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FilipiNARS: Asian and Asian American Studies · PHLV Radio

0:42
Speaker 1: Well, hello the Philippe NARS listeners and followers. How are
0:46
you all doing fine? We hope it is time again
0:50
for Philippine Nars. So thank you so much for joining
0:53
us today. And as you all know, Philippine Nars is
0:56
brought to you by the p and A n V
0:58
or the Philippin Nurses Association of Nevada in collaboration with
1:02
PHLV Radio. So we have a very interesting topic today
1:08
and it is all about Asian American studies. So, Asian
1:13
American studies is an academic field that critically examines the
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history issues, sociology, religion, experiences, and culture and policies that
1:26
is relevant to Asian Americans. And Asian American studies is
1:30
crucial for understanding the diverse experience of Asian Americans here
1:36
and that is a population that is very large here
1:40
in our community. So UNLV or the University of Nevada,
1:45
Las Vegas, has Asian American Studies in their curriculum. So
1:50
we have invited two professors from the UNLV Asian American
1:55
Studies to talk to us about this. So please welcome
1:59
doctor Mark dun Pat and doctor Constantio. Let me see
2:05
Constantio are nawdough correct? Did I say that?
2:07
Speaker 2: Right?
2:08
Speaker 1: Well, welcome, gentlemen.
2:10
Speaker 3: I'm happy to be here.
2:11
Speaker 2: Thank you for having us.
2:12
Speaker 1: Oh, of course, of course. And so how about this audience.
2:15
We have two scholars in the house.
2:17
Speaker 3: Isn't this awesome?
2:20
Speaker 1: Okay, let's get them introduced. So first is doctor Mark
2:25
pat and Pat over there. He is an Associate professor
2:29
of Asian American Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies and the director
2:35
of the Asian American Studies at UNLB. Right, he's currently
2:39
working on a book project of Asian American placement in
2:43
Las Vegas, and they are the recipient of a three year,
2:48
eight hundred thousand grant from the Melon Foundation to sport
2:52
what we call the Neon Pacific Initiative, which aims to
2:57
expand and enhance and elevate the placemaking and public facing
3:04
scholarship activities happening at NLB.
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Speaker 4: Right.
3:08
Speaker 1: So, he is also the author of several books, and
3:12
he has been in several podcasts. You have shared your
3:15
work in podcasts and also in the TV like The
3:19
Migrant Kitchen and Taste the Nation.
3:22
Speaker 3: How awesome is that?
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Speaker 1: Do you have anything to add to that?
3:26
Speaker 3: No, that was wonderful. Doris. That was wonderful.
3:29
Speaker 4: And I will only say that I will my directorship
3:32
at UNOB will end in a couple of months because
3:35
doctor Ronaldo will be taking over as director of the program.
3:38
Speaker 1: So I wanted to say, you're not going anywhere, are you?
3:40
Speaker 4: I'm not going anywhere, but it is time for me
3:45
to take a breather and for new energetic leadership.
3:48
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Okay, you're ready for this, I hope
3:52
so okay, So right here is doctor Constantio Ronaldo. And
3:58
he is a PhD and an assistant professor, well not
4:02
for long, right at the Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender and
4:07
Ethnic Studies at UNLB. Correct, and you received your doctoral
4:12
degree in anthropology from the University of Illinois or Banage
4:18
Champagne with concentration on Asian American studies and as a
4:24
cultural anthropologist. Doctor Arnaldo's research includes popular culture, immigration, race
4:32
and ethnic identity, masculinity and sexuality, and in particular, he
4:39
examines the colonial and post colonial experiences of diasporic Filipino
4:44
Americans in sports and in their everyday lives. So welcome,
4:49
doctor Ronaldo. You have anything to add to that?
4:52
Speaker 2: Thank you? Yeah, I appreciate that. Warm welcome and introduction.
4:56
I will say that I did receive tenure promot, so
5:00
I guess I am now a social professor, which makes
5:02
me really happy. It's a career achievement. And again I'm
5:07
happy to be here.
5:08
Speaker 1: Very good, very good.
5:09
Speaker 2: And you are also an author of book, right, yeah, yeah,
5:12
we can talk about that later later.
5:14
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, well let's get started. So can you
5:19
tell us about and you can tag team on this
5:21
on these questions. Tell us about the Asian American, Asian
5:25
and Asian American Studies program at TUNLB.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so you touched upon it a little bit in
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the introduction, But our program is composed of two core faculty.
5:40
It's doctor Boompot and I. We do have a wonderful
5:44
postdoctoral fellow. Her name is doctor Christina Onung. She's on
5:48
the second year of her fellowship that came out of
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the Neo Pacific grant that we'll talk about later. And
5:55
so we have affiliated faculty, in particular doctor Tesla win
6:00
Women who's in the history department. But she's been part
6:03
of our program and community for I don't know how
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many years, like seventy years, wow. And so we're focused
6:12
on not only Asia and the Pacific Asia and the
6:16
Pacific region. It's people and cultures, but also thinking more
6:23
about the Asian diasporg population.
