October 19, 2022 • 53 mins
This flight was supposed to go to Hawai'i, but we're glad it didn't. Viral TikToker Melemaikalani Makalapua joins the crew for an eye-opening conversation about the "Paradise of the Pacific": how tourism is ruining the lives of the locals, why much of their history was lost, the meaning of Hula, and a pop quiz at the end. Make sure to board early for this one.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Creating z Earthlings. Welcome to today's flight. This is one
of your captains speaking before we take off. We have
a brief announcement. On last week's flight, our passenger, Miss
Sheila E, scolded us for our lack of sounds and
disappointment in the ones that we did have as promised,
and to ensure the comfort and enjoyment of each and
every one of our passengers, specifically again Miss Sheila, who
(00:26):
scolded us, Here we present your new sounds. Enjoy. Buckle
up and have a great flight. I captain on the
(00:51):
conject I gave you the same. Let's go to a
mission that already ready for a theme launching. Hello Earth,
(01:20):
We are back of the one, the only I O
O W Mothership. Yeah, oh wait, I can do this.
There you go. I forgot to turn off the theme song. Whoops.
So we are here with a very special guest. During
(01:41):
the pandemic, a lot of us wanted to travel, and
a couple of episodes ago, Emily and I did an
entire episode about traveling and I touched upon this subject. Um,
My family and I got together and we were just
throwing out places of names of places that we had
wanted to visit that we had. I'm seen that we
had never gone to, and somebody said Hawaii, and so
(02:06):
I'm like somebody that likes to do their research. So
I've never been. I know very little about Hawaii, and
I started looking up Hawaii and I come across somebody's
page and she ripped my brain to shreds. Not only
did it completely revolutionize my opinion, not only did we
(02:29):
not go there on a family trip, but um, she
opened my brain completely. So, without further ado, thank you
so much, Melan Mical for being here. Did I say
it correctly? Welcome in our own world? Thank you much so.
(02:50):
First of all, tell us a little about yourself. For
those of us who don't know much about you. So
my name is mel. I am a video content creator
and I teaching all things. I love that you are incredible.
You've educated so many people, so many people through your videos,
and there's so much that I want to talk about today.
But I want to start with your name, because I
(03:12):
have a name that a lot of people and it's
much shorter than yours, but still people mispronounce it's Geminy.
I get Jeremy germany so many different things, and for
a long time, what I did to make it easier
for other people is introduce myself as my nickname was,
which is gem. And then a few years ago I
got to thinking about it and what the power behind
(03:33):
the name is and how we really only have one
and the thought that goes behind it, and how I
kind of owe it to myself to at least try
to introduce myself as my name and those who make
the effort to learn it it's because they're interested. So
I know that in Hawaiian culture, the name has a
lot of significance. Would you share some about that? Yes, um,
(03:53):
so our names mean a lot to us. We go
through a very different process, so we usually get our
name and dreams. We can be named after other people,
we can hear in a whisper or a sign, but
we usually wait to see what we would name somebody
because it makes up who they are as a person. Wow,
that's incredible. So when you were when you were born,
(04:14):
your mom hadn't made a decision yet about or your
parents hadn't made a decision yet about what to name you. Yes,
so I was actually named after my cousin, so I'm
named after her, but I was gifted a second first
name in which is where I get machelopoul and that
came from a dream from my mom. I love that. Now,
(04:34):
can you how many times can you add onto your name?
Or is that something that there's a so you can
add on to your name until you die? Um, since
it makes up where you are as a person. We're
always changing, so it can always be added onto. Beautiful.
That's beautiful. That's so funny because like we've spoken about
(04:54):
it when we talk about, oh, if we ever got married,
you know, would we like if we couldn't invent a
last name, what would it be. I'm not going to
say it because you are going to steal it out there,
but it's something we can say it because then they're
going to be held accountable that at this time stamped
our we set it for someone gonna steal it and
you're going, I'm telling you, But anyway, there was you know,
we were just thinking about the concept of changing changing
(05:17):
your name, because it's true we are ever changing and
how we describe ourselves. If you could change your identity,
you know, I always say, we don't decide, you know,
physically how we come to this planet, but whatever is
on the inside and other things like for me, you know,
tattoos and stuff really make up how you change while
you're here. So that's how I view those things. Um
(05:40):
yeah not usually tattoos um from what I understanding, also
are significant in Hawaiian culture. Correct, So what what is it?
So our tattoos basically makeup who we are and who
we come from. Where we come from. It's basically our lineage,
(06:01):
who our ancestors were, how we're connected to them, what
islands were from, and the list goes on. So it
really tells a lot about the person who's wearing it.
I love that. I love that. That's that's you say
that a lot. You're always like, oh, tattoos are the
one thing that we can choose. Yeah, and you know
what else, I'm hearing a lot, which I love. Correct
me if I'm wrong, because you know where we come from, Cuban.
(06:21):
You know, we have other we're from other parts of
the world, but mostly Cuban, our parents and our families,
and for us, you know, family and lineage is very important,
like that respect, that respect of you know, your ancestors
or elders, and that's something that I was born and
raised here in the United States. However, with you know,
those kinds of practices from my very old school Cuban family,
(06:45):
and sometimes it's difficult, but sometimes it's beautiful because there's
a reason why so many of those things are important.
You know, I was seeing kids disrespecting their grandparents, you know,
not spending time with them, not understanding the value of
having that relationship with them, and in the community. It's important.
You know, those are some of the most important people
in your life. And I see it time and time again.
(07:05):
My first tattoo was designed by my grandma. Poor thing
rest and peace. Didn't know she was designing. As in Cuba,
you know, tattoos are Yeah, my grandfather always says, that's
what you brand cows with. That's how he it's it's
so interesting how cultures see things differently, but they kind
of overlap in certain places. And that's the beauty of
(07:26):
the world and the beauty of you learning that and
then you know, also teaching me and now me being
aware and moving and moving and moving, and that's the
beauty of what you share online. Because I've been to
Hawaii and I loved it, and honestly, I'm going to
be the first person to say because it's important, Oh
my god, you gotta go. It's amazing. It's so beautiful
that people are amazing because I honestly felt that way,
(07:48):
not knowing under the radar what you're contributing to. Yeah,
that's how it's supposed to make you feel. And you
keep coming back how I mean, And there's a reason
obviously why. You know, the people of the island have,
I mean, what no choice you know, to to contribute
(08:08):
to this. Why is it that we're so blind to this?
You think here in the United States, at least they
don't want you to know. So I feel like there's
a little bit of a cutoff when it comes to
the media, especially if it's coming from the Native Hawaiians.
We protest all the time. We've protested for years. Um,
you guys just never see it here on the continental US.
It doesn't make it here. Um. I know we recently
(08:30):
just had a protest last week, but it was in
front of the White House. But I'm sure not a
lot of people know about that, right, So it never
really reaches people. But we do try and speak out
as much as we can, which is why I do
what I do online. I love that so we talk.
We're talking a lot about what's going on over there.
But we haven't actually talked about what's going on over Eric.
Can you, because this is your platform and we want
(08:52):
to elevate your voice, can you share with us what's
going on in Hawaii. Yeah, so a lot of us
are getting displaced. UM. The prices are absolutely insane. I'm
pretty sure Have I E Is the most expensive place
to live. UM. If we're talking about the US alone.
A lot of people live on live in multi generational houses,
(09:13):
so first generation, second third, they all share usually a
small house together, and they're all working one or two
jobs just to make it. Groceries are insane. All of
our food is imported UM for that reason. But I
think what we need is sustainable UM farming. We need
affordable housing. We need a place for the native people
(09:35):
to stay, because if we're displaced, we're thousands of miles
away from our own culture and people in language. We're
not just down the street. We have to move off island.
So a lot of the times we live our we
lose our culture over time. When we have children on
the continental US, it's hard to teach them when they're
far away from home. If you were raised in uh California. Correct, Yes,
(09:58):
born and raised. Amazing your your family did an incredible
job preserving your culture. How how how hard was that
for them? I would say very difficult. My mother did
all of it on Huai on my mom's side, so
my dad doesn't really know much about it. Okay, yeah,
but my mom is a hula teacher, so she taught
(10:20):
me hula and with that came a lot of the
traditions and the protocol. And she also would make sure
I take different workshops from different teachers in case she
missed something or even um during school, like summer school,
she would send me away to Oahu and then I
would learn from Commanbe high schools and different teachers would
(10:42):
like teach me different stuff. But um, it's like a
little puzzle piece right coming together. That's that's incredible. I
know that hula is really important and we have a
huge misconception of hula. I was seeing something on TikTok
about um you know that just even between Hawaii and Tahiti,
people make that. Are you proud of me? Because I've
(11:07):
really you know, I wanna I want to help and
spread the word accurately. Um, there's a big misconception between
what Hula is and what we think it is. And
a lot of that has to do with the way
that it's marketed towards us, right like Disney for first ones.
A lot of people look at movies like leland Stitch
(11:27):
and uh, sure they are parts of Leland's Stitch that
are Hawaiian by what they want us to believe is Hawaiian,
but it's not really a Hawaiian movie. Um in general,
right in general, you know, people think that m l
a um a coconut bra uh, you know, the skirts,
that that's Hawaiian culture, but it's not. So what is man?
(11:52):
I wish the media showed it more, But there's so
much to it, honestly, Like we never wore coked up
bras or grass skirts. That way is actually invented after
Western contact, but primarily to make us look and sound
very exotic so that people would pay to come see us.
So we were kind of like little entertainers, but we
were never given the money, which is still going on today.
(12:15):
Like we're still entertaining you, we're still serving you and
making sure you have a wonderful time and you're enjoying it.
But it's um, it doesn't really doesn't come back to
the people. Yeah. Yeah, and a lot of people think
it does. You know. They go there and they go, well,
I'm giving money to you guys, and you should be
happy I'm coming, but it doesn't go back to us.
