 Verlina Maikako, and welcome to another episode of Roots Hawaii. My name is Walter Kauaiya, your host. Today's episode is entitled My Filipino Roots, The Life's Journey of Renowned Businesswoman, Benet Misalusha. I'd like to introduce Benet. Benet Misalusha is a seasoned executive and government affairs consultant who has handled sensitive and challenging issues in the past. She brings a wealth of experience and core skills to any project she is involved in. Benet is deeply involved in community and nonprofit work in Hawaii. She is the managing editor of the Phil Am Courier, the state's foremost and oldest Filipino publication. She is a member of the Board of Regents at Shyamalan University, a member of the Community Advisory Board for Hawaii Public Radio, a past chair of the Girl Scouts of Hawaii, and sits on the boards of Oahu Transit Services, the bus, the Filipino Chamber of Commerce, the Filipino Community Center, and the Kauai Filipino Cultural Center. Benet's work has earned her many distinctions, such as recognition as Woman of Distinction in Banking by the Girl Scouts of Hawaii, the United Filipino Community Council's Award in Banking and Finance, the state's mother of the year for American Mothers Incorporated, and one of the top 10 women volunteers in Hawaii by Pacific Business News and was named Woman Advocate for the Year for Education by the Filipino Women's Civic Club. She is also an alum of the Pacific Century Fellows Program, Hawaii's version of the White House Fellows. She has two adult children, Christian and Daniel. Welcome, and Aloha, Benet. Thank you, Walter. Thanks for having me. Oh, thank you very much. And it's an opportune time, because actually this month we celebrate the nation, celebrates Filipino-American Heritage Month. Oh, my goodness, and are there... I'm assuming there's a variety of activities that are going on all over the... All over the country. Yes. In Hawaii, we just had our Filipino Community Center gala, which is part of that. We have Filipino film festivals that are happening. There are a smattering of activities. We're all intended to link us and make sure that we stay connected to our Filipino-American roots. Well, I appreciate you saying that, because in the world of genealogy and family history that many of us are involved in, the buzz phrase now is discover, gather, and connect. And it all has to do with our... Connecting with our roots. So, are these... I'm going to imagine that a lot of people from the community at large, from the Filipino community attend these events. Oh, particularly, yes. But, you know, the Filipino Community has such a wonderful history in Hawaii. Of course, we started in 1906 when there were 15 Filipinos who came to the islands, and they were recruited by the plantation to be part of the workforce. As you know, there were many, many other ethnic groups that came, but the Filipinos were one of the last ones. And from that humble beginnings, now we have 25% of the state's population that are Filipino-American ancestry. That's quite a number. You shared that with me earlier. I didn't realize it was that large. I'm curious. So, what was the year that the first... 1906. 1906. I'm curious from what particular place in the Philippines did that first group come from? From the Ilocos region. You know, in fact, if you look at our existing amalgam of where they're coming from, I would say 80% of our Filipinos here in Hawaii are from that north, from that northern part of the Philippines. Of course, the Philippines is a very diverse country. We have 7,100 islands. Oh, my goodness. And our language, yes, we speak many languages. I think as of last count, there's like 80 languages, real languages, and about 150 dialects. So, the national language, though, is Filipino or Tagalog. But here in Hawaii, what's most prevalent is Ilocano. So, when people gather, you would probably hear Ilocano being spoken. I'm curious. So, back at home in the Philippines, that many different dialects matter throughout, I didn't realize there were that many dialects consisting of making up the Philippines. Do the culture, the very dialects of cultures, are they able to communicate? Well, that's the reason why back in the 60s, they had to establish a national language. Because by virtue of the fact that we're so divided land mass wise, there has to be a unifying factor. And so, Tagalog became the national language. And it started in schools, just like how English is taught in schools. The major businesses are transacted, both in English and in Filipino. And then also, our films are in Tagalog. But, albeit, there are pockets of, you know, like very strong regionalism. The Ilocanos, for instance, are very proud of their heritage and legacy, and same thing for the Visayans, the Sibbanos. So, again, it's a very proud country. We have a lot to be grateful for, a lot to be proud about. I was going to say, you know, that's good. It's a good thing to be proud of where you come from. And, you know, that helps to provide some, you know, bonding, you know, always as a community. I liken it here in Hawaii. I mean, you know, as Hawaiians, we take pride from the island that we come from. Because that's kind of how we converse, you know, when we meet each other. Oh, so where were you born? What island, what high school you went to? You know, what's your family name? You know, that kind of thing. It's all about genealogy and connecting and roots. So, when was the first ancestor in your family ever come to Hawaii? I'm first generation. Oh, you're first generation? Yes, yes. My parents moved to San Francisco. But I chose to come to Hawaii thinking that I would go back to the Philippines because I had a job waiting for me there. But as it turned out, I got married here to a local person who was born and raised here but of Filipino ancestry. And so my children, of course, were born here and this is home. This is home. Well, you know, we have a lot to talk about today. Yes, yes. So I want to ask our engineer