Episode 171: The Stories We Don’t Talk About: An Asian Pacific Islander Experience with Luisa Mataele Tupea
AAPI is a commonly used acronym for Asian American Pacific Islanders. But thus far, my observation, not much attention is given to Pacific Islanders, which are entirely different ethnic groups of people.
So continuing with this month’s focus on sharing real people's stories for Asian Pacific Heritage Month, joining me in this episode is my friend, Luisa Mataele Tupea. Luisa is both an Asian American and Pacific Islander, being of Tongan and Japanese ancestry.
Luisa and I first met as freshmen in college. We lost touch after graduation but reconnected over a decade later when our paths crossed while we were both on work trips, and we’ve remained friends ever since!
In this episode, Luisa shares:
Her family history, her experiences as a member of both the Japanese and Tongan American communities
How her communities have evolved over the past 30 years
Her experience as a professional Asian American Pacific Islander woman in the sports broadcasting industry
Stories from her career at ESPN covering NFL and NBA games, and events like the Superbowl, World Series, NBA Finals, US Open for Tennis, & even the World Cup!
As I’ve previously said, it's so important to share our stories. So as you listen to Luisa’s story, think about your friends, and ask yourself how well do you know their stories? If you don’t, ask them to share it with you, and let them be heard.
Listen to the Episode:
Connect with Luisa Mataele Tupea:
Connect with Luisa Mataele Tupea on Instagram
Connect with Naomi:
Share the Episode:
“ESPN is very welcoming of women, in terms of women and people with diverse backgrounds, they’re very good. I would say amongst the people that don’t work for my company, it’s hard. It’s hard for a lot of Polynesians. It’s hard for a lot of people, in general, to hear women talking about sports or working in sports. And so for the most part, 98% of the people that I talk with, think it’s great and they really encourage it. But there’s just a handful of those people who will quiz me on sports facts and things like that. And if I don’t know who won the 1995 Championship, or who’s a home run Derby winner of this year, or…occasionally, it’s some of those people who think that if I don’t know all the stats that they know that somehow I’m not qualified for my job. ”
Read the Transcript...
Naomi Nakamura: Well, hello there my friends, and welcome back to The Live FAB Life Podcast. I am your host, Naomi Nakamura. And as I shared in the last episode, Episode 170, this whole month is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month or Asian Pacific Heritage Month. I'm not quite sure, but I have invited a few of my Asian friends to join me in sharing their stories.
And today, I'm joined by my friend, Luisa Mataele Tupea. Luisa and I first met when we were young 17 year olds. We were both freshmen in college and starting out as communications majors. And we lost touch for about a decade after college, but we reconnected in 2007.
So yes, you can configure out how old we are. And we reconnected in San Antonio, Texas, of all places because we happen to both be there at the same time for work. Neither one of us lived in San Antonio or Texas, but I was there for a work conference that my company was hosting and Luisa was there for the NBA finals, which, for those of you sports fans, you'll recall 2007 was between the San Antonio Spurs and the Cleveland Cavaliers. And incidentally, it was LeBron's first NBA finals. So as you can now see, I did not stick with a communications major, but Luisa did and she has since had a very long and very successful career in sports journalism. And in fact, she has worked in production for ESPN for well over a decade.
Luisa joins me today to not only share her stories from her personal experiences as an Asian-American Pacific Islander woman in media. And if you are a sports fans, she has some of the coolest experiences and stories to share from all sports, from basketball, to baseball, to football, to tennis, and even the World Cup.
But Luisa is also here to share her cultural and life experiences as an Asian-American and a Pacific Islander. Now, AAPI is a commonly used acronym for Asian-American Pacific Islanders, but thus far, at least in my observation, just like how indigenous people are really not talked about a lot when people use the term BIPOC, which is Black, Indigenous, People of Color, indigenous people are really talked about a lot.
And just like in AAPI, I've seen most of the attention in using this acronym given to Asian-Americans, but not a lot given to Pacific Islanders which, at least how I was raised and how Luisa was raised are an entirely different ethnic group. And we touched upon that in our discussion.
And so Luisa shares her family history, and family history is one of my most favorite topics, to hear about other people's family histories and my family history. And so, she shares her family history and what her experiences have been like as a Tongan Japanese American woman.
So like I said in the last episode, I feel so strongly that's so important to share our stories and also to have our stories be heard. And I am so honored and excited to share Luisa's story with you. So with that, let's get to the show.
Hello, my friends. Welcome to the show.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Thank you so much. Good to see you, be with you again.
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah, I was thinking about it. I've known you since I was 17 years old.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. Well, 18. I was 18. I just turned 18 when we met. Oh, yeah.
Naomi Nakamura: I was still 17 when we met as freshmen in college and we had communications one-on-one together and it's been a ride.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah, it's crazy to think that it was that long ago, but it feels like it wasn't that long ago.
Naomi Nakamura: Right. It does feel like it was not that long ago. And you know that I was thinking about it. I think we probably went a decade without having any contacts. And then we ran into each other again when we were both in San Antonio for work since 2007 because I was there for a work event and you were there covering the NBA finals, and that was LeBron's first finals, right?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah, that was. And I think because we were friends on social media, somehow we both figured out.
Naomi Nakamura: I think I might have just joined Facebook around that time, maybe.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. I'd just joined Facebook around that time.
