“How can we name such tall mountains after things so small as human beings. Decolonize the mind” – Winona LaDuke

Our very own Mount Rainier, which you can see from the UPS campus on a clear day, was originally named Talol meaning “mother of waters” in the Lushotseed language spoken by the Puyallup tribe. Since Ojibwe Native American environmentalist and activist Winona LaDuke spoke at the Race and Pedagogy conference last semester, her words have stayed with me as I’ve explored the Pacific Northwest’s natural environment.

Last semester I took an Intro to Backpacking course where we learned the basics of camping. We learned to cook with an MSR whisperlite stove, tie strong knots, how to use a compass, topography, and plan the logistics of a trip, wilderness ethics, but of course the most important part was simply enjoying  nature in a respectful way. Outdoorsy stuff is quite new to me as someone who has spent most of her life in the city, but since hiking through the Andes on the trail to Machu Picchu last semester I haven’t been able to get enough of it. This course was a lot of fun and a good way to begin a life-time enjoyment of the outdoors.

At Puget Sound we celebrated Earth Week just a few weeks ago. One of the events was a demonstration of how much waste our campus produces a week, which I can imagine to be A LOT. It reminded me of the Anthropocene.

I first heard about ‘the Anthropocene’ when I visited the Deutsches Museum in Munich with my good friend Joscha. It is essentially the age of humans. An new geological era marked by innovation, industrialization, and massive, irreversible, environmental destruction. The exhibition covered topics such as urbanization,  human-machine interaction, and of course explored the consumption of insects as a future alternative for human nourishment. It really made an impression on me, made me more aware of the actual impact of our everyday sustainability efforts, and also just how deeply the course of humanity has left a footprint on the environment. If you have the chance to check out this exhibition I highly recommend it.

Goat Ridge, South Cascades, Washington.

*This is a blog post I wrote in the middle of the semester but forgot to publish.  I can say that in retrospect, this semester was a challenge. Not only possibly the toughest in my college career but the most rewarding.

This last semester, it’s been a challenge to maintain a balance, with a challenging course load, extra-curricular activities, and lectures, while also planning for post-grad life with job applications and interviews.

In February, my friend and I started a show called “No más” on our college radio station KUPS, dedicated to advocating for the detainees of the Northwest Detention Center (the 4^th largest detention center for undocumented immigrants, in the country). More about this in a future post!

I also had a role in Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues”, a play for women’s empowerment. It was the first time I ever acted on stage, and I’m really proud to have been part it. The great thing about going to a small school is that there are plenty of opportunities to be a part of performance groups without any prior experience necessary, whereas in a much larger school you might have to audition and compete to get a part. In the past I’ve also danced at the Hui O Hawaii’s (Hawaiian club) annual Lu’au, and the Repertory Dance Group ((RDG). All of which require no prior experience!

Again, this semester I’m taking some of my dream classes with some spectacular professors.

My favorite is an International Political Economy class called “Tourism and the Global Order” where we’ve explored tourism and its social, political, economic, and environmental impact. Some of the topics we’ve explored in class are volunteer tourism, cultural authenticity, the effect of tourism on elephants, and how class and status are conveyed through tourism. The main take-away from this class is that tourism is imperfect. It has its trade-offs, and one should not moralize or be preachy about it.

In my Spanish seminar “Utopian Spaces in Latin-American Literature” focusing on the concept of utopia and magical realism in the novels Los pasos perdidos by Alejo Carpentier, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García-Márquez, and Waslala by Giaconda Belli. This has been a really great class. I feel like I developed my Spanish writing skills in a way I had not in other classes.
The Economics of Underdevelopment. A challenging class and heavy on the excel but also accessible and relevant. From micro-finance institutions, education, and market failure, the poverty trap, this class is a must for people interested in development work.

Biology. Which for someone who isn’t a science major and hasn’t taken a class since high school, is death (at least for me). But I am lucky to have had a professor who is really really awesome and I feel like I’ve taken away a lot of essential knowledge from this class . For my extra credit creative project I wrote and illustrated a children’s story book about the Beatle’s exploring the organelles of a eukaryotic cell, entitled “Across the Cellular Universe” of course, following the lyrics of the song.

The great thing about going to a small school is the resources available to you. I have been to the Center for Writing, Learning, and Teaching several times throughout the semester for help with Econ and Biology, as well as for help writing my papers. The tutors and writing advisors are excellent.

This is only a brief reflection of my academic engagement this semester. I honestly don’t think I could have had a better experience anywhere else.

The Hispanic International Studies major, also known as ‘HISP’ is not a very common major at UPS. I personally know only 3 other people in the major! Despite that I think that HISP’s interdisciplinary nature is especially applicable to doing good socially-inspired work within the borders of the United States and transnationally into Latin america , Spain, and even little known Hispanic countries such as the Philippines.

The major consists of 8 units of Spanish language, literature, and culture; 3 units of Politics & Government; and 3 units of Economics and/or business. These are some of my favorite classes I’ve taken in the major.

