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Oh, sorry! Formerly Gregoria Dumlao. I was Gregoria Baty. Now I’m Gregoria Smith. Okay, so um, this is Caroline Zhu.

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This is Mini Bhattacharya. Uh, we’re interviewing, uh, Miss Gregoria Smith for, um, Houston Asian American Archive, which is a research project by Rice University, Chao Center for Asian Studies.

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And, um, this interview will be recorded and will be accessible to the public. And today is June 9, 2014, and we’re currently in Room 204 of Fondren Library. Time? 1:30 PM.

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Oh. Okay, yeah okay, I’ll take that. Um, 1:54 PM. Okay, we were—we were running late, okay. Okay, so just to start off, um, can you tell us a little bit about where you’re from and

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what it was like growing up there? Oh, okay. I … was born in the Philippines, it’s the suburb of Manila, just about a year after Manila was bombed.

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In 1941. Um, I was about a year old, and Manila was torn up. That’s— that’s the kind of place I grew up in.

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But I don’t remember anything about the Second World War. I heard a lot of stories about it and all I know is that when I was young, I would get really traumatized by fire.

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Um, then I late—later I found out that when I was not yet speaking, there was a lot of—well, it was war. And, uh, the river where I grew up around was on fire

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because the Americans put gasoline in there, on the river, and put it on fire so that the Japanese can’t cross. Or can’t hide. So we were in the middle of that, and the community I grew up in

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was … just–it was just a small town then. And then it grew up over the years. It became a bustling city just like—you

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know, I’ve been to Bombay, not as much as Bombay, but just like—just like any other, uh, city. Um, people came from the Nor—from all over … Phil—all over the Philippines to see, uh, because it’s a city, and there was rebuilding going on.

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So, um , my father was a ser—sergeant at the United States Air Force of the Far East. USAFFE, they call it. I never met him, but I heard stories about him.

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He was a basketball player. He was a sergeant there. And I had one picture that I carried with me, you know, in my wallet, until I was in high school, until it disintegrated.

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We didn’t have— we didn’t have these cameras then that you could take pictures of. But anyway, uh, I have no recollection about who he was, what he was. But I knew who he was.

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And when I was a little older, about maybe, grade school, my father’s sister took me to the cemetery where all the soldiers who died in the—they call it

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Pacific Theater. It’s this big monument. Soldiers who died in the Pacific Theater. And she said, “That’s your dad.

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His name is Jose .” And I said “Okay.” So she held me—she held me ‘cause it was way up there. It’s a—it was a—a, uh, monument with—this was 19 maybe 45, 46.

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I was born in 1941, right? And, so, she took me up there, held me up there, where his name was written in marble. It’s—it’s—it's an awesome, uh, cemetery.

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It’s like—it’s like the Arlington Cemetery, but it’s for, uh, those who were lost in the Second World War. So, my father’s name was . I put—I had my hand, I touch his—it was a very

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momentous moment for me. I touch his name, you know, the thing there. Inscriptions. In stone. But that was my only exposure to him.

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That was—that was it. So … my mother was a young mother. And … it was war. So she apparently was going

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into another—another town, about 3 hours away. And she met—she met a man there, and she started her own life there. In the meantime, I was growing up with my aunt who loved me

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and her husband, who kind of like … took care of me. In—in the Philippine context, your—your family—you take care of your family. So I was—I was this little girl and—and, uh, I became like

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their first child. They were a young couple. You know, so, she was a teacher, and her husband worked in the depot. So as it turned out, when I was five, she was taking me to school, because she was

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a teacher. She—I didn’t have a babysitter. A babysitter. So—so I would like, sit down there, you know, nap in the afternoon, the desk, whatever. And, when the school year was over—about

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to be over, there was a movement to give test to everyone because there was no schooling during the war. There were like, four years or so, or five, where kids didn’t go to school because there

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was war. And so, there was—there I was, five years old. My classmates were 12 years old, 14 years old, and it was a mixed, mixed group of—of kids. And so whatever they learn, I learn, you

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know. So, at the end of the year, everybody took a test. You know, reading, writing, whatever. And I passed. So, my—my aunt—I passed with all the 18 year olds.

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And so my aunt says, “Well, you know, go to third grade.” So when I was six years old, I was in third grade. And, in the Philippines, there’re only six elementary grades. And then there’s four high school.

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So you only went to school 10 years. And then you can go to college. So I grew up in that community, and my family started to come in. I had lots of aunts.

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It was like an extended family, as I’m sure you know about, you know. And—and there were uncles and there were nice . I knew who my mother was, because my mother would come. And I would learn that she had got married, and—and—but she would come on—you

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know, like three times a year. And then when it’s vacation, I would go to her house, to her farm. She was— she—she married a farmer. But at—okay.

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So anyway, there was this choice. Do I go with her or do I stay in the city? And the family ruled over her, over the decision that,

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uh, because the schools are good there, that I should stay there. So, there I stayed. I graduated high school when I was 10. Something like that. No wait,

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five—five, let’s see, maybe eleven. A little bit more than 10. Okay, so I—I—I—I—I graduated elementary school when I was 10. That’s about right. And then, when I was 14, going

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on 15, I graduated from high school, and then I didn’t have any money to go to college. I mean—I—I didn’t have, uh, people to send me to college. But I had a godmo—godmother, who said, uh—whose daughter was—was a

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professor at the teacher—teachers’ college. The Americans came and—in the 1920s—and they established, uh, public universities, public hospitals. Uh, they were teaching us democracy.

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Right? So, uh, there was a teacher training college, but you have to pass the test. It’s not everybody can go there. So I sat for the test and—I was

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14. So I—you know, whatever it was that they were asking us, I passed it. And I was in college from 14 to 16, and I passed at 16. I—I passed a two-

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year college. You—it was—I was one of the last people who—who passed the two-year teacher training. Two-year teaching—teacher training class. So I was kinda like still wanting to play as a

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child, you know, but then I could—I can go earn money! I can go to a village. So I went with my mom, again another test, you know. And I passed. Apparently—apparently, I topped the test.

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It was a good school. It was a good school, teacher training, so it was—I was with the Americans. And the teach—professors are Americans, and our textbooks were Americans, so our psychology was American psychology.

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Worst in psychology, but the professors were sure to tell us, “Well, you know what, this—this—this principles of education are from those people. Just—just be sure you know the difference.” So okay… I graduated when I was 16.

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What to do? So I went with her, and—and she … she knew some principals. Uh, so I—she—she was—I’ll show you her picture. She—she was a—a small-town

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politician. She had the gift of gab. She—she wanted to help people. That’s my mom, and this is the attorney that she was that they were—they would debate.

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She would debate with him. And she was a politician. Small-town. And I was awed by her, watching her speak in public. And so, what I did

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there was I taught. I taught first grade. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was trained to teach! To teach whatever. And I thought, “Oh, okay.” Before that, I taught in a training department, and

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so I decided I knew what to do. Then when I was 18, I thought, “Hmm, I need to go get my B. A.” So I went to University of the Philippines, just to kind of, uh—University of the Philippines is the

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best university, as I’m sure, if you have heard about universities in the Philippines—it’s—it’s the best. But, you—you have to be either valedictorian or salutatorian in your high school.

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There’re many high schools. We have a very good education system. So, I was there and the way I sent myself to school was I was a member of the gymnastic team. And—and I was a folk dancer.

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So, it was fun! It was fun. And then I started to, you know, what am I gonna do for major now? It’s a bachelor’s here. Okay, health and wellness and, uh, what else? Okay. Uh, so I take—I was in the Health Physical

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Education Recreation department. And when I was almost graduating, my friend from school of music, we were walking. I like him. We were in the church choir.

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We were in the church choir. He was leader of the church choir. Uh, we were walking towards the library. Huge library. “You know there’s an opening in Guam for a ballet teacher.” I—I

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just opened a small ballet studio. All it is is my friend’s house in the second floor. And I put some water pipes, and I taught ballet. And so, he says, “You—you—you can go

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teach ballet in Guam.” What? I thought like. I thought you liked me. Why are you sending me away, right? He says, “It’s–it’s an opening.

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If you’re interested, you go see and see so-and-so in this address,” right? So I went—I went to Manila. As it turned out, this woman … was the first cousin of Imelda Marcos.

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If you know who she is, she’s—she was the wife of the dictator. She—they turned out to be dictator, uh, you know. Our president, Marcos, Ferdinand Marcos had a beautiful wife named Imelda, and she was known for her

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extravagant tastes. Beautiful woman. And, the woman who I was talking with was the first cousin, Romualdez , from the—from the south. So, I told her I was and she says, “Well how soon can you

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leave?” Guam is another island. Guam, as you know is a United States territory. Okay, so I may be, uh, on this curve, on one of the—uh, an outlier for your—for your

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survey because my entry to the United States was through Guam. And I entered by being hired as a teacher to

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the Guam Academy of Music and Arts. So, she says, “How soon can you leave?” “Okay.” “Can you leave in 15 days? I’ll give you a visa and all.” Just like that.

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And at the time, my mother had just died. She died of cancer. I thought, there was an emptiness in my heart, and although I love my family, my friends, and I had a job.

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I was teaching—what I did, was in order to go school, I went to a couple houses. There are people who hire tutors. So I was tutor to one house on my way to school, and then, when I—when I would go

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home, I would go to another house. And to tell you the truth, I made more money … teaching international, uh, students. There were—there were just two boys.

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Uh, the other one was brother, sister also. Two boys and brother, sister. And I made more money tutoring these kids than I would if I was a public school teacher working eight hours a day.

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So, it’s really nice. I sent myself to school there. Then I—and then was on my way to Guam, and …. Okay. I had no idea

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what that was going to be. All I knew is that it was an opportunity. I—I was an adventurer. It was an adventure, you know?

