Manaotao Sanlagu: Rob Perez | Way of life

Journalist Rob Perez’s investigative reporting on the decadeslong failure of Hawaii to return Native Hawaiians to ancestral lands helped carry coverage modifications and $600 million in landmark laws for Hawaiian Dwelling Lands and nationwide recognition, profitable an Excellence in Investigative Reporting award from the Asian American Journalist Affiliation.

It is likely one of the excessive factors of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser investigative reporter and ProPublica Distinguished Fellow’s 43-year profession working for newspapers in Hawaii, California, Florida and his native Guam.

“Once I look again on my 40-plus years, that’s acquired to be at or close to the highest when it comes to the highlights,” Perez stated — not of this latest accolade, however of one more memorable journalistic expertise that occurred 41 years in the past on Guam.

Profession spotlight

“I hoped that you just’re going to ask about one of many highlights of my journalism profession as a result of it was on Guam,” Perez stated as he began off our interview.

“When Pope John Paul II arrived on Guam on February 23, 1981, I used to be assigned to put in writing the lead story. After which the subsequent day when he left, I used to be assigned as photographer on the airport, for his departure.

“There have been lots of, if not hundreds of individuals there alongside a rope line on the outdated airport. And that’s the place I used to be stationed simply in case he walked over, and so positive sufficient he deviated from his scripted schedule, walked over to greet the gang alongside the rope line,” Perez stated with the arrogance of reminiscence a few story he has recounted quite a few instances.

“I jostled and made my means as much as the entrance of the rope line with my wide-angle lens on my Nikkormat and began taking pictures away as he was strolling down the rope line in my course. I used to be taking pictures and taking pictures and taking pictures after which subsequent factor I do know there’s a hand prolonged to me that I might see on the viewfinder of my digicam. So I dropped my digicam and shook his hand after which he continued on down the rope line,” Perez stated.

At this level, most journalists would cease and savor the second, however not Perez.

“So I ran down, I don’t know what number of extra yards, made my technique to the entrance once more and was taking pictures and taking pictures and taking pictures extra images. And the subsequent factor you already know, he sticks his hand in my digicam once more. So I shook it once more,” he added.

“It’s exhausting to high that story, as a result of I used to be raised Catholic, my mother and father have been religious Catholics and a lot of the island was Catholic,” Perez recalled. “And wow, you’re in the beginning of your profession, and also you get to cowl the pope on your property island, and never solely do you get to cowl him, you get to shake his hand twice and within the span of some minutes.”

Ever the consummate skilled journalist, Perez needed to substantiate dates and recollections and he went on newspaper.com and downloaded a digital copy of the Pacific Each day Information protection of the 1981 papal go to to Guam.

There on the PDN entrance web page was his reporter byline and on an inside picture unfold was his picture, captioned, “the pope presses the flesh on the airport simply earlier than leaving.”

Perez and I each began our journalism careers at PDN as summer season interns. When he graduated from College of California, San Diego, and began full-time in 1979, I used to be headed the other way, transferring from College of Guam to College of Missouri.

As a fellow journalist and a CHamoru rising up Catholic on Guam, his encounter with the pope resonates with me, albeit with a tinge of envy and jealousy.

He laughed once I advised him I used to be jealous of him. I defined that I used to be a part of the Detroit Free Press editorial workforce that coated the 1987 papal nine-city U.S. tour that concluded in Detroit.

I advised him, “I photographed the pope in Miami, San Antonio, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco, however I by no means acquired that shut, not to mention ‘press his flesh.’”

I requested Perez if the pope stated something to him and he replied, “I used to be so dumbstruck and in awe, that if he stated something, I didn’t hear it. I used to be similar to, wow, I simply shook the pope’s hand after which once I shook it once more, I stated I should be blessed for all times.”

Guam roots

Perez grew up on the Hyundai housing subdivision of Sånta Rita-Sumai and is the second oldest of 5 kids of Beatrice Blas Calvo, familian Calvo/Dero, and Ricardo V. Perez, familian Cotla and Gollo.

He grew up in a time when seemingly all through the island CHamoru mother and father felt that fluency in English was the important thing to profession success.

“My mother and father made the choice early on to not converse CHamoru to us at residence, as a result of they needed us to succeed, get good jobs and good schooling. And my mom was a CHamoru teacher,” he recalled. “I believe they did that as a result of they needed us to assimilate and get an schooling that will improve our possibilities of doing nicely.

“So we’ve all achieved nicely, however at instances, I believe it was partly on the expense of, at a minimal, not studying my native language,” he added. “That’s an enormous remorse I’ve and once I retire in a few years, excessive on my to-do record is studying the CHamoru language.”

