Asian American Pacific Islander
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Project History Oral Society Historical Community IslanderMinnesota Pacific Asian American Pacific Islander Oral History Project & MAKALIO “MAX” LEO Narrators Project DAVID ZANDER Interviewer History Oral Society Historical Community IslanderMinnesota Pacific Project History Oral Society Historical Community IslanderMinnesota Pacific Cover design: Kim Jackson Copyright © 2012 by Minnesota Historical Society All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy and recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Oral History Office, Minnesota Historical Society, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102. THE MINNESOTA ASIAN COMMUNITIES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT The Asian population of Minnesota has grown dramatically since 1980, and in particular during the period from 1990 to the present. The Asian community is one of the largest and most diverse in the state, and is particularly noteworthy because its growth has been spread across such a wide spectrum of ethnic groups. The Minnesota Historical Society and the Council on Asian Pacific MinnesotansProject formed a partnership to create a series of projects of oral history interviews with Asian community leaders. The projects are intended to help chronicle the history, successes, challenges, and contributions of this diverse and highly important group of Minnesotans. History During the past twenty years the Minnesota Historical Society has successfully worked with many immigrant communities in theOral state toSociety ensure that the stories of their arrival, settlement, and adjustment to life in Minnesota becomes part of the historical record. While the Society has worked with the Asian Indian, Tibetan, Cambodian and Hmong communities in the recent past, the current project includes interviews with members of the Vietnamese, Filipino, Lao and Korean communities, with more planned for the future. These new projects have created an expanded record that that better represents the AsianHistorical community and its importance to the state. Community The project could not have succeeded without the efforts of a remarkable group of advisors who helped frame the topics for discussion, and the narrators who shared their inspiring stories in each interview. We are deeply grateful for their interest and their commitmentIslander to the cause of history. Minnesota James E. Fogerty Kao Ly Ilean Her MinnesotaPacific Historical Society Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans Project History Oral Society Historical Community IslanderMinnesota Pacific Project History Oral Society THE INTERVIEW Historical Community IslanderMinnesota Pacific Project History Oral Society Historical Community IslanderMinnesota Pacific Makalio “Max” Leo & Gail Leo Narrators David Zander & Akiko Tanaka Interviewers May 15, 2012 Plymouth, Minnesota David Zander -DZ Akiko Tanaka -AT Makalio “Max” Leo -ML Gail Leo -GL Project DZ: My name is David Zander, interviewer, and I have my friend here, Akiko, to assist. Akiko, can you give your name? History AT: Akiko Tanaka. Oral Society DZ: And we are at the home of Max Leo, Makalio Leo, in Plymouth, and so we will start this interview. So, Max, you were born in Samoa. ML: Yup. DZ: I want to ask you your first memories – whatHistorical are your very first memories when you were small, a small child. Community ML: Boy… back home. When I grew up in the big island of Samoa – it’s called Savai’i… that’s… Samoa’s populated with four main islands. That’s not including the American Samoa, where the territory of the United States, but I originally from the Samoa, independence country. So, I grew up in the Islanderisland ofMinnesota Savai’i, and my villa ge name is Fahala, and the district of Palaui. And, so, [race up there] is Hawaiian, like you said, David. It’s exciting, you know, you didn’t grow up here, like this country, like everything you have here. But over there, back home, you know, but it was so happy because of the get together way of life back home, like in the evening, six o’clock in the evening, you will hear the bell ring from the pastor. Everybody’s got to get in the house,Pacific because you gotta say the grace, the prayer. They give the whole village one hour to say a prayer. And after that, then either the social hour comes, then people eating and get together, so it’s so much more social there… because we don’t have a TV… we don’t have a telephone. So most of the time you spend with your siblings, your brothers and sisters. So, that’s what I miss a lot here, when I’m here, because you will see them, even though you’re mad at, almost you could kill your brother or your sister, but the next hour is the best friends is truly [blood ] for you. It’s kind of, like I told my wife, I always homesick. I hope someday when I go back. I want to go back home. Someday. 