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Assignment 1: History and Autobiography
Essay Assignment (Autobiography & History): According
to sociologist C. Wright Mills, we can always discover an intersection
between autobiography and history. Each person’s life unfolds
within a particular historical period, and an individual can understand
their own experience by locating their life within history. Each
person’s life is shaped by historic events such as war, immigration,
racism, oppression of women, economic recession, civil unrest, etc.
As C. Wright Mills states, this discovery "in many ways is
a terrible lesson; in many ways a magnificent one." For this
Essay Assignment, each student will write a three-to-five page autobiography
linking their life to history. Students should provide some background
information about themselves (where they were born, where they live,
what are the important things in their life, what are their life
aspirations, etc.). However, they should focus their essays on three
main questions: 1) How does their life intersect with history? (Have
certain historical events, such as war, immigration, etc. shaped
their lives or influenced their life plans?) 2) Why is the discovery
of the intersection of autobiography and history "in many ways
a terrible lesson; in many ways a magnificent one"? 3) Once
a person has discovered this intersection, what meaning does this
discovery have for that person’s life? This assignment is due
by Friday, Oct. 5.
- Eriko Suzuki, "My Life's
Intersection with Asian American Studies"
- Dean Saranillio, "Waking People
Up to Their Humanity"
- Raymond Ramirez, "Shaping Our
Destinies"
- Cheryl Samson, "A First
Generation Pinay's Experience: Transformation and Responsibility"
- Elizabeth Delgado, "My
Family and My Culture"
- Minyoung Bae, "Intersecting
Life with History"
- Diana Yi, "The Historical
Context of My Life"
- Mina T. Son, "My Role in Governing
Change"
- Melissa Hilario,
"Redefining My Life Goals
and Aspirations"
- Christine Tran, "Our
America: Building a New World"
- Genevieve Espinosa,"Who
Am I?"
- Meredith Lee, "Intersection
to the Path of Life: A Historically Related Autobiography"
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Waking People Up to Their Humanity
By Dean Saranillio
I grew up on the island of Maui in a town called
Kahului. I lived approximately two-and-a-half miles from the local
Pu‘unene sugar plantation and living on Maui was constantly
surrounded by sugar cane. The majority of my family labored in these
fields and the sugar cane industry had a deep impact on my family’s
history. My great-grandfather Kumakichi Abe went to Hawai‘i
in 1900. He later married my great-grandmother, Asa Abe (I don’t
know her maiden name) a picture bride from Fukushima prefecture
in Japan. They had four kids one of which was my grandmother, Masako
Inouye. My grandmother was only allowed to go to the fifth grade
and then was kept home to take care of my ailing great-grandmother.
My grandmother always reminded us of this and made it clear to us
that education is a privilege. My grandmother married my grandfather
Yamashita and together they had my mother Eloise and auntie Janet
Yamanoi. They divorced and later my grandmother met my grandfather
Itsuji (which is how I have my middle name). They lived in Camp
three otherwise called McGerrick camp. My mother also worked as
a house servant for one of the Baldwin families, a family which
was a part of the haole oligarchy which helped to illegally overthrow
the Kingdom of Hawai‘i.
On my father’s side my great-grandfather,
Sabas Saranillio came with his wife from the Philippines in 1919,
and went to work at the Ola’a plantation on the Big Island,
often times called Mountain View Plantation. My great-grandfather
was fortunate enough to bring his wife Bibilone. They had an infant
son who died on the long boat ride from Baddian, Cebu in the Philippines.
They later had eight children one of which was my grandfather Fred
Saranillio. Although Sabas was his biological father, my grandfather
was raised by a lone bachelor laborer named Pastor Manahon. Pastor
raised my grandfather and was allowed to adopt my grandfather for
both economic and social reasons. With the lack of Filipinas on
the plantation Pastor was unable to find a wife to start a family
with. He (from what my grandfather had told me) had always wanted
to have a child, which was why my great-grandfather allowed Pastor
to adopt my grandfather (Pastor is my older brother’s middle
name).