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Speaker 3: And what.
6:30
Speaker 2: Asian American studies can offer in terms of the stories
6:33
and experiences of Asian American and Pacific islanders. So we're
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interested in studying and teaching the historical and contemporary experiences
6:46
of Asian Americans and Asians in America and what can
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what that can tell us about understanding connections between Asia
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and the USA.
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Speaker 3: And I think the.
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Speaker 4: Just to add on to this, I think one of
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the things that makes our program unique world I think
7:07
there's two things. One is, you know, we take we
7:11
are global in focus, right, so we see things that
7:14
are happening in Las Vegas as more reflections of things
7:18
that are happening globally. But also that we take Las
7:21
Vegas seriously as a place and so a lot of
7:24
people we don't treat it as like this plastic, fake thing,
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but it's a real place with real people, and we
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approach it as you know, we can learn a lot
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of lessons from the place that we live in this
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space that we live in. And you know, it's also
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important to point out that I am a Thai American
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when I saw. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California,
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in the San Fernando Valley. Doctor Ronaldo is Filipino American,
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and I think that matters in our program because we
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try to center the popul Asian populations that have been
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typically kind of marginalized in the field of study, in
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multiple fields of studies. So we center Filipino Americans in
8:05
the Filipino diaspora, and you center them in the narratives
8:09
and the histories.
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Speaker 3: What can we learn from that population.
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Speaker 4: We try to center Thai Americans and Thai immigrants, and
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so I think that gives us a unique perspectives as
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scholars and as educators too.
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Speaker 3: That's good.
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Speaker 1: We have such a diverse population here, and you know,
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we have an honorable consulate here for Filipino Americans. But
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I just learned that there are twenty six types of
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people who have We have actually twenty six different honorary
8:40
consulates here. So I'm not sure how many of those
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are in the Asian realm, but if you can imagine
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twenty six and that's not even you know, covering like
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the whole, but that's a lot for a certain a
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certain place. Correct, Yeah, good good goodness. So we're interested
9:02
about this grant from the Melon Foundation, which you guys
9:05
got eight hundred k. That's significant and it is to
9:10
benefit or for the goal of the Neon Pacific Initiative.
9:16
So can you tell us about that? What is that
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all about?
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Speaker 3: Yeah? So, the Neo Pacific Initiative.
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Speaker 4: Is a project that is funded by the Melon Foundation
9:26
for three years and it runs We started in January
9:30
twenty twenty four and it runs all the way until
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December twenty twenty six, so the end of next year
9:35
is three years. And the whole goal is, as you
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mentioned at the during the opening, to enhance and elevate
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and expand Asian American studies and the research that we're
9:46
doing around Las Vegas and Asian Americans. Right, so, how
9:49
have Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders shaped Las Vegas? And
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then how has Las Vegas shaped Asian America and Pacific
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Islander America? And are the goal is to try to
10:05
again expand the histories and.
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Speaker 3: The narratives of our populations, of our.
10:09
Speaker 4: Understanding of Las Vegas as a place, right where Asian
10:12
Americans and Pacific Islanders are typically left out of that story.
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But to also tell a more expansive story of Asian America,
10:21
where Las Vegas is typically left out of that story
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or seen as you know, again just a kind of
10:26
fake place that doesn't have anything important happening. And so
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that's kind of the larger goal of the grant. But
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we have a number of different activities from mentoring program
10:38
and internships for students to curriculum development, which Constantio plays
10:43
a heavy role in, so creating classes. So we have
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four classes that we offer for those who are listening
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at home and are interested in taking classes. Doctor Arnaldo
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teaches Asian American Popular Culture which is a new class,
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Asian American Sporting Cultures, and Philippine Filipino Philippino American Experience.
11:03
And I teach Food in Asian America and Asian Americans
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in Las Vegas. And so those are the classes that
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we teach. So it's really about just building up the
11:15
program so that it's relevant to the field and also
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relevant to the city.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so you have different focuses, you know for the
11:24
grant in itself?
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Speaker 2: Is that to agree? Yeah? I mean, so because of
11:30
the grant, I was able to develop a class, a
11:33
new class, this becoming false semester called Asian Americans in
11:37
popular culture. The grand also allows me to bring in
11:41
guest speakers for my classes, and because the grant is
11:44
specifically about place making, some of my assignments are about
11:48
how Asian Americans claim place or make space for themselves. So,
11:54
for example, last semester, I taught the Philipino American Experience
11:58
class and I was like, students, we're going to Seafood
12:01
City to understand and to say, you know, like, rather
12:06
than just assume that Seafood City has no meaning for
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it would say, example for Filipino Americans, I'm saying, based
12:14
on the scholarship, that it has profound meanings for Filipino
12:18
Filipino Americans. And so they went to Seafood City. We
12:22
kind of did observation. Students examined, like what does it
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mean to have a remittance center? Why do foods appear
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in Seafood City but not in a place like Vaughn's.
