A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about some awards I received from the Association for Asian American Studies. I couldn’t thank everyone I wanted to but here’s a list of folks who stood behind my nomination. And I want to thank you all here:

Michael J. Viola, Associate Professor of Justice, Community, & Leadership, Saint Mary’s College of California 

Faith R. Kares, Associate Director, Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago

Ethel Tungohan, Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism and Assistant Professor, York University, Toronto, Ontario

Joy Sales, Postdoctoral Fellow in Immigration, Cultures, and Law, Washington University in St. Louis

Conely de Leon, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 

Tracy Lachica Buenavista, Professor, Asian American Studies, California State University, Northridge

Lorenzo Perillo, Assistant Professor, Global Asian Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

Armand Gutierrez, Doctoral Candidate, Sociology, University of California San Diego 

Melissa-Ann Nievera-Lozano, Faculty, Evergreen Valley College

Marcy Quiason, Ph.D. Candidate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Kansas  

Pahole Sookkasikon, Ph.D., American Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 

Josen Masangkay Diaz, Assistant Professor, University of San Diego

Nerissa S. Balce, Associate Professor, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Alma M.O. Trinidad, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Portland State University

Paulina Abustan, Doctoral Candidate, WSU Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education; Instructor, WSU Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Washington State University (WSU)

Katherine Achacoso, Doctoral Student, American Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 

Katherine Nasol, Doctoral Student, Cultural Studies, University of California, Davis

Russell Jeung, Chair, Asian American Studies, San Francisco State University

Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, Professor and Chair, Asian American Studies, UC Davis and Founding Director, Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies

Catherine Ceniza Choy, Professor of Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley

Paul Michael Leonardoa Atienza, Doctoral Candidate in Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Trung PQ Nguyen, Doctoral Candidate in History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz

Faye Caronan, Associate Professor and Chair, Ethnic Studies Department, University of Colorado, Denver

Ray San Diego, Visiting Assistant Professor, Asian American Studies Program, Northwestern University 

Edward R. Curammeng, Assistant Professor, College of Education, California State University, Dominguez Hills

Jonathan Magat, PhD Candidate, Department of Performance Studies, Northwestern University

Sherwin Mendoza, Faculty in English and Intercultural Studies, De Anza College

Amanda Solomon Amorao, PhD, Assistant Teaching Professor and Director, Dimensions of Culture Program, UC San Diego

Jewel Pereyra, PhD Student, American Studies, Harvard University

MT Vallarta, PhD Candidate, Ethnic Studies, University of California, Riverside

Emmanuel David, Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Sarita Echavez See, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, U of California Riverside

Dale Dagar Maglalang, PhD Candidate, Social Work, Boston College

Jan M. Padios, Associate Professor of American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park

Stefanie J. Lira, Ph.D. Candidate, History, University of California, Irvine 

Sarah Raymundo, Assistant Professor and Director, Center for International Studies University of the Philippines-Diliman 

James Zarsadiaz, Assistant Professor of History & Director of the Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program, University of San Francisco

Ruth Silver Taube, Adjunct Professor, Santa Clara University School of Law; Supervising Attorney, Workers’ Rights, Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, Santa Clara University School of Law

Christian Aniciete, Social Media Manager, Corporate Communications; Founding Chair, Asian and Pacific Islander Employee Resource Group, Port of Portland

Dawn Lee Tu, PhD, Faculty Director, Faculty Professional Development, De Anza College and Faculty in Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Studies, San Jose State University

Anthony Ocampo, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Cal Poly Pomona

Vanessa Banta, PhD Candidate, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia 

Fatima Chrifi Alaoui, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, San Francisco State University

Thomas X. Sarmiento, Assistant Professor of English, Kansas State University 

Karen Buenavista Hanna, Assistant Professor, Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality Studies, Connecticut College 

Jennifer L. Sta.Ana, Esq., Vice-President, Filipino Bar Association of Northern California

My acceptance speeches are below–as my daughter, Aya, would say, “Please like and subscribe!”