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Uh, so I took leave of absence from the government, and I said, “Well if it works ….” You know, I’m pragmatic. If it works, I’ll stay there.

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If it doesn’t, I’ll come back, right? What do I lose? So, my gosh! I’ve never been away! Oh my god! But I was excited! So on the airplane, I looked at Manila.

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It was this beautiful city, my first time to see it on the air. And there’s the river where I grew up, and—and I just started to cry because I was leaving everyone.

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I was leaving everything. So then, person sitting by me said, “Oh! Your first time?” “Yes.” “What’s your name?” And I said, “I’m Gregoria

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Dumlao.” She says, “Dumlao? Is that your last name? I’m Dumlao!” She goes like that. Um, “I’m a Dumlao! I’ve been in Guam for many years, and you can come and see me there!” Talk about synchronicity or

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whatever. Uh, it was like—she was like an angel, you know? If you—if you know what some of us believe. I’m a Christian. I’m a—I grew up Catholic. So, uh, she says, “I’m—” I mean, so right away,

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there was a friend on the plane! So there I worked, and I worked there at the school for 11–11 months. And I met somebody there, and, uh, we got married, and we traveled, and he was a profess—he was a teacher.

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And, um, I came back to Guam, and I didn’t have anything to do. So I—oh this is interesting, too. I don’t know. I don’t want to go into detail. But, they needed a teacher to teach

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dance. And—and this person who I was with at a party said, “Oh we need a teacher. Oh, you’re hired!” Right? Just like that. “Okay, come work on Monday.

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But first you have to write—I mean, you have to do the paperwork. At the central office.” So I went central office. And this man said ….

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Okay, just to give you an examp—a—a—a background, Guam is an American territory, but there are natives there. Just like there are native Houstonians, right? And, uh, they make rules

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so that Filipinos cannot overwhelm them. As a number. ‘Cause they’re there already. They were—they were there who built. There were engineers and doctors and laborers, all kinds of

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Filipinos there al—already. So, it was interesting. she said. Before I married, before I met this man—American, from Iowa. He was a history teacher.

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Before I married him, the Filipino who hired me, my boss said, “Oh, don’t go out with an American.” I said, “Why?

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What’s wrong with them?” You know? She goes “Oh because if you did—if you did, no Filipino will ever touch you again.” I go, “Really?” So, he says, “If you keep on going with this man, you better marry him!” ‘Cause in the Philippines, you don’t date.

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You don’t date. Your parents, you know, decide, and then you go—you can’t go around like they do here. So anyway, I married and we traveled, and going back to the job that I was supposed to be hired

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in the public school, it was a good opportunity also. So the man at the central office says, “Oh! You’re qualified, There’s no problem. But there’s only one … rule that we have to follow.”

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He says, uh, “We can’t hire Filipinos—non- U. S. citizens in, uh, public job.” Oh, really? You’d rather have those kids running around than hire me? You’d rather have them not have a teacher?

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‘Cause there was nobody to teach them. Somebody got pregnant or something, leave. They had to leave. So, he says, “Yeah, we can’t

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hire you. That’s the rule.” So talking, talking and he said—he said, “The only —the only place you can get—you can hired as a non-U. S. citizen”—I had a green card, so non U. S. citizen—“is the University—the—the College of Guam.”

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Bing! Ding! You know, so I went to the College of Guam. I went to College of Guam, and they said “Oh! It just happens that

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somebody has duty. Somebody was taking a leave of absence and da-da-da, and we will need somebody.” So I was there until the end of the school year. And at the end of the school year, people liked me, so—so I

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became a faculty member of the College of Guam. At the time, it was the College of Guam. There were only 45 of us. Now there’s like 250.

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It’s the University of Guam now. So, largest American University in the Western Pacific. And I worked there for 25 years.

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And, during that time, I lived—four of those times, I lived in New York. I love New York. I went to New York University and I finished a couple of degrees there. One in community psychology and the other one is anthropology of dance.

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I was on sabbatical leave when I did those. So essentially, I was just studying. But, as it turned out, I could also qualify for a—a degree.

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But I had to go back. So, I did my first study on Philippine dance. So if you google, you can find my—my thesis on Philippine symbolic system based on the Tinikling.

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So in—in essence, I—I am a dance scholar. I write about dances and so on and so forth. So, um, that was how I lived life.

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After the war, my—my—my folks built a house with a stairs open in the bottom. And that was my cousin. That was their first child.

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So we grew up like brother and sister. And—and as a Catholic, um, in May, they choose little girls to do the procession and to signify, uh, Virgin Mary, and it’s very important.

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It’s the only Catholic nation in Southeast Asia. So, that’s …. So 25 years in Guam, and … I became very active in the women’s movement.

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My first … how did I come—I saw in your question—how did I come to Houston? My first en—my first encounter with Houston was when I was Chair of Commission on Status of

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Women in Guam. I was appointed by the government—governor of Guam as the Chair of the Commission on Status. It was the International Women’s Year. He sent me to Mexico as a

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representative of Guam there, and then I met a lot of people. I met Allende . I met—I met a lot of good people. I met the U. S. women leaders who are now—uh, Coretta Scott

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King and all those people. Uh, I was really … inspired. I was inspired by the women’s movement. And so when I came back he assigned—he assigned me Commission on Status of Women.

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And, uh, the project was to hold a big conference, where we will choose 8 people to represent us to the United States International Women’s Year, IWY, Conference. The first ever conference in

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Houston. That’s how I got here first. Uh, there were 8 people who—8 fa—famous women there. Uh, the native women—the native people are called Chamorros,

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uh, like Houstonians, Chamorros. And they have their own language. But, we have a lot in common. So—but they— they see themselves as separate people, separate language.

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But we are there, and there’s a superpower over all of us, which is the United States. So we have to make peace with each other. However, there are some issues with land because

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the United States took 1/3 of their choice lands to establish bases. So there’s that, and so they were questioning …. My—my first exposure to being

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different. When I got there, I thought, “Oh, hey! I—I belong here.” And I researched their dance. I—I—I, you know—I had no, uh—I had no—I—I danced my dance, and—and

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I helped them research their old dances. We—we were in the South Pacific Festival of Arts. I was—you know, there was one …. This is a Philippine dance we are doing in

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the University of Papua New Guinea. And this is, uh, choreography that I did for the native Chamorros. So, I was one—I was third among the eight people who won, because

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the Filipino women called each other and said, “You come and vote. Don’t come near us. They will come and vote for you calling each other on the phone.” But there was a movement to—to keep Filipinos from

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winning the election. So, anyway, I made it. And we—and that’s when I came to—to Houston. Oh, what a mess it was! It was the most—the most—most exciting—most exciting ever.

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Even more exciting than the one in Mexico. The one in Mexico was wild. People were standing on tables. You know, they were wild. Fighting each other because of the first world,

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second world, you know. But here, we were all Americans, including the territories. So that’s … you know, went back to Guam. All that time—all the time that I was doing dance,

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research and helping them. I used—I had my own dance company. Dance Theater Guam. And uh … it’s good to be a professor, I tell you.

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Because you have a lot of chance to pursue your—your passion. So I did that, and then … I—when my son was six or so … took him to Harvard Dance

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Center. I have a son who’s–who’s now an architect in L. A. How old are you guys? Anyway, he’s—he’s cute.

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Um, he designs airports. He loves planes. We’re very close. But, anyway, uh, her dad—his and I got a divorce, and there was seven years that I was single.

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It’s just—it was—it was a different story to be single and divorced in the United States. Different story. There are no guides to that. Uh, luckily, I was a professor. And people

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don’t mess with me. So there was that. It’s a wonderful thing, being—being single again. And then in 1986, I met Ron Smith, who’s an architect.

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Uh, he was a partner in this company in Guam, who was—who were building—they were building, uh, hotels for the Japanese. Beautiful, beautiful hotels.

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So anyway, one day he was just scratching his back like that and looking at the ocean—had a nice view of the ocean—and he found a big lump in there. And so we went to the doctor, and they took a sample of it, and they found it was cancer.

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So where to go, if you’re on an island? Make a long story short, we got to go to MD Anderson. And it was a struggle to get us to go there. By that time, I had also finished a degree in community

00:28:52.890 - 00:29:04.040

psychology, which is very heavy on research. In the NYU. I had another sabbatical. Uh, so I—I was a researcher, and—and I used my skills to find out

00:29:04.460 - 00:29:13.400

who were the best doctors to treat this rare sarcoma. So it was MD Anderson. And, uh, we were here.

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He had surgery. And then unfortunately we didn’t get all of it, so we go back to Guam. Here—it was like commuting.

00:29:22.200 - 00:29:34.460

We were commuting for a year there. He kept his job. He owned part of the company. So, we also met these people at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church that we went to.

00:29:35.520 - 00:29:49.320

When you—when you are running after cancer, you use everything—everything that you can think of, everything that you can use to cure cancer. So—so, faith was part of that.

00:29:49.320 - 00:29:58.950

And—and we hooked up with these people at the Episcopal Church, and it was good—it was a community. They would invite us in their house, and one of them—one of them would put us up in their garage.

00:29:59.550 - 00:30:08.180

So it was not so expensive, we could afford it. That was like a year or so. It was coming back and forth. And then he had radiation, and so on.

00:30:08.880 - 00:30:28.490

Fortunately, it’s gone. He’s out of it for 18 years now, and—and all is good. So meantime … he connected with these people here, architecture company that was doing healthcare. And despite the success there, in Guam,

00:30:29.630 - 00:30:44.870

we thought there was something lacking in our lives, uh, that spiritual part. The—and—and there was a lot of racial tension in Guam because the Filipinos take the good jobs because we are educated.

00:30:45.920 - 00:31:01.780

And so, there was this—I don’t know if I wanna raise my kid in a place where there is discrimination and all that stuff. Um, so we came here. He was hired by a company to do healthcare.