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And so I think the grant helped facilitate that project.
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Speaker 1: Oh that's wonderful, that's wonderful.
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Speaker 4: So you have anything to add to that, yeah, And
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I think you know, it's important to say. And I
12:48
think Consantio can add to this because we were all
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part of the meeting, But it's important to say that
12:53
we were we as a program. In our research, we
12:56
were already focusing on Las Vegas. We were interested in
12:59
this place. You know, it's a suburban, it's a you know,
13:02
master planned city, metropolitan area, it's heavily suburban.
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Speaker 3: We saw it as this is the future of Asian America.
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Speaker 4: There is a spatial what we describe as a spatial
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component to the Asian American experience. So not all Asian
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American experiences obviously are the same. And part of that
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is because we live in different kinds of places, right,
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Some live in cities, some live in Chinatown, some live
13:24
in suburbs. So that shapes I think Asian American identities
13:29
and experiences. And we were already interested in that, and
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the Melon Foundation reached out to us, and so they
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sent us an email to say, Hey, we're really interested
13:37
in what you're doing at UNLB. Would you like to
13:39
have a meeting to talk about a potential funding opportunity,
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And so that's how we.
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Speaker 3: We got funded.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, so we were already thinking, yeah, Las Vegas and
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these these spaces in these ways, that's awesome.
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Speaker 1: So who these classes. Are they like maybe a mixture
13:55
of races or are there other people? Are they just
13:59
purely Asian Americans.
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Speaker 2: Or primarily Asian Americans? Primarily we have some Latino African
14:06
American I see, Okay students.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, So you mentioned a little bit about the activities,
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so I think you have a lot more, right, take up.
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Speaker 4: The whole show I'm interested in. Yeah, I mean I
14:24
could get you know, if you'd like, I can give
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you just a quick bullet point of the activities.
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Speaker 1: Okay, Well, go ahead.
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Speaker 4: So what we got funded for a narrative podcast series,
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so podcasters where there Each episode is sort of a
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documentary and it focuses on APIs in Las Vegas.
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Speaker 3: We have episode for example.
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Speaker 4: On historia and Filipino food culture, right, so just as
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an example, we have one on Chinatown. We have one
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on Polynesians and Native Hawaiians and football, right so sports
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and community.
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Speaker 2: Uh.
14:56
Speaker 4: And so that's one big research activity. We have the courses,
15:01
the curriculum development, internships, mentoring program, and then we also
15:06
do workshops and symposiums that are more that are storytelling based.
15:10
So nice, it's about placemaking, but it's also about documenting
15:14
stories from the perspectives of APIs in Las Vegas.
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Speaker 1: Very good, Very good. So, how does Las Vegas as
15:22
a place shape the Asian American Pacific Islanders as an
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experience with regards to immigration and race, racial violence, sports,
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that sort of thing.
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Speaker 2: I mean, that's a great question question.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's our question. Yeah.
15:41
Speaker 2: So you know, like one of the one of the
15:44
questions I asked students is like, how did we get here? Yeah,
15:48
Like why are Asian Americans and Pacific calendars in a
15:51
place like Vegas in the first place, or the US
15:53
more broadly, And so part of it is labor, right,
15:57
Like Filipinos are in the hot Italian industry, They're in
16:02
the casinos, waitresses, housekeepers, healthcare, healthcare. Filipinos of the largest
16:09
Asian ethnic group in Vegas, and so I think that's
16:14
part of it. Some folks are just relocating from places
16:17
like California to Vegas because it's more affordable. But also,
16:23
like during COVID, there's an episode on another podcast called
16:27
Exit Spring Mountain that you were a part of. I
16:30
think you were the consultant that talked about how Asian
16:35
Americans were confronting everyday violence because of the racist designation
16:40
of the China virus right, and Asian Americans were targeted
16:44
in Vegas, and so yeah, but someone like Pacyao right.
16:51
In my book, I have a chapter on pac Yao
16:55
and me attending one of his Bible studies in Mandalay Bay.
16:58
Michael Jackson won the right. And so in terms of
17:03
sports Filipinos, my research is over ten years of studying
17:07
Pakiao and me coming to Vegas and looking at the
17:10
kinds of fandom that he he creates and why Filipinos
17:16
from the Philippines Filipinos in the US are coming to
17:20
watch him fight. So Vegas is such an interesting place
17:24
because you have folks that live in Vegas, but you
17:27
also have folks that come to Vegas who are Asian
17:30
and or Asian American.
