 Okay, we're back. We're live. I'm J. Fidel here on Tink Tech, the 2 o'clock block on a given Tuesday. Make that May 30th. And we have with us a fellow who is actually going to do a show with us starting next Monday. His name is Richard Concepcion. He's going to do a show called Hispanic Hawaii. We can be every two weeks starting, what, 3 o'clock next Monday, the 5th. Yes. Okay, so welcome to the show, Richard. Nice to have you here. Oh, thank you so much for the opportunity and so happy and excited to be part of this team. Well, tell us about yourself, where you came from, what you've been doing, what brought you to this table? Well, first let me tell you a little bit about myself. I was raised in Caracas, Venezuela, born in the Dominican Republic. My family moved to United States in 1985. We used to live around West Point Academy, upstate New York. Dreams to be a professional actor in 1985. Very difficult things to do. So I enjoyed the military when I spent 23 years. After many different deployments from Desistar, Desishir, Afghanistan, Iraq. Oh, the whole thing. Oh, enchilada as they say. Yes. So I decided to retire and stay in Hawaii, this beautiful land of diversification of people and I really love to be here. So I've been here for 14 years now. Yeah, yeah. So what do you find about the, you know, aside from the diversity, what do you find about Hawaii that, you know, meets your expectations? Well, what I like about Hawaii is not only just the people, but it's the land of opportunity. Anybody can come here and create something, I don't think. So I fit in within that category when I retired from the military thinking what I'm going to do next. Yeah. So I went back and see the things that I really love to do, which was acting. So I went back to the principal of professional actors and continued what I left behind in 1985. So after that I got into radio, television, and teach coach mentors, many kids through Susan Page and become an actor. Los Angeles. Maybe they follow the career. Yeah. So I ended up going to LA and got some training to get myself a day, came back to Hawaii and was teaching Susan Page modeling. Oh, that's great. Yes. That's fabulous. So your ultimate aspiration is to make films, I guess. Well, my inspiration is about the freedom of expression and the art, but within the movie industry, all the television industry. Okay. As we all express ourselves in many different ways. Some people like painting, singing, writing, I like the television because I can get to the audience within seconds. Yeah. That's not so easy, actually. It's not easy task, but people like you and others that within the television industry open the opportunity to others like me. So I'm here to do what I really like to do. So what have you been doing in radio and television? Let's let our people know about your ramp up to where you are now and what you're doing now in terms of radio and television. Well, I work as a co-host in the Alma Latina show, which is a KPRP 650 AN, which is one floor below here. Yeah. This building is filled with media of one kind or another. Yes. It's a pioneer plaza downtown at the core of downtown. Yes. So I'm with Nancy Ortiz, she's the host of the Alma Latina show and together we create what she created the Alma Latina show. We are the co-host and I do everything and anything that I had to to get the community involved through radio and also created the Latin connection, which is a television show through Olelo channel 53. How often does that play? It happens every Tuesday, which is today at 5 p.m. You can watch it. Today's show is about brain injury, PTSD, ADHD and everything that you can do to ursicide your brain, just like a ursicidal body. But the show is all about entertainment, education, culture, and opinionators. So it's not necessarily near these shows, it's necessarily limited to Latino issues? No, it's not limited to the Latino issues. The reason in a Latin connection because I'm Latino, I like to get people connected. So that is the reason. But we've had that same experience. You start out with a fairly narrow perspective and you title the show something fairly narrow, but then over time you get to meet people, you get to talk about, read about, hear about other issues and so you sort of migrate out of that narrow channel into other things. It sounds like that's what's happened with you. Well, with the Latin connection we focus with a lot of activity that happened with the Latin community. We take that and we put in channel 53 for those that are Latino to enjoy and those that are non-Latino, they get enriched with the Latino culture. We do from interview to go to different events and do interview as well at different locations. So it's a produced show. You take your camera out, you get some footage outside, you come out and make a show for a little. Incorrect. And now we have a crew that we go places and do things and we create a show in and out of the studio. So it's not just always in the studio. It's an hour long show. It's a half an hour show. Half an hour show. It's still a lot of work. Yes, it's a lot of work. The important is to get to the audience what they wanted to see, what is really happening within the community. Also have the opportunity to go to Cuba just to bring to not only just Latino, but non-Latino Hawaii what is happening in Cuba. Yeah, that's so interesting. So it went there specifically for the show, it wasn't just a tourist experience. You wanted to bring back some payload for your audience. Correct. What I do sometimes I go into the website and I put a quest in there, you know, like through Latin connection, hi, we have in Facebook. And I just put it out. Who would like to know a little bit about Cuba? And the response was amazing. So I didn't expect this to come from Hawaii, right? Yeah. So I ended up