00:31:03.080 - 00:31:20.770

And that was 1998. That’s it? Yeah, I think it was 1998. So I spent the first month looking around for a house. We found one, and I started looking for—okay, what I’m gonna do here.

00:31:21.270 - 00:31:38.000

I retired. I took full retirement. Um, meaning I could—I could do okay, but I wanted to do something. So I looked at the classified ads, Chronicle, you know, and they said

00:31:38.000 - 00:31:52.770

they needed a quality management person over there—HMO. So, I went there, and I said, “Look I’m—I’m the director of the quality management in the community mental health in Guam. And

00:31:52.830 - 00:32:08.390

I know this. I know that.” You know? So, I got hired. And I worked for an HMO. All that time though, in my—among my—my—the th—the courses that I taught, health was also one of them.

00:32:09.030 - 00:32:23.100

I had the very—I had very interesting experiences on that. I would go to the islands and teach those courses to teachers, very, very rich experience. I learned diversity over there.

00:32:23.840 - 00:32:36.780

So we were—we were here, and I got this job with HMO over here by the South Loop. And then there was merger and acquisition. I got interested in organization. So, when they—had

00:32:38.600 - 00:32:52.770

to get out of that because … there was—it became a different entity. And I became very interested in how does an organization maintain its identity when there’s merging.

00:32:54.030 - 00:33:07.310

Um, it was NYLCare at first, and then Aetna bought them, and then Aetna also bought this. And then the doctors fought and said, “You can’t do that.

00:33:07.370 - 00:33:18.760

It’s monopoly.” So they lost case, and then they had to get rid of Prudential. So, they were selling NYLCare, and I was there when all that was happening.

00:33:19.710 - 00:33:36.790

And HMO Blue bought us. But that period where we were being presented as a company that is just gray, I figured out what we were doing to look attractive to buyers.

00:33:37.820 - 00:33:51.840

So— because it’s the largest—it’s the largest, uh, insurance company—health insurance company in the Gulf Coast. Very, very big. So, HMO Blue—uh, Blue bought us and

00:33:52.030 - 00:34:07.350

… then there was a problem of accreditation. Um, once you become an entity—a different entity, you have to get accredited by certain bodies.

00:34:08.130 - 00:34:20.790

Like, the hospitals have to be accredited, and so do the health insurance. So they hired PricewaterhouseCoopers to work with us, and that’s—that's really a great company.

00:34:21.380 - 00:34:36.540

I learned a lot from them about how to do quality management and how to run—how to run healthcare organizations. So that’s—that’s what I did. So, anyway, make a long story short, I got out of there.

00:34:36.540 - 00:34:52.570

And then I started a program on, uh, again my PhD is—I couldn’t get my PhD in Guam ‘cause there’s nobody there to do it with. I started NYU, but I was really a sabbatical leave. But now, I can get it through a, uh, very well,

00:34:55.790 - 00:35:03.420

uh, a very good school in California. Santa Barbara, California. And I wanted to go to Fielding Graduate Institute because my son lived there.

00:35:04.520 - 00:35:19.450

My son lived in L. A. So every time I went there, I’d go see my son. So eventually I finished, and my dissertation is on identity work. How do you create an

00:35:19.510 - 00:35:37.540

identity? Um, how does an organization—what does an organization do to present itself as a whole? And how do you make different—people with different interests come together and be

00:35:37.540 - 00:35:50.190

one? So that was my—and—and my setting was the Episcopal Church over here. I—I did rhetorical criticism. I analyzed sermons and I learned, uh, ATLAS.

00:35:50.240 - 00:35:58.320

ti. How to use ATLA—I—I already know the statistics. I already know how to use SPSS. I wanted to do something different,

00:35:59.210 - 00:36:14.340

uh, because words, you know, you—you look at words … especially sermons, you know. When you go—if—I don’t know if you’re familiar. You know, priests and pastors, they speak, and then

00:36:14.340 - 00:36:22.350

sometimes they influence people. So I wanted to know how the words influence people. So I took some texts. Just like what you’re doing now.

00:36:22.890 - 00:36:35.610

I interviewed people and I took the sermon, but I used the communication model. I used—took the sermon, which was public—public property, uh, because it’s—it’s, uh—it’s—it’s in the website.

00:36:36.610 - 00:36:53.620

So I took records on the website, and—and I analyzed those using ATLAS. ti. It—it gets frequency and it gets semantic and topographical mapping of what are the most important words in those

00:36:53.930 - 00:37:07.750

documents. So I took 20 of those and I took 20 interviews, and, uh, tried to find out what was heard from the sermon. When the sermon—they know about the sermons.

00:37:07.830 - 00:37:19.320

And—and the sermons anyway have parables in them. So as it turned out, the parables, the stories—just like what you’re doing, you’re getting stories—the stories are repeated over and over.

00:37:19.730 - 00:37:29.840

But there was also a problem, a rhetorical situation that was being addressed, and it was over the gay people. Uh, the Episcopal Church is—belongs to the Anglican Communion.

00:37:30.480 - 00:37:44.350

It’s a global church. And so, there was this really African group of bishops who wanted to punish the Episcopal Church because

00:37:44.620 - 00:37:55.890

they were marrying gay people. That was big issue, a few years ago. And so, I took the records of their meetings, and I found out about how this

00:37:56.200 - 00:38:12.400

priest was trying to get people together because the church is divided. A lot of the churches were split. They couldn’t—they didn’t want to come

00:38:12.460 - 00:38:23.730

to the church anymore. Some of them went to other churches. So there was this—what they callschism. S-C-H-I-S-M. Uh, there’s division.

00:38:24.480 - 00:38:42.670

So, I was interested in why some churches got together, came together, stayed together, and why some churches split. And—and there’s a lot of legal—legal battles that are going on still, after many years.

00:38:43.010 - 00:38:57.450

Well, so I found out, what were in the sermons that were—that people were thinking about? But anyway, you can look at my dissertation in—in the website for ProQuest. It’s—it’s published in the

00:38:58.850 - 00:39:15.990

ProQuest. And it’s—it says that words … do things. Words do things. For example, when two people come together at church, and the priest officiates.

00:39:15.990 - 00:39:29.080

He says, “From now on, I call you man and wife.” Right? Okay, from then on, the guy can’t go around anymore doing all those things that he used to do, right? He’s now a husband. So—so but words, they’re

00:39:29.110 - 00:39:42.470

not magicable, they do things. So—so what—what did the priest say that was meaningful to the listeners? That was my question. Turn out, home was a big ….

00:39:43.630 - 00:39:52.120

This is your home. This church is your home. Stay here. You stay here. You don’t wanna go there, you know.

00:39:52.620 - 00:40:06.390

So those—those were—they were subtle, but when you ask—when I asked them in the interviews, they said that, “We are—this—this be our family.” So if you have a home, in rhetoric—what I used was rhetorical criticism.

00:40:06.890 - 00:40:17.770

I analyzed the text. So, if you have a home, then there’s what? There’s a fam—there’s a father. If there’s a father, then there are children, right?

00:40:18.090 - 00:40:33.550

If there are children and a father, there’s a—you eat together, right? So there’s a table. And so, the story that became representative for this church was in my father’s mansion, there is room

00:40:33.790 - 00:40:47.020

for you. So that was the kind of thought that was the cultural theme, uh, like the kernel, that was going on in their minds. That in—in this church, there is room for everyone.

00:40:49.230 - 00:41:03.280

That’s the story. And here I am. I’m—I’m doing organization work. I’m looking for organizations to help. What do you think? That’s very interesting.

00:41:03.280 - 00:41:17.880

That’s very interesting. Um, could you go back a little bit and talk about the various degrees you have, and like, when you got them? What years? I gave Christy my—my résumé, but anyway, different degrees.

00:41:20.830 - 00:41:33.730

I had a teaching certificate which was equivalent to, uh, B. S. in education. Okay. From the University of the Philippines, that was a long time ago.

00:41:34.650 - 00:41:44.220

That enabled me to teach in Guam, right? And then when I was in Guam, I did some—so many other trainings, I went to this and that. But—but I got an M. A.

00:41:45.870 - 00:42:02.540

in anthropology of dance in New York University. And so I went back, worked some more, did a thesis, la la la. And then I took another sabbatical leave, and I went back to NYU.

00:42:02.820 - 00:42:14.370

I love New York. And I finished another M. A. You get tired of M. A. You get tired of my degrees. Obviously I like to go to school.

00:42:15.080 - 00:42:28.750

Um, I like psychology. I was thinking about what I’m gonna do when I don’t dance anymore, you know? When your body cannot dance anymore, what do you do? My mother used to tell me, “Don’t just

00:42:28.750 - 00:42:40.110

use your body. Use your mind too!” You know? Eh, I thought about that. Okay, so I—I trained under very, very good teachers. Very good teachers. One of them

00:42:40.110 - 00:42:51.800

was Knitzer, who wrote a book on unwanted children. There are many unwanted children in the United States, you know? So, I studied community psychology.

00:42:52.140 - 00:43:03.090

That’s the second degree. Another M. A. in community psychology. And that enabled me to go and work at the Community Mental Health Center in Guam.

00:43:03.710 - 00:43:20.090

So I was the—my friend got appointed as director. She says, “You go—when you go to Houston, you ….” This was after my graduation. Um, she says, “You go to Houston, and find out everything you can about quality management.”

00:43:20.850 - 00:43:33.760

So I went to MD Anderson. I went to the, uh, Harris County Mental Health. I went to a couple of other places, and I—they were so, so good. “Okay, this is our

00:43:33.820 - 00:43:46.750

evaluation for the annual report.” I got annual reports! Can you imagine that? They gave me their annual reports! And—and I said, okay. So—so when I went there, she and I ran the department.

