cast also reported a sense of cohesion under Poisson’s direction. When an actor had to be replaced due to a family emergency, the team pulled together, according to actor Porkalob. “I could feel that from my other castmates: that we would pull together, to make a new actor feel welcome and prepared in the best way that we could,” she said.

“Our director has been incredibly supportive, and while we are not blood-related, that is what a true family does,” Porkalob added.

And that, at heart, is the web of domestic relationships that Ching seeks to explore in Fast Company. “It’s a play about cons,

game theory, and magic, but it’s also a play about family, and how we try to pull one over on the ones we love most.”

Fast Company will be performed from November 1 to 22 at Theatre Off Jackson, 409 Seventh Avenue South, Seattle. For more information, visit porkfilled.com/prod.

Fast Company cast cohesive in play about cons, games, and family

H (Brad Walker), Francis (Kevin Lin), Blue (Sara Porkalob) and Mable (Mariko Kita). • Courtesy Photo


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At 85, Tacoma Sumi artist Fumiko Kimura continues to explore artmaking process

By Tamiko NimuraIE Contributor

How would you prepare for a showing of your own artwork—one that spans a career of more than six decades?

“Do come to my place,” offers Fumiko Kimura over e-mail, cheerfully. “Just to let you know, my place now looks like I could be evicted.” The Nisei artist, now 85 years old, is currently storing most of her paint-ings at her home, in order to select and mount them for a retrospective show at Ta-coma Community College in November.

“Fumiko has been participating in ex-hibitions at the [TCC] Gallery for over 10 years,” notes Jennifer Olson-Rudenko, director of the Gallery. “She has made a signifi cant contribution to the artists in our area through her teaching and exhibitions. Some of the artists who studied under her have also exhibited in exhibitions at TCC.”

As I enter the house, it’s oddly familiar and comfortable, like my Japanese auntie’s houses. There is a glass case on the wall that holds a few knickknacks. There are family pictures from sepia to full-color on the walls. The kitchen and stove are spic-and-span clean. However, there’s something markedly different about this house: there’s art every-where, in various stages of being mounted, framed, hung. Stacks of it rest against much of the existing furniture. The paintings line the hallways and garage. It’s an inspiring collection of a lifetime’s work.

“I would like to make tea,” she says, after I repeatedly but respectfully decline any of-fer of lunch. And so we begin to chat in the entryway to her kitchen, waiting for a pot of water to heat. There I fi nd out a little more about her background. She was born dur-ing the Depression in Rexburg, Idaho. “I’ve never been back there,” she says.

At age 10, her parents wanted her and her siblings to meet their grandparents in Japan. While in Japan, World War II broke out, and her mother contracted tuberculo-sis. The family was not allowed to return to the United States for some years. She went to Japanese school, where she learned lan-guage and culture and calligraphy.

At age 17, her mother sent her children back to the States, saying, “You should go and make your own lives there.” Her moth-er died, still in Japan, two years later.

“Whenever I paint,” Fumiko says, “I feel my mother hovering nearby, saying, ‘Just do it.’”

Fumiko credits her mother’s encourage-ment as important for her artistic career. “Ever since I was a little girl, back in third grade, my mother knew that I wanted to paint,” she says. A third-grade teacher saw Fumiko’s enthusiasm for art and asked her to stay after school, offering extra practice in painting. That encouragement from her mother and her teacher sustained Fumiko’s love of painting, although she did not take it

up again right away in college.After the time that she spent painting in

watercolor, she began, with the encourage-ment of one of her professors, to experiment. She moved from watercolor to calligraphy and to sumi painting. Her work became more abstract and less [representational], at a cer-tain point moving into bold triangles of color swatches. Then, in 1985, she returned to Ja-pan. She studied at the Kyoto Nanga School and the Senju-in Zen Temple. Two watercolor paintings from this time illustrate the seren-ity of studying in this environment, but also evoke “a deep longing,” Fumiko says, “that I felt for my mother. I hadn’t been back in over 17 years.” Energized by this trip, she returned to Tacoma and founded the Puget Sound Sumi Artists Association, an organization with two branches, which continues to meet [monthly], offering teaching, exhibition, and scholarship opportunities to its members.