going to Cuba and I was able to bring a program that I call Cuba of yesterday and today, showing the history of Cuba and the change that Cuba has made from yesterday. So interesting through your eyes. I mean, you're the producer. You're conceptualizing what's happening here. Correct. That's not a pun on your name, by the way. So anyway, let's know that's fantastic. So tell us a little more about the content of that show about Cuba. Well, about Cuban show we dedicated first to understand the people in Cuba. It is 12 different rules that we had to follow in order for us to go into Cuba. And it was kind of complicated. So I was able to choose one that called it from people to people we required to meet people. Under that rules, we was able to go into Cuba, experience where all the people had experience from the time of the revolution and to the new generation that never had experience of the revolution. But see how now Castro brother is in charge and Castro is gone, able to witness President Obama coming into Cuba in April 11, 2015 and opening a new opportunity for new hopes into that country. Yeah. So did you find the people hopeful and friendly and welcoming to Americans and to other Hispanics? To my surprise, they really loved American people. And they had so much hope for Cuba to open to just no halfway completely. They are dying for exchange of ideas, to catch up with the new technology that we have from the website, from the internet to a new device. It's an awakening. It's awakening. But the new generation, someway, somehow they're able to follow with the train that is happening here in the United States. You know, although they say that when you take a place that has been sort of behind the eight ball for a while and indeed Cuba has been isolated for a long time, and then you bring in, you know, new influences and new tourists who are spending money and all that, you threaten the fabric of the place. And you, you know, you to the extent that they have a beautiful thing, and I believe they do, you threatened that with with the tourism and the money and the new possibilities that that may lose the fragile nature of what they've achieved over the past 50 more than that years. That's a true statement. But they are open to new ideas. And that is the key to break the wall down and started in a new way with new generation. So if you look at the history of Cuba, and it's deep in culture, it started way back in the 1400 with Spain, find Cuba and brought the slain to Cuba. You say, I'll say, I play for agriculture for sugar can. Then the United States want to take over the land. That's how we started the Spanish war. Sure. Sure. And then they go along history. And for my surprise, people really don't look back in the past. They want to look into the future. They do have a lot of pride of the Cuban heritage and what Fidel Castro did for them. But on the side that really can't say too much about the dark side or that time of the Fidel Castro. That's a really great idea that you went there. I wanted to go there, not for a show necessarily, but just for curiosity to see the reopening. And I think the reopening is happening at high speed right now. It's happening so fast. You can see Airbnb is there. Really? Then they know they're alive. And you see all the different cruise ships coming in from different places from Europe or from Russian. It's just a lot of people in Cuba right now trying to see this beautiful old car from the 1930-1940. Right before they disappear. Before they disappear. And all the houses are still back in the days untouched. So working to move forward to a new future. For my surprise, one thing that I was very surprised was the Fidel Castro. He was a student of law. And when he tried to change the country, he was put in jail. And when he was free, he went to Mexico. So I never knew that part of the story. And that was very unique to me. Because he has spent years in Mexico trying to get himself reorganized to combat and liberate Cuba to make what Cuba is today. I find that so often, you know, the developments in a person's life tend to make him an activist. Jail is often part of that. You know, when they come out, they have ideas. They want to change the world. And we want to change the world, too. With you. But we're going to take a short break first. Okay. This is Richard Concepcion. He's the host of our new show, Hispanic Hawaii. We'll take one minute. We'll be right back. And we'll find out more about what he's planning. All right. Thank you. I'm Kauai Lucas, host of Hawaii Is My Main Land every Friday at 3 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. We talk about things of interest to those of us who live here. And my past blogs can be found at kauailukas.com. Okay. I didn't listen. Aloha. My name is Steven Phillip Katz. I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist. And I'm the host of Shrink Wrap Hawaii where I talk to other shrinks. Did you ever want to get your head shrunk? Well, this is the best place to come to pick one. I've been doing this. We must have 60 shows with a whole bunch of shrinks that you can look at. I'm here on Tuesdays at 3 o'clock every other Tuesday. I hope you are too. Aloha. Okay. Bingo. We're back. I'm Jay Fidela of Think Tech. We're here on Hispanic Hawaii. We're calling this show Introduction to Hispanic Hawaii with Richard Concepcion. He's the host of that show. And it starts playing next Monday, the 5th of June at 3 o'clock. So, and Richard is a radio and television host. And he has done a lot, you know, in terms of the public media. And I think he is right on the same path that we are trying to raise public awareness about things the community needs to know. And your community, you know, at least the basic part of it is the Hispanic community in Hawaii. Can you talk about what that