Pacific Islanders on Quest to End Their Cultural Isolation

A girl at my son’s school in Anaheim got upset recently because others did not properly refer to her cultural background. “I am a Pacific Islander,” she said defiantly.

Not Asian. Pacific Islander. Those from islands in the Pacific have been increasing their visibility lately. When some of them found out that the Young Generation Asian Professionals wanted to put on its first Orange County cultural celebration this month, they talked organizers into renaming the event: “Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.”

“We as Asians have a lot to learn about each other’s cultures,” says Margaret Peng, the Young Generation group’s cultural director. “Pacific Islanders have very strong feelings about their heritage.”

Victor Pang of Huntington Beach, who is a board director of the Pacific Islander Community Council, says his group estimates that more than 600,000 Southern Californians are from islands in the Pacific. I confess surprise when Pang told me the Pacific island he’s from: Maui. I never think of Maui as anything but a part of Hawaii, but Pang says those from Maui have a deep interest in their own island’s history and cultural background.

The council’s membership is equally split between Los Angeles and Orange counties, Pang says. It has two directors each from nine island groups: Samoa, Tonga, Hawaii, Guam, Cook, Marshall, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Fiji. Now a 10th has just been added: Rata Nui. Before you hit your almanac for that one, it’s what we know as Easter Island.

The council spends its time helping immigrants from those islands with any problems they might have, educating the public about the cultures its members represent and throwing an annual party to show off their various heritages.

There is one word many people use--and quite often correctly, Pang says--to refer to most islanders: Polynesian. But what Pang and his fellow council members fear is that some people will wrongly think of Polynesians as one ethnic group. At the annual festival, for example, each island group does its own dances. “It’s not just a Polynesian revue,” Pang points out.

This year’s annual gathering, held recently in Wilmington, was themed “In the Eyes of the Children.” Jane Kaalapang, Pang’s wife, who is also active in the group, says it’s for the children’s sake that they are so intent on keeping up these ties to the islands. If my son’s school friend is any indication, they’re succeeding.

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Seventh Sun Time: Cal State Fullerton is excited about its production of “Hair” taking off for Chicago in August as part of the entertainment for the Democratic National Convention . What memories that brings back. . . .

I was stationed at 5th Army Headquarters just north of Chicago my first year in the Army. Weekends we’d take the train downtown to the USO, where we could pick up free tickets for movies or live productions. The catch was you had to attend these shows in uniform.

“Hair” was a huge hit at the time, and the USO always had choice seats. Since few soldiers wanted to be seen at an antiwar production wearing government issue, plenty of tickets were always available. I’ve lost count how many times I saw “Hair”--at least half a dozen successive weekends in one stretch. Since I was fresh out of college and having a bit of difficulty adjusting to life at a military headquarters, “Hair” became my conduit with the world as I’d once known it.

It’s nice to see the musical has some sentimental value for Bill and Hillary Clinton too.

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Getting That Last Ounce: Theron Lee Cohen of Tustin is so upset with Newsweek magazine he’s asked that it cancel his subscription. But Newsweek decided to put Cohen’s comments to use first.

When the Navy’s top officer, Adm. Jeremy Boorda, committed suicide earlier this month, it was on the heels of Newsweek making an inquiry whether he had been wearing Vietnam valor medals he wasn’t authorized to wear. (He had been on a ship off Vietnam shores twice, but the medals required actual combat time.)

Cohen wrote Newsweek: “Please tell me you have more important issues to investigate than whether or not an individual should have worn a bronze ‘V.’ ” Newsweek used Cohen’s comments in the lead paragraph of one of its stories last week discussing the Boorda suicide.

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Post-Simpson Work: Del Seyedan of Irvine won a moot court competition at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, beating out 360 other law students. It means she’ll be invited to join its prestigious honors program. One of the judges before whom she had to argue her case: Lance Ito of Los Angeles County Superior Court.

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Every 720 Hours: The Public Law Center in Santa Ana, which provides free law help to indigent clients, has a new gimmick it’s pushing to get more lawyers to donate time. It’s called “One Hour Per Month.” Because of the county’s bankruptcy, says executive director Scott Wylie, “services to our area’s poor have been stretched to the limit.”

Only 9% of the lawyers in the county provide pro bono representation to the poor, Wylie says, noting that Los Angeles County’s comparable numbers are four times as high. Most of the cases the center handles, he says, would take a lawyer fewer than 12 billable hours of time.

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Wrap-Up: As part of its cultural heritage month, the Young Generation Asian Professionals will host a reception Wednesday night at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. Display tables will be set up representing a variety of Asian cultures. Peng says the group, whose members are generally 23 to 40, is trying to encourage a higher visibility in mainstream Orange County.

“I hate to say it, but some Asians are not that active in community affairs,’ she says. “We’re trying to encourage them. We want to counter anyone’s thinking that Asians do not care about what goes on in Orange County.”

* Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or sending a fax to (714) 966-7711.