17:32
Speaker 1: That's pretty interesting tidbit about Manny Pacquiao because I didn't
17:36
know that he was into the religious realm. I was
17:40
trying to get him actually to be interviewed on account.
17:43
I think he was helping kids in the Philippines to
17:46
do the computer stuff, but never got to connect with him.
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Speaker 3: So thro read your book. Okay, So.
17:57
Speaker 1: One of the things associated with this study is food, right,
18:01
and we all know that as Asian Americans want to
18:04
eat and food, you know, pretty much kind of defines us.
18:08
And you have a class on food and Asian America.
18:12
Can you tell us about that?
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Speaker 3: Yeah?
18:15
Speaker 2: Do you cook there?
18:16
Speaker 4: I wish I could, It would be a fire hazard.
18:19
I think if I cook, I will bring in food
18:22
from my students. But the class is an upper division
18:26
course in Asian American studies, and you know, we focus
18:29
on the importance of food and the relationship between food
18:33
and Asian America.
18:34
Speaker 3: So it's not just like an Asian American cooking class.
18:37
Speaker 4: It is using food to think about Asian American histories
18:40
and experiences, identity, culture, different cultures, and so you know,
18:46
we focus on like, you know, the one aspect is
18:48
like cultural retention, right, so like food as a way
18:51
to connect to your culture, right.
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Speaker 3: But we also use.
18:55
Speaker 4: Food as an entry point to talk about things like labor, immigration.
19:00
So it opens up these ways for students to explore
19:05
bigger concepts that they may not have encountered before.
19:09
Speaker 3: Right, So like colonialism and imperialism.
19:12
Speaker 4: Some students come in knowing a little bit about that,
19:14
but when they think about it through food, they can
19:16
kind of see, oh wow, this was a very deeply
19:20
ingrained process and thinking about immigration policies and how foods
19:26
even get to the United States.
19:28
Speaker 3: So it's a very dynamic class. And you know, every time.
19:32
Speaker 4: I teach it, each week we focus on a specific
19:35
dish from a specific community. And so week two, right
19:40
off the bat, we talk about adobo and they learned.
19:44
The way the class goes, they learn how to make
19:46
the dish. Again, I don't cook it, but we watch,
19:49
you know, a video clip of someone making it, so
19:52
they learn how to make it. And then we learned
19:54
the history and evolution of a dobo, and then use
19:58
that as a window to talk about, Okay, what is
20:02
this relationship that Filipinos have with their food their food
20:07
and how has their food culture changed and why has
20:10
it changed?
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Speaker 3: And then that pretty much ends up being a full
20:14
three hours all day.
20:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, how about Thai food because I know you're your love.
20:21
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that is week eleven. So the dish there
20:27
is pot Thai. So we talk about pot thai, yes,
20:31
as a popular dish that most if not all my students,
20:35
uh and everyone has had. And then we use that
20:39
again as a way to talk about the Thai community.
20:42
And so in this case we use it to talk
20:44
about restaurant culture, labor and the food or the hands
20:49
that are making the dishes behind in the in the
20:52
back of the kitchen.
20:54
Speaker 3: So these are the ways that I think about food.
20:57
Speaker 1: So knowing the three and background of food the food
21:03
you eat is important. So there's one Filipino organization, Historia,
21:07
who basically I think you mentioned them, and they go
21:12
through that you know, what's the origin of this, what's
21:15
the origin. I was able to go to one of
21:18
their little banquets where they had six chefs and each
21:23
one explained their dish, you know, and that was awesome.
21:26
Do you work with them by any chance? Yeah? Yeah.
21:32
Speaker 2: So before Historia actually took off, I met with the
21:36
CEO and founder of Walbert.
21:39
Speaker 1: Yeah.
21:39
Speaker 2: We have mutual connections because I was a grad student
21:41
of Illinois.
21:42
Speaker 1: I was.
21:45
Speaker 2: His friend's TA. So he reached out to me in
21:49
the beginning before his story took off, like Hey, I'm
21:52
doing this concept of pre colonial Filipino food, and I
21:56
was like, that is fascinating. You know, if you look
21:59
at Filipino restaurants, it's Jolly b It's maybe Max's, there's
22:03
Minila Barbecue. But the concept of pre colonial Filipino food
22:07
was really interesting. And what I appreciate about Estodia is
22:11
that they are telling a story. And so if we
22:13
think about storytelling as a way to think about the
22:17
human condition, what's missing in the story about Filipino food.