Naomi Nakamura: So it must've been, it just so happened we were, were we going at the same hotel? I mean, San Antonio was not that big, but ...
Luisa Mataele Tupea: I don't think we were. I don't remember exactly, but I do remember-
Naomi Nakamura: I don't remember.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Figuring out we're both be there at the same time. You're like, "Oh, my gosh, we have to meet up."
Naomi Nakamura: Right. And it's just the most random thing.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. Yeah. And so it's been good because what I really appreciate is that you keep me connected to a lot of the people that we knew freshman year, that I've lost touch with.
Naomi Nakamura: It's just the power of social media, I think.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah, for sure. It's such a different world than the one we entered as freshmen in college.
Naomi Nakamura: Can you imagine if we had social media when we were in college?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: You know what is funny? I think about that a lot. I think about what it would have been like and Snapchat, catching videos of people.
Naomi Nakamura: And just to give listeners context, we started college in 1992. So there wasn't even email when we started college.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Exactly.
Naomi Nakamura: Well, just think about how amazing was it that we were all still able to connect and to maintain friendships, even though we didn't see each other even around campus all the time. And I think that really goes, correct me if you think differently, but I think it's because we really bonded because ethnically we were connected.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah.
Naomi Nakamura: Culturally, we were connected.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. For sure there was a connection because we had the connection with Whitey and Polynesians and that really bonded us because I think being in that environment where it's 90 plus percent Caucasian students, the few of us that were there, we're like, "Hey, [crosstalk 00:06:21]."
Naomi Nakamura: It was like automatic community.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Exactly. Automatic like, "Oh, you're from Hawaii. Oh, I'm talking Tongan. This my name, this is where I'm at, this is where I live," and so and so and so and so. And-
Naomi Nakamura: Exactly, how it is. But what made you so different? And I have always been so captivated by this is that, and I was just telling you before we started recording, you're the only Tongan Japanese person that I know.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Oh yeah. It's a very-
Naomi Nakamura: Unique.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Unique mixture for sure.
Naomi Nakamura: It is. And as I was sharing with you, I have been thinking over the past few months, with all the anti-Asian attacks and things going on, I just don't think people really know Asian people and why not use this show to share more stars. I've always been someone who loves to have regular people on. They don't have to be authors or doctors or whoever they are, just to have people on to share real people's stories that have, [inaudible 00:07:18] I've always called it.
And while this may not seem like it's a typical topic of what I have, really we're all just people trying to manage stress and live our best lives. And so I invited a bunch of my Asian friends on to tell their stories because we all may or may not look alike. We all have the same cultural backgrounds, but we are so very different. We're also been similar. And you were one of the first names that came to my mind. And I was like, "Well, I don't know if she'd want to come on a podcast." And literally the next day, I saw you had been on a podcast and I was like, "This is meant to be."
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Well, thanks. I'm always happy to talk with people and catch up. And I think that there's so many things that are in common or that we've found through this Zoom culture that we're all in, that we're so much more similar and there's so many experiences that we are more alike than we aren't.
Naomi Nakamura: So if you wouldn't mind, I would love to hear what is your cultural background having such a unique mix of ethnicities?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: So both of my parents were immigrants from Tonga and they-
Naomi Nakamura: So you are second generation?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yes. Well, I'm Tongan. So both of my parents are Tongan, so I'm a first-generation American. So they came to the U.S. for college when they were teenagers, both of them. And so they started out in Hawaii, but they didn't meet there. They actually met in Provo, Utah. Even though they grew up on the same island, went to the same high school-
Naomi Nakamura: Really?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: They're only a year apart. Yeah, they went to the same high school and they didn't know each other, but they met in Provo, Utah. So they met in Utah and they ended up moving back. And the oldest four siblings, we were all born in Hawaii on Utah. That's where they first lived.
And so, because they came from Tonga, they have such a strong cultural background, both of them. But at the same time, my mom is part Japanese. And if you ask most Tongans, they will tell you that I don't look Tongan.
By my features, I definitely favor my mom's Japanese family, and for that reason, I always felt like I wasn't like everyone. That I didn't fit in necessarily because it didn't fit the stereotypical Tongan features.
Naomi Nakamura: That's really interesting because definitely you look Tongan to me, but I can definitely see your Japanese features.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: And it's interesting because when I lived in Japan and I tell people that I was part Japanese, they'd say, "Oh, who's Japanese? Your mom or your dad?" They were under the impression that I was a Nisei, like half or something.
And so, I definitely grew up with kind of, I always questioned, I wanted to be what I was, which was I was Tongan, but I was also Japanese and I wanted to feel that I was both.
But at the same time, I didn't feel like I was either of them, in a strange way, because my appearance people, my age, the other Polynesian kids my age, they didn't think that I was Tongan or they didn't treat me like I was Tongan. And so I always struggled with that, that people didn't recognize me as Polynesian or they thought I was Filipino. And when I grew up in Utah, so my family migrated to Utah when I was little. And there wasn't Polynesians there like there are now. And so-
Naomi Nakamura: Well, there wasn't there when I landed too, either.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah, exactly. The real migration happened in the '90s after we started college. So growing up as a kid, people didn't really know-
Naomi Nakamura: So you add that onto another layer of [inaudible 00:10:53].