if he could put up on the screen our first black and white day you go. So who are we looking at here? Yeah, that's my grandfather, Luciano and Carmen Misalucha. We come from humble beginnings. My father's roots are from Bicol, Camarinesur. I mean, sorry, Buhi Camarinesur. And then on my mother's side, she's Cavitenia. And unfortunately, I couldn't dig up pictures from my mother's side. But again, very loving traditions. My mother came from Tagaitai. That's my mother. She was just beautiful. And she's 85 years old, yes, now. By any chance, would that be you? Yes. That is you. Okay, everybody take a photo. There we go. I know, I know. It's always good. I love looking. You know, for some reason, I love black and whites over colored pictures. I don't know what it is. I connect well with those pictures. You look very cute, by the way. Thank you. But you know what? There are three daughters. And my grandma used to say that we cannot compare ourselves to the beauty of our moms. Our mom. Because she was like a beauty queen in her own right, when she was single. But to this day, she's still kikai. I tease her about it. Because she's 85, but still very well put together. Does mom live here? No, no. She used to live here. She was in the States for more than 25 years, but then decided when my father passed away to go back to the Philippines and be where everything is familiar. So she lives in the Philippines. So there's five of us. I'm the oldest of five children. Three girls and two boys. So it's girl, boy, girl, boy, girl. And so the girls all live in the States. I have a sister in Utah, another sister in Texas. But the two boys chose to stay in the Philippines. And one brother works for Philippine Airlines. So thankfully I have that privilege to be able to go back and forth to the Philippines at a reasonable rate. And I can visit mom. Oh, nice. We'll ask Eric to throw up our next picture. There we go. Yes. Is that mom? That's mom. And if you notice the color coding. So whoever belongs to, yes. So there are, as of last count, 20 grandchildren out of the five children. And everybody, we are a very loving, amazing family. Well, I could just tell. And I saw you on the end there. Yes. Was it Navy Blue? Correct, correct. It was very nice. You know, my wife comes from a large family from North Kohala, so I can identify with that picture. And her family has had, well, my mother-in-law was the fourth oldest of 14 children. And they all were there in Kohala. And they've been having family reunions for the last 16 years. And at the first family reunion, they were close to 450. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, they came out. And they were very consistent in having them. And as a result, you know, our children were young then, but they were able to grow up and all of the cousins in that same generation. Yes. So, you know, I realized how huge of a benefit it is to connect that way. You know, because families are spread out. My son just got married to Caroline Dunley. Her roots are Ohio, although her family lives in Boston, but get this. So the father is the second of 10. The mother is the oldest of nine. So as a result, she has 51st cousins. Oh, my goodness. So when she got introduced to our family, it did not faze her. Yeah, it was just, oh, very good. Yes, exactly. I feel at home. I feel at home. Okay, there we go. That's your son. Yes, that's my son. Oh, nice. And I think we also had a reception for them here. And this was back in Washington, D.C., where my son is based. This is in Alexander, Virginia. That's my daughter, Danielle, who works at the Capitol. She is a legislative aide for one of the state senators. Oh, nice. We got another picture there, Eric. Oh, this is in Cebu. That's mom. This was in Cebu when we visited, and this was at our church temple. Nice. And everybody came home to, this was in 2010 or 11. Everybody looks fresh and clean. So this is the reception that I was talking about. This was at my son's reception here. We had brought the family over so that her family can see for themselves what Hawaii is all about. And so we had one here in Honolulu and another one on Maui where their father's family's from. Oh, that's exciting. Well, just to let our viewing audience know we wanted to connect for us with, you know, Benette's roots and looking at her family pictures because that always helps us as human beings to connect when we see each other's families. We're about ready to take a break and we're going to come back and we're going to address some questions concerning the Filipino community that Benette, you know, with her background, we could have had a whole show regarding that. But because of where her heart is, she wants to talk about, you know, some of the things going on in the Filipino community that perhaps may directly affect our younger generation and how they're dealing with, you know, the world that they live in right now and it's a very confusing time. And so we'll be back with our guest, Benette Misalusha. I'm your host, Walter Kavaya for Roots Hawaii. We're going to take a 60-second break and we'll be right back. Aloha. My name is Becky Sampson and I'm the host of It's About Time. On the Think Tech Hawaii, a digital nonprofit organization that's raising public awareness. Join us on Wednesday at 2 p.m. where we talk about real issues. Some of the topics will include entrepreneurship, health, life skills, and growing your business. So once again, this is Becky Sampson on It's About Time. On Wednesday at 2 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. Mahalo. Hi, guys. I'm your host, Lillian Cumick, from Lillian's Vegan World. I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. and this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health regarding your health, and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier, and have fun at the same time. So do join me. I look forward to seeing you and aloha. Aloha mai kakou and welcome back to our second half of today's