Two upcoming events are part of Asian-American Awareness Month at SSU.
Asian and Pacific Islander cultures will be celebrated and showcased at Pacific Cultural Night on Wednesday, April 18, from 7:30-9:30 p.m. in Warren Auditorium. This event is free and open to the pubic and is sponsored by the Filipino American Association of Sonoma State University (FAASSU).
Kapwa (Filipino American Association of Sonoma State University's dance group) will perform several dances. Additional performances are slated by the SSU Glee Club, the Blue Baronz Dance Crew and DJ Philly Mac.
Filipino culture is also the center of a community forum on Saturday, April 28 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. in the Cooperage.
In addition to performances by Lizae Reyes and Christina Juguerta, the event includes indigenous music and traditional Filipino dances as well as a cultural fashion show. Families are welcome, and there will be a children's section with traditional Filipino games and other entertainment. A chance for cultural entertainment and socialization, this event is also a potluck.
Peter Jamero, author and oldest son of Filipino immigrants, is the keynote speaker and will be discussing "Diversity, Pinakbet, and You: A Filipino American Perspective."
Raised on a Filipino farm worker camp operated by his parents. Jamero was born in California, but did not speak English until first grade. At the time there were no affirmative action programs to assist him with his education, but despite this Jamero went on to spend four years in the U.S. Navy where he fought in the Korean War. Afterwards he balanced raising a family with attending college at San Jose State and UCLA before graduating from Stanford University as a Public Affairs Fellow in 1970.
Now retired, Jamero had a long and successful career working as a an executive directing multi-million dollar health and human services programs in federal, state and local government. He was also a faculty member at the medical school of the University of Washington.
He has never once neglected his Filipino roots and was the former founding national vice-president of the Filipino American National Historical Society. Jamero is the author of Growing Up Brown: Memoirs of a Filipino American and Vanishing Filipino Americans: The Bridge Generation and will be signing his books at the forum.
This event is sponsored by the Filipino American Association at Sonoma State University (FAASSU), The Filipino American National Historical Society Sonoma County (FANHS), The Filipino American Community of Sonoma County Inc. (FACSCI), the Center for Babylon Studies and Dr. Elisa Velasquez-Andrade, SSU Director of Diversity and the Academic Senate Diversity Subcommittee.
For more information e-mail asianhistory26@yahoo.com.