Fumiko’s love of the natural environment runs deep with a spiritual interconnection, which is apparent in many of her landscapes. After a memorable trip to Multnomah Falls, she painted a sumi/watercolor work that plays with the Kanji for “waterfall” (taki) by com-bining the symbols for “water” and “drag-on”—the painting contains elements of a representational waterfall with the cascading motion of the waterfall, the waterfall Kanji, and the fi erce energy of a dragon. “I noticed the tail,” she says, smiling.

We move upstairs to a room over the ga-rage, where she explains a little bit of the Bud-dhist ensō. “See?” She riffl es through one of the stacks of paintings on the ground. “The circle, right there.” Her fi ngers ripple in a de-cisive clockwise gesture. “I started to work with that motion. Very instinctive, very intui-tive. Just like that. Right there.”

Circles appear repeatedly in Fumiko’s work. A common motif is a series of pastel circles, like bubbles, which play around the subjects of

the paintings. Peonies appear out of several brushstroke half-circles. She cites one of her infl uences as Sengai, the 18th/19th century Gibon monk whose sumi paintings were known for their light-heartedness. Other paintings look like forests of vaguely calligraphic fi gures, some-times hiding forest animals, other times holding the vi-brant energy of dancers. Costumes that she designed for the Tacoma City Bal-let are hanging in another doorway—more bold streaks of color painted onto neon unitards, painted “while the dancers were wearing them,” she says.

After more than two hours, we are standing in front of a sumi painting, a fairly recent one from sever-

al years ago. “What do you see?” she asks me, her gentle teacher persona directing its attention towards me and the painting. “You can help me give this meaning.”

“I see a woman’s head, turned away,” I say. “There’s a utensil of some kind, a spoon maybe, or a ladle. And a wave, maybe, or a horizon.” I can’t say it yet, but there’s an energy that contracts briefl y inward, with the woman’s head, and the expansive wash of the wave/horizon that carries most of the painting.

“I call this one ‘Caregiver,’” she says, “maybe because I am helping to take care of my younger brother, along with my younger sister.” As she says the title, the elements of the painting rearrange themselves for me, and I can sense what she is seeing.

“What was freeing for me as an artist,” she says, “was learning I could create meaning [after creating]. I didn’t have to make meaning before I created, I didn’t have to think so hard about it.”

Now she does not title her paintings until after the work is fi nished.

After more than sixty years of paint-ing, what does she hope the show teaches other artists? “To explore,” she says fi rm-ly. “There are other artists which keep to very traditional ways of sumi painting. That’s fi ne. But you have to explore, to innovate, to be original.”

And does she still have ideas for more paintings? “Yes, the process,” she says later, “the process has always been the most satisfying, the most joyful.”

Artists Fumiko Kimura and Rob For-nell are holding an exhibition at The Gallery at Tacoma Community College. The show runs from November 3 to De-cember 13. The opening reception is on November 5 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Fumiko Kimura was born in Idaho and educated at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA., earning a Mater’s degree in Art Education and BS in Chemistry. She also studied at Kyoto Nanga School and the Senju-in Zen Temple in Akita, Japan. • Photo by Tamiko Nimura


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1300 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98101Ph: 206-654-3209 Fx: 206-654-3135SAM connects art to life through special exhibitions, educational programs and installations drawn from its collection of approximately 25,000 objects. Through its three sites, SAM presents global perspectives, making the arts a part of everyday life for people of all ages, interests, backgrounds and cultures.

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Check back for Sudoku in the IE every issue! Answers to this puzzle are in the next issue on Wednesday, November 19.

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November 13IE News Services

This year, 79 individuals will graduate from the Executive Development Institute’s (EDI) leadership development program. The Puget Sound Graduation is scheduled for November 13 at Embassy Suites, 3225 158th Ave SE Bellevue, WA 98008. The reception begins at 5:30 p.m. The dinner and program begins at 6:30 p.m. Cost is $90. To register, go to EDI’s website at edi.org.

Citizens for Hara is hosting the Annual Harbor Party to kick-off King County Assessor Lloyd Hara’s 2015 campaign on Monday November 10 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at China Harbor, 2040 Westlake Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98109.

The party will feature piano and vocal stylings by Primo Kim. The evening will also feature snacks, local luminaries, karaoke, and lively post-election chatter.

Citizens for Hara host harbor party

By Maria BatayolaIE Contributor

At the heart of the Carlos Bulosan Cen-tennial Celebration is the November 14 “The Empire Is In The Heart” Conference at the University of Washington, which boasts international intellectuals and academics. And besides engaging local events, the celebration brings three must-see cultural events from California, New York, and Pilipinas.