community is like? How big is it? What sort of, you know, what sort of, what sort of arrangement is it like? I mean, how many people, what are they doing? How strongly are they knit together? Well, let me start by telling you that came to Hawaii in 2000. And just like any other Latino go to a different location, the first thing we ask ourselves, where are the Latinos? Yeah. And for my curiosity, I find out the Latinos, they are not segregated here in Hawaii. You can go to New York, LA, Chicago, all the different major cities like Miami, and you can find that Latinos, they are segregated. So you can say, well, I'm going to, to the barrio from the Dominican Republic, I'm going to the barrio from Mexico, and you find them in different places. That's not the case here in Hawaii. But you know, that back in the early 20th century, they, they brought in a number for the work on the plantations. They brought in a number of people from Puerto Rico. True. And there was an Hispanic community back when, I don't know how long they've lasted or whether they're still together, but they were, at the time, they were brought in together and they did form a community back then. And I think that kind of got integrated within the community and the segregation kind of stopped as Latinos got involved in the community and got married with the race here in Hawaii. Sure. The last count of the Ceci viewers that we're looking was in 2010. And we found out the Latino population here had rose 38 percent, the fastest growing race in Hawaii was the Latinos. Yeah. Right now, we're roughly about 120,000 Latinos in Hawaii. Really? So I have a population of 1.3, 1.4 million. That's pretty good. That's a substantial percent. That's almost 10 percent of the population. Yeah. And that's officially, when you look into the unofficial count, because we have the militaries that bring Latinos into Hawaii. You have civilian contractors, they work for the military, bring a lot of Latinos into Hawaii. It's roughly about 160,000 Latinos in Hawaii. When you add the military. When you add the military government and all that. Yes. The only thing you just can go in downtown and say, hey, where's my Latinos? Because you're not going to find it because we're part of the communities as well. But for my surprise, reading and analyzing Latinos in Hawaii, and I found out that first Latino came into Hawaii was back in the 1700s, 1740, six years after Captain Cook came to Hawaii. What was the reason for coming? How did that circumstance? Well, the reason was a sailor who came, didn't want to be part of the difficult situation in Spain and he immigrated into Hawaii. It was a good time to leave Spain. Yeah, into Hawaii. His name was Francisco Marin. He came into Hawaii and he was credited to be the first person who planned the first pineapple here in Hawaii. That's right. Yes. And he got off the ship. He got off the ship, stayed here and made a life. Yeah, not only that, he was part of the King Kamehameha team about agriculture and natural medicine. So he was documented that this Latino was part of the great kingdom here in Hawaii. So it's a great influence on Latinos here in Hawaii. Is this the kind of thing you cover on your shows? Yes. And the show, we not only entertain, but we educate. We also talk about where the first Mexican group came into Hawaii, the King Kamehameha product. And now we know then, paniolo. In Spanish, it's pañuelos. Because the one that used to cover the shows. Very close. Yes. Panuelo, paniolo. So paniolo must have been taken out of panuelo, no? Yes, it was taken out due to some of the words that we write in Spanish. It can be in the vocabulary of the Afro-Veo, the Hawaiian. So it's very interesting. Yes. But then after that, the Puerto Rico came in. During that time in the 1900s, the Puerto Rico came to work on the sugar plantation. It's kind of weird how it happened because in Puerto Rico, they had this huge tropical storm that damaged the Puerto Rican island. And King Kamehameha decided that he was going to help the Puerto Rican because it was unemployed. It's a lot of the situation going economically. So he hired Puerto Ricans to come into Hawaii and take care of the land. Oh, that was in the 19th century then. That was earlier than I thought. So if you go back now, the Puerto Rico's descendants is roughly 38%, 36 to 38%. And from the Mexicans, it's about 26%. And as we move forward to now, you find people from La Mide, Venezuela, Dominican, Ecuador, Peru, Brazilian, from all over the place here. That's great. I mean, Hawaii is a statement of diversity. And I speak for everybody. I say we like diversity and we like to have not only the diverse group, but we want to have them retain their culture also. And you're into that, I can tell. Yeah, we're into retaining the culture, but we want to share our cultures with others. And just not to be, this is my culture. This is our culture as we learn from the Hawaiian or the cultures here as well. For my surprise, I found people, they're professional hula dancers. They're makes Puerto Ricans from the time of the 1900s. You find professional hula to teach hula. So it's so deep in our culture here in Hawaii, that it is difficult to separate. But you still have to retain it as something to rally around, something to connect people. So you mentioned before the show that you have a number of events coming up. And I guess those fall in the category of trying to identify and express, creatively express the culture, the Latino culture, but also to share it with the rest of the community outside the Latino community. One of them is the Cinco de Mayo. I spent some time in Spain, so I call it Cinco de Mayo, sorry. One of them is the Spanish Festival and one is the Latino Film Festival. Can you talk about these festivals? Well, at the Cinco de Mayo, it was a