Densho Digital Archive - Bob Santos Interview III (denshovh-sbob

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TI: I want to go something that is probably a happier note. In the early '90s -- this gets back to your relationship with Larry Gossett, Roberto, and Bernie -- you took a trip to Japan.

BS: Yes.

TI: And, in 1992, it was called the Multicultural Exchange Trip to Japan.

BS: Yes.

TI: Tell me about that. How did that come about, and what was the purpose of this trip?

BS: Well, as you know, the Gang of Four was formed, we all met each other during the '60s and '70s, during the, all the demonstrations that were happening. We, every demonstration, we happened to see each other. Every, almost every demonstration in the Latino community or the Indian community, black, Asian community, we would bring our people to help out the Indians, we'd bring our people to help Roberto and the Latinos, and so we formed a pretty close alliance. When there would be a city council hearing on funds, block grant funds that would be allocated to the community, and we started to go down to the city council and testify for our programs, and we're in competition with all the other communities. I mean, it was really, it was obvious that we're in competition, so the four of us got together and said, hey listen, we can't be out there cutting each other up and, I can top you and my programs are better and I'm serving more people. So when we're out there and we talk about the need to fund our programs we also, we also want to talk about how the other programs that we're working with need equal, they also need the funding, and it's spread out equally, except we demanded more money for that pot. And so the four of us, we call it the Gang of Four, we became very close politically, as activists, but then we also became very close socially. We just liked each other. We'd get together pretty often for a drink after work or after a demonstration we'd go somewhere and have, we'd be a little bit rowdy. And then Bea Kiyohara came up to me once, said, "Hey, Uncle Bob, we have our community show off every year. Can you come up with an idea, 'cause I know you like to sing and dance and all that stuff, and can you come up an idea with, for a performance for our fundraiser?" So I said, "Sure, I can think of something. I'll do a pantomime or I'll do a lip sync or something," and then I decided, hey, Bernie, Roberto, Larry, would you guys be willing to, if we put an act together -- I'll go to Gary Iwamoto and have him write up a script -- would you be willing to perform at a community show off where we can raise money for the community? And here we have these activists that are gonna let their hair down and go on stage, and they all said yes. They're hams. These guys loved the stage. Never pass up a mike. So we were doin' that every year. Every year we had the Gang of Four perform. One, the second year we brought in Annie Galarosa and we had Gladys Knight and the Four Pips. We were the Pips. And we rehearsed, we rehearsed twice a week for about four months. We never missed a rehearsal. Now, the guys never wanted to miss a rehearsal 'cause Annie was always in her tights, right? I mean, she was... anyway. What can I say? And so it was the hit of the whole show. We kept doing that.

And then we started to go on speaking circuits. The four of us would be asked to speak at different conferences. Teresa Fujiwara, who was at ACRS then, had a friend from Japan who, she went, I think her graduate school or something, she, one of her classmates was this guy from Japan that was, became an entrepreneur kind of thing. And he came to Seattle and Teresa introduced him to me, and I said -- name was Toro, and I forgot his last name -- "Toro, I want you to meet these other guys too, because we're involved in this Gang of Four movement where the major ethnic groups are, we cooperate on some stuff." So he met with Larry and Roberto, Bernie, and I, and he said, "Would you be willing to bring your presentation, your panel discussion to Japan if I could arrange to have you come to Japan through the," it's the equivalent of a chamber, a Tokyo chamber of commerce, whatever that business group was. And he got the government of Japan and that business group to pay our way to Japan to speak to a couple of groups in Tokyo and a couple of groups in Kobe, Japan. So along with the four of us, Teresa Fujiwara, she led the delegation, Alice Ito, Don Williamson, who was editorial writer for the Times, he found out about this so he got the Times to send him with us to Japan. So that was the trip of a lifetime, red carpet everywhere, and we were featured on their national or local TV stations during our presentations, and so that was great. One story is when we were in Kobe, and there's this, before the earthquake, and there's this five star hotel, four star, five star hotel with a restaurant on top. And you've been to Kobe you might've been there. It's really one of the, you know, Kobe beef is the thing there, and Maestas keeps getting a waiter over here and saying, "I want some more wasabi. Wasabi." Four, five, six times the waiter, okay, okay, and brings over the wasabi. Finally, about the sixth time, the chef from the kitchen comes in with a bowl of wasabi, a heaping bowl, just to see what's going on here. And so Maestas takes the bowl and he dumps it on top of his bowl of rice like it's gravy, and he, and he eats it, and the whole kitchen staff just went, just busted out laughing. They thought this is the funniest thing they ever saw. It just so happens when Maestas was growing up his grandparents raised the hottest peppers in New Mexico, so everyone in New Mexico knew about this Maestas family and the peppers that they grew. They would, they would find the hottest peppers from this region, from that region and grow 'em in their yard, or in their farm, and mix and match and all that kind of stuff.

TI: That's a good story.