I am Yonsei on both sides of my family, both
my dad’s and mother’s. I definitely feel that my family’s
history is pertinent to my present and future. I am a strong believer
of the saying, "If you want to know who you are and where you’re
going, you need to look where you’ve been." As you can
probably tell I am of Filipino and Japanese ancestry but to my recent
knowledge I learned that I’m also Chinese. I did family research
this summer and discovered that my great-grandfather’s mother
was Chinese. This was something that allowed me to pose a lot of
questions, such as why wasn’t I told? Why was my great great-grandmothers
heritage and life kept a secret. This is something I’ll need
to further research. I also through researching found that I had
a great-aunt who was murdered by my great-uncle on Christmas day
somewhere in the 1930s. As to the details of the incident the older
members of my family seems to be very ashamed of what happened and
therefore they’re reluctant to inform the younger generation
of what happened. Maybe because they think we won’t understand
or maybe because they don’t want the story repeated.
I have always been fascinated with my family’s
history. I suppose this helped me to make my decision to major in
Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. While
taking classes there with such professors as Haunani-Kay Trask and
Daviana McGregor I was able to look at my family’s history
in both a positive and negative light. When I learned about the
history of my families struggle on the plantation be it plantation
strikes, political organizing, or empowerment through education
I felt proud of what we had done. However, on the other hand when
I analyze the plantation system, a system that my family helped
to contribute to, I see how my families were used to help empower
the white oligarchy at the expense of Native Hawaiians. The current
system of Hawai‘i which is dependant on the subjugation of
Native land, resources, and sovereignty. And then the reality of
the situation hits, and I learn a terrible lesson about systemic
racism and my families complicit involvement in the disempowerment
of Native Hawaiians. I have become involved in the Native Hawaiian
sovereignty movement and am interested in learning more about strategies
for resisting colonial racism as well as theoretical frameworks
from which I may identify the racism which needs to be combated.
Here at UCLA I want to further my studies of
the various ways that racism disempowers groups of people economically,
politically, and socially. I have a special interest in the history
and formations of racial groups and the ways they resist systems
of oppression. Having taught an Ethnic Studies 101 freshman seminar
course that fulfilled the fieldwork requirement for my major, I
have realized how a lack of knowledge of the oppression and culture
of ethnicities perpetuates racism. When students study about oppression
they first need to learn about that groups humanity. Then through
further studying the exploitation of that group they become better
able to identify racism, to understand how we often oppress others,
to challenge what we know, and to think about how to counter systems
of racism.
I feel that while here at UCLA it will be able
to understand Hawai‘i’s racial problems within a larger
picture of racial injustices and specific strategies for dealing
with them. An educator has the power to motivate and educate a community
to fight for equality and justice, this is what I hope to accomplish
as an educator in Hawai‘i. For example, Malcolm Xís
theories on race and the way that he empowers a community that has
been historically disempowered, has been very inspirational to me.
The way that Malcolm X motivated his community by educating the
African American community of the ways that white racism oppresses
and devalues the Black community was very effective. Malcolm X was
able to empower his community through education of the true value
of African Americans to the United States and to themselves, thus
motivating his community to take action with the cause. In an interview
Malcolm X explained, "The greatest mistake of the movement
has been to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You
have to wake the people up first, then you’ll get action."
"Wake them up to their exploitation?" the interviewer
questioned. "NO, to their humanity, to their own worth."
At the University of Hawai‘i I have learned
about the social stratification of Hawai‘i which illustrates
the link between race and class, exposing racism in Hawai‘i.
In studying works by a variety of talented scholars I have seen
how ethnic minorities continue to be oppressed in a system of racism.
Long term residents such as Filipinos and Native Hawaiians (Kanaka
Maoli) show little evidence of sharing in Hawai‘i’s affluence.
Meanwhile Hawai‘i continues to be portrayed as a State void
of racism. The power struggles that arise in Hawai‘i are not
only struggles against white racism but also power struggles between
people of color. Works by these professors have allowed me to question
the status quo of our system and challenge all that I know. They
present the complexities of the ethnic relations in Hawai‘i
clearly, and their works have instilled in me a desire to learn
more. This is how I view my community and this is where I see my
role in society
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