great festival, a great opportunity for us to not only to go out and drink and have a good time and eat a lot of Mexican food, but to share the culture, the tradition, the dance. What is the reason we celebrate the Cinco de Mayo? It got lost somewhere down the road. The people say Cinco de Mayo is the biggest festival celebration in the United States, bigger than the fourth of your life. It's huge because it becomes part of marketing and money, economy, and booster, right? I remember the difference between the Latino pronunciation and the Spanish pronunciation is Cinco versus Cinco. What is Cinco de Mayo all about? Well, the whole thing is about celebrating when the Mexican army was able to push away the French army. Back in the day, the French and the Spanish had control of a place called Puebla, which was a territory controlled, but then the Mexicans won the territory back. The Spanish didn't want to fight, so they asked money from the Mexicans, and so the Mexicans paid in and they left. But the French army said, now we're not taking any money from you, this is our territory. So they got into the battle and they fought hard, and the Mexicans became victorious, pushing the French army, and that's what we call the Battle of Puebla. That's what I'm here for, too. Every time we have the Cinco de Mayo celebration, go around and educate people what the Cinco de Mayo is. Sure, you want them to remember it's such an important thing. It's not just a drink fest, because to remember the history, it's sort of like Memorial Day yesterday. We want people to remember why they're celebrating Memorial Day. It's true. So, okay, what about the Spanish festival? That's coming up now, right? Well, the Spanish festival, we celebrate it, it's the whole month that is dedicated to the Hispanic community, and we do it every year, so we do the same thing. We bring people from different latino or spain to bring their culture from food, traditional dance. We have hula dancers, we have tahiti dancers. Why? Because we have... Perfect. It's funny, the dance tahitis, and we all put it together, and we bring the community together, with one principle in mind, is to share and educate our culture. Of course, we dance, the mayors come every year. I do an interview to the mayors every year. Yes, it's a big event, and we do it every year. Nancy Ortiz, she's the organizer, we support her the same thing. She organizes the Cinco de Mayo as well. Where is the celebration? It all depends. Sometimes we do it at the Fasi, right there, right behind the mayor, area that open field. We do it there, sometimes we go to Waikiki, whatever is available during the time that we're going to do it. The last Cinco de Mayo we were able to do in Chinatown. Perfect, yes. So, when is the Spanish festival coming up? Are there dates for it? Well, right now we're looking back. We always do an October timeframe, because we celebrate the Spanish month between September 15th and October 15th. So, between the timeframe, we're trying to gather everybody in one location to celebrate culture. Yeah. So, you're going to take a camera down there, aren't you? I mean, I know you're the organizer, one of the organizers, but you're going to take a camera down, you're going to bring back the clips, the film. Yes. And I hope you will show them here as well as your other shows, and let's all see what happens. Nancy Ortiz is the organizer. She has a great and wonderful team, which I'm part of the team supporting this great and wonderful activities and events. And we always do that. We make sure we take the hot light of this event and put it on television to share with others who might don't have the opportunity to make it there. Okay. And speaking of clips and film and video, you have the Latino Film Festival. Tell us about that one. Well, I will be on the organizer for the first Latino Film Festival. Oh, it's the first one. Okay. We're going to start it slow. It's going to be free and open to the public. We take the cost and it's okay. This is the first one. The important is that many Latinos here in Hawaii, they are part of the film industry. They could be behind the scene, maybe the editor, they work on the lights and they work on the sound. They work as a host and they work as a cameraman. So it's a great and wonderful Latinos doing great things for the film industry. And a way for me to recognize the effort is by placing a film festival for the Latinos. It's not only for Latinos. Anybody can bring it into the Latino because it's to share what all the filmmakers do as well. So we're going to start in September or first one. See how we do. How can I find out more about this? Is there a website or are there multiple websites? Well, that website is not running yet. We'll be running sometime soon to provide information, location and time. Where's the film festival is going to be. You're going to announce all of this on your show. So take a look at Camera One, Richard. And those are the people out there. It's a whole mix of people. They're watching us now. And tell them why they should tune in at three o'clock on Mondays every other Monday to talk about Hispanic Hawaii. Tell them why they should tune in. Well, I want to invite each and every one of you to tune in to Hispanic Hawaii with Richard Concepcion, a big host. An important thing is that we're going to share culture. We're going to educate and entertain ourselves about Hispanic culture, Hispanic activities, and not only Hispanic cultural activity, but all the activities that happen here in Hawaii within our community. So you're going to like it. Don't miss it. You are going to like it. Richard Concepcion, radio and television host and star and our host on Hispanic Hawaii, and this has been introducing him. Thank you so much, Richard. Great to talk to you. Thank you so much. Aloha.