(12:39):
So you, especially if you're a tourist, you were mentioning that, um,
it's one of the most expensive places to live. And
as I was doing research for this conversation, Uh, most
of the links that would come up, we're buy a property,
this is the best deal. I literally walked up to
jem and I was like, what it was, no thing relevant,
(13:00):
anything that had to do with any kind of connotation
with the island. A million links for real estate. And
then in further research I saw that it's like minimum
wages what ten dollars or something like that, ten dollars
and ten cents and the average property is a million
point three something like that. So we're going over there
(13:20):
and we're buying these properties that are not attainable by
the people who just privilege on the island to be
able to live and enjoy. This is a follow up question,
is there any correct way to visit the island? I
get asked this all the time because people always want
to know there's no ethical way to visit unfortunately hopefully
(13:42):
in the future. But if you do go, and you
really want to go, I would say find ways to
give back instead of just to go and take. So
volunteer anywhere that you can. I know there's tons of
volunteer opportunities for terot patches, there's tons of volunteer activities
for the Hawaiian Fish Pond, and it's a few hours
(14:05):
of labor and you're there to help. But when you're there,
we teach you about our culture and why we do
what we do, so you kind of leave with something.
I love that. I love that, you know what. I
think that that's something that maybe we should all think
about for when we travel in general. Because we're lucky
enough to you know, be in social media and have
somebody like you that's in the US it has a
(14:26):
platform where she can share this. But like Emily was saying,
we're Cuban and I was thinking about this when you
were speaking. You were saying that there were protests last
week and people don't even find out about it. We
in our culture experience that similarity um the majority of
the world, and I'm sure you're really going to feel
this has no idea what's going on in Cuba, um
(14:50):
or what they think is going on is not what's
going on. And there are protests and they're the people
are asking for liberation, that people are asking for help,
and it never never sho us, either because the media
is sensorigan or people just aren't paying attention. Um. So,
I think it's really interesting to think about how in
the grand scheme of who we are as individuals and
(15:12):
where we put our money, maybe we should all consider
volunteering at the places that we visit. Because I've never
thought about that before, and I think that it's a
wonderful idea. H I have another I have another question
for you. Um. I was I was learning about you
and I saw that one of the things that you
talked about was and I think it's part of your name.
I understand that macla pula means um blossoming flower. Okay,
(15:36):
so it's poor the flower part. What's up with the
pua the side that you wear it? This is what
made me go viral? Yes, oh my god, it wasn't
what are your education? It was the first video I've
ever made. Mad. I mean it is educational, but Okay.
It was me sitting down in front of my phone
(16:00):
own and saying that if you put on the left side,
you're taken, but if you were the flower and the right,
you're available. And it is a wedding. Yeah, wow, I
love that. And if you put it in the middle
of you're probably confused. That's my favorite situation ship I
will go if I ever go to Hawaii. That's in
(16:25):
also the visual, just like like if you put it
in a bun and then put it in your bun. Yeah,
you're like maybe maybe I love that. I love that.
So you mention that you have dances jula your whole life, Yes,
and I understand that hula is a really complex dance
that's a lot more than just moving your body. Yes,
(16:47):
it's a language language within itself. Yes. So I started
dancing at the age of two, um so that's about
nineteen years now. Yeah, and it means a lot. I know.
I see a lot of people on TikTok and they
kind of use it as trends to give views and
I get it. It's pretty, but we can tell that
you're not a dancer by the way you're moving. It's
(17:09):
very specific movements. When it comes to your legs, your hips,
your hands, even your eyes. I can tell if you're
not looking in the right direction that you may not
be very professional. Wow. So even the direction that you're
looking at indicates something something else. We always follow our
right hand. Um, if you're not looking at your hands
(17:30):
and you're instead maybe looking around, it can tell me
that you're not understanding what the dance is about. Because
we tell a story when we dance, so we're always
looking at where we're going, especially with our hands. So
if I were too, for example, talk about flowers poor,
this is the dance move for poor, and I wouldn't
be looking at you. I'd be looking at the flowers.
So it kind of tells me, you know, your experience
(17:53):
with it. But it's it's very detailed. It's a language
that's incredible, that's beautiful. So what kind of stories do
you tell in hula? So many, anything and everything. It
first started out because we didn't have a written language,
so we would pass down our stories, our history, um,
(18:13):
who our family was through hula so that we wouldn't
forget it. Um. And now it can be dancing about
going for a car ride or talking about Christmas. It's
anything really, so you get dance to any song or
there like I'm thinking about like sign language like or
the or the dance moves like individual pieces that you
(18:35):
So let's say, like you said, that's the pool of
the flower, right, can you put that in another context
to tell a story like maybe the flower today and
today's dance has a different context and tomorrow. But is
it like it always? If I see that, I'm always
gonna think you're talking about flowers. Yes. So if I
see different dancers from all of the world, um making
(18:57):
this movement, I'm gonna say it's flower. Especially if you
listen to the lyrics and you know the Hawaiian language,
then you're going to hear the word poor. So that
kind of gives you a hint. Okay, interesting, that's incredible.
That is incredible. You know, I can't dance, so I'm
just gonna dance the hula in my head. If you're
not Hawaiian, is it disrespectful to learn hula? No? No, no,
(19:22):
And my mom's hula school. So many people aren't Hawaiian. Yeah,
it's just learning correctly. That's all the people. That's all
being respectful too. Yeah. I feel that way about a
lot of things, especially because now you know, people try to,
you know, make capitalize on everything you know, or like
you said, trends. Oh look, all of a sudden, now
(19:44):
this you know, I could tell if you're looking in
your selfie camera while you're hulaing, that you're not thinking
about the play. But yeah, I really respect that. You know,
you're you're very wise beyond your time on this earth. You.
I feel that way about Jim too, even though you
know she's long in the tooth. Now she's getting old. Wow,
(20:06):
I'm not old, dude, so old. Wow, I'm not old. Yeah,
when you were born, I was. I'm sorry. When I
was born, you were four months and you have four
months were probably phlosiphizing. No, but you mentioned that one
of the things, one of the stories that Jula tells
is your history. Uh. And it's so funny because I
(20:30):
don't we great. We grew up in the US, uh,
knowing that Hawaii was a part I'm doing air quotes
right now, part of the US. I learned literally nothing
about Hawaiian culture. And I'm sitting here now realizing that
I know, I know a bunch of things about random
(20:51):
mast states like Louisiana. But why I don't know anything
about Hawaiian culture history. If you can give like a
synopsis of of Hawaii and what happened, because I know
that we obviously colonized, and I'll teach you it for
a reason, exactly will you would you share for us? Yeah? Um,
(21:13):
So a lot of our history has to do with
the missionaries coming over, and when they did, they banned
a lot of our stuff. So a lot of times
you don't learn about what happened to us because I
don't think they can whitewash it enough for you to
think it was okay. So they banned our language, they
banned hula, they banned our traditions, and then they started
(21:35):
um converting everyone to Christianity and starting schools, so very
similar kind of to what they did to Native Americans. Um.
And then of course, if you were caught speaking Kawaiian,
if you were caught dancing hula, you were punished in
multiple different ways. Whatever it was, um, but it scared
(21:55):
them enough to not speak in anymore, which is why
so many people today theyll don't know the language and
they're learning it. We're bringing it back. But that started
in the seventies. Wo. So you're basically like retracing the
steps of your history. Yes, we lost a lot of it.
That's a devastating, devastating to hear. In reading, I learned
(22:15):
that Hawaii used to have a kid Yeah, we had kings,
we had queens. We were very smart people until we
were colonized. And I think now we're you know, literacy
and schools, and they think we're dumb. But we were
very smart people before we were colonized. One of the
(22:36):
things that is um interesting about Hawaiian culture that I learned,
but I don't want to say the name wrong, um
that in Hawaiian culture there is the considered a third gender.
Oh maho baho okay, coolah. It's kind of like, um
(22:57):
too spirited, right. It made me think of that with you.
But to day exactly like that. Those people were celebrated. Yes, yes,
they were pretty much leaders. They taught a lot of
the children. Um, it was so easy for them to
just go back and forth and relate to so many people.
And they taught a lot of kids hula and the
Hawaiian language and how to do certain things. They were teachers. Um. Unfortunately,
(23:24):
the word has been kind of I would say tweaked
a little bit over time. So our generation has unfortunately
been taught that mom who is gay and it's an insult.
Now that's probably our fault at worry Americans. Wow, that's
so unfortunate. Yeah, but it did have a special meaning
and we're trying to bring that back. Yes, happy baby
(23:49):
to happy people, right queer. And another thing that I'd
love to know about is what was the Hawaiian religion
before it was Christianity, you know, before that happened. Yeah,
we had a lot of gods and goddesses, which is
why when they came there like, oh my gosh, you
guys are horrible people, you know, and you should read
their journals from the seventeen hundreds when they described us.
(24:12):
But yeah, tons of gods and goddesses. We worship so
many gods of the sea, god of the wind, god
of the brain. Everything. Very spiritual, Yeah, very spiritual. It
seems like a very spiritual culture and what that's in
tuned with nature, which is extremely admirable. I think I
love Hawaii more now, even though I've decided not to
(24:34):
go there then when I wanted to go because it
looked pretty, I mean it does look pretty. It is
I'm sure it is. Unfortunately, though, what happens, and this
is the case all over the world, tourists don't care, no,
so they will go to a sacred place. They will
(24:55):
go to a gem of nature that Poe was not
intended and uh trash it. I mean, look at our
look at our planet, right, But it's so sad because
I think it's smart. I was seeing another creator talking
about how this is why Hawaiian's kind of gate keep
(25:18):
parts of their island, and I think that's the only
thing you can really do because we're you can't trust,
uh what tourists do. They just don't understand. They don't
get it. They don't care, it's not home for them,
they don't care. I can't relate because I'm never the
person that goes somewhord throws trash anything, graffiti, cake at
the Mona Lisa, like just you know, I there are
(25:41):
so many ways that people disrespect places and unless you
have that deep rooted respect and understanding for the magic
of that place, it's incredible how people will just walk
all over it. And I feel that way, you know,
to about Cuba, like I'm I say this, you know,
I'm my family is from there. I was one of
the first to be born year and I will not go.