episode entitled The Life and Roots of one of Hawaii's renowned businesswoman, Lynette Misalucha. Welcome. Thank you. Okay, I have some questions that I'd like to ask of you. Our first question is, how do you instill the love of the Filipino culture with your children? You know, you start them young, obviously. From the very beginning, you talk about how proud you are of your heritage. You talk about and feed them the food. I mean, that's always the great opener. Get them familiar with some of the words. You know, it's very difficult to really instill the language because they may not have the ability to speak it, but to this day, my kids tease me and blame me for not teaching them honestly because obviously they have, you know, cousins in the Philippines. And when I take them to the Philippines, my daughter and I just came back from the Philippines about three weeks ago, yes. And she hadn't been back three years from that time. But now I think after this year, we said let's go make a point to go every year. There's nothing like just being, you know, in territory, in familiar grounds. So let me share with you a little bit about how I really think second generation, so like my kids are second generation, it's important for them to touch bases because they are the key to our future, to our community's future, Walter. Think about it this way. The first immigrants, the first generation will always be connected to the motherland because especially if they were brought here from the time they were 10, they have, you know, wonderful memories of that. So, but the second generation, they straddle two worlds, the world of their parents, which is, you know, the Philippines, and then of course the mainstream. And how they experience that will translate into how they raise the third generation. If it was a positive experience when the third generation comes, particularly if they get married to non-Filipinos, they're still able to bring that love for that culture there. But if it was a negative experience, and mind you, there are instances when it has happened where we have negative stereotypes that we have to contend with. We have, you know, situations that, you know, make them distance themselves from their heritage. Whatever the case may be, when they become parents themselves, they take themselves as local. Yeah. And they may look the part, they may even have last names that are very Filipino sounding, they may have the flat noses, whatever, you know. But at the end of the day, they say they're local. Right. Or they'll say they're Chinese, Spanish. They're, it's a fact of our, you know, and a challenge to our community that we have kids who deny their heritage. And hopefully, you know, we are working towards changing that paradigm. I have a mirage of questions to ask. So first generation, I get that. That's the, like, your first generation because you were born in the Philippines. Yes. And migrated. Right. And your children did not have that opportunity to be born in the Philippines, to connect to the motherland. That's the second generation, meaning they were born somewhere out of the Philippines. In this case, they were born here. But there's another, I don't know what you call this, kind of another, I don't know if it's a generation or another grouping. And these would be those children, perhaps of that second generation that growing up in Hawaii, if they did not marry Filipino within that second generation and ended up marrying local, even non-Filipino, say Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, whatever. They classify, I think you were telling me this earlier, that they classify themselves as local. Local, right. So it's almost like there's three groupings within this second generation you have. Yes. And so I'm curious to find out, I mean, do they all love and hug each other or are their differences cause problems or is it really key, as we say in Hawaiian? Yeah, I think it's getting there where it's a positive experience. I think, okay, for one thing, the second or the third generation, there seems to be a trend now of embracing your identity, your culture. And of course, efforts in the community have contributed to that, whether it be things like Sarilingawa or even at the community colleges where they have events and even Operation Manong, which is at the University of Hawaii, which has been there for the last 30 years, to make sure that we integrate our cultural identity. And I don't mean being less American. I think you can be as American as can be and then still bring and enhance that experience as whatever the ethnic identity that you may be part of. It's just like what the Hawaiians do. Exactly. I mean, we're Americans, but we're not going to allow that, we're Americans to cause us to separate from our Hawaiian culture and our Hawaiian heritage. There's a void that's there if for instance you neglect it or you deny that. So hopefully our kids, so do your question about it being where? So I think there's a melding in the middle of where people love Filipino food, for instance. And do you know that it's actually emerging in the culinary market as one that people are now wanting to taste? Because you know, the Thai food phase, the Chinese has always been there, the Japanese. But now people are discovering the tastiness of Filipino food, particularly adobo. In fact, Bon Appetit in their latest, I think this year's Foundation Awards, they've actually had a Filipino restaurant in Washington, D.C. and the chef thereof is like the number one chef. So for those of you who appreciate Filipino food, Ube, for instance, is beginning to be a very mainstream type of food. And you know, in today's culinary world, a lot of these chefs of today are experimenting and taking some of the adobo and can get to a different level for the taste buds that go out to the rest of the world. And I love it, yes. I mean, these are comfort foods that I grow up with, and then I go to even places like Alan Wong's, by the way. Did you