Jo Koy
NAGING emosyonal ang Filipino-American comedian na si Jo Koy nang ideklara ang petsang October 7 bilang “Jo Koy Day” sa buong Los Angeles, USA.
Ayon sa international star, sa pagtanggap niya ng bagong karangalang ito ay mas ginaganahan pa siya sa kanyang passion — ang ipakilala sa buong mundo ang kulturang Filipino.
“Didn’t think I was going to get emotional. My goal was always to tell my story and represent my culture the best way that I could,” ang post ni Jo Koy sa kanyang Instagram account.
Patuloy pa niya, “Thank you to the beautiful city of Los Angeles for declaring October 7th Jo koy Day. I’m forever grateful and I will continue to wave my flag high. Mahal Kita.”
Samantala, sa kanyang acceptance speech naman matapos ang announcement ng Jo Koy Day, nabanggit ng aktor at komedyante na lahat ng kanyang shows ay dedicated niya sa lahat ng mga Pinoy na naninirahan at nagtatrabaho da Amerika.
“I wanna tell the story without having to do this whole thing where I’m like, ‘You know, Filipinos do this and do that.’
“I want to do a thing where I could tell the story about my mom and just let you hear about what my mom does as a mom.
“And then you will relate to it and realize that a mom is just a mom no matter what her ethnicity is, what her religion is, what her accent is,” bahagi pa ng kanyang speech.
Rebelasyon pa ni Jo Koy, may kakulangan talaga sa representasyon ng mga magigiting ta masisipag na Filipino sa American television.
“I have so many Filipino nurses in my family. I have an aunt that has about seven nursing homes and just a ton of Filipino nurses out there.
“They work their butts off, they take care of people 14 hours a day. They have been doing it for over 30 years.
“And then they go home every day after a hard day’s work and they turn on the TV and they watch about any hospitals and they don’t see one nurse being played by Filipinos,” lahad ni Jo Koy.
Pagpapatuloy pa niya, “We giggle at that and I don’t understand why we giggle at that because it’s normalized. It shouldn’t be normalized. Imagine how those people feel?
“It almost feels like they are invisible. They don’t have an identity. Or whatever they did for whoever they took care of doesn’t matter because ‘You’re just a visitor. You just live here. You are not American. We are not gonna show you on TV,’” mariin pa niyang sabi.
Ito raw ang isa sa mga mahahalagang dahilan kung bakit nagdyo-joke siya tungkol sa mga Filipino, “I want to give that voice. I will continue to do it. It’s important, representation is important.”
Dagdag pa ni Jo Koy, nais niyang masaksihan at ma-appreciate ng kanyang anak ang lahat ng matitinding dinanas ng mga nakaraang henerasyon para lamang mabuhay ng marangal at maligaya.
“We can’t forget that because if we forget that, we lose our identity,” sabi pa ni Jo Koy na dating karelasyon ng American actress na si Chelsea Handler.