(26:02):
I will not go. Me who's who's Cuban? Who has
roots and possibly even ways to help, which is you know,
like we say, the only way that you know, whatever,
consider if it's if it's dire, if it's something that
I could do to help the people. It's a similar Cuba. Yeah, exactly,
because it's over there. It's would you go when you travel,
you're giving money to the oppressor, except the oppressor over
(26:22):
there is their own, their own government. So we don't
go because to contribute to that would be you know,
my ancestors. My grandma was one of the most important
people in the world to me, you know, I want
to honor her. That means more to me than anything,
the sacrifice that she made, you know. Yeah, all the
(26:56):
Islanders like with him. You know, the Hawaii people is
already talk about like independent always. Yes, what I mean,
I guess it takes like somebody leading the movement, But like,
why do you think that it hasn't yet? Um, the
US is a force to be reckoned with, so I
(27:18):
can see why it's been taking so long. But I
know in the nineties they did apologize a hundred years
after the fact, they said, sorry, you know, we over
with their mouths or with their money, because there's a difference. Sorry,
but where are the reparations? Right? Like they apologize, It's cool,
(27:44):
we're trying. I would say the Wine Kingdom is definitely
active and we're doing things behind the scenes. Um, a
lot of people just don't know about it. There's two
governments running simultaneously and the Wine Kingdom is very much
alive today. That's a b if. I wanted to learn
about Hawaiian culture because it interests me, because I like,
(28:07):
you know, learning about the world. What would you say
is the best way while still being respectful to do that?
Search out means teacher, So whatever you want to learn about, UM,
you would search up anyone near you. Try to get
into the Hawaiian community, whether it be through Facebook, groups online,
or maybe there's one near you. You can get to
(28:28):
know more people and they can point you in different directions.
So don't go to the internet, go to the source,
to the source. Yeah, the Internet is not very accurate
when it comes to teaching you Hawaiian things because of
how it's been broadcasted to the world. So I would
say go directly to a teacher that's been you know,
taught this over time, and they could teach you that. Yeah.
(28:49):
And I imagine because of like you mentioned, like the
the dance and the language and all of that being
kind of like diluted over because of the colonization and everything.
I would be really curious to learn about like literature,
you know, like how much has how much have books
about Hawaii here in the United States? You know, if
(29:11):
you go to the library and you pick out a book,
who wrote it? Right? I always look at the name
to see if they have a Hawaiian name, um, and
then I go kind of further into who they are
if I google them, and if I see they're white
and don't have a Hawaiian name, I'll kind of be like, Okay,
maybe you don't know what you're talking about, or like
where did you hear it from? Yea? Yeah, So I
(29:33):
always try to buy books from actual Hawaiian authors first,
just because I can relate to them and they probably
know what's going on better than anyone else, got it. Yeah.
Do you think that there's ever a future where people
can can go travel to Hawaii and share the culture
without it damaging displaying so many people and essentially ripping
(29:59):
Hawaii of its own culture. I hope, so, I hope
there's a future where that is possible, But as for
right now, I don't see that happening. You know what
I will say, Jem when even though I was a kid,
I was old enough because I also love surfing, like
I love the ocean, I love nature, I wasn't connecting
(30:20):
when I was there to the things that I saw
people connecting to around me, which was money, food, the
best this, the best that I want to go to,
the coolest, this, the best service, the best room, and
the people that are there. That I experienced, it was
a lot of that. There was a lot of like
the experiencing the sensation of it, but not connecting to
(30:41):
the real thing. I hate to keep bringing up cube again,
but I just feel just old cars and cigars. Not
only that, Like you're going there and you're having a meal.
How about down the street they don't have salts? You
know what I'm saying, Like we need to be more
responsible with this information because yikes, and it's not just
it's not just tourists, it's people who are best to
go over there buying up properties, right, Yeah, definitely. They
(31:05):
contribute horrible. So even airbnbs are like no, because that's
probably going to people who bought those properties from the
United States. Airbnb is aren't really that good. I feel
like it doesn't go back to the person people, and
there's not a lot of Hawaiians. I feel like that
own Airbnb is in the first place to be able
to sell it. Yeah, so I A lot of people
(31:25):
ask about that though, They're like, well what if I
stay with the And I'm like, well, if you can
find one good thing I met you, well in California, California, right,
you can come the countdown back. I have a question, actually, please,
is there you know, like in the United States, Cuba,
(31:48):
all places around the world, Like there's this word I
don't know how to say it in English say to finish, like, yeah,
there's this like sexism almost as how is that the
island is that? Has that ever been a thing? Like
how are males? Do they respect women? Yeah? How is
the female to male? You know, we have a lot
(32:10):
of women that are missing, unfortunately, because Hawaiian women are
so fetish sized because of the media in terms of
what they make us look like, and we look I
hate describing, you know, exotic, because I feel like you
shouldn't call a person exotic, but we're made to come
off that way. So a lot of um men unfortunately
go there for like sex trafficking or just buying sex online. Um,
(32:34):
so we we're very targeted. What about like in the
culture though, you know, like a like a like a
Hawaiian family, you know, husband and wife. How does the
male treat the wife? Hopefully good? I feel like I
feel like there's no roles, like you just gotta do
what you gotta do, so progressive. Yeah, so it's like
(32:56):
there's no roles, like you really shouldn't. I feel like
I don't anybody in the household being like, well, her
job is to be in the kitchen, and there's is
to like to be working because like right now everybody's working.
Like if you want to live there, you're working too. So,
um there's no roles, just do what needs to get done.
I love that was also. Sorry. I was just gonna say,
like in certain ancient cultures before a lot of this change,
(33:17):
you know, women were like they were the glory, you
know what I mean. They were they held a lot
of importance. The matriarch, the leaders in some respect in
certain culture. There's another thing that I learned because of
you that I did that I didn't know, which I
think is a beautiful concept. And it's uh in Hawaiian culture,
how women are viewed, whether all their period I knew
(33:40):
you were going to bring that up. Yes, yeah, so
let's see. Well it's something that I actually taught my
mom because she learned the wrong way. And unfortunately a
lot of people still have this mindset because we were
i would say brainwashed over time. But back in ancient
(34:00):
hove E, before we were colonized, our periods were seen
as a very beautiful thing. So I mean, like blood
is sacred, so seeing a human bleed without dying was
so magical and you know, giving life. They were kind
of put on a pedestal during that time, so they
(34:21):
were to rest. We had like a resting area where
it was just for like women to go and um
get through it together. I know, women didn't really touch
the food. The men would cook the food, but like
very separate, like men um and the women had different
cooking utensils and stuff, so like they wouldn't even cook
the same food together. Like this food is specifically cooked
(34:43):
for the men to eat. This food is specifically for
the woman to eat, and um, we wouldn't eat together either,
But a lot of people grew up being told that
it was because periods were disgusting, and so I was like, yeah,
you didn't eat with us because like we couldn't eat
with you, you were unpure during the time, and you
went away because you couldn't be around us. So it
(35:04):
was actually the exact opposite. That mindset came from colonization
when they came over, because they didn't like how the
women reviewed like a missionaries because to them, it was
always like the man in charge. So when they saw
that it was different for us, they kind of switch
that around. And then over time you kind of lose
(35:25):
that knowledge, just like the word about the twin soul,
right yeah, who right? Yeah? And so when I first
told my mom, she was like, no, that's not true,
like when you're on your period, you're own pure. And
I was like, they're lying to you. Yet I love that. Yeah,
I really I feel like our generation were really like
(35:48):
lifting the veil. Yeah, we're really like unmasking some ship.
We're not playing anymore. We're tired of it. Yeah, we're
tired of it, and we should be and we're not
going anywhere, and we're not going anywhere. Game Vegan, I
want to give you an opportunity to say any last remarks.
We think that we didn't cover anything that you think
would be valuable for people to hear that maybe don't
(36:09):
know a lot about. I can kind of give you,
guys a list of what's not Hawaiian. You might think
it's like stereotypes. A game. I would love you. Okay,
we'll make it a game. Okay. The noise okay, so
here get you get to play with this. This is correct,
this is incorrect. Oh yeah, okay, we play games. Okay,
(36:32):
you guys actually might be really good at this if
you stalk me. We did. Okay, you really maybe not
that much. Okay, here we go. I'm going to start
off easy. So our grass, skirts and coconut bras the stereotype, Yes,
they are a stereotype. Yes, what do we win? Okay? Um?
(36:57):
Shootin about that? You're like presence? Yes? Okay? Um Hawaiian
bread you know the roles? Oh yeah, wait why is
it called Hawaiian? I feel it's like the right answer
is that it is a stereotype, But I don't know
what's the final answer. I feel like it's not Hawaiian.
(37:19):
It's not hawion. Why is it called Hawaiian bread? Because
if you slape wine on anything, they'll buy it. Is
there like a special bread that's like similar that is Hawaiian,
like a sweetish bread that they stole it from? I
don't think. So you don't understand. We love that bread.
You know it's good, it's just not at it. I'm
(37:42):
mad at the bread. Okay, how about Hawaiian pizza? I
feel like that's is that actually Hawaiian? Now? I feel
like you're checking up? Thank God, there's mistakes, no, because
like why would pizza be Hawaiian? Whatever the answer is,
I think it's vile. I don't think. I think now
thinking about does not belong on pizza than hard upset?
You guys? Do you like pineapple and pizza? Like I
(38:04):
don't know, Like like she loves all the topics. I
have one of those. I love. I love food. So
it's not Hawaiian. Yeah, three for three, it's not Hawaian.
It's not Hawaiian. What about like what is the actual
correct hula garment? Oh? So there's different styles of hula.
(38:30):
So there's like Caxico, which is old school um ancient hula,
and then there's um a Wana, which is more modern hula,
And so the outfits will look completely different, along with
the instruments that we use and even the sound of
the music. Wow, can you tell by based off of
like would you be able? I can. I've been doing
it for so long that I can just look at
a dancer without dancing and be like they're going to
(38:52):
be dancing a ancient Hawaiian hula because of the album
Yeah for some reason, which is popped in my head.
We're recently on It's a Small World, right, Oh yeah, yeah,
and there remember there were like some ladies dancing hula
and I'm like, no, I'm wondering what they were wearing,
probably grass skirts. Like I gotta go back right now?
(39:14):
You know what work tripped to Disney. Let's go to Disney.
Expensive on the pot? Got a bad idea? Yeah, well
there you go. We won. Another one is pineapple. A
lot of things. A lot of people think pineapple is
native to Hawaii. Eat it's not. You know that? No,
I didn't know that. Yeah, pineapple I never grew there,
(39:34):
was brought over from South America. What the heck? Yeah,
a lot of people don't just drinking just a pineapple.
It's not Hawaiian in any way. Can they probably import
most of them? What are some of the things that
we think are Hawaiian that I are actually Hawaiian that
are um okay, yeah, just not the plastic nine cent
(39:56):
store real the real flowers. Yeah, we actually wear those.
Those are real. Is there a specific time that you
wear them? What's their significant? You know, greeting people like hello, goodbye?