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. Exactly. And we had grown up in Hawaii, and so when we lived in Utah, we had a lot of cultural things and we spoke pigeon because we're little kids that had grown up in Hawaii. And so a lot of people would laugh at us. Why do you call things like that? They really didn't understand us and we didn't understand why we weren't understood.
Naomi Nakamura: And it's not like you came from another country.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Exactly. There's funny things. I remember one day we were talking about Asian food in elementary and I raise my hand. They're saying, "What are the Asian foods you eat at home?" People are, rice and different things. And I raised my hands, I like, "Saimin." They're like, "What?" I'm six or seven years old when I came in. They're like, "What is that?" Nobody in the class knew what I was talking about.
Naomi Nakamura: And for those who don't know, Saimin is like noodle soup.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Right. And it's such a common thing.
Naomi Nakamura: It is.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: And there's just a lot of phrases and things that we did that were different than a lot of people didn't.
Naomi Nakamura: I remember seeing, so I spent my whole first 17 years of my life in Hawaii and then I left, I went to college, and I really haven't lived there since. So I've spent more of my life at this point on the mainland than I have in Hawaii.
But I remember when I first went to school, I had the same thing, and these are friends of mine who would laugh at me and make fun of me of the way I spoke with different words that I said.
One thing I can remember was, I said soda. And there'd be like, "It's not soda, it's pop." Or slippers versus flip flops. Which I still, when I'm with non-Hawaii friends, I'll say flip-flops, which feels weird to me, but I know if I say slippers they won't understand what I mean.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: That's the same thing. We grew up saying slippers, we grew up saying rubbish, it's a great box. There are so many things that we would say and we never realized that ... And again, with soda, I never called it pop. We always just called it soda. There was so many words and things that we said that [inaudible 00:13:00].
Naomi Nakamura: You also had to adjust yourself too.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah, for sure.
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: And always having to explain my background, "Where's your family from?" And it got to the point where, because nobody knew Polynesians when we were growing up, we would say, "Well, it's like Hawaii." Because that was the closest thing that anyone could relate to, was Hawaii. Even though there was another Samoan family in our elementary school and in our church stake, but we actually weren't friends with them. And they were around our same age group, but we never were connected with them in the way that it happened when we went to college.
Naomi Nakamura: And this wasn't that long ago, this was in the '80s and '90s.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah, exactly. This was the '80s.
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Looking back on it, it's weird to me to think that this other family didn't say, "Hey, you guys are Polynesia. We should get together, we should hookup our kids."
Naomi Nakamura: Like how we did in college when we first met each other.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Exactly. I think about it now, back then, it just seemed like they were very much, that was their family, our family we just never were friends.
Naomi Nakamura: I have a question for you out of curiosity. There's a term now when people refer to the Asian community as AAPI for Asian Pacific Islanders, and that really surprised me because growing up in Hawaii, they were very separate ethnic groups to me. Even now, I guess they don't group them together, but I don't know how you would group them any differently, I guess in the larger world. What do you think about that?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: It's interesting because I didn't realize until I was an adult that that was what the terminology had become, because I always grew up thinking Polynesians, Asians.
Naomi Nakamura: Yes, exactly.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: [crosstalk 00:14:45].
Naomi Nakamura: Very different. Because culturally, I guess we are different, but then I guess if you're grouping people together, how would you group them differently? I feel a little bit sensitive to that, as in the same way I do with the term BIPOC, because they feel that when people use the term AAPI, they generally talk about Asian-Americans and very rarely do I hear them talking about Pacific Islanders or Polynesians.
And the same thing with BIPOC, they're talking about black and people of color, but very rarely do I hear people even include native Americans in that term. It was just an observation that I had that, too quite honestly, I do feel a little bit sensitive to, even though I'm neither native American or Polynesian myself.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah, I agree. I feel like that's a hard part when they talk about Asian Pacific Islanders is that a lot of times they focus on the Asian part.
So I joined an organization professionally for Asian Pacific Islander Journalist, thinking that I would find other Pacific Islanders. One is actually pretty much, it's just Asians, which is fine because this is the group that I'm with, that I associated with.
But I feel like that does happen frequently because we're a smaller group. I'm not exactly sure, or because when they say Pacific Islanders, it's a gray area. For a lot of people, they aren't sure or they-
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah. And maybe geographically because all of the countries of origin are in the Pacific, but there couldn't be, I mean, such different cultures, even among the Polynesian cultures, even among the Asian cultures. I had a friend I interviewed a few days ago and she's a first generation Korean. And I'm like, if you were to see us sitting together and see a picture of us, we look like we're so alike and we couldn't be any more alike. I don't know anything about the Korean culture and I was joking with you. I'm like you know more about Japanese culture than I do.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. It's funny because like I said, a lot of people look at us and they make judgment calls. They say, "Oh, this person is Asian." And I get mistaken for being Filipino all the time.
Naomi Nakamura: Oh, interesting.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Oh, yeah.
Naomi Nakamura: I don't think you look Filipino at all.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Which is funny because, especially more so on the mainline, not so much here in Hawaii, but more so in Midwest, places where there's not a lot of Polynesians, they'll see me and they'll light up and they're like, "Oh, you Filipino?" And I was, "No, sorry." And they say, "Oh, you sure?" They think [crosstalk 00:17:13].
Naomi Nakamura: That you don't know.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah, that I'm embarrassed to tell somebody or I don't know what they think, but it really happens to me frequently in areas where there's not as many. And it was funny because I used to work in Boston a lot for work. And I worked in sports and in their number one sports channel in Boston was, their main anchor was a Filipino woman. [crosstalk 00:17:38].