00:43:47.140 - 00:43:55.780

It was a sick small one. It’s a 16 bed um, mental health clinic. But, we had all kinds of problems. There were people who were jumping off of

00:43:55.840 - 00:44:12.760

cliffs and it was—it was fun. So—so then, when I came here, I—I entered this—this degree—this—this program on human organizational development, but I chose the other one that is also—that is the same

00:44:12.760 - 00:44:26.150

program, but it emphasizes systems. Human organizational systems then, that’s my PhD. Um, actually they’re related—related because there are verbal and nonverbal systems.

00:44:26.820 - 00:44:38.190

Language are systems, as you know. So that’s my dissertation. It’s—it’s, um, what the sermons were about. But, the other ones are nonverbal systems, which are

00:44:38.540 - 00:44:48.290

movement systems. And they are all particular to the idiom. So if you’re Indian, my friend, uh, Rajika Puri, the best…

00:44:50.260 - 00:45:04.180

Bharata Natyam. She teaches Bharata Natyam in—in New York. Uh, she was just so bright—just so bright. Um, she—she is the authority on the idiom of Indian dancing.

00:45:04.780 - 00:45:21.160

And I—because I grew up in the Philippine system of movement, I’m an authority on that. So—but there’s no one movement culture. There’s no one movement language.

00:45:21.880 - 00:45:37.910

Just as there’s no one language, you know? There’s not even a—there isn’t even one English language, right? Yeah. You go to different—you go to Australia, and you go talk to the Black

00:45:37.940 - 00:45:44.130

people. Right? “What did they say, you know? I don’t understand this.” Well, they have their own idiom. They call them idioms.

00:45:44.610 - 00:45:55.210

It’s the same body, but—and the same throat that produces the sounds, but it’s a different system. And that’s what I said. So you got your answer? Yeah.

00:45:56.530 - 00:46:07.080

But essentially, I’m a teacher. Yeah. And I’m a researcher. So what—what we call ourselves at the—where I finished this last degree is scholar-practitioner.

00:46:08.570 - 00:46:17.220

I’m a scholar-practitioner. These people whom they hire for consultants to straighten up organizations that are having problems, they are consultants. And

00:46:17.220 - 00:46:29.540

they are practitioners mainly. But because I also did research, uh, you can consider me a scholar- practitioner. Mm-hmm. That’s what I am, okay. Okay. Um, I have another question.

00:46:29.540 - 00:46:43.810

So, you mentioned that you have a son, right? Yeah! Um, and also you are a teacher yourself. So, um, so have you ever tried to, uh, integrate some aspect of Filipino culture in your education,

00:46:44.720 - 00:46:59.820

or in his education? In his education? Right. I—I believe that, uh, you learn—you learn a culture through immersion. And so, you— you—so I encourage him to, uh—he was born in Guam.

00:47:01.030 - 00:47:15.400

So he’s neither—he’s neither Filipino or Guamaian. I mean, you know. His father is from the United States. So … uh, what I do is I

00:47:15.660 - 00:47:31.390

take—what I did was, I took him to the Philippines many times when he was young. And there are a lot of Filipinos in Guam. He has friends. And so, um, when I—when he was

00:47:31.980 - 00:47:44.130

young, the way—the way you teach kids I believe—language or anything—is when they’re young. So I took him there, and he caught—he caught the culture. He caught—he knows who he is.

00:47:44.630 - 00:48:00.910

But he doesn’t want to be considered just a Filipino because his father is American, right? He’s mixed. So, if you ask him, he’ll say, “I’m an American.” But he will say, “Kainan na” You know, he—he—he knows all—you know—you know, he

00:48:01.280 - 00:48:16.320

knows the words like, “Let’s eat.” That’s important, right? It is important. Here’s Tommy. He grew up in—we built a house on a hill. Aww. Yeah, yeah I know, he was cute.

00:48:17.450 - 00:48:28.410

Yeah. He is—he’s a—he’s a decent person. Here’s my clan. Here’s my clan in the north. I just visited there once.

00:48:28.520 - 00:48:37.690

We are from the north. It’s near … Taiwan, that area there, China Sea . Okay, and I was a member of the choir.

00:48:38.140 - 00:48:49.720

And we would do presentations, and I’d choreograph for them, and that kind of thing. So it’s a very rich life! This is where he grew up. Guam is a barbecue

00:48:49.720 - 00:49:01.390

every day, beach every day! So when he came here—when he came here …. This is my husband Ron. So when he came here, he was here for six months, and then he says,

00:49:01.500 - 00:49:15.270

“Mom, never mind. I wanna go back to L. A. I—I—I like ocean.” This is one picture of his. He probably would kill me if he knew that I was showing off his pictures, but he’s got better pictures than that.

00:49:17.330 - 00:49:31.450

Yeah. So, that’s …. Yeah, it’s a very rich place. Uh, he’s multi—he knows he’s multicultural. I was—I was president of the International Women’s Club in Guam

00:49:32.700 - 00:49:50.870

and, uh …. This—this —this is—this is the governor who appointed me as Chair of the Commission on Status of Women. And, as you know, it’s a naval base right? So—so when we would—we would sit down for lunches and so on, so I would be there and

00:49:51.720 - 00:50:02.260

as Chair of the Commission on Status of Women, I learned a lot from being—from, uh, the—the—this women’s movement. I learned a lot.

00:50:03.150 - 00:50:15.830

Mm-hmm. But culture-wise, it’s—it’s in me, and people are asking, you know, “Did you—do you ever speak Filipino?” Of course! I mean, you speak—you speak your language no matter how long

00:50:15.830 - 00:50:26.870

you stay away. You, you know—when—when you have to speak your own language, you speak your own language. It’s a part of me. So, no one can take that away

00:50:27.130 - 00:50:37.840

from me. Do you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Yes. No one takes away from me—me my first language. So—but I’m comfortable. I’m comfortable speaking—being.

00:50:38.700 - 00:50:51.450

This was my dance company. Uh, we—we took ‘em to New Zealand and that was a picture. And this is—when I choreograph, I choreograph native themes like this is a game.

00:50:51.780 - 00:51:01.460

You know, the hand game? The—the stone? The stone game that goes around like that? Mm-hmm. I choreographed uh, that. The game. But instead of stones, I had the bodies.

00:51:03.040 - 00:51:13.280

So, I had a full life. And I’m—I’m happy. I’m—I’m—I’m—I’m good here. But, any other questions for

00:51:13.280 - 00:51:23.980

now? Yeah, um, do you have anything? Yeah, it’s—it’s a rich life. I … Um, so you mentioned that you have a dance company—you had a dance company.

00:51:24.160 - 00:51:39.810

Yeah. Um, could you tell us more about that? Uh … How—how did you start it, or something? Okay, uh, I was teaching dance at the university, and there were people who, you know, if you are a professor, you do something from the community.

00:51:39.810 - 00:51:55.790

You’re—you’re—uh, you—you—you get tenure because you have done three things. You teach. You’re—you’re— you’re scored according to the—to how good you are at—as a teacher. You have to have some research.

00:51:56.220 - 00:52:08.380

And then you have to serve the community somehow. So—so serving the community was my dance company, which—which produced—it was a community and university company.

00:52:09.460 - 00:52:21.960

Between the military and the natives and me and my students, uh, we were able to present, uh, interesting programs. Uh, people actually paid for them.

00:52:23.710 - 00:52:36.090

People actually … That’s me in New Zealand. And—and this is—this is one of the latest. When I was incorporating, uh, modern and—and that’s my stepdaughter. Aww …

00:52:36.150 - 00:52:48.060

My stepdaughter is—she has good—yeah, she’s beautiful. So—so my dance company went to Australia, and, of course, I took my son with me. He’s this little guy there.

00:52:49.760 - 00:53:01.150

He’s—yeah. He—he—yeah. And I wrote about them, by the way. I wrote about their dances. And so, this company, when I left ….

00:53:01.580 - 00:53:14.710

Yeah, they—they were kids, you know. It’s a community-based company. And what I did for the first time was I put on stage a dance performance

00:53:16.630 - 00:53:28.080

of the native Chamorros. Before they didn’t have anyone there. But so, they—they—they, uh—they reviewed it. I—I —see that’s me.

00:53:28.720 - 00:53:38.500

Uh, the Dance Theater Guam: History and Tradition. We danced about their tradition. You—you take me some place, and I’d be looking around, pretty soon there’s a performance.

00:53:38.500 - 00:53:54.210

These people … it’s uh … I’m interested in … here we all start—all started in the Philippines! And the middle part was, I told you when I sent myself to school as a gymnast. Mm-hmm.

00:53:54.950 - 00:54:09.180

And that’s just—I was, I’m the one at the edge I think. Yeah, one of those people. Yeah. So some of these people, they remember what they did in my company. When I left, that was—that was the end.

00:54:09.450 - 00:54:24.450

And, um, what I—what I contributed to them was Chamorros now were able to perform in the Festival of Arts. There's a South Pacific Festival of Arts every four years. Which is held in different islands.

00:54:26.120 - 00:54:34.910

And I was first one who took a Guam delegation there. And that was nice. I was also active in the women's movement.

00:54:35.430 - 00:54:47.750

This is— this is now. Okay. I always had this international thing. I was—I was the first president of the Guam International Women's Club.

00:54:47.750 - 00:55:00.820

Now this is about 45 years old, and it's still going strong. Wow. The way—the way we did it—well, the way I did it, is once it got going, I let go of it. Whatever they wanna do it.

00:55:00.820 - 00:55:13.250

The—the principles are there: culture of understanding and working together—and—and it's good. This was in Singapore. This woman here, Madeleine Bordalio …

00:55:13.250 - 00:55:22.620

where is she? Oh, this is the woman that hired me to Guam. And I think this—Mrs. Bordalio is now a congresswoman.

00:55:23.950 - 00:55:38.900

This is federation of Asian women with different, uh, Western, uh …. Everybody except China. This was in the 80s, 90s.