Screening of Delano Manongs by Ma-rissa Aroy on Thursday November 13 at 6:00 p.m. Free. UW Ethnic Cultural Center 3931 Brooklyn Ave NE, Seattle.

Slated for a PBS showing in 2015 and previewed at the 2014 FANHS National Conference, this exceptional documen-tary tells the Filipino labor history missing in the film Chavez. In Delano Manongs, Marissa Aroy painstakingly researched and spliced together histori-cal footage, voice recordings of farm la-bor leader Larry Itliong, and footage of Chavez union co-founder Dolores Huer-ta to accurately tell the story of Filipino organizing in the Valley. Of historical significance is Itliong pushing Chavez to have the Mexicans strike with the Fili-pinos in 1965. This led to the national grape boycott and the creation of the United Farm Workers Union. Sadly, no good deed goes unpunished. The Filipi-nos who struck did not benefit from the resulting labor contract. If you are still pissed off, like I am, about the Chaves film producers’ intentional disrespect, get all your peeps to see this film and spread the truth about Filipino-Mexican worker collaboration.

Post-film Q&A with filmmaker Marissa Arroy, union organizer Emma Catague and historian Itliong’s life-long friend Rey Pascua.

The Romance of Magno Rubio playreading on Saturday, November 15 at 3:30 p.m. Massive Monkees Studio, 662 South King, in Seattle Chinatown International District.

Carlos Bulosan’s short story was adopted into this play by Lonnie Carter. Produced in 2002 in New York by Ma-Yi Theatre, The Romance of Magno Rubio won 8 Obies (Off Broadway), telling the story of Filipino farm workers’ life of courage, perseverance, and loneliness. Break your heart for Magno as he pursues an Arkansas blondie who scams him

Bulosan Centennial brings to Seattle world class cultural eventsfor all that he is worth. Carter’s script is rich. It’s only right that this Bulosan jewel will be read in the C h i n a t o w n ID, his home base. The play has yet to be produced in Seattle.

Special introduction by Todd Lon-don, 2002 Obie advocate for Magno and incoming CEO for the UW Theater Department. Post-reading Q&A with Lonnie Carter, director Ben Gonio, ac-tors Arnaldo Inocentes, Daniel Arreola, Manny Golez, Manuel Cawaling, and Tony Colinares, with producer Maria Batayola, co-chair of Pinoy Words Ex-pressed Kultura Arts. Free campo kama-yan* dinner to follow with ube cheese-cake treat from Food & Sh*t. (*Eating with your hands, no utensils.)

Norte, Hanggananng Kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History) on Sunday, November 16 at 3:30 p.m. Subtitled. Free. Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Avenue, Seattle.

If you‘re a Lav Diaz fan, skip this in-tro. Norte, Hanggananng Kasaysayan is a film to be savored—a slow, delicious, emotional, thought provoking master-piece shot in Kenji Mizoguchi style with elegant long-takes using wide angles with

depth staging. It’s 250 minutes—bring snacks and drinks if you must.

At a time when Filipinos are diaspora’d and losing optimism in solving the nation’s continuous “under developing” trajectory caused by colonialism, classism, global capitalism, and its devil child corrup-tion, Lav Dias’ film about the normalcy of morality in an abnormal time takes hold. Told through the intertwined stories of Fa-bian, an intellectual who believes the only way to stop evil is to kill it given apathy, his actions are disastrous to others lead-ing to his own ruin. During this downward spiral, Diaz shines a light on elements of Filipino resiliency—acceptance, adapta-tion, abiding love, spirituality, persever-ance and kindness.

Norte accolades include: 2013 Cannes Film Festival Prix Un Certain Regard Nom-inee, 2013 Cinemanila Int’l Film Festival for Best Director, 2013 International Cinephile Society Award for Best Picture, Nuremberg Int’l Human Rights Film Festival won said Award and 2014 Gawad Urian Award 10 nominations, winning 5 awards for Best Pic-ture, Actor, Actress, Screenplay, and Cine-matography. Kudos to Lav and his producer Moira Lang (Raymond Lee).

Post viewing discussion. Email IE for continuous dialogue or coffee at Eastern.

P.S. If you want to really savor Norte, break up your viewing time and create your personal mini film fest. Norte also shows from November 14 to 20 at 7:00 p.m.

Bulosan


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