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*This speech was delivered at Magkasama 2006—an annual community event hosted by Kaibigang Pilipino at the University of California, San Diego.

Hopefully I will have said something important today. Sunday, November 19, 2006. That is the title of this keynote address. This keynote address is about writing this keynote address. You might be inclined to ask me if I’m trying to be postmodern. I would answer, Hell to the yes. Or if I were a sixteen year old boy growing up in Oceanside, California, I’d say, Hellz yeah. Plural: HELLZ yeah—plural with a Z because I’m hip hop. First of all, one hell is enough. HELL NO is a great expression. But Hells—multiple depths of eternally-damning fire—and affirming it with a YEAH, that’s too much to bear. WE have to be careful with language. I know I try. You as the audience must first convince yourselves that I, Jason Magabo Perez, your keynote speaker, born somewhere of both a mother and a father, have it all figured out. You must assume that I’ve contemplated the impact of this speech on the community. I imagined how I’d come up here and thought about what I would say at this exact moment. At this exact moment, well, when I thought about this exact moment, it wasn’t literally this exact moment, it was a moment in the past, but in that past moment I knew I would be saying THIS to you right now. That’s exactly what I thought about saying to you. I knew it. Sometimes I will name you the audience as if this were some kind of performance. Sometimes I may refer to you as the community. Sometimes I will catch myself and use the word WE more often because you, the audience, and I, WE both know that today is a collective effort. It is quite possible that you are wondering who I really am. It is very possible that WE are wondering who I really am. I say that because to be honest, I don’t know about you, but as for me, I have identity issues, Filipino American ones. We’ll talk about some of those a little later. It’s complicated. Google Jay Perez and first be thrilled because not only is Google your favorite verb now but Google is your go-to and also provides access to all kinds of know-ledge, even knowledge about this community. For example, or since I will be referencing some Tagalog later because this is a Filipino American event, halimbawa: Google leads you to believe that Jay Perez is an adored and well-respected and talented and sexy Latino Pop Sensation from San Antonio, Texas. Yes, this is the absolute truth. Now, why would Kaibigang Pilipino invite a Latino Pop Sensation from Texas to provide a keynote address to the Filipino American community in San Diego, California? Good question, audience! Good question, community! Ask someone from Kaibigang Pilipino and he will or she will have this answer for you: Because it is nothing short of genius. It is nothing short of brilliant. He’s not brilliant and he’s certainly no genius. But bringing a Latino Pop Sensation to speak at a Filipino American community event is hyper-revolutionary. It’s ok to raise your fists now. It is. Go ahead and do that for a good monumental three seconds. It’s not hype or revolutionary. It’s not hyphy or revolutionary. But it is hyper, as in revolutionary caffeine, if you will, and you and I will because WE must continue to take active steps towards community building. One important action is for us to begin by agreeing that this trend of inviting seemingly random Latino Pop Sensations is GROUNDBREAKING for this event. You know it is, admit it. Why groundbreaking? Why that powerfully descriptive adjective? Your average social science student might say it’s because historically, Filipinos and Mexicans have worked together for greater causes. Halimbawa: the United Farm Workers movement. Halimbawa: I wanted to join a Mexican gang when I was seven. For real, I did. We read about Cesar Chavez but we also recognize the contributions of our people like Philip Vera Cruz and Larry Ingliot as active leaders of the community. We read about coalitions, about cross-cultural communities. Last night, Pacquiao bombed on Morales. Bombed on his ass! He didn’t actually bomb on his ass, but I’m saying that in the hip hop sense. He bombed on his ass! But wait, you say, isn’t that intercultural conflict? Isn’t that warlike? It’s not because immediately after the match, Pacquiao hugged Morales quite affectionately. Now that, that, community, audience, is solidarity. So the fact that a Latino Pop Sensation from San Antonio, Texas can jump onto this stage and stand in solidarity with you, shows that WE as a community are doing something right. WE seem to have this all-inclusive community building thing all figured out. We got it on lock. Arnold Schwarz-a-neggar—I can’t pronounce his name correctly. I don’t care. I hate that guy. I’ll call him Julius from Twins. Beware. You probably continue to govern us, but beware: WE don’t have to like it. See, didn’t I tell you that I have it all figured out? That means you, the audience, the community, have it figured out as well. Thank you.

