In a year filled with departures, this newsletter is a departure. Personal archival items collected by Seaver Center staff are shared below. But first, featured is a Your Story Matters profile on a Los Angeles County resident and global citizen caught in the pandemic.
YOUR STORY MATTERS
In early May the History Department introduced a community campaign to collect stories from those living in the Los Angeles and southern California region for their thoughts and experiences in coping with the pandemic crisis. Stories are sought to be archived - allowing for future generations to learn from history happening at the moment - by visiting Your Story Matters to fill out an online set of questions. Digital images, along with audio and video clips, are welcomed.
Greg Molinari shared his story - and his written submission has been expanded below resulting from several follow-up email conversations.
Home base is Whittier, though the early roots for Greg's parents were in Inglewood, Bell and Huntington Park. For a number of years Greg was working in Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, China. On January 20th, several days before the New Year, he took a red-eye flight headed for Manila in the Philippines. Three days into his anticipated three-week stay in Cebu City, he was stunned to see the television news coming out of China.
Through WeChat communications with colleagues he soon learned that the entire country came under lockdown. The following months were punctuated by negotiating temporary living quarters and securing airline flights. The Airbnb reservation system was disrupted, and Greg was met with a lot of starts and stops. At times when international flights were operating, the domestic planes were grounded.
Image from the Seaver Center courtesy of G. Molinari
Eventually he settled into a new normalcy: he attained a permit allowing him to cross checkpoints between Baranguays (neighborhoods or districts). A building owner and government advisor took pity on his long and expensive overstay and allowed Greg to live in a condo unit for free beginning June 1st. He befriended two families who lived along the street under boards leaned against walls. He provided them with food and clothing, including sandals for 10 to 12 kids in the families. One child, Sofia, was starting school soon on the internet. Not possessing a phone nor a computer, she would pay one peso for five minutes at the internet café.
Greg left Cebu City on July 3rd, and after transiting in Manila for three nights, he returned home to Whittier by July 9th. "I got here in a flurry of relief and anger." Shortly before his departure, Cebu had the highest virus count in the Philippines. Greg summed up his written story this way: "I ended up making some great new friendships in Cebu."
Image from the Seaver Center courtesy of G. Molinari
As of this writing, Greg cannot return to China. Following a short period of loosened travel regulations into the country, his airline cancelled an expensive, one-way trip back to Guangzhou that was set for early November. He then learned from China colleagues that new, stricter guidelines for incoming travelers were implemented, and his November 19th flight was predictably dropped.
Betty L. Uyeda
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