Pearl Gala, Philippine Embassy, Maya Soetero-Ng, Powerful Pinays (and Jay-Z, Beyonce and Sean Combs)

Lots of pics in this post. It's 3amPST and we have to wake up at 6am to take the Metro to our purple section in front of the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony. But here are some pics from today's packed day.

The day started with errands this morning for stuff we need for the inaugural (hand warmers, snacks, etc), and then I went to the National Day of Service event for the Filipino Veterans. My good, old friend Ben de Guzman is one of the coordinators of the Filipino Veteran's Equity campaign. We need to pass this bill this year -- a bill that grants all the Filipino veterans of WWII full equity with all American veterans.
That's me with novelist Evelina Galang, who is working on a new novel about the Filipina comfort women of World War II, and Ben de Guzman.

Then we headed over to the inaugural reception at the Philippine Embassy. But first, we said hi to our friends who were protesting and chatted with them in solidarity first before going into the embassy.

I saw my former student Valerie, who is getting her PhD at NYU, here at the rally, which critiqued Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's rather cozy relationship with the Bush regime, her human rights record (abysmal).

A number of us Filipina/o Americans from the East, West, Southwest, and Midwest who helped to phonebank, precinct walk, and generally campaign for Obama.

Child prodigy Charisse Pempengco, the 15-year-old Filipina singer with the HUGE voice who has made appearances on Ellen and Oprah, and guested at Celine Dion's concerts, sang a Celine Dion cover and "America the Beautiful" at the Embassy.She's the cutest, nicest and sweetest girl. And she's almost taller than me. I'm wearing four inch heels in the pic above.

And then it was off to the 5-star Mandarin Oriental hotel for the huge Asian American inaugural ball, the Pearl Gala. The Asian American power players in DC haven't thrown a bash since the Clinton years, so everyone was excited. Lots of celebs there. I missed Kal Penn (that would be Kumar of Harold and Kumar fame, and Gogul from the Namesake film)!


All of the Asian American elected officials in Congress and the Senate were there, as well as former and about-to-be confirmed cabinet members. Lots of movers and shakers at this ball: directors of nonprofits, policy wonks, legislative assistants, Congressional and Senate staffers, community organizers and activists, educators, and celebrities.

The crowd whooped and hollered for 4-star General Eric Shinseki, who first gained public attention by publicly critiquing the military strategy of the Bush administration in Iraq. He has just been appointed Secretary of Veteran's Affairs. He's Japanese American.

Lots of colleagues at the ball. From left to right: Dr. Rhacel Parrenas, professor of American Civilization at Brown, me, Dr. Theo Gonzalves of American Studies at University of Hawaii-Manoa, and Dr. Patricia Espiritu Halagao of the school of ed at UH-Manoa. Theo and Patricia are good friends with Dr. Konrad Ng, Maya Soetero-Ng's husband, as he's a prof at UH in education. They got to go to the Hawaii and Hawaii-Illinois balls.

So this is really funny. I stood in line for TWO HOURS for a hot dog and hot cocoa at the Inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial. There was this guy behind me and we chatted over the course of our two-hour wait to kill time, mostly complaining about why we were in the slowest line in the universe. We joked about how if we were at the March on Washington in 1963, we would have been the idiots in the hot dog line when King made the speech. We split right after we got our food, though. Then at the Pearl Gala, I saw him and asked if he remembered me from the hot dog line. We had a huge laugh about it. So this is Samir. We're going to be friends on Facebook now.

Charmaine Manansala ran the Asian Pacific Islander Vote team for the Obama campaign. She kicks ass.
This is Charmaine introducing all the young Asian American activists who worked for Obama in all the swing states, organizing Asian American communities. Charmaine is now one of the highest ranked, if not the highest ranked, Filipina in the Obama administration. I heard her new job is director of domestic affairs in the new administration.
I first met Charmaine when she was working in the Clinton administration. She's amazing.
There were rumors that Obama was coming, but we weren't surprised when his sister, Dr. Maya Soetero-Ng, came with her husband Konrad. She thanked all of us for our support and asked that we help her brother shoulder all of his burdens and challenges.
She was mobbed for a long time after her speech.


And then in a surprise performance, Charisse Pempengco showed up and gave a surprise rendition of America the Beautiful for the First Sister and First Brother-In-Law.


So when we were leaving the hotel we saw this huge crowd gathered in the lobby. Then we realized that Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Sean Combs (Puffy) were staying in the hotel and they were in the lobby! Suddenly I got papparazi-crazy, snapping pics until I got too close to Beyonce and the bodyguard shoved my camera lens away. Suddenly I felt like a slimy TMZ reporter and not at all professor-like.


It's inauguration day. So excited. Hope you all have a great day. I'll be in front of the Capitol by 8am tomorrow.