Naomi Nakamura: Oh, that is so interesting.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. And she works in baseball now. But at the time, it was NSA, the Northeast Sports Network. So it was like their local ESPN and they covered all the local sports there. And so she was their top anchor. And I can't tell you every time I'd go to Boston-
Naomi Nakamura: They thought you were her.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: People would think I was her, even though I'm 5'9", she's probably 5'2". And so people run and they say, "Hazel, Hazel me, Hazel." And it happened to me every time I would work there, which was once or twice a month.
Naomi Nakamura: Would you at one point just say, "Hi."
Luisa Mataele Tupea: No, I did it. And it was funny is when I go to Philadelphia and other places, not a lot of Filipinos, everyone thought that I was, what's his name, from Maui? Victorino.
Naomi Nakamura: [crosstalk 00:18:23].
Luisa Mataele Tupea: They thought I was his sister. They're like, "Oh." Because I would work the baseball games.
Naomi Nakamura: Right.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: [inaudible 00:18:29]. And people would say, "Hey, you're Shane Victorino's sister." I'm telling you, it's funny because when people start waving at me very excitedly, and I'm in a city where I don't live in or I'm not normally, I know that they're mistaking me for some famous Filipino person.
Naomi Nakamura: That is hilarious. So let's shift a little bit to talk about your work. Why don't you share it this [inaudible 00:18:55] that you do, because I think you have the best job ever.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Thank you. So I work in sports television. My employer is ESPN and I work as a remote production coordinator. So, I work on different remote events with the production team to coordinate. What the coordinators do is we tie everyone together. So basically help everyone so that they can just do their job. They don't worry about how their job is connected with other jobs. And so it's kind of the point person for the production team, to make sure that everyone gets what they need.
Naomi Nakamura: I Was actually able to witness you working. A long time ago, you invited me to join you at a Monday night game, for Monday night, 40 liner game at Candlestick Park. So you know how long that was ago because there's no Candlestick Park anymore. I know this is bad grammar. It was just the funnest time. And it was really cool to see what you do. And you were on-set in the pregame show and working with the on-screen talent.
And like I said, in the beginning, we started out with communications one-on-one as freshmen, 17, 18 years old. And at the time I thought, "Oh, I'm going to have this career in journalism." And soon, I quickly realized that it wasn't my thing, but it made me really happy and proud to see that this is what you're doing.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Oh, thank you. That was so fun. That was one thing that I love about working is bringing people on like that for the day or having them take a tour and see how the production works. And so I really have fun when I'm able to do that. I always try and open up opportunities for other people that participate like that.
Naomi Nakamura: So you've worked all the big events. You've worked a world series because you were here for our first world series in San Francisco, you worked NBA Finals because that's where we reconnected. And you've worked Super Bowls and [inaudible 00:20:42] finals.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: I haven't worked Cocky. No. Every time I've been asked for a Cocky, I've been busy working in the [crosstalk 00:20:49].
Naomi Nakamura: Basketball.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. So I've worked a World Cup in Brazil, in 2014.
Naomi Nakamura: Oh, I didn't know that.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah, I was there for two months. So that was a very long event. So yeah, I work in Rio as Rio de Janeiro. And I haven't worked Olympics yet. I do want to, but Tokyo is looking less and less likely. But yeah, I've worked all of the majors-
Naomi Nakamura: And tennis. You've done tennis too.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Oh, yeah. The US Open. I worked at college football championships, many different ones. I've worked on First Take for a lot of different shows on the road. I worked the NBA All-Star, baseball, MLB All-Star games, a few of those in Pittsburgh and New York.
Naomi Nakamura: How has that been as, well, first as a woman in sports journalism, but then also as a Polynesian and an Asian American woman?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Well, I think the good thing is that ESPN is very welcoming of women and they're very-
Naomi Nakamura: [crosstalk 00:21:50].
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yes. That in terms of women and people with diverse backgrounds, they're very good. I would say amongst the people that don't work for my company, it's hard. It's hard for a lot of Polynesians. It's hard for a lot of people in general to hear women talking about sports or working in sports.
And so for the most part, 98% of the people that I talk with, they think it's great and they really encourage it. And I feel like friends will ask me questions, but there's just a handful of those people who will quiz me on sports facts and things like that.
And if I don't know who won the 1995 Championship, or who's a home run Derby winner of this year, or ... Occasionally, it's some of those people who think that if I don't know all the stats that they know that somehow I'm not qualified for my job.
But for the most part, I think people ... Yeah, I get that. And I guess that's probably true with any field. But the most part, I see Polynesian kids and it makes me happy that they're like, "Wow, I know her." Well, the funniest experience that I had was, once on a Monday Night Football, I was working the Monday Night Football game. And at the time, it was the return of breath five, as the Viking playing against the Packers.
Naomi Nakamura: Oh, that's a good [inaudible 00:23:08]. Yeah.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: It was a big game. It was a big game.
Naomi Nakamura: But this was in Green Bay?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: No, this was in Minnesota. So it was the first time he was playing the Packers for a different team. It was a Monday Night game, and at the time, that game ended up being the most watched cable football game in history. But during that game, we were getting ready to the post game show, which what we do is we stay on the sidelines and we just have to move all our equipment, get it all out for the post-game show because I worked the pre-game and the post game.
