When you hear the drum beat coming from the heart of Gilroy
Sunday, you will know that the Tongans have arrived.
When you hear the drum beat coming from the heart of Gilroy Sunday, you will know that the Tongans have arrived. “Malo e lelei” is the greeting you’ll hear as 25 Tongan dancers arrive from Sanger, to perform at 5pm in the parking lot of the United Methodist Church. The dancers are originally from the Kingdom of Tonga, which is an independent archipelago made up of 176 islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. Tonga has a total area of 290 square miles and an estimated population of 114,921. It lies about a third of the way between New Zealand and Hawaii, south of Samoa and east of Fiji.
Polynesians have lived on Tonga for at least 3,000 years. Tonga became a constitutional monarchy in 1875, ruled by the strategist and orator Chief Tu’i Kanokupolu, who went by the name of King George. Tonga’s status as a protectorate of the British Empire lasted from 1900 to 1970, when it ended under arrangements established by Queen Salote Tupou III prior to her death. Tonga gained independence on June 4, 1970. While exposed to colonial forces, Tongans proudly note that Tonga has never lost indigenous governance, a fact that makes Tonga unique in the Pacific.
The Tongan celebration is part of commemorating May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asian and Pacific Islanders in the United States. On Oct. 5, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating the annual celebration. May was chosen because it is the month in which the first Japanese immigrated to the United States (May 7, 1843), and it also marks the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad (May 10, 1869). The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is celebrated with community festivals, government-sponsored activities and educational activities for students. This year’s theme is “Lighting the Past, Present, and Future.” Not only are the Tongans celebrating Asian Pacific Heritage Month in Gilroy, but they are here in preparation for a group of Gilroyans who are journeying to Tonga next month to do volunteer work.
We will follow their story as Spencer Gearing, Cara Silva, Katelyn Warner, Jen and Michele Kubik, and several other Gilroyans join volunteers from other areas who have been invited to travel to Tonga as part of a work team. Their mission is to dig a well and construct a library, as well as to build cross-cultural connections and understanding as they spend four weeks visiting Tonga and New Zealand.
Speaking of celebrations, Esperanza Perez’s funeral service the day before Mother’s Day (she passed away on Cinco de Mayo at age 77) was one of the most wonderful memorial tributes I’ve ever attended. There were so many different people joined together in a cross-cultural experience that was a true celebration of her life. At the reception, there were Hispanic people sitting at tables in conversation with Caucasian people who wouldn’t normally even say hello to each other if they were passing on the street. But Esperanza talked to everyone – she never met a stranger. Esperanza was the tether that brought everyone together.
In spite of never marrying or having children, her service was packed with hundreds of people. She didn’t have monetary or material things to offer, but she made more friends than anyone I’ve ever known. There were college professors, street vendors, elementary school music students, field workers, computer programmers, teachers, preachers, musicians and people from every walk of life.
After a couple of hours at the reception, the food provided by Esperanza’s church was running out when suddenly a huge batch of carnitas and tortillas magically appeared. It seemed like that old miracle story told in the Bible when five loaves and two fishes fed more than 5,000 – the food just kept multiplying without anyone really knowing how it was happening. A whole new wave of people arrived at 3pm (the service began at 10 that morning), and then someone plugged in the Mexican music, and the party just kept on going. When I left, pizzas were arriving. Esperanza would have loved it!