• Utopian Spaces in Latin American Literature
• Central American Literatures: On Margins, Banana Books, Wars, Diaspora, and Disenchantment
• The City and the Novel in Latin American Literature
• The History of Colonial America
• The Economics of Underdevelopment
• International Organizations
• Human Rights and Law
• International Marketing
• Populism in Latin America
• Tourism and the Global  Order
• The Business of NGO
• Intro to Comparative Politics
• Oral Communication Abilities
• Pre-Colombian Art

At Puget Sound, one of my favorite classes has been Central American Literatures taught by Professor Oriel Siu. We explored literature that interrogates the workings of power and oppression, from the Popol Vuh, to indigenous Maya denunciations of military dictatorships, and the “modernization” brought about by the Bananeras in Central America as a marginalizing project. This course was also a safe space for me to explore my identity as a student of color at Puget Sound, and as a mestiza Filipino-American coming from a country that has also suffered a history of imperialism by Spain and the United States.

One of the classes I enjoyed most when I was studying abroad at the Universidad Católica de Chile was Pre-Colombian Art. In this class we explored the following themes: the “othering” of American art and Shamanism, the myth and ritual in the art of Andean cultures such as the Selk’nam and Tiwanaku among many others, the art of the Maya and Aztec of Mesoamerica, and finally, the manifestations of these art forms in contemporary Western art and syncretism. From this I took away an appreciation of diverse artistic forms from pre-Hispanic America and learned to understand them in their historical and cultural context.

Through the major I have been able to study the history of Latin America and Spain, from Pre-Colombian America, to studies of Modern America: from the construction of the metropolis and its representation in the Latin American novel, the social processes of modernization from Eduardo Galeano’s Las venas abiertas de América Latina, to the politics of populism under Perón, Fujimori, and Velasco Ibarra to Chávez. I have supplemented these studies with my emphasis in Global Development studies, where I have incorporated my interest in Latin American studies into discussions, and for my IPE class ‘The Business of Alleviating Poverty’ wrote a paper entitled “The Role of Civil Society in the Protection of Mapuche Indigenous Rights in Chile’s Transition to Democracy.”

Some of the most interesting paper titles I’ve written this year:

• Can FIFA’s Corporate Social Responsibility Put an End to Racism?
• The Role of Civil Society in the Protection of Mapuche Indigenous Rights in the Transition to Democracy
• Rigoberta Menchú: her living testimony and the Mayan Renaissance
• The Psychomagical Family Tree: a Comparative essay of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s film “La danza de la realidad”
• Is it Really “More Fun in the Philippines”? Reconstructing Place Brand

At the Spanish Matters Colloquium with the great Guatemalan scholar Arturo Arias and my favorite, Professor Oriel Siu

“Here in this village you may see
children living happily
Different race and different land
Here we come to understand
one another’s point of view
learning through the things we do
How alike am I to you.”

This summer, before I immerse myself into the real world adult life that is the workplace, I will be spending a month in Bursa, Turkey and have the chance to be a kid again! CISV is a non-profit global organization dedicated to educating and inspiring for peace through building inter-cultural friendship, and teaches participants to be active global citizens and leaders in their communities.

As a painfully, painfully shy 14 year-old in the Philippines, going to a CISV summer camp was life changing. I met people from all over: New Zealand, Jordan, France, Indonesia, Norway, Brazil, Germany, Spain…We engaged in activities about human rights, diversity, sustainable development, and conflict and resolution, acted silly, and sang lullabies before going to bed: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live us one.” It was the longest time I had spent away from home, and is what inspired me to get away from home and really redefine what home is. Home is the people you’re with.

Since then I’ve been involved with CISV in Chile. I’ve hosted CISV participants at my house. And this summer I’ll finally have the chance to be an adult leader for a group of four wonderful eleven year-old kids (two girls, and two boys) at a summer camp called a “Village.” There we’ll meet with other delegations from another eleven countries. It’s a mini United Nations! Every kid who goes through CISV strives to build a career out of it, and I wish that were actually possible.

CISV has inspired me personally, has made my life more enriching, and has even influenced my career aspirations. Through CISV I’ve met some of the best people and have a network that crosses borders. I think that it has great the potential in the Seattle area, and hope to start up a local chapter if I stick around for at least another year.

“Every time we sit at a table at night or in the morning to enjoy the fruits and grain and vegetables from our good earth, remember that they come from the work of men and women and children who have been exploited for generations…” – Cesar Chavez.

When UPS students get overly excited at the sight of red, delicious strawberries at the Diner, we tend to forget the men and women who pick our fruit. We forget that the reason we have cheap food in the United States is because of the farmworkers who slave away in the fields, barely able to sustain a healthy livelihood for themselves and for their families. Trapped in vicious cycles of poverty, these men, women, and children cannot afford to put nourishing meals on the table.
Professor Oriel Siu’s Intro to Latino studies class organized a discussion with migrant farm work union ‘Familias Unidas por la Justicia’ to raise awareness of this reality that most of us overlook. Ramon Torres, president of the union, shared his experiences working for Sakuma Brothers Berries, the terrible conditions that have forced them to go on strike and why they are boycotting Sakuma, Driscoll’s, and Häagen-Dazs. What these farmworkers and their allies demand is secure living wages of at least $15 per hour, standard living conditions, that the company stop stealing their wages, and respect rather than racial discrimination in the berry fields.

The latino studies class will continue their activism next semester and have formed a club called ‘UPS students for Farm Worker Justice. Another thing we take for granted at our university is how much power we students have organizing together. It’s great to see students step up against the silencing of those who may not have the same privileges we do.

At the event, a lady from the audience told us about her experience working in the fields of Eastern Washington as a young girl. When ‘la migra,’ also known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement would show up, to confuse them the US citizens would flee while the undocumented farmworkers would stay, a clever trick…and so unfortunate that we can’t treat better the hands that feed us.