A gift. You'll see a lot of them on graduation.
There's the thing that we Pacific Islanders do where we
will fill you all the way up until you can't
see with lay, but not just flowers. Will be like candy, top, ramen,
(40:20):
money like stuff in the ways and it's like you
shouldn't be able to see by the time you're done,
Like it'll be all the way to your face. So
that's like a tradition we do for graduation. But yeah,
we give them just you know, out of love. Do
you know how to make them? I do? Yes, Wow,
that's insane. They're pretty easy to make, if I'm being honestly.
Is there a specific flower that they're made with um.
(40:43):
You can make layout of any flower. You can make
layout top ramen. Right, have you seen a top ramen?
You have? You know you haven't seen we have? Yeah.
You just take suran wrap and you'll like wrap it
in the suran wrap and then twist the ends and
then do like little sections. Oh yeah, she just broke
(41:04):
my mind. You can make it anything anything, All right,
there's there's something above your head that I actually know
how to play it. I learned how to play um
a few years ago. The ukulele is that even the
right way to say it. By the way, wow, I
love that a lot more than the ukulele is the
(41:25):
u le Hawaiian it is not. It was brought over
and you know, very happy they did. We use it
a lot for kula now. But the reason why we
call it ukulele is because it means jumping fleas. So
when you're playing it really fast, your fingers are just
going everywhere and it looks like jumping fleas. That's incredible, Okay,
(41:47):
that's incredible. Well, everything that I thought to be true
is a lie. Basically, pineapples, les, coconut bras, and jula skirts.
Burn them all. I'm just gonna say this too. I'm
(42:16):
assuming like when Halloween comes about, it's spooky season this time.
I know, do not be a hula girl, thank you.
I didn't even remember that it's October girl. Don't please.
It is appropriation. If you want to be Lulo, wear
the red dress, but don't wear her hula attire as
(42:38):
because the red dress is just dressed. Like I said,
like Party City has like what like two aisles of stuff.
You go in there and it's just like hula girl central,
but like not the real authentic thing. Yeah, you know
what another thing is like we, at least in Western culture,
we look at a girl dressed in something like a
(42:58):
broad and a skirt, and it's supposed to be sexy, right,
which is why we're targeted. But yeah, wired culture, I'm
sure it's not sexualized at all. It's probably just really hot. Right. Well,
back before we were colonized, the woman actually didn't wear
any tops. Yeah, it was so normal, like these things
are just for feeding, right, And then the missionaries came
(43:21):
and like I said, read their journal. They did not
like it, so they told us to cover up, and
over time our clothing did change. But yeah, it was
never coconut brawls. Like I would never want to climb
a tree, drink milk out of a coconut and then
like stick it on my chest. I feel like it's
very uncomfortable. I'd rather be free of it, you know.
No tops, right, it's really hard, and not every coconut
(43:46):
is going to be like the same size. But if
you have like double ds, they're not going to have coconuts.
The coconuts looked like boobs, right. I don't know who
made that up, someone in the US, I don't know,
but yeah, it wasn't ya wow wow wow. I love
that I've learned a luck me too. Thank you girls,
(44:08):
Thank you, thank you. Anything that I know stemmed from
you or something that you shared or or and I've
tried to commit it to memory because I want to
talk to people about it. I want to be able
to say the right information, you know. Um, And like
I said, it hits a little close to home because
us being Cuban. I mean, I don't know, Actually I've
(44:28):
never really thought about cuble gold to being appropriated. I
guess it kind of is, but I don't think it
really bothers anybody. We live in Miami. I'm sure that's
The thing is it, Miami is a really specific place where. Actually,
up until I think the last five years, it was
like Cuban. Yes, you can go anywhere in Miami, and
(44:52):
I like, you can test it. Test it. I'll bet
you ten bucks I will. Then will you try it?
I guarantee you will find If there are five people there,
the majority, the three speak Spanish. No, I know. They
keep coming out to me thinking I do as well.
I don't. Oh my god, Like they're asking me for
(45:13):
directions and I'm so sorry. You know now that I'm
looking at you, you totally give I get it all
the time. You know, my dad speaks Spanish, but he
never taught me. He lived in Mexico for a long time. Yeah,
and I didn't know he's spoken until I caught him
one day. Where he's from Valleo. You know Valleo. Don't
(45:35):
go there. Le's got But it's very dangerous. I'm not kidding. Yes,
where is it. It's like it's definitely in the Bay Area,
so it's around San Francisco. Like, um, have you guys
been Oakland? Don't go there either. Don't go I love
so dangerous. I'm being honest. It's really dangerous. Yeah, she
(46:00):
don't go alone walks. I did not know. I did
not know. Yeah, but he was born and raised there.
My grandma's from the Philippines, so he's the Asian. I
get it from him. Do you know what you think
about the Philippine side of your family? You know, I
wish I did. But when my grandma came here, Um,
she wanted to be Americans so bad. She didn't teach
(46:21):
her her son, and then my dad couldn't teach. What
happens all the time with us too. But it's it's
tough because you're like, I have so split about it
because I'm like, why, you know, we have to preserve
our culture. But at the same time, I'm like, I
get it. You know, I'm lucky enough in my family
(46:44):
and your family. It is the same case. My mom
decided she and my mom was born in Cuba, but
she came here really young, she was like four. So
I always say, I'm like, momby were whitewashed. You know,
she's very American. My parents are my grandparents are super cupid,
and they basically helped to raise us. They don't they
don't even speak English pretty much. Um, And that's where
I have like, my deepest connections to my to my
(47:07):
roots is through them. But even still, my mom said,
you know that she was going to speak to us,
me and my sister only in Spanish until we got
to school. That's what she did. I love that. I'm
so grateful. I'm so grateful because, wow, I feel so lucky.
I understand the culture way differently. Do you speak any
Hawaiian a little bit? I'm not fluent, but hopefully one
(47:29):
day I told myself, I will be fluent enough to
teach my children. Yeah. I love that, and then teach us.
It's a it's a whole other alphabet too, right, we
have thirteen letters and one of them is not even
like an actual English letter that you guys would recognize.
What is it. It's called an okina. So it's like
a backwards apostrophe and it teaches you too. It's like
(47:51):
a glottal stop. Do you know how you say and
it stops in the back yeah. So like have you
heard people say Hawaii? Yes, Yeah, I've heard you yeah
ws or v's um, depending on where you're from on
one of the islands, and then there is an okina
between the two eyes, so you have that little glottal stop.
So it's studied linguistic I did. That's why very impressive
(48:17):
you call it a glottal know that I know that one. Yeah,
that's awesome. Is so the correct way to say it
is like that. So then how do you speak of
Hawaiian people? Yeah, you're gonna say that, so a lot
of people. Okay, I'm gonna teach you guys something real quick.
So Hawaii is a Hawaiian word. It's not an English word.
(48:39):
It belongs to the Hawaiian language. Hawaiian is an English word.
It's not Hawaiian. That makes no sense at all. Word
Hawaiian is not from the Hawaiian language. Um, it's what
you guys call us. So when our Hawaiian language, we're
not called Hawaiian. People were called kanaka, mauli, kanaka mauley
(49:01):
And what does that mean? Does that be like people? Yeah? True,
people I love that might just be like my favorite thing,
like this is us where the people kanaka or kanaka
kanaka maulei, kanaka Kanaka is kanaka the person the people
I love that love that. Yeah, So that's what we
(49:23):
call us, but you guys call us Hawaiian. So for
that reason. You guys don't have an okina in the
English language, so you wouldn't put it between the two
eyes or do the glottal stop. People just say Hawaiian
and then Hawaii two different languages. So Hawaiian is not offensive. No, no,
it's just what you guys call us. That's fine. But
that's a that's incredible. I love it. Kanaka ya kanaka.
(49:45):
So what do you call what's the Hawaiian word for
non Hawaiian people. Oh? A lot of the people we
call them how how how And a lot of people
get offended, like you'll see angry tourists like, don't call
me a howlet Like that's such a derogatory term, But
it's because we just speak badly about tore so you
(50:07):
always basically here and like what are these hell they
is doing like go back home kind of thing. But
it's not a derogatory term. How It just means foreigner,
like you're not flying, you're not it's not being all like,
it's not a slur or anything. But people like to
act like they're being targeted, and it is yeah how
yeah how They like, oh, you're still hollow. I don't know.
(50:29):
Maybe some Haians would call me that. My mom would
be like, oh, since you were like born and raised here,
and I'm like kind of whitewashed. Oh you're still how
And I'm like, don't call me that. Moming. Like if
I compared to like the Hawaians on the actual born
and raised Hawaian lands, they'll hear my California accent and
be like, oh, no way, because they have a pigeon
(50:52):
accent over there. We call it pigeon. It's like a
creole language because when we were basically working on the
fields and stuff, like the sugar plantations. Have you guys
heard of that? Oh? They thrived off it, the white men,
the sugar plantations. So back then the sugar was like
real popular, right, it's addictive, and so they made a
lot of money off it. But Hawaiians and Asians and
(51:13):
Latinos would work it. So that's why so many Asians
and I feel like um people from South America live
in Hovei because back then they were brought over to
work on the sugar plantations, and we all spoke different languages,
so it came together as one to communicate, and we
call it today pigeon Pigeon English. It sounds like English,
(51:34):
but you're gonna get a little bit of Japanese, a
little bit of Spanish, a little bit of all this
and that. So I understand pigeon. I unfortunately don't speak
it because I wasn't raised around it. Amazing. Yeah, that's incredible,
so many things, so many things. Oh my god, what
(51:55):
would it be called? Away? How hold isay? Wow? I'm
so I'm so grateful for you, not only for being here,
I know I told you when we were upstairs, but
for doing what you're doing. I mean, it's so easy
to look the other way and not put in the time,
and I know it takes time. People don't realize the
(52:18):
effort that goes behind just one video, the research, the filmming,
the editing, the preparation. So I I thank you, and
I hope that, if anything, you feel validated because across
the world, well across the country, really across the country,
you've impacted me, You've impacted the people around me, and
(52:40):
hopefully the people who are listening also, and the cycle
will continue. Thank you. Thank you for being with us,
thank you for flying with us anywhere but Hawaii or
just stay home, just actually don't go anywhere. See you
(53:01):
next week on our Own World, Guys, tell everybody about
this every money, don't colonize the cosmos. This podcast is
brought to you by Moonflower Productions in partnership with I
Hearts Michael Una podcast Network. For more podcasts, visit the
I Heart Radio apps, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Creating z Earthlings. Welcome to today's flight. This is one
of your captains speaking before we take off. We have
a brief announcement. On last week's flight, our passenger, Miss
Sheila E, scolded us for our lack of sounds and
disappointment in the ones that we did have as promised,
and to ensure the comfort and enjoyment of each and
every one of our passengers, specifically again Miss Sheila, who
(00:26):
scolded us, Here we present your new sounds. Enjoy. Buckle
up and have a great flight. I captain on the
(00:51):
conject I gave you the same. Let's go to a
mission that already ready for a theme launching. Hello Earth,
(01:20):
We are back of the one, the only I O
O W Mothership. Yeah, oh wait, I can do this.