I’m kidding. I’m not even halfway done. I’m just joshing you. Good-natured joshing. Josh is a verb. I want to call you Josh. Josh, or audience, or community, the sad truth: I am not Jay Perez, the Latino Pop Sensation you were so close to convincing yourself I was. I am simply a kid with an identity crisis. For example, nakakahiya ako when I attempt to speak Tagalog because my accent is Americanized. I don’t know how to pronounce things correctly. I don’t even know if WE as a people know how to say community correctly. We never slow down to annunciate this important word. We say, COMMUNI-D, as if the D stood in for the T. COMMUNI-D. Say it: COMMUNI-D. Now try this: COMM-UNITY. See, that way, the word UNITY is heard, maybe that’s what we need to hear. COMMUNITY is a crucial word for us today. And if you’re reluctant to annunciate for fear of sounding proper or even foreign, let’s be about what WE are really trying to be about: Ang Komunidad. See, the D is ok there. It would be ok for the Spanish-speaking Jay Perez as well. It’s the same word with a different spelling. It’s permissible. Let’s challenge ourselves and think about what that means for this event—Ang Komunidad. The first event like this that Kaibigang Pilipino organized was called PHAC—Pilipino History and Arts Celebration. It took place in October 1998, in the UCSD Price Center Plaza, during Filipino American History Month. Actually, that is a lie. I’m sorry, I lied. Forgive me. Remember I don’t know who I am sometimes. Kaibigang Pilipino was not the only organizer of that event. Friends of the community came in support and some of the big responsibilities for hosting that event were taken on by community members who were not UCSD students. In 1999, the event was renamed Magkasama. Tim Cordova, also a non-Latino-Pop-Sensation, spoke about his Eight Rays of Revolution. He spoke about uplifting our community and promoting positive images of ourselves. There were workshops, vendors, information booths and a performance stage all along library walk. The following year, we moved the event to the old ERC lawn on the other side of campus. The title of this event: Magkasama: A Step Together. We continued to step together, to build a movement, something that affirmed our presence here at UCSD but also in the greater San Diego community. In 2002, it rained on the day of Magkasama. But still, the event continued. We moved into the Price Center Ballroom. And a moment of cross-cultural ingenuity happened. In our presence—and if you’re a Gilmore Girls fan it’s okay to admit it because I am too and I am unashamed because you probably watch Laguna Beach—anyways, Keiko Agena, better known as Laine, the Asian best friend, was present at Magkasama 2002. No, she didn’t come to speak or do spoken word or talk about breaking into the industry as an Asian American woman, she was selling T-shirts. I shook her hand and told her that all I wanted to do was shake her hand and I did. It was like a moment of intense solidarity. Recently, the event has moved to the lawn you are now standing, sitting or running around on. Workshops have been reintroduced. Two years ago, caucuses for statewide coalition-building took place. Needless to say, the dialogue has continued. You might know that Magkasama almost didn’t happen this year. There were questions about the efficacy of such an event. Why would we have an event that serves the community in the same way that Barrio Festival serves the community? I will say because serving the community is a job never done. It’s something I hope we never convince ourselves we have figured out completely. I urge you all to think about Ang Komunidad. Think about what we need. Think about what we justly deserve. Magkasama. Let’s break this down. Whoever has taken Tagalog or knows basic grammatical structure of Tagalog, follow me for a second. I don’t want to lead you. “Follow me” is just an expression. MAG-KASAMA. It is a MAG verb. A verb. Kasama. You are my mga kasama, di ba? Partner, comrade, comadre. Root word of Kasama: SAMA—Togetherness, or something to that effect. KA is a prefix that unifies you and me in this. Kasama. Mga Kasama tayo. MAG-KASAMA. It is not conjugated. It is the infinitive form. You know that the infinitive form of a MAG verb is also the imperative. It is imperative that we come together. MAGKASAMA TAYO. It is imperative that we dialogue with each other about the community. There is so much work for us to do. I don’t want to say that I know exactly what that is. Let’s talk about it. I once overheard a community leader claim that we have too many issues we are trying to handle. Why don’t we just focus? If we focus on the community instead of pigeonholing ourselves and isolating our efforts toward only one issue, then we will see progress. We will not lose sight of the larger context that we are a COMMUNITY/ANG KOMUNDIDAD and that is the first thing we must understand. MAGKASAMA because we must come together and work on things collectively. I will commit to learning something new about the community today. I don’t have this figured out, neither do you. This is a beautiful thing, full of potential. How can we make this event—MAGKASAMA—into a practice? If Jay Perez of San Antonio, Texas were here today I imagine he would mention something about his music. Three of his albums are titled: Toda Mi Vida—All My Life; Always and Forever—translation, Always and Forever; and Voice—translation, voice or VOZ or TINIG. This proves that the Latino Pop Sensation may possibly express similar goals as ours: To do this work for a lifetime—we’ve been waiting for it always and forever—and to establish our voice. We need as many spaces like this as possible. Take that first step and ask someone why they are here today. Just as in both Training Day and Malibu’s Most Wanted, Denzel Washington and Jamie Kennedy say, “King Kong ain’t got nothin on me,” Google, Arnold Schwarzneggar, TRL, Gilmore Girls, Laguna Beach, Heroes, your Political Science Professor, I, ain’t got nothing on YOU when it comes to YOUR concerns for this community. In solidarity, Good afternoon.

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