Ethel Tungohan and I wrote an article on PAR and building migrant worker power and it is out now in the link below and downloads are free until the end of April! Our article “Mula Sa Masa, Tungo Sa Masa, From the People, To the People: Building Migrant Worker Power through Participatory Action Research” would be great to assign to an Intro to Methods class or a grad seminar on Participatory Action Research!

https://journals.tplondon.com/index.php/ml/issue/view/81

With my Filipina-Canadian collaborator, kasama-mama, sister in the struggle, Ethel Tungohan at York University, we wrote across borders, across the Filipina diaspora, to reflect on how PAR has operated in our organizing work with migrant workers in Alberta and San Francisco/Bay Area. As Ethel gestated and took home her second newborn, we wrote and edited and Zoom’ed and talked about how important this work is and how crucial that we were getting to reflect on it!

Ethel and I are sandwiched with 2 brilliant scholars: Eileen Boris and Conely De Leon

PAR is an acronym for Participatory Action Research–many scholars have explained it in great detail and in far more eloquent terms, but for me, PAR is a method of conducting social investigation that prioritizes the participation and action for change that matters for people normally “studied” as objects in sociological research.

PAR has been one of the research methodologies that I’ve been able to wield so I can craft projects that align with people’s organizations for social justice, towards the general rights and welfare of Filipino migrants and that contributes to the types of movement-building strategies that is needed in this world right now.

In Filipino, kapwa refers to a cultural value of a collective well-being or togetherness in which Filipinos construct their selfhood, families and communities. In my work with conducting research about Filipino American lives with Filipino American undergraduate students at San Francisco State University, kapwa has been a driving force in uncovering Filipino immigrant and Fil-Am stories as intellectual resources towards producing knowledge.

Together with Jessa delos Reyes, Tiff Mendoza, Katrina Liwanag, Stephanie Ancheta, Jeannel Poyaoan, my experience of building kapwa with undergraduate students is an ongoing experience of democratizing the research process. These folks helped to recruit staff members working in community-based orgs in San Francisco serving Filipino community members. We all interviewed staff members, transcribed and analyzed their narratives. And we came up with different products!

As a group, my team and I were able to write one co-authored academic publication, “Claiming Kapwa: Filipino Immigrants, Community Based Organizations and Community Citizenship in San Francisco” in New Political Science. My collaborators assisted in proofreading a needs assessment I wrote for the city of San Francisco’s Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs entitled, “Speaking Up, Speaking Out: Filipino Language Access in San Francisco.”

A few weeks ago, Filipino organizations in San Francisco, community workers and city advocates including Supervisor Matt Haney and Sandra Fewer came together for the release of a report about the lack of language access Filipinos have to basic services in the city of San Francisco. In the report, I argue that if Filipinos in San Francisco do not receive information, applications and materials in language (which the city is mandated by under the Language Access Ordinance), they are not only excluded from the basic services they need, they are also excluded from the political life of San Francisco.

The truth of the matter is San Francisco has been a geography of Filipino American and Filipino immigrant life for well over a century. And its about time that Filipinos are seen as part of San Francisco, especially through language access. When students, community members and academics collaborate, we demonstrate that immigrants, the folks that work tirelessly to serve them, the young people that come from those families, those neighborhoods belong in San Francisco.

The basis for organizing Filipino caregivers in the US is so astoundingly apparent. Stories about caregivers being overworked and underpaid are commonplace in Filipino communities. Many family members, community organizers, even popular films, understand that even if care homes are ways to get work, people gamble with the work being hard and the pay might not come through.

A recent LA Times article called, “An 87-hour work week for $4” recounts the horrible abuses Filipino caregivers and the victory that 66 workers achieved in their $1.1 million settlement. The protracted struggle of a 3 year legal battle has and was backed with supportive officials in the CA Department of Labor, who have issued rightful citations to wrongful carehome owners.

Still, this group of workers are often isolated. Working in care homes owned and visited frequently by the owners. Where camaraderie with one another is often facilitated by owners in the veil of benevolence. Where contact with one another is limited to the shift your on. Where families in the Philippines are quite dependent on whatever wages one makes.

Yet, the workers are in need of collective power. The CA DoL is apparently paying attention. And if the crisis of elder care in this country is not resolved (it won’t be in the next few years), this group of workers will be come essential to caring for your/our loved ones in their golden years. The need is obvious.