There you go. I forgot to turn off the theme song. Whoops.
So we are here with a very special guest. During
(01:41):
the pandemic, a lot of us wanted to travel, and
a couple of episodes ago, Emily and I did an
entire episode about traveling and I touched upon this subject. Um,
My family and I got together and we were just
throwing out places of names of places that we had
wanted to visit that we had. I'm seen that we
had never gone to, and somebody said Hawaii, and so
(02:06):
I'm like somebody that likes to do their research. So
I've never been. I know very little about Hawaii, and
I started looking up Hawaii and I come across somebody's
page and she ripped my brain to shreds. Not only
did it completely revolutionize my opinion, not only did we
(02:29):
not go there on a family trip, but um, she
opened my brain completely. So, without further ado, thank you
so much, Melan Mical for being here. Did I say
it correctly? Welcome in our own world? Thank you much so.
(02:50):
First of all, tell us a little about yourself. For
those of us who don't know much about you. So
my name is mel. I am a video content creator
and I teaching all things. I love that you are incredible.
You've educated so many people, so many people through your videos,
and there's so much that I want to talk about today.
But I want to start with your name, because I
(03:12):
have a name that a lot of people and it's
much shorter than yours, but still people mispronounce it's Geminy.
I get Jeremy germany so many different things, and for
a long time, what I did to make it easier
for other people is introduce myself as my nickname was,
which is gem. And then a few years ago I
got to thinking about it and what the power behind
(03:33):
the name is and how we really only have one
and the thought that goes behind it, and how I
kind of owe it to myself to at least try
to introduce myself as my name and those who make
the effort to learn it it's because they're interested. So
I know that in Hawaiian culture, the name has a
lot of significance. Would you share some about that? Yes, um,
(03:53):
so our names mean a lot to us. We go
through a very different process, so we usually get our
name and dreams. We can be named after other people,
we can hear in a whisper or a sign, but
we usually wait to see what we would name somebody
because it makes up who they are as a person. Wow,
that's incredible. So when you were when you were born,
(04:14):
your mom hadn't made a decision yet about or your
parents hadn't made a decision yet about what to name you. Yes,
so I was actually named after my cousin, so I'm
named after her, but I was gifted a second first
name in which is where I get machelopoul and that
came from a dream from my mom. I love that. Now,
(04:34):
can you how many times can you add onto your name?
Or is that something that there's a so you can
add on to your name until you die? Um, since
it makes up where you are as a person. We're
always changing, so it can always be added onto. Beautiful.
That's beautiful. That's so funny because like we've spoken about
(04:54):
it when we talk about, oh, if we ever got married,
you know, would we like if we couldn't invent a
last name, what would it be. I'm not going to
say it because you are going to steal it out there,
but it's something we can say it because then they're
going to be held accountable that at this time stamped
our we set it for someone gonna steal it and
you're going, I'm telling you, But anyway, there was you know,
we were just thinking about the concept of changing changing
(05:17):
your name, because it's true we are ever changing and
how we describe ourselves. If you could change your identity,
you know, I always say, we don't decide, you know,
physically how we come to this planet, but whatever is
on the inside and other things like for me, you know,
tattoos and stuff really make up how you change while
you're here. So that's how I view those things. Um
(05:40):
yeah not usually tattoos um from what I understanding, also
are significant in Hawaiian culture. Correct, So what what is it?
So our tattoos basically makeup who we are and who
we come from. Where we come from. It's basically our lineage,
(06:01):
who our ancestors were, how we're connected to them, what
islands were from, and the list goes on. So it
really tells a lot about the person who's wearing it.
I love that. I love that. That's that's you say
that a lot. You're always like, oh, tattoos are the
one thing that we can choose. Yeah, and you know
what else, I'm hearing a lot, which I love. Correct
me if I'm wrong, because you know where we come from, Cuban.
(06:21):
You know, we have other we're from other parts of
the world, but mostly Cuban, our parents and our families,
and for us, you know, family and lineage is very important,
like that respect, that respect of you know, your ancestors
or elders, and that's something that I was born and
raised here in the United States. However, with you know,
those kinds of practices from my very old school Cuban family,
(06:45):
and sometimes it's difficult, but sometimes it's beautiful because there's
a reason why so many of those things are important.
You know, I was seeing kids disrespecting their grandparents, you know,
not spending time with them, not understanding the value of
having that relationship with them, and in the community. It's important.
You know, those are some of the most important people
in your life. And I see it time and time again.
(07:05):
My first tattoo was designed by my grandma. Poor thing
rest and peace. Didn't know she was designing. As in Cuba,
you know, tattoos are Yeah, my grandfather always says, that's
what you brand cows with. That's how he it's it's
so interesting how cultures see things differently, but they kind
of overlap in certain places. And that's the beauty of
(07:26):
the world and the beauty of you learning that and
then you know, also teaching me and now me being
aware and moving and moving and moving, and that's the
beauty of what you share online. Because I've been to
Hawaii and I loved it, and honestly, I'm going to
be the first person to say because it's important, Oh
my god, you gotta go. It's amazing. It's so beautiful
that people are amazing because I honestly felt that way,
(07:48):
not knowing under the radar what you're contributing to. Yeah,
that's how it's supposed to make you feel. And you
keep coming back how I mean, And there's a reason
obviously why. You know, the people of the island have,
I mean, what no choice you know, to to contribute
(08:08):
to this. Why is it that we're so blind to this?
You think here in the United States, at least they
don't want you to know. So I feel like there's
a little bit of a cutoff when it comes to
the media, especially if it's coming from the Native Hawaiians.
We protest all the time. We've protested for years. Um,
you guys just never see it here on the continental US.
It doesn't make it here. Um. I know we recently
(08:30):
just had a protest last week, but it was in
front of the White House. But I'm sure not a
lot of people know about that, right, So it never
really reaches people. But we do try and speak out
as much as we can, which is why I do
what I do online. I love that so we talk.
We're talking a lot about what's going on over there.
But we haven't actually talked about what's going on over Eric.
Can you, because this is your platform and we want
(08:52):
to elevate your voice, can you share with us what's
going on in Hawaii. Yeah, so a lot of us
are getting displaced. UM. The prices are absolutely insane. I'm
pretty sure Have I E Is the most expensive place
to live. UM. If we're talking about the US alone.
A lot of people live on live in multi generational houses,
(09:13):
so first generation, second third, they all share usually a
small house together, and they're all working one or two
jobs just to make it. Groceries are insane. All of
our food is imported UM for that reason. But I
think what we need is sustainable UM farming. We need
affordable housing. We need a place for the native people
(09:35):
to stay, because if we're displaced, we're thousands of miles
away from our own culture and people in language. We're
not just down the street. We have to move off island.
So a lot of the times we live our we
lose our culture over time. When we have children on
the continental US, it's hard to teach them when they're
far away from home. If you were raised in uh California. Correct, Yes,
(09:58):
born and raised. Amazing your your family did an incredible
job preserving your culture. How how how hard was that
for them? I would say very difficult. My mother did
all of it on Huai on my mom's side, so
my dad doesn't really know much about it. Okay, yeah,
but my mom is a hula teacher, so she taught
(10:20):
me hula and with that came a lot of the
traditions and the protocol. And she also would make sure
I take different workshops from different teachers in case she
missed something or even um during school, like summer school,
she would send me away to Oahu and then I
would learn from Commanbe high schools and different teachers would
(10:42):
like teach me different stuff. But um, it's like a
little puzzle piece right coming together. That's that's incredible. I
know that hula is really important and we have a
huge misconception of hula. I was seeing something on TikTok
about um you know that just even between Hawaii and Tahiti,
people make that. Are you proud of me? Because I've
(11:07):
really you know, I wanna I want to help and
spread the word accurately. Um, there's a big misconception between
what Hula is and what we think it is. And
a lot of that has to do with the way
that it's marketed towards us, right like Disney for first ones.
A lot of people look at movies like leland Stitch
(11:27):
and uh, sure they are parts of Leland's Stitch that
are Hawaiian by what they want us to believe is Hawaiian,
but it's not really a Hawaiian movie. Um in general,
right in general, you know, people think that m l
a um a coconut bra uh, you know, the skirts,
that that's Hawaiian culture, but it's not. So what is man?
(11:52):
I wish the media showed it more, But there's so
much to it, honestly, Like we never wore coked up
bras or grass skirts. That way is actually invented after
Western contact, but primarily to make us look and sound
very exotic so that people would pay to come see us.
So we were kind of like little entertainers, but we
were never given the money, which is still going on today.
(12:15):
Like we're still entertaining you, we're still serving you and
making sure you have a wonderful time and you're enjoying it.
But it's um, it doesn't really doesn't come back to
the people. Yeah. Yeah, and a lot of people think
it does. You know. They go there and they go, well,
I'm giving money to you guys, and you should be
happy I'm coming, but it doesn't go back to us.
(12:39):
So you, especially if you're a tourist, you were mentioning that, um,
it's one of the most expensive places to live. And
as I was doing research for this conversation, Uh, most
of the links that would come up, we're buy a property,
this is the best deal. I literally walked up to
jem and I was like, what it was, no thing relevant,
(13:00):
anything that had to do with any kind of connotation
with the island. A million links for real estate. And
then in further research I saw that it's like minimum
wages what ten dollars or something like that, ten dollars
and ten cents and the average property is a million
point three something like that. So we're going over there
(13:20):
and we're buying these properties that are not attainable by
the people who just privilege on the island to be
able to live and enjoy. This is a follow up question,
is there any correct way to visit the island? I
get asked this all the time because people always want
to know there's no ethical way to visit unfortunately hopefully
(13:42):
in the future. But if you do go, and you
really want to go, I would say find ways to
give back instead of just to go and take. So
volunteer anywhere that you can. I know there's tons of
volunteer opportunities for terot patches, there's tons of volunteer activities
for the Hawaiian Fish Pond, and it's a few hours
(14:05):
of labor and you're there to help. But when you're there,
we teach you about our culture and why we do
what we do, so you kind of leave with something.