know that he had a step-father who is Filipino? Oh really? Yes, who taught him a lot. I see a lot of items in his menu that are of Filipino influence. Influence because of that part of his DNA. Correct. I think that's wonderful. You know, getting back to, I mean, we may never get to the second question, but you know, getting back to, so how do you, as the first generation, as the parent of the second generation, how do you teach them to integrate? I'm curious when you have all of these events, like you said, this is a Filipino month of the second generation. Do these second generation, like your children and their children, are they involved in these events? I mean, I see that as an avenue of partaking of the culture by participating. So this is very much instilled in them at that age. It has to be a multi-pronged approach, right? It's not just one and all be all approach. But for me, the most significant action that you can take is taking them back to the Philippines. I have been in situations where I have brought second or third generation Filipino Americans who may not have as much of a connection with the Philippines, and I've taken them on particularly humanitarian missions. And when they come back from visiting the Philippines, they are completely transformed. They want to dig deeper into the roots. They want to connect. And it's because when you're there, there is something that transforms you, that connects with your soul. And you see all these people who are just like you, and you just realize the enormity of the fact that this is where your fourth bearers come from. And that comes to you in many fold, and then you take that gift and you bring it back home. And that's how hopefully travel, you know? The other thing is, I think it starts from the home. You yourself, as a Filipino American, has to be proud and to demonstrate and showcase that to your children. Because you may not necessarily say it, but the way you act it. So my own children sometimes is interesting. So my son went to University of Michigan, and University of Michigan had a very strong Filipino student program that he learned to dance, didn't cling, learned to love everything of the Filipino food that he didn't touch before. But because he was missing home, he started to eat all the Filipino desserts that he, in the past, maybe didn't touch too much because it was just there, right? But when you're missing home, it became such a, you know, something that connected you. Isn't that crazy, though, to think that your son had to go to Michigan to connect. But, you know, getting back to travel, back to the homeland, you know, like for me, on my father's side of the family, we come from Maui, and we come from a community called Kalpo. And so my wife and I were recently there, and it does make a huge difference when you connect with your Aina or your land. It does change your world. And so we're planning a trip. I want to take my children and our grandchildren back because they've never been there. And it's a way to make them connect. I mean, they're not on Hawaiian. But this will just, you know, increase their awareness of where their roots come from. All right, we do. I haven't heard my engineer, but I want to get to this next question there. That's that word I want to use. That's why. What Filipino values did your parents inculcate in you while you were growing up? Did you continue to practice here in the United States or in Hawaii, in your own family? And of course, these values are probably universal, not necessarily just relevant to the Filipino community. Well, faith in God, first of all. My parents, my dad was one of those who would gather the whole family together. And I get choked up when I talk about it because it just brings back a lot of lovely memories for me. And gather them. And he would tell us stories about his family and especially the war stories. And even if you've heard them over and over again, you can't, you know, wait to hear about it. And I, in my own way, has done that with my children. You know, we have traditions. Do you know that one of my traditions in my family, for instances, my dad would say our birth story every time it's your birthday. So you get to hear how my mom had to be rushed to the hospital. I was born in the middle of a Thai food in the Philippines. And the Thai's name was Agnes. Well, fast forward. And of course, they, for a minute, thought that they would name me Agnes, but they didn't. Well, I don't know. Those people who are named Agnes, why do I call it? But I name after my maternal grandmother, Benita. Benita Espineli. See, but that has more of a connection to your roots. Yes. And so, and my father's name is Ben. So that kind of worked out. But to the same, I would call my children and whatever time zone they're in and I would tell them their birth story. And you know, my children are 32 and 28 now and they look forward to it. My son says, Mom, you haven't called me in one case. I missed. I don't want to hear that story. Exactly. Isn't it wonderful? Yeah, it is. I like that tradition. I've never heard that before. And you know, it instills a certain connection to the children and then they'll pass that tradition on to their children. I would hope so. I would hope so. Hopefully they'll do that. Yes. Okay, I have some sad news. We're out of time. I know. So sorry. No, and so I say this not to all of my guests, but I am going to say this on air. We have to come back sometime next year. It will be my honor and pleasure. But maybe we can, you can bring someone, you know, directly related to what the topic is. Yes. We'll talk more off the air. Okay. Thank you so much, Bennett. Mahalo maraming salamat po. Thank you. Mahalo nui. Well, our time is gone, folks. And we want to say a big mahala to Bennett Missalusha, our guest here on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm your host, Walter Kawaii. For Roots Hawaii, join me next month with more interesting stories about genealogical research. Allah no.