22:22
And in many ways, I think they're trying to tell
22:24
a story about not only pre colonial Filipino food, but
22:28
what happened when the Spanish came, what happened when the
22:31
Americans came. And so their food is delicious, and so
22:37
I've had Walbert and his I forgot I think Ramon
22:42
and a couple of others team members come to my
22:44
class to talk about and so I've gone to maybe
22:50
three and the food has always been really good. So yeah,
22:54
we work. I mean, I'm a huge supporter of them,
22:58
and I want them to do well. Hopefully they open
23:01
up brick and mortar.
23:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're hoping that as well. But that's good. I'm
23:07
glad that you're sort of like in touch with them,
23:11
So that's good. Now, there's also another organization which I
23:15
belong to called h f a N which is the
23:18
Healthy Filipino American Nion. Okay, and one of the goals,
23:24
it's a holistic thing you know, and we not only
23:27
focus on exercise, on other things, focusing on the Philippine
23:32
American mental health and all that, but one of the
23:34
things that we focus on is nutritious food, so the
23:41
wellness of Filipino Americans anyway. So is this part of
23:45
the study, like not for the organization in itself, but
23:50
healthy cooking as part of you know, either your study
23:56
or how would you make it more relevant? We're in
23:59
like the people today are into like little diets and
24:02
light stuff. So do you incorporate that in your programs?
24:07
Speaker 3: Yeah?
24:08
Speaker 4: I mean I would, you know, I think we don't
24:11
directly address the healthy eating component.
24:14
Speaker 3: I think and we don't, you know.
24:16
Speaker 4: Directly address diet or nutrition in terms of like today,
24:20
like what you can eat to become healthier.
24:22
Speaker 3: I think what's interesting to me about this though, And.
24:25
Speaker 4: I know that you had them on the show, so
24:26
I was able to kind of listen to the holisticness
24:29
of their their approach, right, And I think what's interesting
24:33
is that you know, it's always it's to me as
24:36
a historian, it's linked to colonialism, and so I'm interested
24:40
in that. I think the insight that I can offer
24:42
and we can offer is I'm interested in how conversations
24:45
about Filipino American health and nutrition are connected to histories
24:50
of colonialism, because you know, when when the US colonized
24:55
the Philippines, they introduced a ton of processed foods and
25:00
kind of got Filipinos hooked on these processes food, can
25:03
can goods, highly processed food. And my question is does
25:09
that have an impact and did that have an impact
25:11
on the Filipino American diet? And I think the answer
25:13
is yes, yes, yes, yes, And so you know, for me,
25:17
it's it's thinking about food, nutrition, diet in relationship to colonialism.
25:22
And also at that same time, you know, American like
25:29
ordinary Americans, really tried to change the Filipino diet.
25:32
Speaker 3: Right, They're like, you're you snack.
25:34
Speaker 4: Too much, you eat too much, you eat too many desserts,
25:37
and so eating healthy is a complicated.
25:41
Speaker 3: I think question for you it certainly is. It certainly is.
25:44
Speaker 1: And basically what we try to teach is that you
25:47
don't have to starve yourself or you don't have to
25:50
say I'm not eating that adoble anymore. It's basically like portions,
25:55
you know, make it a portions, not eat the whole. Yeah, okay,
26:03
all right, so thank you for that. So, doctor Arnaldo,
26:08
your research includes popular popular culture, immigration, race, ethnicity, masculinity,
26:17
and sexuality. That's interesting. Can you tell us about this.
26:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, my book titled Filipino American Sporting Cultures the
26:25
Racial Politics of Play looks at sports as an important
26:32
side of analysis. So sports is often seen as like whimsical,
26:37
like people don't take it seriously in as a serious
26:42
scholarly topic. But I'm arguing that sports is a really
26:46
important way to understand identity formation.
26:48
Speaker 1: Filipinos a lot of basketball, right, why is that not?
26:51
Speaker 2: So my question is again thinking about colonialism, is the
26:57
Americans introduced institutionalized sports in the Philippines. That's why the
27:02
PBA is the second oldest professional basketball league in the world.
27:08
And so these are enduring questions about the afterlife of
27:11
colonialism in the Philippines and how sports was taken up
27:14
by Filipino Americans. But sports is not you know, when
27:20
people think about sports, it's like, okay, it's just about merit.
27:24
But sports is also exclusionary. At times. It can be
27:28
really homophobic and reproduce racist understandings of let's say African Americans.
27:34
It can be really sexist. And so these are the
27:38
questions I have that I write about in my book,
27:42
and that I'm interested because this is my way of
27:46
contributing to understanding the long legacy of colonialism in the
27:51
Philippines is through sports. Sports is also a side of
27:56
possibility to challenge, let's say, how Asian and Asian American
28:01
have been viewed as emasculated, or to perhaps challenge out
28:05
Filipina and Asian American women have been seen as objects
28:11
and hyper sexualized. In one of my chapters, I talk
28:14
about how they play flag football and how these women
28:17
are dominant against white women. And so I hold intention
28:22
the contradictions of sports as a side of possibility and
28:26
contradiction that reflects these identity categories like race and class
28:35
and gender and sexuality. So someone like Pachyo, for example,
28:40
he's obviously super masculine, he's muscular, and in that process
28:45
he's challenging how Asian men have been seen as not
28:49
masculine enough. But at the same time, his symbolism is
28:54
also very contradictory because it reproduces particular exclusions based on
28:59
race and sexuality.
