Speech: KaPUSO Fiesta

[2021]

Magandang gabi, po, at maligayang pagdating sa itong fiesta!  My name is Liza Bornasal (or Dr. B), and I am currently one of the faculty advisors for KaPUSO. 

As I was writing this speech, I reflected on a poem written by Maria G. Romero titled, “Our Reasons in Study”, which was published in The Filipino Students’ Magazine based out of Berkeley in 1905. 

Out of respect, I’ll refer to her as “manay” Maria: “Manay” being similar to “ate” or “manang”, and is the Bicolano way of referring to an older sister figure.

Manay Maria was a pensionado, or a university student who was from the Philippines and was sent to the US to study after the Philippine-American War.  Her poem reads,

“On this beautiful western shore

Is a spot which we all adore,

Far from the buzzing noise and hum

Of the city from whence we come.

Here, amidst the trees and flowers

Blooming fresh after April showers,

We have come, and our best to do

For the purpose we have in view.

Each year has its busy season,

Which gives us time to reason

That we are here to work, not play,

And our task to complete each day.

And when these happy days are past,

Through toil conquered many a task,

To the beloved country returned,

We will give what the years have earned.”

Her poem resonated with me in a couple of ways.  One: I think the workaholic side of me would get along really well with “manay” Maria given her line, “Through toil conquered many a task”….

The line especially resonates as we are winding down the semester.  

Also, I think the poem speaks to one of these hidden expectations for many of us, as sons and daughters and grandchildren of immigrants, that links “purpose” to education and work, along with the burden of responsibility to give back to the community or the family as a result of that education and work. 

I find it really interesting that someone who lived over a century ago, could potentially empathize with a lot of the pressures and expectations I faced as a student, and now some of you may be facing as you pursue your degrees.

In other ways, the experiences of “manay” Maria, as reflected in her poem, differs from our experiences.  When she wrote this piece, she expected to travel back to the homeland, her “beloved country”.  That’s different for many of us:  we consider this place our home, and we have built it as such.  We are part of the Filipino-American diaspora. 

When the first constitution for the club was first developed, all the way back in 2007, I and the other officers had to reflect on the core values of the club and what we wanted to get out of building a community around Filipino identity and culture here at SMU. 

We were also very conscious that part of our identities were tied to our families immigrating to a new place and building a new life here.  We knew we had to build a new community of our own on this campus, one that harkens back to our families’ homeland and traditions. 

We were also conscious of the fact that this club provided an opportunity for students here at SMU to better learn about themselves and their history by being part of a community.  Rather than feeling completely disconnected to our history or isolated because we didn’t know where we belonged, we wanted to foster a new community in the spirit of hospitality of our homeland.   

We built community through NWFASA events like FilipinOlympics and learning traditional dances with the local Filipino community here in the South Puget Sound.  On February 20th, 2010, the first Barrio Fiesta titled, “Magkaisa:  Uniting the Saint Martin’s Community” developed a new tradition at SMU to ensure that these values continue to live on in this shared community.

Noting that, I want to celebrate the hard work your officers and members of KaPUSO have done to make sure this event and other club bonding activities throughout the academic year have occurred. 

This has been especially difficult given everything’s that happened these past few years.  This fiesta provides us an opportunity to build community here, in this place, by sharing food, stories, and experiences together, while also recalling back to the traditions of our Filipino heritage. 

It’s heartening to see that values of hospitality and community continue on in KaPUSO, as evidenced in this fiesta and other activities of this club.

You all are part of a line of artists and leaders, stretching all the way back over a hundred years to manay Maria and all who came before her, to the leaders of this club when it first began (Kate Alegado, Bianca Galam, Angelica Villanueva, Ninalynn Benitez, Jen Ganal, Albert Davis, and others), to the leaders and members who followed after including Amber Sensano, Christian Munoz, Garnet Hatcher-Algoso, Thomas Quiqocho, Kai San Nicolas, Maya Rodriguez-Chang, Beryl Baon, Jessica Andres, Kacey Selga, Franchesca Ponce, and so many others) to all of your current leaders, and all of you celebrating with us today.  

In our celebration today, you all are taking part in a history of building community in a new place through familiar traditions.  So, thank you for being here.  Thank you for engaging in this tradition.  Let’s let loose some of the burden of responsibility of work, and engaging in an equally important task of building community. 

Salamat, po!  Kain na tayo!