I love that. I love that, you know what. I
think that that's something that maybe we should all think
about for when we travel in general. Because we're lucky
enough to you know, be in social media and have
somebody like you that's in the US it has a
(14:26):
platform where she can share this. But like Emily was saying,
we're Cuban and I was thinking about this when you
were speaking. You were saying that there were protests last
week and people don't even find out about it. We
in our culture experience that similarity um the majority of
the world, and I'm sure you're really going to feel
this has no idea what's going on in Cuba, um
(14:50):
or what they think is going on is not what's
going on. And there are protests and they're the people
are asking for liberation, that people are asking for help,
and it never never sho us, either because the media
is sensorigan or people just aren't paying attention. Um. So,
I think it's really interesting to think about how in
the grand scheme of who we are as individuals and
(15:12):
where we put our money, maybe we should all consider
volunteering at the places that we visit. Because I've never
thought about that before, and I think that it's a
wonderful idea. H I have another I have another question
for you. Um. I was I was learning about you
and I saw that one of the things that you
talked about was and I think it's part of your name.
I understand that macla pula means um blossoming flower. Okay,
(15:36):
so it's poor the flower part. What's up with the
pua the side that you wear it? This is what
made me go viral? Yes, oh my god, it wasn't
what are your education? It was the first video I've
ever made. Mad. I mean it is educational, but Okay.
It was me sitting down in front of my phone
(16:00):
own and saying that if you put on the left side,
you're taken, but if you were the flower and the right,
you're available. And it is a wedding. Yeah, wow, I
love that. And if you put it in the middle
of you're probably confused. That's my favorite situation ship I
will go if I ever go to Hawaii. That's in
(16:25):
also the visual, just like like if you put it
in a bun and then put it in your bun. Yeah,
you're like maybe maybe I love that. I love that.
So you mention that you have dances jula your whole life, Yes,
and I understand that hula is a really complex dance
that's a lot more than just moving your body. Yes,
(16:47):
it's a language language within itself. Yes. So I started
dancing at the age of two, um so that's about
nineteen years now. Yeah, and it means a lot. I know.
I see a lot of people on TikTok and they
kind of use it as trends to give views and
I get it. It's pretty, but we can tell that
you're not a dancer by the way you're moving. It's
(17:09):
very specific movements. When it comes to your legs, your hips,
your hands, even your eyes. I can tell if you're
not looking in the right direction that you may not
be very professional. Wow. So even the direction that you're
looking at indicates something something else. We always follow our
right hand. Um, if you're not looking at your hands
(17:30):
and you're instead maybe looking around, it can tell me
that you're not understanding what the dance is about. Because
we tell a story when we dance, so we're always
looking at where we're going, especially with our hands. So
if I were too, for example, talk about flowers poor,
this is the dance move for poor, and I wouldn't
be looking at you. I'd be looking at the flowers.
So it kind of tells me, you know, your experience
(17:53):
with it. But it's it's very detailed. It's a language
that's incredible, that's beautiful. So what kind of stories do
you tell in hula? So many, anything and everything. It
first started out because we didn't have a written language,
so we would pass down our stories, our history, um,
(18:13):
who our family was through hula so that we wouldn't
forget it. Um. And now it can be dancing about
going for a car ride or talking about Christmas. It's
anything really, so you get dance to any song or
there like I'm thinking about like sign language like or
the or the dance moves like individual pieces that you
(18:35):
So let's say, like you said, that's the pool of
the flower, right, can you put that in another context
to tell a story like maybe the flower today and
today's dance has a different context and tomorrow. But is
it like it always? If I see that, I'm always
gonna think you're talking about flowers. Yes. So if I
see different dancers from all of the world, um making
(18:57):
this movement, I'm gonna say it's flower. Especially if you
listen to the lyrics and you know the Hawaiian language,
then you're going to hear the word poor. So that
kind of gives you a hint. Okay, interesting, that's incredible.
That is incredible. You know, I can't dance, so I'm
just gonna dance the hula in my head. If you're
not Hawaiian, is it disrespectful to learn hula? No? No, no,
(19:22):
And my mom's hula school. So many people aren't Hawaiian. Yeah,
it's just learning correctly. That's all the people. That's all
being respectful too. Yeah. I feel that way about a
lot of things, especially because now you know, people try to,
you know, make capitalize on everything you know, or like
you said, trends. Oh look, all of a sudden, now
(19:44):
this you know, I could tell if you're looking in
your selfie camera while you're hulaing, that you're not thinking
about the play. But yeah, I really respect that. You know,
you're you're very wise beyond your time on this earth. You.
I feel that way about Jim too, even though you
know she's long in the tooth. Now she's getting old. Wow,
(20:06):
I'm not old, dude, so old. Wow, I'm not old. Yeah,
when you were born, I was. I'm sorry. When I
was born, you were four months and you have four
months were probably phlosiphizing. No, but you mentioned that one
of the things, one of the stories that Jula tells
is your history. Uh. And it's so funny because I
(20:30):
don't we great. We grew up in the US, uh,
knowing that Hawaii was a part I'm doing air quotes
right now, part of the US. I learned literally nothing
about Hawaiian culture. And I'm sitting here now realizing that
I know, I know a bunch of things about random
(20:51):
mast states like Louisiana. But why I don't know anything
about Hawaiian culture history. If you can give like a
synopsis of of Hawaii and what happened, because I know
that we obviously colonized, and I'll teach you it for
a reason, exactly will you would you share for us? Yeah? Um,
(21:13):
So a lot of our history has to do with
the missionaries coming over, and when they did, they banned
a lot of our stuff. So a lot of times
you don't learn about what happened to us because I
don't think they can whitewash it enough for you to
think it was okay. So they banned our language, they
banned hula, they banned our traditions, and then they started
(21:35):
um converting everyone to Christianity and starting schools, so very
similar kind of to what they did to Native Americans. Um.
And then of course, if you were caught speaking Kawaiian,
if you were caught dancing hula, you were punished in
multiple different ways. Whatever it was, um, but it scared
(21:55):
them enough to not speak in anymore, which is why
so many people today theyll don't know the language and
they're learning it. We're bringing it back. But that started
in the seventies. Wo. So you're basically like retracing the
steps of your history. Yes, we lost a lot of it.
That's a devastating, devastating to hear. In reading, I learned
(22:15):
that Hawaii used to have a kid Yeah, we had kings,
we had queens. We were very smart people until we
were colonized. And I think now we're you know, literacy
and schools, and they think we're dumb. But we were
very smart people before we were colonized. One of the
(22:36):
things that is um interesting about Hawaiian culture that I learned,
but I don't want to say the name wrong, um
that in Hawaiian culture there is the considered a third gender.
Oh maho baho okay, coolah. It's kind of like, um
(22:57):
too spirited, right. It made me think of that with you.
But to day exactly like that. Those people were celebrated. Yes, yes,
they were pretty much leaders. They taught a lot of
the children. Um, it was so easy for them to
just go back and forth and relate to so many people.
And they taught a lot of kids hula and the
Hawaiian language and how to do certain things. They were teachers. Um. Unfortunately,
(23:24):
the word has been kind of I would say tweaked
a little bit over time. So our generation has unfortunately
been taught that mom who is gay and it's an insult.
Now that's probably our fault at worry Americans. Wow, that's
so unfortunate. Yeah, but it did have a special meaning
and we're trying to bring that back. Yes, happy baby
(23:49):
to happy people, right queer. And another thing that I'd
love to know about is what was the Hawaiian religion
before it was Christianity, you know, before that happened. Yeah,
we had a lot of gods and goddesses, which is
why when they came there like, oh my gosh, you
guys are horrible people, you know, and you should read
their journals from the seventeen hundreds when they described us.
(24:12):
But yeah, tons of gods and goddesses. We worship so
many gods of the sea, god of the wind, god
of the brain. Everything. Very spiritual, Yeah, very spiritual. It
seems like a very spiritual culture and what that's in
tuned with nature, which is extremely admirable. I think I
love Hawaii more now, even though I've decided not to
(24:34):
go there then when I wanted to go because it
looked pretty, I mean it does look pretty. It is
I'm sure it is. Unfortunately, though, what happens, and this
is the case all over the world, tourists don't care, no,
so they will go to a sacred place. They will
(24:55):
go to a gem of nature that Poe was not
intended and uh trash it. I mean, look at our
look at our planet, right, But it's so sad because
I think it's smart. I was seeing another creator talking
about how this is why Hawaiian's kind of gate keep
(25:18):
parts of their island, and I think that's the only
thing you can really do because we're you can't trust,
uh what tourists do. They just don't understand. They don't
get it. They don't care, it's not home for them,
they don't care. I can't relate because I'm never the
person that goes somewhord throws trash anything, graffiti, cake at
the Mona Lisa, like just you know, I there are
(25:41):
so many ways that people disrespect places and unless you
have that deep rooted respect and understanding for the magic
of that place, it's incredible how people will just walk
all over it. And I feel that way, you know,
to about Cuba, like I'm I say this, you know,
I'm my family is from there. I was one of
the first to be born year and I will not go.
(26:02):
I will not go. Me who's who's Cuban? Who has
roots and possibly even ways to help, which is you know,
like we say, the only way that you know, whatever,
consider if it's if it's dire, if it's something that
I could do to help the people. It's a similar Cuba. Yeah, exactly,
because it's over there. It's would you go when you travel,
you're giving money to the oppressor, except the oppressor over
(26:22):
there is their own, their own government. So we don't
go because to contribute to that would be you know,
my ancestors. My grandma was one of the most important
people in the world to me, you know, I want
to honor her. That means more to me than anything,
the sacrifice that she made, you know. Yeah, all the
(26:56):
Islanders like with him. You know, the Hawaii people is
already talk about like independent always. Yes, what I mean,
I guess it takes like somebody leading the movement, But like,
why do you think that it hasn't yet? Um, the
US is a force to be reckoned with, so I
(27:18):
can see why it's been taking so long. But I
know in the nineties they did apologize a hundred years
after the fact, they said, sorry, you know, we over
with their mouths or with their money, because there's a difference. Sorry,
but where are the reparations? Right? Like they apologize, It's cool,
(27:44):
we're trying. I would say the Wine Kingdom is definitely
active and we're doing things behind the scenes. Um, a
lot of people just don't know about it. There's two
governments running simultaneously and the Wine Kingdom is very much
alive today. That's a b if. I wanted to learn
about Hawaiian culture because it interests me, because I like,
(28:07):
you know, learning about the world. What would you say
is the best way while still being respectful to do that?