Remorse however, he rapidly added. “I don’t converse CHamoru, but I contemplate myself as CHamoru as anybody round as a result of, it’s extra about your values and your beliefs. I do know who I’m, I do know my identification, and it revolves round being CHamoru.”

And it revolves round being a journalist at a excessive stage for many years.

“I at all times knew I needed to be a journalist. I don’t have formal journalism coaching. I didn’t even work for my highschool or school newspaper, however I’ve at all times appreciated to put in writing and I’ve at all times appreciated to ask questions,” he stated.

He met his future spouse, Betty Shimabukuro, once they have been each working at PDN from 1979 to 1983. Since then, they’ve labored in the identical newsrooms in Florida, California and Hawaii for 4 many years — aside from 5 years in 2005-2010, when she was working on the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and he labored at The Honolulu Advertiser.

The papers merged in 2010 and have become the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, and the couple grew to become co-workers once more till she retired final 12 months.

“One of many benefits I’ve is being married to a journalist, who occurs to be a a lot better editor than me,” he stated. “I can let her learn my copy earlier than I flip it in, and ask her what she thinks and generally she might be very, very, very brutally trustworthy. And tells me ‘I don’t perceive this in any respect,’ or no matter, after which that at all times helps enhance the story.”

They left the PDN in 1983 and transferred to a newspaper in Florida, labored there for a couple of years, went to California, labored there for a couple of years, after which ended up in Hawaii. And except a two-year stint in Orange County, California, they’ve been in Hawaii since 1988.

“We determined that this (Hawaii) can be good if I couldn’t be on Guam. I’m an island boy at coronary heart. I really like residing within the islands,” he stated. “We have been lured away from Hawaii within the early ‘90s to work on the Orange County Register. However after two years, I knew I wanted to get again to the islands.”

He felt that Hawaii was the very best place to lift their three kids. “They’re half CHamoru, 1 / 4 Japanese, 1 / 4 Chinese language, so I wish to assume the CHamoru is their overriding identification,” he stated.

“From the time they have been children until even now, I actually emphasize their CHamoru heritage and attempt to remind them of the values which can be essential to us as CHamorus. The values of household and respecting the manamko’, that’s what I attempt to instill in my children over time.”

All through his newspaper profession, Rob Perez has been a reporter, investigative reporter, columnist copy editor, enterprise editor and assistant metropolis editor.

“There’s no query I like writing and reporting, which is why I deviated from going into administration,” he stated. “I needed to be simply the reporter. I believe that’s my energy and the place I could make a distinction.”

ProPublica

These previous few years he has made a distinction, particularly as certainly one of six inaugural members of the ProPublica Distinguished Fellows program.

This system funds reporters’ salaries and advantages for 3 years as they produce essential investigative tasks from their residence newsrooms on matters affecting their communities.

“It’s essential to ProPublica and to me as a CHamoru journalist to be the voice of marginalized folks, people who find themselves underrepresented and who usually aren’t mirrored absolutely and adequately within the mainstream media,” he stated.

“My investigative efforts up to now with ProPublica had been principally concerning the native Hawaiian folks and the way a program right here to get Native Hawaiians onto their land by way of homesteads has actually been very dysfunctional for many years.

“I get to work at a job the place I can really make a distinction in folks’s lives. Whether or not it’s by way of triggering modifications within the legislation, or modifications in coverage or, contributing to laws to applicable $600 million for a homesteading program, the truth that I’ve been in a position to have a hand in that — I imply, to me, I can’t think about a greater job on the planet than what I’m doing now,” he added.

He has a couple of extra years on his fellowship and is regularly writing extra concerning the Hawaii homestead investigation however he has future ambitions that embrace Guam.

“I’m going to suggest some tales which have a Guam angle, in order that I can merge my two pursuits of writing about Hawaii points, after which discovering matters which have some sort of parallel or some sort of connection to Guam, as a result of I needed to put in writing extra about my, my residence island,” he stated.

Judging by the outcomes, Pope John Paul II certainly blessed this journalist that fateful day in 1981.

“I do really feel blessed when the tales end in actual influence that may profit folks for years, it’s all of the extra gratifying and it’s all of the extra reassuring that my resolution 40-plus years in the past to be a journalist — in my coronary heart it was the precise resolution,” he stated.

“Once I look again on my profession, and the way I began — a graduate of a Guam public college, and rising up on an island — I’m pleased with what I’ve been in a position to obtain, coming from the background that I got here from. And I’m proud that I’ve been in a position to make a small distinction on the planet by way of my writing. {That a} CHamoru from a small island has been in a position to make a distinction,” he stated.

“And I’m positive lots of people that you just’ve talked to by way of this venture, they really feel the identical means — that CHamorus, of their small methods, transfer away and are making a mark on the world. To me, it’s very gratifying and hopefully it helps encourage and encourage different CHamorus to do the identical factor.”