29:02
Speaker 1: Wow, what do you think about that? From a Thai
29:06
American perspective.
29:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I don't. I think from a Thai
29:11
American perspective.
29:12
Speaker 4: One of the things that I uh, one of the
29:15
many things that I love about Constantio's work and his
29:18
thinking and his book, and I think his book is
29:20
a beautiful reflection of this is we take seriously the
29:24
things that society and scholars even don't take seriously. Right
29:29
because even you mentioned like, why wouldn't they focus on sport,
29:32
it's such a huge because they think it's trivial, right.
29:35
They see things like food as like this is not
29:37
a serious academic topic. Where's the policy, where's the big
29:43
you know about economic systems, and this is our way
29:47
to show that those structures and systems come down to
29:51
everyday life and actually.
29:53
Speaker 3: Have an impact on people, right.
29:55
Speaker 4: And so I think that's what Constantio does so well,
29:59
and it again is beautiful reflection of what we want
30:02
to do and what we're trying to do with the program.
30:05
And for Thai Americans, I think it's we have a
30:07
similar approach. Food became the thing. Food is the thing
30:11
that stands in for Thai people in the United States.
30:14
Most people know about Thai people because of Thai food,
30:16
correct and so for some for other scholars in the
30:20
field to say, well, that's not important.
30:22
Speaker 3: Like type they only know about us, because how can
30:25
you say that that's not important? So yeah, I think
30:28
that that's that's my response.
30:30
Speaker 1: Wow wow, okay.
30:33
Speaker 2: So what's the title of your book Filipino American Sporting
30:36
Cultures The Racial Politics of Play. It's with NYU Press.
30:40
Speaker 1: Okay, and you have a book as well?
30:43
Speaker 4: Yes, actually, yeah, my book which was published in twenty
30:49
seventeen University of California Press called Flavors of Empires Food
30:53
in the Making of Thai America.
30:55
Speaker 1: Oh okay, so y'all you can avail yourselves of these bookstart. Yeah,
31:04
So there is a segment in Is there a segment
31:08
in the studies in your grant that talks about healthcare
31:14
and healthcare professionals in Las Vegas?
31:19
Speaker 4: There is, you know, as Constantio mentioned, we were trying
31:23
to build on the episode in Exit Spring Mountain that
31:26
focused on Filipino healthcare workers. But in my class on
31:28
Asian Americans in Las Vegas, that's where it's most relevant.
31:32
I do a whole lecture class session on Filipino healthcare workers,
31:37
the history of Filipino nurses.
31:39
Speaker 3: To the United States and temporary migration.
31:42
Speaker 4: And so my approach to Filipino nurses is to think
31:45
about it historically where they're being trained, also the Philippines
31:49
exporting nurses to the United States.
31:53
Speaker 3: But I also want my students to think about what
31:57
it means.
31:57
Speaker 4: To come here and care do care work in the
32:01
United States, but still be a temporary migrant, right and
32:06
you have to think about all these pathways for visas,
32:09
and you're caring for the survival of so many US
32:12
citizens and people who live here. And so that's the
32:15
interesting part for me is how Filipino healthcare workers are
32:20
such a major part of the United States, of the diaspora,
32:23
but also of the United States. But they're also caught
32:27
in this kind of like we're not fully citizens or
32:30
just imported labor.
32:32
Speaker 3: But that's how I approach it in my classroom.
32:35
Speaker 1: Oh that's good, that's good.
32:36
Speaker 2: And I think for me, my mom is a retired nurse.
32:42
And it wasn't until I took my first ever Asian
32:45
American Studies class that talked about why Philipino, Why have
32:49
there's so many Filipino nurses in the US. And I
32:53
read this wonderful book. It's still relevant today called empire
32:56
of care, like Catherine Sen needs a choice. And so
32:59
when my class as I do talk about the labor
33:02
of care and that my mom is now a retired
33:05
nurse and she provided the care work for hundreds of patients,
33:09
and that during COVID, Filipino nurses were the highest percentage
33:16
to dive from COVID, correct, but constituted the smallest percentage
33:21
of nurses. And so that was really alarming and disturbing
33:26
and maybe angry and frustrated that in many ways they
33:32
provide this care work for labor and yet their their
33:36
labor is invisible and easily disposable.
33:39
Speaker 1: Nice right, right, there is a there is a movie.