And so, as we were waiting on the sidelines to go out, they were talking about the best quarterbacks. They haven't talked about Steve Young and I just happened to be sitting behind him, waiting to go on the air. So the outcome was already decided. They're just talking and filling it with great quarterbacks, Favre. And they're just talking about these quarterbacks.
And so when you see me on the game and mind you, there's millions of people watching this game and they see me behind Steve Young, and they're like, "Oh my gosh, I know her." All the Polynesians are like, "What! How is this girl?" It's funny because my dad, at the time, he had told people, "My daughter works for ESPN." But he said he didn't think people really believed that. He thought that people were just, "Oh, sure. Sure, she does." That no one really believed it. And it was funny because I started getting texts. First, my husband, he said, "I just saw you on TV." I said, "Oh my gosh, really?" And then I got another person that's like, "Hey, I just saw you on TV." And I was like, "Oh, wow."
And then my phone just started blowing up. I was working for the next hour, so many people call me. Not only are they calling me, they were calling my parents. Both of them, my mom, my dad. They're calling my husband. My cousins were telling me that their friends were calling them saying, "We saw your cousin on TV." So many of them. I think if anything, they were really proud of the fact that there is this Polynesian girl who is really working at ESPN, because like I said, there was a question prior to that.
But that's when a lot of people were like, "Wow, she really does work for ESPN. And she's there with Steve Young and it's a Monday Night Football game." From all over the country, people were reaching out. And it really made me feel like, you know what? This is a good thing. And I hope that other people can see that the sky is really the limit.
Naomi Nakamura: So on that note, do you now see more, not just Asian-Americans but Polynesia and younger people moving into the work that you do?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: No. I actually only know of one. One girl.
Naomi Nakamura: Really?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That I recently met through a group of women in sports and she just happened to be half someone. And so she and I connected again, just because of Polynesian and she's going into sports. And so, I wish there were more. I actually talked to several people every year who reached out to me and who'll interview me, who'll ask me questions.
Naomi Nakamura: Well, that's my next question is, I'm sure there are tons of kids and even girls who want to do the work that you do. What advice would you give them? Obviously, I would hope things were probably a lot easier now than when you started, but what's your advice to Polynesian girls and Asian girls that wants to get into journalism and especially sports journalism?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: I would tell them one of the greatest things they can do to really get started is to do internships. Because our industry, as much as any other industry, is a lot about who you know and networking. And so getting as many internships as you can. You can start from your freshman year to your senior year, because it really gives you a chance to be hands-on.
So when I was an intern at the local, I was interned with the KUTV in Utah, and I really helped produce the sports scene. Well, they would just tell me every day I would arrive, they'd say, "Okay, you need to edit." We look at everything that was going to be on the show, which was two hours. And they would say, there'd be like 10 things like, "You're in charge of these 10 things."
And I would just have to find the video, edit it together, write the script, and then they would approve it. And I would just do that. And it really got me to see how the work was done. And it was something that I didn't like, then I would know right away, "This is not for me, or I don't like this aspect, or maybe I can try something else." Because that's the one thing, is that they're always looking for interns. Any company that does media is always looking for interns. And so it just gives you a chance to work with people who will help you if you're ever looking for a job.
I ran into another intern that I worked with at KUTV, and he works for Jazz now. And so he said, "TV, I realized it wasn't my thing, but I really liked sports." So then he went a different route and he met people because of this internship. And that's why I think is a great way for people to get their foot in the door, because that's how I got my foot in very soon, internship with ESPN.
Naomi Nakamura: If you think about it, the industry itself is such a small industry. There's many number of people that do sports journalism, or even work in sports in general, compared to other industries out there.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. I heard a statistic that only one out of every thousand graduates will find a job in sports journalism. I don't know how true that is, and that was a while back, but there aren't that many people. And so, that's why you should take advantage. That's my biggest advice. Take advantage of all the opportunities to network. Join professional organizations, where there's other professionals doing what you want to do because they have so many mentorships programs that help other mentors come in and they want to mentor younger people.
And even the Asian Journalists Association that I'm in, they do the same thing. They offer mentors for college kids, they have programs for high school kids, college kids, for people who are new in the industry. And then when they have conventions, you get to meet other people who are in the industry. They're willing to help other people. And they got their start because someone else helped them and they're looking for ways to give back.
Naomi Nakamura: Did you find that you had to work harder or prove yourself more because you were a minority?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: I think in some places, yes. But one thing that I know is that hard work is a universal language. People recognize that. They recognize if you are there to work and you will do what it takes to get the job done, I think you gain respect. I think the hardest part of being a minority is that some people question that you got your job because you are a minority as opposed to being [crosstalk 00:30:09].
Naomi Nakamura: Good at it.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah, exactly. So that's probably the only thing. But then again, sometimes I think, I don't know, I've applied for so many jobs over the years and sometimes I think that people think, and I've been told this one time when I applied for an internship, I didn't get it. And they told me, "Oh, you know what? But you're going to get so many more opportunities."
As if I had an edge, you know what I mean? They're thinking that I had an edge because I was a minority and a woman, and so then they wanted to give this really good internship to somebody they thought wouldn't have a chance. And ironically, everyone from the year that I graduated, nobody is still working in the industry anymore except for me.