00:55:39.000 - 00:55:51.250

Every—Oh, this! She— she was wife of the governor. Oh. And then when I got out—this me. When I get out of university, I said, “Do you need somebody there in your office?” “Oh, in fact I need—I need a

00:55:51.320 - 00:56:01.350

press officer.” So he says, “Okay.” Uh, so I said, “You know what? I can do that. What can he do that I can’t do for God's sakes.” So I went in there and she hired me as a press officer.

00:56:01.610 - 00:56:11.360

I was a press officer. Oh, that was fun! I—I wrote—I wrote her speeches. And, if she can't make it, I go. And, uh—and everybody thought I was powerful.

00:56:12.050 - 00:56:27.070

Oh my God! They just didn't know. Yeah. This is an article I wrote, which became a cover of the magazine. Mm-hmm. But there is a …. If you have a chance to go to that, it's very interesting.

00:56:27.200 - 00:56:39.380

This is—this an Australian—no. Papa New Guineans. That—that is the most fascinating thing. But, you know,

00:56:40.610 - 00:56:54.270

this was far—probably far from what you have been met— from what you expect. Let me ask you. I started to say that—that my—this entry route is probably got into an outlier.

00:56:55.110 - 00:57:05.320

Not usual right? Because I came to Houston late. And I found. You know, I found two things. There are two things in Houston that I fit in well.

00:57:06.180 - 00:57:13.690

One is faith. There's a lot of churches. Church and business. My husband is a businessman. He's an architect.

00:57:14.770 - 00:57:28.590

So—and—and church—and we came here because of the good people in a church. And that Main Street where Palmer Episcopal Church is, there are 10 churches there. Did you notice that? There are 10

00:57:28.590 - 00:57:37.410

churches from one end of Main to the other. It's just to the high way. And we are few blocks from Joel Osteen.

00:57:38.850 - 00:57:51.520

That sits 16,000 people every time he gives a service. What is that? I’m fascinated by that. I’m fascinated by how people—what are people doing when they come to

00:57:51.550 - 00:58:00.680

church? That was my—my question. What are people doing when they come? How you do you remain people. Anyway. I’m so—I’m just so glad that I was able to help you guys.

00:58:00.680 - 00:58:10.990

But I’ve been writing about my story for quite a while. I’ve been reflecting. I’ve been reflecting about that. And this is ….

00:58:10.990 - 00:58:24.940

Because of the degree that I took, um …. Anyway, it's—it's from domination to empowerment. Oh. The—the—the—I was born under the American rule.

00:58:25.330 - 00:58:38.430

Yeah, yeah. Uh, and—and now I'm here. Or—but there was a time when we were independent. But maybe the next book I write is what happened to them.

00:58:38.960 - 00:58:50.780

I left them behind you know? And there's a lot of material in postcolonial led by Indians. You know, Indians, a lot of Indian scholars. I read Arundhati Roy.

00:58:51.350 - 00:59:06.630

Oh my God. Who was the other one? Uh, the one with an— Gayatri —with the—with the “s”. I can't remember right now.

00:59:06.710 - 00:59:13.630

Oh. But I've heard of her. Arundhati Roy is one. But Gayatri—it’s like something. What's her name? Oh my God. She might—she might be here.

00:59:14.960 - 00:59:27.210

Yeah, so—so, I have actually reflected on this. And if I was gonna teach a course, it would be this course. Oh, wow. Consciousness and identity.

00:59:32.220 - 00:59:40.830

Anyway … Just—you're welcome to read it someday. If you're interested. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I—I can send it to you if you want.

00:59:40.830 - 00:59:54.060

Yeah. That'd be very nice. We can have a—yeah, we can have a —a group question and answer. And so, my reflection on this … I love to make models. This—this is my model.

00:59:54.210 - 01:00:03.900

You can make your own. You can make your own. So—so that's me. Who am I to question? Expressing, mirroring, reflecting.

01:00:04.800 - 01:00:13.380

So—so I start with this. I am my mother's daughter. I bring with me a language. It's part of me. These are parts of me.

01:00:13.380 - 01:00:23.700

These are parts of me. Okay? And extended family. And my world got larger and larger. My neighborhood, US citizenship, my marriage, my education, my

01:00:23.800 - 01:00:33.890

heritage. I have heroes. I now met important heroes. One is Mabini. Mabini, Apoloinario Mabini was one who designed the Philippine Constitution.

01:00:35.160 - 01:00:44.250

You know, a lot of people say, like the Philippines, we should be able to do in Afghanistan and Iraq. Before the Americans came, we were already designing our own constitution.

01:00:46.340 - 01:01:00.120

Uh, we didn't like the Spaniards. An—and we wanted to kick them out for a long time. And the Americans came and—and … Anyway, story. So—so, I've—I've operated with my …

01:01:02.530 - 01:01:12.210

these activities, teaching, et cetera. I was able to go to different places in the world. NYU. And then I went to Fielding, human organizational

01:01:12.720 - 01:01:26.770

development. I traveled between. And we work. And so, I focused on the way I'm speaking, the way I came to this is my relationship. Who am I? Ako?

01:01:27.260 - 01:01:40.170

Who am I? I am the actor. I am the agent of my own becoming, right? And, uh, you. My neighborhood. My—my family

01:01:40.170 - 01:01:50.340

members. People who influenced me. And we. Who—who—who do I belong to? So I belong to church. To this church. I belong to my family.

01:01:50.340 - 01:02:00.330

I'm belong—I’m Filipino. I'm—I'm an American citizen, you know? I'm a scholar. And—and—and I feel unity with people

01:02:00.810 - 01:02:11.300

who have postcolonial background. So there's a we there. What do you think? You like the model? Yeah. I like the whole …

01:02:11.300 - 01:02:16.790

So any other questions? Did you like it? Yeah. It's very interesting. It's, uh, inspiring.

01:02:17.510 - 01:02:25.560

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So anything else? Yeah. I actually had a quick question about, you know, you coming to Houston. So in 1998,

01:02:25.560 - 01:02:39.860

when you came here, um, how was the transition from living in Guam for so long to moving to Houston? Uh, yeah. Um, matter of—it wasn’t just a matter of size.

01:02:41.930 - 01:02:56.000

As you know. It's huge. From tiny to huge. Houston, I'm talking about just Houston. And, uh, a very strict,

01:02:56.560 - 01:03:10.290

uh … people follow rules here. You get arrested by a ranger or by a policeman. You just go to a court, you know. Everybody follows.

01:03:10.340 - 01:03:25.290

I like—I like it here because where I come from, there's always negotiation going on. If you're a rich man's son, you can talk to a police. You know, everybody knows everybody else. So if you're … other classes of people.

01:03:26.180 - 01:03:42.950

Here, you can't see the class so much. Are we okay? Mm-hmm. Here, uh, you can't see the class so much. I mean it's like an open society, you know. You could—you could go to River—we live near River Oaks.

01:03:43.650 - 01:03:57.980

But—and so we have this same zip code. And people will say, “Oh you're one of those people.” I said, "No, no, no, no, no. We live near Montrose." So—so the difference is that, there ‘s a lot more choices,

01:03:59.700 - 01:04:12.540

about how you wanna be, what you want to do. In terms of jobs, in terms of friends, in terms of …. Uh, I—I—I’m a member the Filipino—University of Philippines alumni association.

01:04:13.170 - 01:04:24.470

So I go to their stuff. And we do the same things that we do all over the United States, you know. You have a Christmas party, and—and you meet friends. And—but—and you celebrate, um,

01:04:26.410 - 01:04:39.190

holidays. Dependence—Independence Day is big. Uh, and you go to the Philippine restaurant, you know. You—you—I found, in the adjustment—I found that it helped that there are lots of Filipinos here.

01:04:39.520 - 01:04:54.880

Mm-hmm. And the Filipinos that are here are—the ones that I met anyway—are educated. They— they’re looking up, in terms of, moving into the suburbs, big houses.

01:04:54.920 - 01:05:10.520

Oh my God. … ‘Cause I'm sure there are a lot of people who are struggling. But, I like the fact that we are all American citizens here. And nobody is discriminated by—and the law is the law.

01:05:11.370 - 01:05:22.940

You know, sometimes I get into the jury duty. And, uh, we didn’t know who these people are. Sowhatever, it's the law. But, because of the largeness of

01:05:24.530 - 01:05:35.950

it … uh, you may say that you—you can su—suffer from anonymity; nobody knows you. In an island, every—when I go out—out of the house, you

01:05:36.020 - 01:05:50.950

know, everybody knows me. Here … you know. Although, when I go to Zumba, people call me by name. Yeah, I go to the Y downtown. What else is your question?

01:05:50.950 - 01:05:58.760

Is—does that answer your question? Yeah. Yeah. That was good. And like in follow-up I guess. So you mentioned that there are so many Filipinos here in Houston. How did you start meeting them?

01:05:59.420 - 01:06:13.320

I—I went to the Philippine restaurant. Oh, okay. You shouldn't be nostalgic here ‘cause there are good Philippine food. And, soon enough, I

01:06:13.360 - 01:06:27.390

joined the University of the Philippines alumni association. The Filipinos here are, uh, grouped into linguistic groups. I—I speak Tagalog, which is a national language.

01:06:28.280 - 01:06:36.040

And my folks also speak Ilocano. So I can go to the Ilocano group. And they love me. I love them, you know. But I also speak Tagalog.

01:06:36.660 - 01:06:51.190

So, uh, and then there are the professional groups. And the nurses of course. You know, when you go to MD Anderson, when you go to this clinics, they are all over the place. But, I also have relatives here.

01:06:51.280 - 01:07:03.120

She—one of them came after I came. And they have a nice family. So, I shouldn't—shouldn’t be nostalgic. I don't feel nostalgic at all.