Search out means teacher, So whatever you want to learn about, UM,
you would search up anyone near you. Try to get
into the Hawaiian community, whether it be through Facebook, groups online,
or maybe there's one near you. You can get to
(28:28):
know more people and they can point you in different directions.
So don't go to the internet, go to the source,
to the source. Yeah, the Internet is not very accurate
when it comes to teaching you Hawaiian things because of
how it's been broadcasted to the world. So I would
say go directly to a teacher that's been you know,
taught this over time, and they could teach you that. Yeah.
(28:49):
And I imagine because of like you mentioned, like the
the dance and the language and all of that being
kind of like diluted over because of the colonization and everything.
I would be really curious to learn about like literature,
you know, like how much has how much have books
about Hawaii here in the United States? You know, if
(29:11):
you go to the library and you pick out a book,
who wrote it? Right? I always look at the name
to see if they have a Hawaiian name, um, and
then I go kind of further into who they are
if I google them, and if I see they're white
and don't have a Hawaiian name, I'll kind of be like, Okay,
maybe you don't know what you're talking about, or like
where did you hear it from? Yea? Yeah, So I
(29:33):
always try to buy books from actual Hawaiian authors first,
just because I can relate to them and they probably
know what's going on better than anyone else, got it. Yeah.
Do you think that there's ever a future where people
can can go travel to Hawaii and share the culture
without it damaging displaying so many people and essentially ripping
(29:59):
Hawaii of its own culture. I hope, so, I hope
there's a future where that is possible, But as for
right now, I don't see that happening. You know what
I will say, Jem when even though I was a kid,
I was old enough because I also love surfing, like
I love the ocean, I love nature, I wasn't connecting
(30:20):
when I was there to the things that I saw
people connecting to around me, which was money, food, the
best this, the best that I want to go to,
the coolest, this, the best service, the best room, and
the people that are there. That I experienced, it was
a lot of that. There was a lot of like
the experiencing the sensation of it, but not connecting to
(30:41):
the real thing. I hate to keep bringing up cube again,
but I just feel just old cars and cigars. Not
only that, Like you're going there and you're having a meal.
How about down the street they don't have salts? You
know what I'm saying, Like we need to be more
responsible with this information because yikes, and it's not just
it's not just tourists, it's people who are best to
go over there buying up properties, right, Yeah, definitely. They
(31:05):
contribute horrible. So even airbnbs are like no, because that's
probably going to people who bought those properties from the
United States. Airbnb is aren't really that good. I feel
like it doesn't go back to the person people, and
there's not a lot of Hawaiians. I feel like that
own Airbnb is in the first place to be able
to sell it. Yeah, so I A lot of people
(31:25):
ask about that though, They're like, well what if I
stay with the And I'm like, well, if you can
find one good thing I met you, well in California, California, right,
you can come the countdown back. I have a question, actually, please,
is there you know, like in the United States, Cuba,
(31:48):
all places around the world, Like there's this word I
don't know how to say it in English say to finish, like, yeah,
there's this like sexism almost as how is that the
island is that? Has that ever been a thing? Like
how are males? Do they respect women? Yeah? How is
the female to male? You know, we have a lot
(32:10):
of women that are missing, unfortunately, because Hawaiian women are
so fetish sized because of the media in terms of
what they make us look like, and we look I
hate describing, you know, exotic, because I feel like you
shouldn't call a person exotic, but we're made to come
off that way. So a lot of um men unfortunately
go there for like sex trafficking or just buying sex online. Um,
(32:34):
so we we're very targeted. What about like in the
culture though, you know, like a like a like a
Hawaiian family, you know, husband and wife. How does the
male treat the wife? Hopefully good? I feel like I
feel like there's no roles, like you just gotta do
what you gotta do, so progressive. Yeah, so it's like
(32:56):
there's no roles, like you really shouldn't. I feel like
I don't anybody in the household being like, well, her
job is to be in the kitchen, and there's is
to like to be working because like right now everybody's working.
Like if you want to live there, you're working too. So,
um there's no roles, just do what needs to get done.
I love that was also. Sorry. I was just gonna say,
like in certain ancient cultures before a lot of this change,
(33:17):
you know, women were like they were the glory, you
know what I mean. They were they held a lot
of importance. The matriarch, the leaders in some respect in
certain culture. There's another thing that I learned because of
you that I did that I didn't know, which I
think is a beautiful concept. And it's uh in Hawaiian culture,
how women are viewed, whether all their period I knew
(33:40):
you were going to bring that up. Yes, yeah, so
let's see. Well it's something that I actually taught my
mom because she learned the wrong way. And unfortunately a
lot of people still have this mindset because we were
i would say brainwashed over time. But back in ancient
(34:00):
hove E, before we were colonized, our periods were seen
as a very beautiful thing. So I mean, like blood
is sacred, so seeing a human bleed without dying was
so magical and you know, giving life. They were kind
of put on a pedestal during that time, so they
(34:21):
were to rest. We had like a resting area where
it was just for like women to go and um
get through it together. I know, women didn't really touch
the food. The men would cook the food, but like
very separate, like men um and the women had different
cooking utensils and stuff, so like they wouldn't even cook
the same food together. Like this food is specifically cooked
(34:43):
for the men to eat. This food is specifically for
the woman to eat, and um, we wouldn't eat together either,
But a lot of people grew up being told that
it was because periods were disgusting, and so I was like, yeah,
you didn't eat with us because like we couldn't eat
with you, you were unpure during the time, and you
went away because you couldn't be around us. So it
(35:04):
was actually the exact opposite. That mindset came from colonization
when they came over, because they didn't like how the
women reviewed like a missionaries because to them, it was
always like the man in charge. So when they saw
that it was different for us, they kind of switch
that around. And then over time you kind of lose
(35:25):
that knowledge, just like the word about the twin soul,
right yeah, who right? Yeah? And so when I first
told my mom, she was like, no, that's not true,
like when you're on your period, you're own pure. And
I was like, they're lying to you. Yet I love that. Yeah,
I really I feel like our generation were really like
(35:48):
lifting the veil. Yeah, we're really like unmasking some ship.
We're not playing anymore. We're tired of it. Yeah, we're
tired of it, and we should be and we're not
going anywhere, and we're not going anywhere. Game Vegan, I
want to give you an opportunity to say any last remarks.
We think that we didn't cover anything that you think
would be valuable for people to hear that maybe don't
(36:09):
know a lot about. I can kind of give you,
guys a list of what's not Hawaiian. You might think
it's like stereotypes. A game. I would love you. Okay,
we'll make it a game. Okay. The noise okay, so
here get you get to play with this. This is correct,
this is incorrect. Oh yeah, okay, we play games. Okay,
(36:32):
you guys actually might be really good at this if
you stalk me. We did. Okay, you really maybe not
that much. Okay, here we go. I'm going to start
off easy. So our grass, skirts and coconut bras the stereotype, Yes,
they are a stereotype. Yes, what do we win? Okay? Um?
(36:57):
Shootin about that? You're like presence? Yes? Okay? Um Hawaiian
bread you know the roles? Oh yeah, wait why is
it called Hawaiian? I feel it's like the right answer
is that it is a stereotype, But I don't know
what's the final answer. I feel like it's not Hawaiian.
(37:19):
It's not hawion. Why is it called Hawaiian bread? Because
if you slape wine on anything, they'll buy it. Is
there like a special bread that's like similar that is Hawaiian,
like a sweetish bread that they stole it from? I
don't think. So you don't understand. We love that bread.
You know it's good, it's just not at it. I'm
(37:42):
mad at the bread. Okay, how about Hawaiian pizza? I
feel like that's is that actually Hawaiian? Now? I feel
like you're checking up? Thank God, there's mistakes, no, because
like why would pizza be Hawaiian? Whatever the answer is,
I think it's vile. I don't think. I think now
thinking about does not belong on pizza than hard upset?
You guys? Do you like pineapple and pizza? Like I
(38:04):
don't know, Like like she loves all the topics. I
have one of those. I love. I love food. So
it's not Hawaiian. Yeah, three for three, it's not Hawaian.
It's not Hawaiian. What about like what is the actual
correct hula garment? Oh? So there's different styles of hula.
(38:30):
So there's like Caxico, which is old school um ancient hula,
and then there's um a Wana, which is more modern hula,
And so the outfits will look completely different, along with
the instruments that we use and even the sound of
the music. Wow, can you tell by based off of
like would you be able? I can. I've been doing
it for so long that I can just look at
a dancer without dancing and be like they're going to
(38:52):
be dancing a ancient Hawaiian hula because of the album
Yeah for some reason, which is popped in my head.
We're recently on It's a Small World, right, Oh yeah, yeah,
and there remember there were like some ladies dancing hula
and I'm like, no, I'm wondering what they were wearing,
probably grass skirts. Like I gotta go back right now?
(39:14):
You know what work tripped to Disney. Let's go to Disney.
Expensive on the pot? Got a bad idea? Yeah, well
there you go. We won. Another one is pineapple. A
lot of things. A lot of people think pineapple is
native to Hawaii. Eat it's not. You know that? No,
I didn't know that. Yeah, pineapple I never grew there,
(39:34):
was brought over from South America. What the heck? Yeah,
a lot of people don't just drinking just a pineapple.
It's not Hawaiian in any way. Can they probably import
most of them? What are some of the things that
we think are Hawaiian that I are actually Hawaiian that
are um okay, yeah, just not the plastic nine cent
(39:56):
store real the real flowers. Yeah, we actually wear those.
Those are real. Is there a specific time that you
wear them? What's their significant? You know, greeting people like hello, goodbye?
A gift. You'll see a lot of them on graduation.