Naomi Nakamura: I was going to say, you tell that story, that great story with Brett Favre returning to Green Bay Monday Night Football. Brett Favre is then out of the game for a long time. So you've had longevity doing this work, which I guess it sounds like not everyone is able to do that.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. Well, it's hard. So initially, a lot of people didn't go into that we graduated together, is because beginning salary for beginning journalist is 20,000, 30,000, which is really low. And if you're looking to support a spouse and a family is really hard.
Naomi Nakamura: It's not doable.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. And so a lot of people, they have a hard time, which we have a hard time too. But one thing that I know really helped me is I had a really supportive spouse who was very much about pushing me. Every time I'm like, "I don't know if we can afford groceries this week." And he's like, "We have to do. You cannot go get another job," because that's the first thing you want to do, is how do I get myself out of this road? Oh, let me just find a different job. And a lot of people too, their jobs are shrinking in TV news because it's [crosstalk 00:31:56].
Naomi Nakamura: I have to say this, I distinctly remember this and I don't think I've ever told you this, but that Monday Night Game that you had me come and work with you at Candlestick, I remember towards, it was like fourth quarter because you guys were getting ready to do the post game show, but we were all standing on the sideline and you were talking to some of your co-workers. And you guys were talking about Comcast starting the sports network that was going to be nationwide. And it was going to really impact the industry and I didn't know what you guys were talking about. I had no context. I didn't understand, but then I started to see Comcast sports network pop up in every single major city around the country a few years later, and it connected back to overhearing that conversation that you and your colleagues had. I'm like, "This is what they were talking about."
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. Because at the time, Comcast somehow merged with NBC sports. And so they're actually now under the same parent company and now there's Comcast sports and all the major markets around the Bay Area, obviously.
Naomi Nakamura: So you guys were talking about how that was going to impact the whole industry and the number of jobs and everything.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. It's funny because to see how our industry has grown and to experience all the changes and everything, it's just always changing and people have to be adaptable and have skills that are marketable. It's funny you remember that.
Naomi Nakamura: I don't think I have ever told you that, but I always distinctly remember the moment in my head. I can still picture us standing there, overhearing you guys having this conversation and not even knowing what you were talking about, but for some reason, it just stayed with me. And then, like I said, a couple of year or two later, it just all clicked in my mind.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: So funny.
Naomi Nakamura: So correct me if I'm wrong, but at one point your family lived in the Midwest and you had told me that you had sent your kids to Japanese school.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. Well, it's interesting because my husband, so he served his mission in Japan. So he speaks Japanese and I used to managed from there as well. So he got his first job out of college at a Japanese company as an engineer, but doing engineering in English and Japanese. So what we realized soon after he started working there and then we moved during the summer, is that we realized that there was a lot of Japanese companies who had set up their headquarters in the middle of the country in Chicago.
Naomi Nakamura: I did not know that.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. So Mitsubishi has a headquarters there, all these different companies, Japanese companies have their headquarters in Chicago because in their mind, if they're shipping out or they want something central. And so they put their headquarters there because in terms of why-
Naomi Nakamura: It's right in the middle of the country.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. Right in the middle of country, they can get to all of the stuff-
Naomi Nakamura: And it's affordable than California or some East coast.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. And he was in manufacturing and so a lot of the Japanese manufacturers there and that's, what's called the Rust Belt. So that's where a lot of the manufacturing is done. So he worked for a company that was one of the main suppliers for Toyota. So their company was right next to Toyota in Japan. And then the U.S. office was in Chicago because they supported the auto industry in the U.S. and Canada. So because there's a lot of Japanese families there, there's a public school that started a dual language immersion program. And they-
Naomi Nakamura: That is so interesting.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. So because a lot of these engineers would come and they would be visiting professionals in the U.S. and work for their companies for a few years, and they wanted their kids to have the experience of being in America, but still keep up with their Japanese skills. A lot of them migrated to the school district and the school, which we soon found out was near my husband's work, fairly close by.
Naomi Nakamura: And this is a public school?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah, it was a public school. I mean, they did have Japanese school in that area as well. So that's fairly common in the U.S., is to have Japanese school on Saturdays.
Naomi Nakamura: I never went. I never went.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. So they have it here, my cousins in Arizona, they have it there. So my kids were in a dual language immersion, Japanese program, and they were able to have their classmates were all native Japanese speakers, their teachers were all native Japanese teachers.
Naomi Nakamura: So are they fluent?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: They're fairly conversational. Yeah, for sure.
Naomi Nakamura: Oh, I am so jealous. Were you with us? Because when we were in college, there was a group of us from Hawaii who took Japanese together. Were you one of those at them?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: I didn't take any Japanese.
Naomi Nakamura: Okay. And who was it? It was-
Luisa Mataele Tupea: [Lihou 00:36:28].
Naomi Nakamura: Yes. Lihou and [Nikimani 00:36:30] and Desiree. And I remember for like four or six semesters, the four of us took Japanese together. And it was brutal because it was 8:00 AM, four days a week, and when you're in college, those 8:00 AM classes are really hard. In addition to that, I took two years in high school, I still can't speak any of it. Not even conversationally.
If you speak very slowly, I can pick up on some words and get an idea of what you might be talking about. If you're talking about food or something else, but I'm not conversational, I can't understand that. It's really quite embarrassing. Especially in work, when I work with my colleagues from Japan and they try to speak to me, and sometimes I think they're testing me and I'm like, "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're saying."