33:44
Well it's a it's called Nurse and yes, and we're
33:48
trying to bring that back because I think UNLB had
33:52
a screening on it, but there wasn't a lot of people.
33:54
So we're trying to get that back. And it basically
33:57
you are correct because if you go to any hospital
34:02
or any facility, health care facility, you see mostly all
34:06
Filipinos or Asian Americans, whatever.
34:10
Speaker 3: But.
34:12
Speaker 1: They had the highest rate of deaths in COVID. And
34:16
you know why that is because most of these people
34:19
volunteered to go to or work in the ICUs in
34:23
the intensive care units, and that's where they placed all
34:26
of the front lines of the COVID. So but they
34:29
were never really recognized properly, right.
34:31
Speaker 2: And let me just correct it was Empire of care,
34:34
not labor of care empire. Yeah, I mean, I appreciate
34:38
that question so much because it's it hits deep for me.
34:41
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, And if you look at me, you know
34:44
I came here years and years ago, went in Florida.
34:47
I had one hundred dollars in my pocket and my
34:51
nursing uniforms and a one year contract with a hospital.
34:55
So there it is. Anyways, okay, so oh so far.
35:01
What kind of stories have you heard from Asian Americans
35:04
here in your like anything relevant or anything that really
35:09
sticks out there.
35:12
Speaker 2: I mean I mentioned it earlier, but during COVID it
35:15
was affecting Asian American communities students. Some of my own
35:20
students were targeted. We share students. Some were just scared.
35:27
But also, like I think what's really great about the
35:32
grant is that there's an event called my Own Story.
35:35
I think you mentioned it earlier, and it's a way
35:37
for them to perform in public for the first time
35:42
the story about what it means to be Asian American.
35:45
And so you get a diverse cast of folks that
35:52
tell the story about either moving to Vegas or being
35:54
born and raised in Vegas and talk about what it
35:59
meant for them to live in a place like Vegas,
36:01
which is the entertainment capital of the world that doesn't
36:04
necessarily get recognized as a site of Asian America. So
36:09
that's been one of the really great things to come
36:12
out of the ground among the many others, because you
36:14
hear stories about their lived experiences.
36:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think even though the stories are so
36:22
different depending on the kind of population and community they
36:26
come from.
36:28
Speaker 3: You know. One of the things that has.
36:29
Speaker 4: Also been great to see is the students and our
36:34
colleagues actually thinking about Las Vegas and kind of embracing
36:38
it as home or trying to think about it more
36:42
as you know, not just like oh I hate it here,
36:44
I want to leave, like this is like a city
36:47
that's not like any it's not even a real place.
36:50
But they're actually starting to reflect on wait a minute,
36:53
I think our experiences here are important as part of
36:57
the Asian American experience, and they want to for that.
37:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, that matters.
37:02
Speaker 1: That really matters, because every time I have like not
37:06
relative even friends that come here or maybe some acquaintances
37:10
and said, so do you go to the casino every
37:13
day to get And I'm like, no, there's actually a
37:17
life outside of the trip.
37:20
Speaker 2: Do you avoid the strip pretty much too?
37:23
Speaker 3: I do.
37:23
Speaker 1: I don't want to lose my money. Too hard for it,
37:27
It don't work hard for it. Okay, very good. So
37:30
for you and your team, what is the most important
37:34
and significant part of your data gathering?
37:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's the I can speak to the podcast.
37:43
Speaker 4: It as one aspect of this that I think is
37:46
has been really important because you know, that's where we
37:49
do a lot of the interviews, and they're not traditionally
37:53
like we're trained to do oral history interviews and that
37:56
that has a whole set of professional like protocol and
38:00
ethics behind it, and of course obviously we're being ethical
38:03
when we do these interviews for the podcast. So you
38:05
have a.
38:06
Speaker 1: Podcast associated with the Grand Yes, oh, yes, okay, and
38:09
so for that series we interview and try to interview.
38:12
Speaker 4: So like for the episode on Historia, you know, we
38:15
interview Monica and one of our former students who is
38:19
now working at Astoria Eva Cardinho. So we interviewed her
38:24
and her experiences growing up in her relationship to Filipino
38:28
food in Las Vegas. And I think that as a
38:31
form of data collection that is very collaborative right.
38:35
Speaker 3: Where our interviews are.
38:39
Speaker 4: Are yet they document the experience, but it's also very
38:43
collaborative in nature.
38:44
Speaker 3: Okay, that's good.
38:47
Speaker 1: Okay, So I know you said the grand duel and
38:50
on the twenty twenty six at the end of the year. Okay,
38:54
so are you going to be publishing the results.
