More than 300 students attended the Midwest Association of Filipino-Americans Conference held this weekend on campus.
The annual assembly, which is held at a different school every year, brings together students from a variety of Midwestern colleges and universities to educate them about Filipino-American history and culture.
“This is the first year for Ohio State, so we really wanted to make it something special and unique,” said Edith Mitra, MAFA program coordinator.
In addition to workshops, cultural performances and a variety show, the conference featured keynote speakers Albert Del Rosario, an ambassador from the Philippines, and Melissa Howard, of MTV’s “The Real World” New Orleans cast, who spoke of the Filipino experience at MAFA’s banquet on Saturday evening.
“I am happy to be here and happy to be able to be a part of this,” Del Rosario said.
The ambassador said the U.S. and the Philippines share a strong cultural bond.
“Many facets of activity that we have in the Philippines are actually born from the American influence,” he said. “Things like our structure of government, laws, education, free enterprise and social justice.”
There are more than 2.5 million Filipinos and Filipino-Americans in the United States, and more than 100,000 Americans in the Philippines, Del Rosario said.
In fact, Filipino-American students have become the largest Asian population in the Midwest, which is why organizers decided to create the MAFA conference in 1996.
“I can’t express to you how awesome it is to be in a room full of this many Filipinos — this many Asian-Americans,” said Howard. “It’s really something that doesn’t happen to me every day — and I live in Los Angeles.”
Howard, who is half black and half Filipino, said her portrayal on “The Real World” was not an accurate one.
“For some strange reason, there was no real reception or understanding that I was in fact Filipino,” Howard said.
“They film you 18 to 24 hours a day, for 22 episodes and each episode is 22 minutes,” she said. “There are seven cast members to explore, so at the end you get to see three hours of me. In those three hours, they just represent one ounce of who I am as a Filipino-American.”
Howard said there is more to her than what the show relayed.
“I respect where I come from — both sides — and I would stand by both of them any day of the week,” she said. “It’s hard because MTV doesn’t understand brown — they only understand black and white. There’s no gray — there’s no in-between.”
Despite this, Howard said her “Real World” experience helped pave the way for her current project — a female comedy show called “Girls Behaving Badly” on the Oxygen network.
The MAFA conference was organized by the Pilipino Student Association, OSU students and faculty.
Dennis Alonzo, PSA president, said the success of the conference is gratifying for all those who helped make it happen.
“Seeing all the happy people brings a good feeling to you, like all your hard work paid off,” said Alonzo, a senior in medical dietetics. “It’s what we wanted to do for the past year, and it’s coming together.”