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. Well, I think Japanese is such a hard language. Let me tell you this experience. After I got home from my mission, when I was in school, I was working for the Lora Hotel and I met this guy who graduated from UCLA in Japanese. And mind you, he had studied in college, he was fluent, he could read it and write it. But I'll tell you, when I started talking with him Japanese, his Japanese was not as good as mine.
Naomi Nakamura: Because he didn't live there.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. He hadn't lived there, and I'm only saying this because there's so many things you pick up from living there that you can't replace that. [crosstalk 00:37:53].
Naomi Nakamura: Also again, if people were to see us together, I'm sure most people might assume that I know story from both Japanese culture and language. I really don't.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. Well, that happened in Japan. So people would talk to me instead of my mission companion who had blonde hair or Americans with blue eyes. When I had just gotten there, they talk to me and I'm like, "Oh, I don't know what you're talking about." So I think it's a common thing, is that they look to see, well, you look Japanese, you should understand what I'm saying.
Naomi Nakamura: Growing up, did your mom or any of like her mom, or anybody bring any of the Japanese culture into your home, when you were growing up?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: So it was interesting. So my grandmother is half Japanese. And she-
Naomi Nakamura: I was going to say because you're pretty close to that side of the family. I don't know how it happened, but I feel like you shared pictures with me.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. So, I mean, I found them after I served my mission, but my grandmother is half Tonga and half Japanese. But if you look at her, she looks Japanese. She looks very-
Naomi Nakamura: How did that happen? Somebody immigrated to Tonga?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yes. So her father immigrated from Japan to Hawaii, and then in Hawaii he caught a boat from Hawaii to Tonga. And so a lot of the boys from his town, they all went to Tonga together. And it's interesting because, so he went to Tonga and he met my great-grandmother and then they had my grandmother who was half Tonga and half Japanese, and she died shortly thereafter. So then he, because she died, then he had what we now know as a mail-order bride. So he sent for a bride from Japan, who met him in Tonga. And so he had a family there, his brother and his wife was there. Then he was there and he had his new bride there. And they had children in Tonga who were full Japanese, right? So they were my grandmother's younger siblings, two younger sisters. And one of those is the one who I reconnected with, that lives in Japan.
Naomi Nakamura: I love it.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. So my grandmother, they got separated in World War II. Her father went back to Japan and she stayed in Tonga. He wanted to take her, but she didn't want to leave. So they wrote letters and the last that we knew they were in Yokohama. So her dream was to go and find him, find her family, find her sisters, find-
Naomi Nakamura: After the war.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. So that was her dream, she never made it there. And then when she retired in Utah, she was in an accident. And so she was never able to go to Japan. That was her dream, was to go to Japan. But then I found her sister and brought her to Utah in '97.
Naomi Nakamura: Oh, my gosh, it's making feel emotional.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. So they hadn't seen each other, this was '97. The last time they had seen each other was probably in their '30s. So they reunited in Utah and that was the first and only time. And then I've been able to keep in touch with her over the years. But growing up, my grandmother and my mom and her siblings, they're all very proud of their [inaudible 00:41:05]. This is a very unique thing. Anything about Japan, they're very eager to learn, are really excited to meet my grandmother's sister.
And then I've taken a few of them back to Japan to meet her and her family. We've gone back several times, and every time that I leave, she cries because she remembers her dad. So my grandmother wanted to find her dad and her sisters. And her sister, her name was [Caio 00:41:33]. Caio had wanted to find her sister because her dad said, "Please go and find your sister." And so she feels like her dad, that was what he always wanted, was the family to be reunited.
Naomi Nakamura: Wow. I think you have, have you gone back to Tonga or not gone back, but have you gone there to visit?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. I went in elementary and then I went in high school, and then I went twice before I got married, while I was in college.
Naomi Nakamura: Okay.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: So yeah, I haven't been back since I've been married. So I think the last time I went back was '98 maybe. '98 or '99.
Naomi Nakamura: Oh, so it's been a while.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. It's been a while.
Naomi Nakamura: I've only lived in Hawaii and the Bay Area in Utah. So I feel like there's a strong Tongan population because they've lived in all these cities where there are strong populations. But do you feel like the community has grown over the past, I don't know, a couple of decades?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Oh, yeah. For sure. Especially in Utah. There's just so many Polynesians moving out there, I think with the schools that are out there, the lower cost of living, it's very attractive to a lot of Polynesian families. And a lot of times they migrate where their families are.
Naomi Nakamura: I was going to say, yeah, so it's not so much just you guys and then this other Samoan family and you don't know each other. Now there's actual communities and family units that have really grown together.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. For sure there's just so, so many there. Every time I go, it's funny because we live in Chicago. If we never see someone as Polynesian, we are like, "Oh, my gosh."