01:07:03.670 - 01:07:19.730

And what I like about here—being here is it's orderly. In the Philippines, you go—you can't go from here to there without having—you can't—the traffic is bad in Manila. Uh, just like

01:07:19.730 - 01:07:31.150

in Bombay, and other places there. Other—other cities. I'm sure in other cities here too. But in Houston, they invested them—these highways.

01:07:31.690 - 01:07:43.770

I guess because this is the city made by oil. So, yeah. And people are kind. People are kind here.

01:07:43.890 - 01:07:53.880

They—they don't care. They say—they said to me first of all—they come to my house, you know, because of the church. Uh, we are members of—the—the—the affinities that I had was the

01:07:55.570 - 01:08:06.150

University association, school alumni, and church. Uh, and so they come to our house. We go to their house. It's house visits that really

01:08:06.190 - 01:08:16.640

make you belong. Mm-hmm. That's the most important thing. And now I have, you know, Zumba. My Vietnamese friends invite me to their house parties.

01:08:17.400 - 01:08:28.230

To get invited to house party here, by anyone, is just unbelievable. People are friendly. And they are God-loving.

01:08:29.230 - 01:08:44.460

I haven't met yet the the guns. I haven't met them yet, the guy who holds guns. Maybe they do, but they don't show them, you know. I guess everybody has

01:08:44.460 - 01:08:57.300

them. They hid it in their cars, you know. Yeah. But, I mean I would be scared. Anyway, I'm protected here, you know. Mm-hmm. I live inside the loop, and … if you go out the loop, you’re gone too far.

01:08:58.330 - 01:09:13.830

That's what I say. ‘Cause you get everything in here right? Mm-hmm. Uh, yeah. Sometimes I go to the—to—I—I’m interested in other ethnic groups. Yeah? I'm interested in other people because …

01:09:15.590 - 01:09:26.860

you know, my interest in how do you become one? How do—how can we do things together, given that you have different interests? That's what drives me. Do you have any other questions?

01:09:26.890 - 01:09:39.640

Yes. Um— Yeah. So, um, I can tell that church plays a very important role in your life. Yeah. And I remember that you mentioned, um, so when your husband had cancer— Yeah. —um, you came to Houston—

01:09:39.640 - 01:09:52.360

Right. —for some spiritual service. Um, can you tell us more about how the churches play an important role during that period? Oh yeah. Uh, this little church

01:09:54.980 - 01:10:04.850

is at the center of—okay. It's across Rice University. And it's MD Anderson. The Texas Med—it's inside.

01:10:04.850 - 01:10:16.310

It’s—it's the middle of the Texas Medical Center. And we were looking for a place—something to do on a Sunday, and we found—we passed by it all the time. And finally, so we went in there one Sunday.

01:10:16.490 - 01:10:29.440

And this priest says, “Oh, you go to Anderson. You come over here.” And he had—and had somebody talk to us. And then, we got involved, and people invited us to this, you know, discussion

01:10:29.440 - 01:10:44.440

group. And they like us, and we like them. And I didn't have anything to do when my husband was doing chemo. So I got trained as a

01:10:44.440 - 01:10:56.850

Stephen Minister. It's a six-month period where you go and take classes. You get trained. It's a listening ministry, where you are assigned somebody who kinda matches you.

01:10:57.970 - 01:11:14.840

Uh, there are people who have a lot of problems here. They don't all get help. Especially the ones who have to come over here from different places and have—suffer from illness and so on.

01:11:15.060 - 01:11:25.560

You know, it's—it’s traumatic. And we know that first hand. It can be traumatic. So we try to do our—so we try to help them by listening to them.

01:11:26.140 - 01:11:36.510

It's essentially a listening ministry. It works. It works. And those people living out there, big houses. You think that they don't have problems?

01:11:37.250 - 01:11:50.280

They have big problems. So, it's part of me that has done community psy—interested in community psychology also is involved in this. I listen to people's stories, and I get enriched.

01:11:51.990 - 01:12:04.780

I get—it's—it's very rich. There's—there's always something in somebody's story that is part of your story. Can you tell me some part of my story that you relate to?

01:12:04.800 - 01:12:13.970

You think? I thought it was really cool that you got so involved with the women's movement. That really inspires me. I think it's awesome. I think—I think I got it from my mom.

01:12:14.570 - 01:12:27.920

Yeah? My mom was like this woman, you know. She told me—she taught me if you don’t like what’s going on, you go to the manager. She was just courageous, and she had the gift of

01:12:28.120 - 01:12:45.370

language. Yeah. And, uh, there's a lot more women in Filipinos. You know, they— when you—when your ethnic divisions limit you,

01:12:45.810 - 01:12:55.040

then—then I went to the …. Well anyway. I saw a lot of their stories similar to mine. Mm-hmm. And some of them are very inspiring, you know?

01:12:56.040 - 01:13:05.380

They’re courageous. We just—we just lost Maya Angelou. I met those people! I had pictures of Coretta Scott King over here. I was one of

01:13:05.380 - 01:13:13.220

them and I met …. A lot of that in women's movement. A lot of that. A lot of us went into

01:13:13.220 - 01:13:25.220

publishing and scholarship. We—we went to write because we realize—you know, if I spoke about the women, you know, the press picked it up. You know, you just write it, “Oh, so-and-so

01:13:25.650 - 01:13:42.410

you know, discrimination and all that stuff.” There’s lots of people who will pick up what you say. But I realized that they were just observations. They were just subjective observations. Well why don’t I go and equip myself with research so that I can

01:13:43.270 - 01:13:56.610

write and publish and join groups that are filling the same way I do. It was good. New York was very good. Mm-hmm. I—I got—I got to listen to Judith Butler, and postcolonial

01:13:56.610 - 01:14:07.960

stuff and gender. I took this class called “Race, Gender and Identity through a Post-modern Lens.” Just the most interesting course

01:14:08.210 - 01:14:19.370

I've ever had. And, uh, it was given by a psychologist. So—so I equipped myself with a background. And I thought, what else can we do as women?

01:14:20.460 - 01:14:32.530

So you have Malala, who is speaking out from her experience. We do that. But you also need people who write, and people who do movies, people who do ….

01:14:34.000 - 01:14:48.640

It's gotta be done in different levels. That's what I'm saying. Mm-hmm. And, uh, because human rights is a serious undertaking. You know, I'm 73 years old, and

01:14:49.610 - 01:15:06.260

… I think there's more—there are more problems. We don't have big wars now, but I think that here's a lot more to do. And—and I believe that, educating women is the key.

01:15:10.450 - 01:15:25.110

I mean, the basis prob—basic problem is that there are too many people, right? Too many people everywhere. Too many people already. Philippines is one of them. And, uh, —so and I taught health and wellness, I taught how do you do budget?

01:15:26.210 - 01:15:40.510

I found that in Taiwan, they have family planning from kindergarten. Wow. The way they teach it is like, "Choose—choose which is the better picture".

01:15:40.840 - 01:15:56.960

You know, one picture is where two kids are like having their own tables and have enough light, and you know, nice room there. And then there's this other room, in the other piece of paper where there's like

01:15:56.980 - 01:16:10.810

10 kids, you know, and there's too many of them, and they’re not—doesn't look good. So—so on different levels, you can teach planning. And I think the key is educating women, really.

01:16:13.630 - 01:16:22.490

‘Cause the guys will just do what they want, um, whatever. You know, they can do what they want. But—but if you educate

01:16:22.490 - 01:16:31.890

women, I think—I think they can …. There’s a lot of wise women in different cultures. In Africa, in the Philippines, you know? Oh my God.

01:16:34.510 - 01:16:47.850

In my family, the men—and this is most, uh—this is most Filipinos, okay? You ask them. The man gives the salary to the woman.

01:16:49.880 - 01:16:58.100

And if he doesn't give it, she goes to the factory. She goes to the office and collects it. “Hello? I'm the one taking care of the kids.” They give it to her.

01:16:59.960 - 01:17:13.960

And if your ch—the—the grown-up kids have jobs, they also have to give money to their mother. The mother is the holder of the pot. Why? Because she knows where to put the money.

01:17:16.440 - 01:17:28.340

She knows. She knows. She knows and she will not waste it. The guys, they can drink, you know. They—they get with the guy—other guys, and they

01:17:28.470 - 01:17:40.160

drink. Or some other pretty woman gets there. This is the—this is the mentality. Some other women wants him, and then pretty soon, you know, he's having an affair, la la la. But a woman,

01:17:40.430 - 01:17:55.420

you don't expect her—usually, usually she takes care. That's the popular thinking that she takes care of everyone, and she makes sure that the house is in order, all that stuff. It's—it’s a big

01:17:55.420 - 01:18:09.920

responsibility for Filipino women. You know? But I don't know what your system is in your— in—in China. Who holds the purse? That's the term. Who holds the purse?

01:18:12.250 - 01:18:23.460

Um, I'd say it's more like, um, well, traditionally also women. Yeah? It's becoming different these years. Yeah. But traditionally, it's the same as Filipino.

01:18:24.340 - 01:18:33.240

Right. Yeah. How ‘bout you? You know, I'm not really sure. I feel like it's been pretty like male dominant throughout the history of India. But I know like for my family—

01:18:33.240 - 01:18:46.170

Yeah, yeah. —my parents are pretty equal in terms of, like— It's different now. Yeah. So, in my case, I have my own—we—we used to put our checks—certainly people have checks, right? We have to manage.

01:18:47.080 - 01:18:57.510

And, uh—and so we put everything in the account. And then I noticed that if he's gonna buy me a gift, he's gonna take it from my—from that account.

01:18:58.370 - 01:19:09.260

So I go, “Look. You know, you have your own account. So if you buy something for me—for me. You're not taking it from the joint account.

01:19:09.260 - 01:19:21.030

You have your own account, right?” So he does. “And well, I don't have to ask for you permission. I have my own account.” So I have—we have three accounts. Okay. And it's all in the computer.