There's the thing that we Pacific Islanders do where we
will fill you all the way up until you can't
see with lay, but not just flowers. Will be like candy, top, ramen,
(40:20):
money like stuff in the ways and it's like you
shouldn't be able to see by the time you're done,
Like it'll be all the way to your face. So
that's like a tradition we do for graduation. But yeah,
we give them just you know, out of love. Do
you know how to make them? I do? Yes, Wow,
that's insane. They're pretty easy to make, if I'm being honestly.
Is there a specific flower that they're made with um.
(40:43):
You can make layout of any flower. You can make
layout top ramen. Right, have you seen a top ramen?
You have? You know you haven't seen we have? Yeah.
You just take suran wrap and you'll like wrap it
in the suran wrap and then twist the ends and
then do like little sections. Oh yeah, she just broke
(41:04):
my mind. You can make it anything anything, All right,
there's there's something above your head that I actually know
how to play it. I learned how to play um
a few years ago. The ukulele is that even the
right way to say it. By the way, wow, I
love that a lot more than the ukulele is the
(41:25):
u le Hawaiian it is not. It was brought over
and you know, very happy they did. We use it
a lot for kula now. But the reason why we
call it ukulele is because it means jumping fleas. So
when you're playing it really fast, your fingers are just
going everywhere and it looks like jumping fleas. That's incredible, Okay,
(41:47):
that's incredible. Well, everything that I thought to be true
is a lie. Basically, pineapples, les, coconut bras, and jula skirts.
Burn them all. I'm just gonna say this too. I'm
(42:16):
assuming like when Halloween comes about, it's spooky season this time.
I know, do not be a hula girl, thank you.
I didn't even remember that it's October girl. Don't please.
It is appropriation. If you want to be Lulo, wear
the red dress, but don't wear her hula attire as
(42:38):
because the red dress is just dressed. Like I said,
like Party City has like what like two aisles of stuff.
You go in there and it's just like hula girl central,
but like not the real authentic thing. Yeah, you know
what another thing is like we, at least in Western culture,
we look at a girl dressed in something like a
(42:58):
broad and a skirt, and it's supposed to be sexy, right,
which is why we're targeted. But yeah, wired culture, I'm
sure it's not sexualized at all. It's probably just really hot. Right. Well,
back before we were colonized, the woman actually didn't wear
any tops. Yeah, it was so normal, like these things
are just for feeding, right, And then the missionaries came
(43:21):
and like I said, read their journal. They did not
like it, so they told us to cover up, and
over time our clothing did change. But yeah, it was
never coconut brawls. Like I would never want to climb
a tree, drink milk out of a coconut and then
like stick it on my chest. I feel like it's
very uncomfortable. I'd rather be free of it, you know.
No tops, right, it's really hard, and not every coconut
(43:46):
is going to be like the same size. But if
you have like double ds, they're not going to have coconuts.
The coconuts looked like boobs, right. I don't know who
made that up, someone in the US, I don't know,
but yeah, it wasn't ya wow wow wow. I love
that I've learned a luck me too. Thank you girls,
(44:08):
Thank you, thank you. Anything that I know stemmed from
you or something that you shared or or and I've
tried to commit it to memory because I want to
talk to people about it. I want to be able
to say the right information, you know. Um, And like
I said, it hits a little close to home because
us being Cuban. I mean, I don't know, Actually I've
(44:28):
never really thought about cuble gold to being appropriated. I
guess it kind of is, but I don't think it
really bothers anybody. We live in Miami. I'm sure that's
The thing is it, Miami is a really specific place where. Actually,
up until I think the last five years, it was
like Cuban. Yes, you can go anywhere in Miami, and
(44:52):
I like, you can test it. Test it. I'll bet
you ten bucks I will. Then will you try it?
I guarantee you will find If there are five people there,
the majority, the three speak Spanish. No, I know. They
keep coming out to me thinking I do as well.
I don't. Oh my god, Like they're asking me for
(45:13):
directions and I'm so sorry. You know now that I'm
looking at you, you totally give I get it all
the time. You know, my dad speaks Spanish, but he
never taught me. He lived in Mexico for a long time. Yeah,
and I didn't know he's spoken until I caught him
one day. Where he's from Valleo. You know Valleo. Don't
(45:35):
go there. Le's got But it's very dangerous. I'm not kidding. Yes,
where is it. It's like it's definitely in the Bay Area,
so it's around San Francisco. Like, um, have you guys
been Oakland? Don't go there either. Don't go I love
so dangerous. I'm being honest. It's really dangerous. Yeah, she
(46:00):
don't go alone walks. I did not know. I did
not know. Yeah, but he was born and raised there.
My grandma's from the Philippines, so he's the Asian. I
get it from him. Do you know what you think
about the Philippine side of your family? You know, I
wish I did. But when my grandma came here, Um,
she wanted to be Americans so bad. She didn't teach
(46:21):
her her son, and then my dad couldn't teach. What
happens all the time with us too. But it's it's
tough because you're like, I have so split about it
because I'm like, why, you know, we have to preserve
our culture. But at the same time, I'm like, I
get it. You know, I'm lucky enough in my family
(46:44):
and your family. It is the same case. My mom
decided she and my mom was born in Cuba, but
she came here really young, she was like four. So
I always say, I'm like, momby were whitewashed. You know,
she's very American. My parents are my grandparents are super cupid,
and they basically helped to raise us. They don't they
don't even speak English pretty much. Um, And that's where
I have like, my deepest connections to my to my
(47:07):
roots is through them. But even still, my mom said,
you know that she was going to speak to us,
me and my sister only in Spanish until we got
to school. That's what she did. I love that. I'm
so grateful. I'm so grateful because, wow, I feel so lucky.
I understand the culture way differently. Do you speak any
Hawaiian a little bit? I'm not fluent, but hopefully one
(47:29):
day I told myself, I will be fluent enough to
teach my children. Yeah. I love that, and then teach us.
It's a it's a whole other alphabet too, right, we
have thirteen letters and one of them is not even
like an actual English letter that you guys would recognize.
What is it. It's called an okina. So it's like
a backwards apostrophe and it teaches you too. It's like
(47:51):
a glottal stop. Do you know how you say and
it stops in the back yeah. So like have you
heard people say Hawaii? Yes, Yeah, I've heard you yeah
ws or v's um, depending on where you're from on
one of the islands, and then there is an okina
between the two eyes, so you have that little glottal stop.
So it's studied linguistic I did. That's why very impressive
(48:17):
you call it a glottal know that I know that one. Yeah,
that's awesome. Is so the correct way to say it
is like that. So then how do you speak of
Hawaiian people? Yeah, you're gonna say that, so a lot
of people. Okay, I'm gonna teach you guys something real quick.
So Hawaii is a Hawaiian word. It's not an English word.
(48:39):
It belongs to the Hawaiian language. Hawaiian is an English word.
It's not Hawaiian. That makes no sense at all. Word
Hawaiian is not from the Hawaiian language. Um, it's what
you guys call us. So when our Hawaiian language, we're
not called Hawaiian. People were called kanaka, mauli, kanaka mauley
(49:01):
And what does that mean? Does that be like people? Yeah? True,
people I love that might just be like my favorite thing,
like this is us where the people kanaka or kanaka
kanaka maulei, kanaka Kanaka is kanaka the person the people
I love that love that. Yeah, So that's what we
(49:23):
call us, but you guys call us Hawaiian. So for
that reason. You guys don't have an okina in the
English language, so you wouldn't put it between the two
eyes or do the glottal stop. People just say Hawaiian
and then Hawaii two different languages. So Hawaiian is not offensive. No, no,
it's just what you guys call us. That's fine. But
that's a that's incredible. I love it. Kanaka ya kanaka.
(49:45):
So what do you call what's the Hawaiian word for
non Hawaiian people. Oh? A lot of the people we
call them how how how And a lot of people
get offended, like you'll see angry tourists like, don't call
me a howlet Like that's such a derogatory term, But
it's because we just speak badly about tore so you
(50:07):
always basically here and like what are these hell they
is doing like go back home kind of thing. But
it's not a derogatory term. How It just means foreigner,
like you're not flying, you're not it's not being all like,
it's not a slur or anything. But people like to
act like they're being targeted, and it is yeah how
yeah how They like, oh, you're still hollow. I don't know.
(50:29):
Maybe some Haians would call me that. My mom would
be like, oh, since you were like born and raised here,
and I'm like kind of whitewashed. Oh you're still how
And I'm like, don't call me that. Moming. Like if
I compared to like the Hawaians on the actual born
and raised Hawaian lands, they'll hear my California accent and
be like, oh, no way, because they have a pigeon
(50:52):
accent over there. We call it pigeon. It's like a
creole language because when we were basically working on the
fields and stuff, like the sugar plantations. Have you guys
heard of that? Oh? They thrived off it, the white men,
the sugar plantations. So back then the sugar was like
real popular, right, it's addictive, and so they made a
lot of money off it. But Hawaiians and Asians and
(51:13):
Latinos would work it. So that's why so many Asians
and I feel like um people from South America live
in Hovei because back then they were brought over to
work on the sugar plantations, and we all spoke different languages,
so it came together as one to communicate, and we
call it today pigeon Pigeon English. It sounds like English,
(51:34):
but you're gonna get a little bit of Japanese, a
little bit of Spanish, a little bit of all this
and that. So I understand pigeon. I unfortunately don't speak
it because I wasn't raised around it. Amazing. Yeah, that's incredible,
so many things, so many things. Oh my god, what
(51:55):
would it be called? Away? How hold isay? Wow? I'm
so I'm so grateful for you, not only for being here,
I know I told you when we were upstairs, but
for doing what you're doing. I mean, it's so easy
to look the other way and not put in the time,
and I know it takes time. People don't realize the
(52:18):
effort that goes behind just one video, the research, the filmming,
the editing, the preparation. So I I thank you, and
I hope that, if anything, you feel validated because across
the world, well across the country, really across the country,
you've impacted me, You've impacted the people around me, and
(52:40):
hopefully the people who are listening also, and the cycle
will continue. Thank you. Thank you for being with us,
thank you for flying with us anywhere but Hawaii or
just stay home, just actually don't go anywhere. See you
(53:01):
next week on our Own World, Guys, tell everybody about
this every money, don't colonize the cosmos. This podcast is
brought to you by Moonflower Productions in partnership with I
Hearts Michael Una podcast Network. For more podcasts, visit the
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favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Gemeny Hernandez
Emily Estefan
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