8 DZ: To live. ML: To live. Because, even here, you got everything, but for me, speaking to myself, it’s not fully happy about way of life, ‘cause, I know, you get up in the morning here to go to work, but, you know, back home, if you’re not working, always have things to survive. You can survive from growing crops, fruit, raise chicken, pigs, cattle, and all that kind of stuff. Or, you go fishing. So, you always… and then you, you know, is, like I say, if you not working you can grow all that stuff and send it to the market. You know, that’s the way you support yourself, too. So, it’s, you know, a lot different, the differences of two cultures. I speak to between the American culture and the Samoan culture. Because, I never forget the first time I came here, 1988, in August. Got to the plane – I came here to study, be as a priest, for the Catholic Church. So we came, the three of us, so we got here in August. It was summer, you know, nice, beautiful weather. So, and the priest say – Where’s your winter coat? [Chuckles] You know, blanket – all that kind of stuff. So, you know, the weather was, is different, until we got to the time that we startProject changing the weather in August, September, October. It’s getting colder and colder, and it was a culture shock. DZ: Let’s go back to get a little more of your early life in Samoa, Fahala. When were you born? History ML: I was born November 2nd, 1962. DZ: And Fahala was a village, quite small? Oral Society ML: Yeah, this was a village, yup. DZ: And the bell would ring for church. Who was your family? ML: I grew up… my parents and my six brothersHistorical and six sisters, so I came out of a big family. I am the third youngest of the family.Community DZ: And your parents, what were your parents’ names? ML: They all pass away. My parents’ name is Tietie, and my mom’s name is Telafua. IslanderMinnesota DZ: Tietie is your father and Telafua is your mother. Do you have last names in Samoa? ML: Yup. That’s where they come up with the last name, it’s Leo. DZ: WherePacific does the name Leo come from? ML: Leo, it comes from my great-great-parent. DZ: So, your parents were alive. How about grandparents, when you were small? ML: When I grew up I got only one grandfather left in my mom and my dad’s side. So, my grampa, when I was young, he pass away. 9 DZ: So, your ancestry on both sides…Is it Samoan or is there other influences? ML: It’s all Samoan. DZ: In Hawaii, we find Chinese, Japanese. Hawaiian, Portuguese, Irish-Hawaiian, but on both sides you were Samoan? ML: Yup, my mom and my dad’s are both Samoan. DZ: How big was the village of Fahala? ML: Oh, I think it was 2,500 people. DZ: Quite big. And in the village the bell’s ringing, and everybody would goProject say grace… was that Catholic? ML: It was all different, three denominations were there… the Mormon and the Presbyterian… it’s called the Presbyterian, but it’s called Samoan CongregationHistory Church. And then Catholic. DZ: Were you Catholic on both sides? Oral Society ML: No, my mom is from Presbyterian. My dad grew up as Catholic all his life through. DZ: So in Samoan history, that’s from the missionaries who came in ML: Yeah, the missionaries came in 1880, somewhere like that and the London Society was the first to arrive to Samoa. And, I think they just celebrateHistorical d– what was that – 150 years in Samoa, and then after that, Catholic people.Community But the Catholic missionary came over to Samoa. DZ: We’ll get you to talk about going to school in a minute. As a kid, what things do you remember that might have been really Samoan – games you played or things you did? ML: Yeah, it’s a lot Islanderof real SamoanMinnesota tradition in my family, you know. When I grew up, we play rugby. In the evening we play volleyball. You know, we have canoeing in the ocean. We live by the ocean, by the way, so… my most memories for me is to look back to my young age is like you have, you go to the next door – because we live in the open house in those times. So, it’s not like have a lock in your house, no. It’s a part of your culture… if you go somewhere, you will yell at thePacific next person – Hey, watch out for the house, if it’s raining.