01:19:22.880 - 01:19:32.390

It's all in there for us to see. And—and he does the joint account ‘cause he has to pay the bills. He's good.

01:19:32.420 - 01:19:45.040

And then I just—I just do my American Express. I just take care of that one, right? Yeah. It's—now—I—I like—I

01:19:45.040 - 01:19:58.900

like that. I like—I like being in this age. And I like being here in Houston. Mm-hmm. As, uh—I have attended some of the Asian women—women’s group. Boy, some of them

01:19:58.960 - 01:20:09.660

are very inspiring. Have you met some of them? They have very interesting stories, in terms of being leaders in business. Some of them are business owners.

01:20:10.490 - 01:20:23.570

If I had come here earlier, boy, I don't know what I would've done. You know, I could've done more here, if I came here earlier. But I came here, you know, end of my career.

01:20:23.570 - 01:20:33.350

But I'm still—I’m still doing good. I mean, I'm still doing things. I hope to continue writing and helping other people.

01:20:34.160 - 01:20:47.250

You know, I'm not very good at raising money for flood and earthquake and stuff like that. I leave it to other people I think. I think my talent is in stories, writing

01:20:48.410 - 01:21:06.090

maybe. So, what else? Umm I have a question, so you said you met your husband in 1986? 1986 is when, yeah, we got married. Oh. Okay, okay. Yeah. So can you tell us about how you met him and the whole thing

01:21:06.120 - 01:21:16.560

about …? Oh interesting. He was married and divorced. I was married and divorced. He had a 12-year old, and I had a 12-year old.

01:21:17.160 - 01:21:32.030

My 12-year old was older than her—his 12-year-old girl. And he had adopted a younger—he had adopted a daughter. He was married to an islander.

01:21:33.430 - 01:21:41.750

He was in the Peace Corps. Oh, okay. He went to Palau. He went to Rhode Island School of Design. And then, he didn't want to go to war.

01:21:43.270 - 01:22:01.770

So he went to Micronesia, to teach them democracy. Anyway, it's a family joke. But, um, so she married this man—woman and—and she— and he—he adapted her daughter.

01:22:02.250 - 01:22:10.260

Mm-hmm. She's now there. There—the two of them are in California. My son is also in California. But, there was a couple years where we were all together.

01:22:10.920 - 01:22:19.730

Mm-hmm. All of us. They were in high school. I took care of her. And she—she—made her a dancer. I took her to Australia with me.

01:22:20.830 - 01:22:32.120

She's married and she has three kids. And how did we meet. His mother used to come and visit him from Florida to Guam. They’re originally from the east coast.

01:22:32.800 - 01:22:47.650

New York, upstate. And she was visiting him there. I was divorced; he was divorced. And my colleague, Dr. Brownwaters at the University of Guam thought that we

01:22:47.710 - 01:23:01.950

should meet. So she was a friend of Ron , my husband's mother. Uh, and so, she says, “You know, on your birthday, why don't you come to my house?” So she invited me, and she invited

01:23:01.950 - 01:23:15.750

them. But—but I brought my own date, because I—I didn't know. So—but she—she invited him. And here he comes, this good-looking guy. You know, sweet, whatever.

01:23:16.690 - 01:23:33.480

And—and I became friends with his mother. And then we became active in this group at Methodist Church. He's Methodist—he was. And it was a group called

01:23:34.510 - 01:23:47.020

Singles' Ministry. It was a group of people that just got together for coffee and so on. And, uh, there was a course of study that we followed.

01:23:47.910 - 01:24:01.270

You know, tell you story and all that stuff. And so that's how we met. So before we got married, we were really good friends already. Good. Yeah. It was—it was tough, uh, getting the two families together.

01:24:01.940 - 01:24:08.570

My—my son was okay. He didn't bother. He has his own life. He had lots of friends and so on.

01:24:09.020 - 01:24:20.600

But I was like, okay, let me deal with this. But, uh, yeah. ‘Cause they were close. Yeah. They were very close. And just like my son and I were close.

01:24:21.410 - 01:24:39.380

So, that's how we met. And, uh, we shared … values. Like peace. We both—we both like to work for peace

01:24:40.520 - 01:24:52.400

in this world. And he’s doing it—we want to help other people. He's doing it through healthcare architecture, and I'm doing it through organizational work.

01:24:53.520 - 01:25:06.810

We'll see. I'm so glad that you folks are doing this. What do you hope to do for this, with this project? What're you studying? Have you seen the Indian movies? Yeah. Oh my God.

01:25:07.030 - 01:25:21.230

Yeah. I read all these Indian authors. They arre so good. From Cambridge, you know, from the— from Boston—those—there—there’s literature comes from there. Mm-hmm, yeah. Indians who—like you, who grew up here.

01:25:21.230 - 01:25:32.440

And then they go back. Then their parents find partners for them, and there’s big wedding and …. I don't know if you found—if you saw that

01:25:33.530 - 01:25:45.480

film about the wedding? Indian wedding? Which one? It was produced by Indian engineers here. Okay. Engineers and doctors.

01:25:45.840 - 01:25:53.280

They retired. They have a lot of money. They go into film. Okay. I said, "This is what you're doing?" "Yeah yeah yeah, we like films." Because I was there at the opening.

01:25:53.790 - 01:26:01.530

It’s good. There's a— Okay. And there’s—there’s a lot of Indian writers. You guys are good. Yeah. Yeah. And how about you?

01:26:01.530 - 01:26:10.890

What are you studying? Yeah. But more than recording, you should also interpret it. You should also learn how to interpret what you read ‘cause there are some commonalities there.

01:26:11.820 - 01:26:21.960

And you're gonna have to write about the “so what.” Yeah. Right. So right now you're doing the "what". Right. Right? And so the next question is “so what?”

01:26:24.170 - 01:26:36.860

What is—what is my role here? What should our role be? And in women's movements the question is can we unite all women, so that we can

01:26:36.860 - 01:26:52.130

be a political force for the good? That was—that was the question. Now we'll see how Hilary does—how Hilary Clinton does in the next election, we'll see.

01:26:53.850 - 01:27:03.620

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Can women come together? We'll see. So like I told you in my drawing, I'm a woman, but I'm also Filipino. I'm also this. I'm also that.

01:27:03.620 - 01:27:17.970

Right. So there are all those identities that are pulling. And then there's this terrorist— terrorist who are—who start as like my culture, uh—I don't

01:27:17.970 - 01:27:35.890

know about the people who were here—who grew up here. But I guess, where—when I was

01:27:38.760 - 01:28:00.930

growing up, what the parents said, you follow. You know? I was—I was told that I would question.

01:28:00.930 - 01:28:20.170

So. That was just …. But everybody follow the rules. The thing— the—the way they disciplined us—‘cause there were a number of us—was that,

01:28:21.030 - 01:28:31.970

if someone cried and, you know, complain, everybody went in the same room. Everybody. The one who’s crying, the one who beat him up, the one … Everybody, everybody there.

01:28:32.650 - 01:28:45.540

So, what happened was, we got to identify ourselves as the young group—there’s a young — young group in the family, and we’re together there in that one room.

01:28:46.150 - 01:28:56.680

And then there are the old people outside the room, and we are cooped up there. Why don't we get along? Why don't we get along, so that we—we’re not prisoners here, you know?

01:28:57.220 - 01:29:08.840

So that was what I learned. That—that we—we should get along because we’re in—we’re in the same hold together, whatever. Mm-hmm. I hope I have helped you.

01:29:08.900 - 01:29:21.620

Yeah, that’s awesome. We have one final question. Yeah, so, um, we have one final question. Um, so what would you like for future generations to remember about you and your immigration experience?

01:29:25.300 - 01:29:44.620

That I was curious. Curious. And that I took what was new and I integrated it with my old—whatever my old self was.

01:29:45.240 - 01:30:00.030

I integrated and I—and I chose. I selected … what’s good for me. You see, like I told you, I’m different ‘cause I was an orphan.

01:30:00.850 - 01:30:14.900

I grew up with my aunt, and, you know, I was like their older child. But my cousins are my cousins and when you see us, we’re like brothers and sisters. But it's not like I owe them, blah-blah-blah, you know?

01:30:16.400 - 01:30:31.200

I gave them piece of my property, after I left, for them to do something with, you know? But, I'm not as attached to them, perhaps. And they're—they’re gone now. So ….

01:30:31.760 - 01:30:43.760

My uncle died. My uncle who—who—who raised me, he died in my arms. He had a heart attack and he was brought home. They did everything they could, and he came home. And I was watching him.

01:30:45.090 - 01:30:58.070

And in his—in my watch, he started to—to talk strange, so I was listening. And then he started to … gasp for breath. And, I put my arms underneath,

01:30:59.260 - 01:31:14.930

under his head. And—an he gave me—yeah, last request, you know, that I should take care of my cousin, my youngest cousin, whom he was leaving behind. He's here now. We are all here now. Yeah, so

01:31:19.450 - 01:31:31.000

…. There, yeah …. Yeah. There, life and death are very natural processes. It's okay. You get born. I saw my cousins get born in the house. It was a midwife. You

01:31:31.000 - 01:31:44.290

know, birth is a natural thing. And so is death. So, here, it's different. You—you—you don't— you don’t want to die here, you know? In—in the Philippines, you get a certain age, my

01:31:44.290 - 01:31:52.830

goodness, you die. Okay. Let's have a funeral. You know? Just like in China, right? Here, you do

01:31:52.870 - 01:32:03.140

everything you can. My God, why is that? Why didn't you do what you wanted to do in your life when you're alive. Now, you know …. I can't say that because I almost died.

01:32:04.870 - 01:32:14.400

I had a—I had a CHF. I was doing my dissertation on the 3rd floor. 2010. So I’m like this.

