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KAHULUI – University of Michigan students flew across the country to put Ernesto Agcaoili on videotape.

The 82-year-old Kahului resident, a sakada who came to Hawaii as a contract laborer in 1946, chuckled as he said it would be OK if he were to “come popular” by having his story shared nationally.

This past week, more than a dozen Michigan students videotaped interviews of 19 sakadas, Filipino laborers who came to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations. Some of the students studied Ilocano in preparation for the interviews.

Because this year commemorates the 100th anniversary of the first sakadas in Hawaii, professors and graduate students thought it appropriate and important to save their stories.

“We wanted to get their stories on video,” said Dean Saranillio, a graduate student in American cultural studies.

Saranillio, 26, is a Maui boy who is assisting with the project. Saranillio’s roots also lead to the sakadas, as his great-grandfather, Pastor Manahon, was a sakada who initially worked at a plantation on the Big Island.

Saranillio hopes that the videos of his ancestors will be shared across the country – not just in the archives at Michigan, but also passed along to the University of Hawaii and UCLA.

Saranillio and his girlfriend and fellow graduate student Sharon Lee are two of the four advisers for the Michigan undergraduates, who are part of the university’s Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates program.

The Maui GIEU group, which is one of several traveling the world, is made up of 12 undergraduates, two graduate students and two professors. Interviewing was just one of the group’s tasks while on Maui for nearly four weeks. The group is focused on service learning.

To prepare for their Maui experience, students spent time reading books, studying the sakada experience and even learned some Ilocano.

On Maui, they have immersed themselves in the Filipino and local cultures and volunteered time at the Memorial Day weekend Barrio Fiesta. They plan to work on a Lanai cemetery, plant indigenous plants and assist Habitat for Humanity. They also have scheduled tours of the sugar and pineapple plantations.

But all eyes and attention were focused on the sakadas this past week. The students were eager to learn and were excited to meet the stars of their videos.

“It will be very exciting to converse with the sakadas and learn about them as individuals rather than as a group,” Courtney Graham, a 20-year-old junior from Michigan, had said.

Before the tapings began, Graham had said that learning from the individuals “really puts a face on the experience.”

The students’ homes range from the Midwest to Singapore.

Anthony Moffitt, a 21-year-old senior from Michigan, said he was nervous about interviewing the sakadas but also honored by the experience.

“I got a lot of respect for (this) group of people,” he said.

At the interviews at the Binhi at Ani Maui Filipino Community Center this past week, students read questions in Ilocano and English to their subjects, who seemed touched by the interest. (Some sakadas, too old to come to the center, were interviewed at home.)

Silvestre Baggao, 78, of Kahului, was thrilled with the interview.

Baggao, who came to Hawaii in 1946, said, “She (the interviewer) spoke to me in Ilocano. . . . She is haole.”

He said he was impressed because the students spoke “good Ilocano.”

Baggao first worked at a Hilo plantation before coming to Maui to work at Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. for 45 years.

Agcaoili brought his interviewers to tears as he spoke about his deceased wife and his family.

In his advice to the young generation, he said, “If you want to be good children, obey your family. Your mother, your father is your teacher. They don’t teach you bad things. They always tell you to be a good boy or good girl. Your family is your guidance, nobody else. They no teach you go the wrong way.”

Agcaoili said he thought the interview was “good.”

He said he was pleased that the students read the questions in Ilocano. “Good, they no forget the native language.

“Hawaii-born (children), not many of them can speak Ilocano,” he said.

Abbie Nurse, a 20-year-old junior from Ann Arbor, said Agcaoili was a “sweet guy” to interview. She said he didn’t want to talk about his work experience but about his family.

Even though much of his plantation life was left out of the interview, Nurse said it was an honor to hear Agcaoili’s story because he shared something so personal with them even though he had only known them for about an hour.

The 19 sakadas interviewed were lined up by Maui resident Lucy Peros and others. Peros was on hand Thursday to serve as an interpreter.

“It’s wonderful,” she said about the interviews.

She said she is also like a student learning about the sakadas as she is a columnist for the Fil-Am News, a Filipino community newspaper. She writes the column “Sakada Corner.”

Peros said she wants to learn about the sakadas “because that’s my roots. I came from a sakada family.”

Peros’ grandfather was a sakada in 1926 and her father in 1946.

Sharon Lee was proud of the students for the way they interviewed the sakadas.

“I think they are really being integrated in the project,” she said, adding that the students were getting emotionally involved.

“I really believe in community filmmaking, especially for the Asian-American community,” Lee said.

Lee said one way for Asian-Americans to be in the media is to make their own.

On Saturday, the students had a lunch celebration for the sakadas they interviewed. The event featured Filipino food along with dancing.

Professors assisting with the group are Deling Agas Weller and Virginia Rezmierski.

Victor Reyes from Akaku: Maui Community Television also provided technical support for the students.

Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

 

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