Naomi Nakamura: How don't I know them?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. Like, "Hey." In Utah, we used to do that and we're like, "Oh wait, they're all Polynesian." Everywhere we go on the street, in the malls and the airport, everywhere you go, there's Polynesians everywhere. I don't know if it's more people that have migrated from Tonga or Hawaii. I don't exactly know what it is, but I do feel like a lot of people are more aware of us as a people. And it's interesting because when we were in Chicago, we were the only Polynesians that our friends knew. And now a lot of them moved to Utah and they have met other Polynesian people. And so it's been kind of needs the growth, I think, of other people and so-
Naomi Nakamura: Well, and I think it's so important just to have that support network around you and just to feel supported and feel like you have a community you belong to.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. And I think the other thing too, is that what I see is a lot of traditions from Hawaii or Tongan, or Samoan, they're carried on in these communities, in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, in California. So when I graduated from high school, I was the only one that had leis, graduation leis. [inaudible 00:44:14]-
Naomi Nakamura: Everybody has them and I'm like random people that I know on Facebook who's tagged, and so I see these pictures of people I don't even know and they have leis. And I'm like, "Oh, I wonder what their tie to Hawaii is," but at this point, you don't even need to have a tie to Hawaii or anybody Polynesian. Everybody just uses leis at graduation.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Oh, yeah. And it wasn't like that growing [inaudible 00:44:33].
Naomi Nakamura: It was not. It was not.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: It was not like that, but it's been adopted. And it's not just in Utah, but it's all over California-
Naomi Nakamura: All over.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Washington. It's very common. And so my parents actually own the largest Polynesian store in Utah.
Naomi Nakamura: Oh, I didn't know that. What's their store?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: It's called The Hawaiian Hut.
Naomi Nakamura: Where is that?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: It's in West Valley. It's right by the airport.
Naomi Nakamura: Okay.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: It's right by Salt Lake Airport. And so their biggest seller is leis. They sell more leis than any other business in Utah. And so they get asked all the time if they'll ship, but they can't even handle the number of-
Naomi Nakamura: Demand there.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. And so they sell leis year round and they make hundreds every week when it's not graduation season.
Naomi Nakamura: Wait, are they making it themselves?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yes, they make it.
Naomi Nakamura: Oh, my goodness. They're not shipping it in from Hawaii.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: So my mom is a lei snog, in that she's very particular. She doesn't believe that the quality is okay. The pre-made orchid lei, doesn't think it's a good quality.
Naomi Nakamura: I mean it's not.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. So she insists on stringing her own orchid leis.
Naomi Nakamura: Wow. But of course, [inaudible 00:45:44].
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. So then she strings orchid, she strings plumeria during graduation season. And then the ones that pre-made are going to be the ti-leaf kukui and the cigar leis and the ginger.
Naomi Nakamura: Okay. And those travel well.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. And so those are the ones that she'll always have, but she strings all of the plumeria, all of the orchid, all of the tuberose.
Naomi Nakamura: Okay. As somebody who used to have, growing up in Hawaii, we used to have to do those in elementary school for Memorial Day and Mayday. I never enjoyed doing that so close to her because you have to go pick the flowers and then you have to time it so that the flowers don't die before you knit it. But then also when you're making those things, there're melt from the flowers that gets all over your hands and it's not fun.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: I know. And why she continues to do this, but they can't stop taking orders. Every week, there's Hakus. She does a ti-leaf milo leis. And I mean, every week is just as nonstop, people order leis for senior nights, for graduations, for homecoming, for prom, for funerals, for weddings, for missionary. I mean, you name it. Like I said, they sell leis year around and they get florists who also refer people to them because the florists, they can't afford to have one person make two leis now and that's it.
Naomi Nakamura: And what better way, in a happy way to share your culture.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Yeah. It's funny because even people who I grew up with have no ties being Polynesian. They'll ask online, "Where can we buy some leis?" And then everyone will always tag my parents' business because they're the most well-known in Utah.
Naomi Nakamura: That's all awesome. I love that. In my little neighborhood here, the caretaker for the community right next to mine is this elderly Tongan man. And I only know his name is John, but we see him every morning. And every morning, my dog has to go say hello to him. And we just connected because he knows I'm from Hawaii too. And so every morning he comes looking for us so he can say hello. And so I see him every day, Monday through Friday, and then on the weekends, he goes fishing on the Bay.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Oh, that's so fun. Fishing, that's another common thing that they all miss.
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah. Thank you for coming on. I mean, I'm sure listeners can hear, you have so many really interesting aspects to your story that I'm just really happy to share. Like I said, you have the career that everybody loves, and whenever you post pictures from work, we are all like, "Oh, where is she at this time?" And I don't think I fully knew the story of your family. And so knowing you for now almost 30 years and I never knew that. And I really think it's important just to share our stories and share who we are. So thank you so much for taking the time and coming and sharing your story with us.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Thank you so much for having me. It was good to talk with you.
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah. I don't know if you want people connect with you, but if you do, where can they find you?
Luisa Mataele Tupea: On Instagram I'm Luisam007, on Instagram. And I'll then-
Naomi Nakamura: I will link to that in the show notes. If you want to see all the wonderful work that she does and who she's working with and that's when we share with it.
Luisa Mataele Tupea: Thank you.
Naomi Nakamura is a Functional Wellness & Human Design Coach. She helps women who struggle with stress, fatigue, and burnout find freedom and empowerment by optimizing their health, finding balance, and upgrading their energy so they can live life on their own terms.
Combining her diverse professional background, and her unique approach integrates Functional Nutrition and Human Design she guides clients on a highly individualized journey of self-discovery, observation, and integration by removing physical, mental, and emotional confusion and overwhelm, simply taking them back to the very basics of health through their Human Design.
She believes that when our bodies function optimally, our personalities and souls can shine through everything that we think and do with empowering clarity and ease.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
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