01:32:14.830 - 01:32:24.820

I … strange? What is that? I’m feeling strange. You know when you thought you put your file somewhere? I used EndNotes?

01:32:24.820 - 01:32:33.840

Do you know EndNotes? Mm-hmm. Okay. I thought it was here. Oh my god, where is it? Yeahd, I was looking for this file. I was like so tired and stressed out.

01:32:35.240 - 01:32:44.980

And then I was like, something's wrong. I don't feel good. I took my phone. I said—I called 911. I was my—by myself. I called

01:32:44.980 - 01:33:02.270

911. I said, “I don't feel good.” … So I told them where I was. I took—I went to the 2nd floor, took my wallet, and my keys.

01:33:02.940 - 01:33:18.550

I decide to go down. I reach the foyer. There's a gate, and then there’s a door. This way —entryway. The gate is locked. So I got through the door,

01:33:20.880 - 01:33:31.310

and then I don't remember anything anymore. I—I—I fainted in there. And the story is that, the EMS was—were there in 4 minutes.

01:33:32.770 - 01:33:46.750

And they took me to the Methodist Hospital. The best thing about being in Houston is this is a great place to be—to be sick. That's one plus.

01:33:47.540 - 01:33:59.800

I should say, church, medical center, what was the third one? Business. Business. Someone told me that if you have a business plan, you come from anywhere, they

01:33:59.800 - 01:34:10.350

will love you here in Houston because they love business. And so I see people, you know, they're just mowing their lawn. You know, maybe just when —pretty soon, they have this big truck

01:34:10.910 - 01:34:21.730

with other people. They're hiring people. It’s—if you want to do business they say this is the place to be. This is a friendly place for business. Why? Because it’s huge.

01:34:22.260 - 01:34:37.160

Yeah. If you sell anybody—if you sell one person a little something, that's a lot. It's not like China, but …. What do you plan to do when you go there? When you go home? That's good.

01:34:37.270 - 01:34:51.700

You have any other questions? No, I think that's it. What had—what had happened to you when you got sick? I had CHF. Uh, cardio—cardio arrest, CHF.

01:34:54.000 - 01:35:06.930

Cardio heart failure. Oh, okay. I was hospitalized for seven days. And, um, I have to take medication from then on.

01:35:07.700 - 01:35:24.440

Okay. There’s just one final thing. So what would be your plan like in the future, for the rest of your life? Do you have a plan?

01:35:24.440 - 01:35:37.040

You know, at this point in my life, it's like in a meal, I've eaten the main course already. I'm just waiting for the— for the dessert! But dessert’s the best part!

01:35:37.040 - 01:35:48.300

Dessert’s the best part! Dessert is the best part. Right, right, right. That’s the way I feel about it. Whatever comes now, is just the icing on the cake. I've had a wonderful life.

01:35:49.990 - 01:36:04.280

I—I did what I could do from this young orphan in 1941. And I’m thankful for everyone that I—that took care of me and who

01:36:04.280 - 01:36:13.110

taught me everything that I know. There's many of ‘em. Many of them. One of them was a—a dancer. I owe her a life.

01:36:13.380 - 01:36:29.400

A dancer who became a choreographer and went to Oxford and finished her dissertation on Catholic mass. And she aff—she affected—she affected me a lot. She taught me about rhetoric, about … The first thing she said to us—she taught

01:36:29.400 - 01:36:37.190

6 people to teach anthropology of dance. 6 people. Rajika Puri was the first one. I was so impressed with her,

01:36:37.280 - 01:36:52.340

Rajika. Oh my God, I wanna be like her, right? So that kind of thing. And, eh, I've—I’ve—in a way, I’m privileged. I—I was privileged to have the opportunity to alearn

01:36:52.590 - 01:37:09.370

English, that opened my world into this life space that I showed you. If—if I—if I—if I didn't know the medium of instruction in the world, the medium of communicating the—yeah in the world—uh,

01:37:09.920 - 01:37:17.580

I—I would never have done this life space here. I would—I would never have made this. You know, because …

01:37:17.760 - 01:37:32.370

And so what—what's my plan here? Well, reflection. Reflection and continue to do what I do. Um … what do

01:37:32.370 - 01:37:44.860

people do? I mean, I—my son, if he has children, then I could babysit I guess. But , you know—but he's like his dad. He’s—some people don't like children.

01:37:44.910 - 01:37:52.870

So—but he said someday. You know, he's saying someday. But I'm not pushing. It's okay. We’ve—we’re—we’re close.

01:37:52.870 - 01:37:59.270

He's—he’s a great person. I love him dearly and he loves me. He just texts me. He's going to San Francisco for business.

01:37:59.650 - 01:38:13.080

He was sent to Guam to repair their—prepare to do some project in the airport. I think that's interesting, you know? He grew up in Guam. He went to college in the States, in Washington.

01:38:13.080 - 01:38:22.090

And—and they’re — and then they're hiring him to fix the airport. He's excited about that. He's got San Francisco. I don't know what he's doing there.

01:38:22.090 - 01:38:35.130

But, um, he loves what he does. And that's really all I can do. Well, my plan is to just keep on doing what I'm doing and

01:38:35.130 - 01:38:45.290

be ready for surprises. I love—I love surprises. Um, can you plan? Oh, do you plan the last

01:38:46.060 - 01:38:55.340

quarter of your life, say? If I get to be a hundred, I don't know. I plan that—that—that I be around the people that I love.

01:38:57.770 - 01:39:12.380

You know? And I'm in a church that—that—I continue. I continue to—to be a Stephen Minister. By the way, . this point of my life, maintaining health is—is—is my goal, one of

01:39:12.380 - 01:39:26.010

my goals. To maintain health and be the—as active and as mentally healthy. Mentally, physically, socially healthy, and—and I appreciate your inviting me here.

01:39:26.150 - 01:39:37.570

I love it. I love sharing my life with you. I hope you learn something out of it. Yeah, I go to Zumba at the Y. I sit in the tub, you know,

01:39:37.570 - 01:39:49.140

Whirlpool. I just did today. Uh, twice a week. I eat well. I have a good social life. My husband is wonderful.

01:39:49.140 - 01:39:59.460

I support his—whatever he wants to do. I support my son. You know, I'm—I’m part of a chain of people.

01:39:59.560 - 01:40:13.130

Oh! By the way, we are members of a homestay group. I have people who call me once in a while and say, "Would you like to sponsor a student?” You’re

01:40:13.130 - 01:40:28.110

familiar with homestay? Mm-hmm. Okay. So I've had homestays, for years now. Presently, I have a Saudi Arabian man who is going here. Language studies and he wants to do

01:40:30.350 - 01:40:45.830

a Ph—a PhD—master’s first in mechanical engineering. He works for Aramco. And, um—and so, we—we don't just—I don't just have them over to eat dinner time, which is one of our duties.

01:40:46.890 - 01:40:56.530

But we also talk to him. We share and we learn from each other. So I—I—I do that. I—I—I feel like I'm a part of a chain of human beings that—that

01:40:59.400 - 01:41:17.780

are—cling to each other. And hopefully if my son finds people, that they will do the same for him. Uh, yes. In my own little way, I wanna make this a better world, in my own way. I was

01:41:17.780 - 01:41:31.180

noisy at first. I was a radical. But I was told that if you want to make any changes, get out of the street because if you go in the street, then they will know who you are. And they’ll get you. So—

01:41:31.410 - 01:41:45.980

so … ‘cause I was there in the streets. People were calling me murderer and all that stuff. So, I got smart and I said, “Okay, how else I can do my part?” This is—it

01:41:46.470 - 01:41:59.290

is—I was told not—not to do that because there are other people who can do that. But I have gifts that I can use for the same purpose and I hope you do the same.

01:42:01.070 - 01:42:15.580

And I love your writers. You know, Gayatri Chakravorty. She's very famous. And I don't know why I can't remember her name now.

01:42:17.680 - 01:42:35.650

I've heard her spoke. She is so fantastic. She is quick. I'm not there yet. But anyway, my immediate plan: to write my book. And if you need somebody to interpret your records, I have a

01:42:35.840 - 01:42:50.850

program that I can use to analyze what people say, including mine. Yeah. That's—that’s my immediate goal to—to use what I have learned.

01:42:52.430 - 01:43:04.410

I'll continue to do this. You guys are young. You have a lot. What's your goal? That's an interesting field. I have friends there. At UT Public Health.

01:43:04.820 - 01:43:14.650

Oh my God. She's a researcher. Mm-hmm. She does work for the homeless. Yeah. Research for the homeless. Yeah. Big. It's big. Yeah, how about you?

01:43:15.230 - 01:43:29.780

Chemical Engineering, uh. I—I—I—my friends from the Philippines—I have Philippine friends here who were like this tall when they were growing up.

01:43:32.020 - 01:43:41.230

We’re friends with their parents. And they've gone to school. They’ve gotten their PhD. I just went to their graduation— somebody's graduation party at their house on Saturday.

01:43:41.590 - 01:43:55.360

And he's a chemical engineer for Shell. Done very well. Done very well. …

01:44:03.920 - 01:44:17.390

He's—I don't know where is he—he's fifty now, but he's got kids going to college. I'm in Facebook, you guys. If—if—if you … if you

01:44:21.210 - 01:44:32.440

wanna listen me. I'm Gregoria Smith. And you can see all my pictures. Are you guys on Facebook?

01:44:32.590 - 01:44:40.710

Yeah of course. Yes. Okay. Let me write your names. Okay. Okay. Do you wanna wrap this up? Okay. So, uh— Okay, I’m gonna write—yeah, wrap it up, wrap it up.

01:44:40.710 - 01:44:50.970

So—yeah, yeah, alright. So thank you so much for sharing you story with us. It was really inspiring. Yes. Um, yeah, thank you so much for coming. This— Thank you! —is very important for our project.

01:44:51.580 - 01:44:52.530

Thank you so much!