38:59
Speaker 4: Of what are And that's the plan. The plan is
39:02
to have you know, five episodes of the podcast. Each
39:07
of them will be about forty five minutes, and we
39:11
plan to host them on a multi media website where
39:16
you can listen to an episode but also see suggested readings,
39:20
maybe some archival images, and so that's how we want
39:23
to make it accessible to.
39:25
Speaker 1: Everything, accessible to everyone. Well, that's good, that's good. So
39:29
what is your message to the Asian American community regarding
39:33
the study and participating in actually telling their stories once
39:38
to go?
39:39
Speaker 2: I mean, our stories are our stories matter? Yeah? Sure,
39:46
And for so long we've been seen as quiet as
39:49
this model minority. We don't make a ruckus. But I
39:53
think our stories are important to understand again the human condition,
39:58
and that our story have been rendered invisible to dominant
40:05
understandings of who Asian Americans are. And so it's important
40:08
to tell these stories because we're not a monolith or
40:11
hter geneous. We're diverse, we have different experiences, and a
40:15
place like Vegas is such a critical site to understand
40:20
Asian America beyond the East coast, West coast, the south right,
40:25
we have a particular experience in Vegas, and I think
40:29
it's really important for people to understand.
40:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, and yeah, I would just you know, add to that.
40:35
That was wonderfully said.
40:37
Speaker 4: I think anyone who is interested in kind of Asian
40:40
American studies, it's not just about Asian Americans, right, So
40:44
I don't I want people to not just think, oh,
40:46
it's about that group over there, and even if they
40:49
like it, they're like, oh, but it's just about them.
40:51
Speaker 3: This is about all of us.
40:52
Speaker 4: And so if you're interested in popular culture, right, this
40:57
is one way for you to think.
40:58
Speaker 3: About popular culture more broadly. If you're interested in.
41:01
Speaker 4: Urban and suburban design, this is a place for you
41:04
to go through Asian American experiences to think about what
41:07
is this place, Las Vegas, and why is it built
41:09
the way that it's built, Why does it look the
41:11
way that it looks if you're interested in food and
41:15
how food works, right, So all of these so it's
41:19
not just about Asian Americans. And I think the last
41:21
thing I'll say quickly is we have a we're in
41:25
a very important moment that we often can't see because
41:28
we're in it.
41:30
Speaker 3: But Vegas is emerging. It's an emerging place.
41:33
Speaker 4: So we must and have to document our stories told
41:38
by Asian Americans and Pacific Houndards. This is our opportunity
41:42
to not have what happened, you know, in the last
41:45
one hundred and fifty two hundred years, where those stories
41:49
were written for us, and they were written for us
41:51
to exclude us, to leave us out of the story.
41:54
Speaker 3: We do not want to be left out of the
41:55
Las Vegas story.
41:56
Speaker 4: And so it's it's our job, I think, and it's
41:59
an exciting thing to document and tell stories about APIs
42:03
from our perspectives and to leave that legacy behind.
42:07
Speaker 3: And I think that that's really exciting.
42:09
Speaker 1: That is so wonderful. Well, Doctor Mark pattonpat and doctor
42:15
Constantio Arnaldo, thank you so much for coming to the
42:19
podcast today. It's really an honor for.
42:21
Speaker 3: Us for you to be here.
42:24
Speaker 1: And you are doing such a great work in relation
42:27
to Asian American studies, and we do appreciate.
42:32
Speaker 4: What you do.
42:32
Speaker 1: So we cannot wait for the outcome of your study,
42:37
I guess so we have to we have to have
42:40
you back, right, Yeah, we'd love to, yes, yes, good, good, good.
42:43
And we also have to thank the u n LB
42:46
uh U n LB for having Asian American studies, you know,
42:50
in their curriculum offerings, So thank you for that. My
42:57
daughter graduated from you and Elie yes, okay, And to
43:02
our listeners, we leave you with this. Asian American studies
43:07
emerged in the late nineteen sixties as a response to
43:10
the civil rights movement and the call for a more
43:13
inclusive curriculum in higher education. So the field deepens the
43:18
understanding of the Asian American history and its relevance to
43:22
contemporary issues and facing these communities, while also encouraging the
43:28
solidarity among marginalized groups. Through the study of Asian American experiences,
43:34
students develop critical thinking, collaboration, public speaking skills, and more importantly,
43:42
Asian American studies plays a vital role in promoting social justice,
43:48
fostering inclusivity, and cultivating an appreciation for the rich and
43:53
diverse narratives within the Asian and Asian American cultures, and
43:58
ultimately it helps shape a more informed, emphatic, and socially
44:03
conscious citizenry. So thank you so much for joining us today.
44:07
Please be safe and be well until next time. This
44:10
is Doris Bauer. You're Filippin Ar's host, signing off for now.
44:56
Just like a friend from back home, this is your
45:00
Filipino radio experience in Las Vegas p h l V
45:05
Radio a sh