Kalaʻi Miller / Home is Here  Aloha, I’m Kalaʻi Miller.

In this episode of Home is Here,   we’re featuring two immigrant stories that start in the Philippines.

Up first, Honolulu based artist Bonhui Uy.

After a successful career in architecture, he channeled his creativity into his artwork,   which has been featured at exhibitions in Taiwan, the Philippines and Honolulu.

You can see his artwork at public spaces like here at Cartwright Park in Makiki on Oʻahu.

Let’s take a glimpse into his whimsical world of creations.

(instrumental music) Bonhui Uy / Architect & Artist I remember one time, Picasso said, every child is an artist, except when they grow up.

They just kind of, you know, disappeared because they all do their own things right?

Doing more serious stuff.

And they forget their creative, just innocent art.

I was born and raised in Philippines in a city called Bacolod.

That's ahh, I was raised till about elementary school, then our family moved to Manila.

And then stayed there till high school then go to college in Taiwan for my degree in architecture.

At that time, we didn't have a chance to expose to any professional people.

Like for instance, here, if you like to study architecture or the to become a doctor, you have a chance to talk to those people to find out whether you like the life that you dream of.

We didn't have that chance.

And people said, oh, you draw pretty good, your math is okay, you know, architecture seems to be good for you.

And I said, yeah, it sounds that way.

So, I just took architecture.

It's like any other courses, you start from very beginning.

Before you really into designing a building, we have just a basic design, which like very graphically oriented.

And I begin to like it, because there's a lot of thinking involved, creativity.

I studied architecture, Leonora studied math.

Our dream is actually quite early that our aim is to come to America to start our American dream.

When we got our student visa first, we said okay let's go.

And then our parents said, oh, timeout.

You guys have to get married first before you just split.

So, we quickly set up one day got engaged, the next day we got married.

And then the next day we're gone.

Then arrive in San Francisco in June 1965.

After we found out that we might not get a job in San Francisco.

So, we decided to head out to New York, where Leonora's cousin he's already there.

Maybe we can kind of share with them an apartment, then look for a job.

Take it from there, see how it goes.

I remember my parents relative they came up with a check of $1,200.

That's our capital, here, go for it.

So, we had to be very careful with our expense.

Right?

So, we took the bus, Greyhound bus three days.

And then we bought a loaf of bread, white bread with a sandwich spread.

And that's our three days meal.

So, after that, I never touched sandwich spread.

So, as we get into New York the first day I got to interview go for this agency, I got a job in architecture office, I was so happy.

I was like, just like anybody else you start from scratch from the very bottom.

Looking back, anything you do, you have to do it right.

Work hard.

And you don't have to worry whether they're watching you or not just do it, right.

Anything comes to your desk or drafting board, do it right and they would recognize you.

The first six years, I was in New York working.

Then after six years, I was in Hawaiʻi.

After about 10 years from college, I became a partner, a design partner with Media Five.

And it's sort of like, you know, this is like a dream come true.

Right?

You work your way out.

And one day, people tap you and say, do you want to join us as a partner?

You would quickly said yes, of course.

And when I reach that goal all of a sudden, I feel something is not quite the way I look at it.

Because once you become a partner, you're involved with the whole office, financially, and so forth.

And I said, oh, this is no fun.

I thought design is always fun, you know?

And then now I'm involved with this then I have a second thought that yeah, now well, you know, your dreams, you reach your dream, then there's something else that you didn't think of.

I left Hawaiʻi in '78.

I came back in '87.

Anytime within those work, I always continued my artwork, you know, on my free time.

I could never imagine doing this architecture, rendering this long hours.

And then on the spot drawing that all this animals start to get into me.

And I like it.

I still continue to do two-dimension until one day I said, my training is in architecture.

So, I should try three-dimension thing, right?

Cans, boxes, shoe boxes, everything that you see on the wall, those are all recycle.

I always have to think of the size I'm going to do.

So, if it's a square, it will be a square.

If I'm doing this big animals like in the show, I have to know the size first.

And then I will plot that into my notebook, reduce them, and that's when I study.

So, that's my homework every day.

Sometimes it just came out, fast sometimes takes a few days.

So, I had to keep pushing myself.

If it doesn't come out, try again tomorrow.

And if it already comes out, I'm ready to do it in a drawing or cut or collage.

That's how I do that almost every day.

My family of course, the first one they do this when they're tiny small.

Bernard and Brian.

They probably, I don't know if they remember I draw them right when they were kids.

And then as I grow older, when they come to my place, they might check it out oh what's new?

So, every time I do a new one, I text of course now I have grandkids.

So, when I finish one, I text them, I said, okay, and the first thing they do is, they show me a thumbs up or heart, lots of heart.

That means they approve it, I guess.

You see, I always feel art should be fun.

I like people who saw my art or came to my show, feel good, feel happy.

Forget their worries.

If you really want to explore you just have to keep doing it.

Don't be afraid whether it's good or bad.

Just doing it because nobody's going to tell unless your friend says oh, this is terrible.

That's okay.

As long as you're happy with it.

There's no limit, especially art, right?

It's endless.

You have to keep exploring.

You know, there's, you have to do it.

Keep doing it.

I guess that's the only way you can enjoy life.

Because I never feel like eight hours is too long.

To me eight hours become too short when you create.

And when you're creating, especially when you have the idea and you creating, you feel like you're outside of this world, everything is gone.

Just you and art and you create them.

And when you're done, oh, it's so rewarding.

And then you go to the next one, you don't stop.

Kalaʻi Miller / Home is Here  We’ve all been there.

It’s lunch or dinner time, but you can’t decide what to eat.

There’s no shortage of options, but if you’re in the mood for Filipino food, Elena’s Restaurant in Waipahu has been serving original and traditional dishes with a local twist, since 1974.

(instrumental music) Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Hi, I'm Richard Butuyan.

I'm a second-generation owner to Elena's Restaurant.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Hi, I'm Mellissa Cedillo, second-generation.

Richard is my brother.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner And I'm Adrian Cedillo.

I'm Mellissa's husband.

I'm sort of, sort of a owner, but not really, but I just help out wherever I can.

Stay out of the way.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner My mom and my dad, we immigrated from the Philippines and my grandfather brought us in.

We're from Dagupan City in Pangasinan.

My mom's major in college from the University of Pangasinan was homemaking.

So that was cooking.

So, her recipes were her original recipes.

And she that's what she fed us at home.

When we were in Waipahu, she was like there's no Filipino restaurants.

So, she was like, okay, well, maybe I can try.

That's when my mom's opened up, Elena's.

The first Elena's at Nabarette Store, which is on Waipahu Street.

And we went to school at August Ahrens, which was right across the street.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner And when we first opened, believe it or not, my dad was the cook   and my mom was the waitress.

But you know how it is you you always name it after the the female right, any place.

So, my dad was the original cook of Elena's, even though it was her recipes.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner They worked hand in hand.

It started off really small and then they started getting more and more popular.

(instrumental music) Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner  We never saw our parents in the morning or at night, because they're up really early preparing the food and they get home after the restaurant closed.

So, our grandmother walked us to school.

And then we walked from school to the restaurant.

So, when we got to the restaurant, we had to work.

I was five and my brother was three?

He didn't do anything.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner I used to hang out underneath of the counter, and I just used to mess everything up.

Yeah, my mom would slap me go outside.

So, I would just go outside and play.

Yeah, cause we're, we were right next to Nabarette store which is, you know, like a convenience store.

You know, those old like, oh, what do you call mom and pop store?

Like the plantation types.

Yes.

So, I just that was my aunty so I used to just hang out in there, steal candy, eat.

Go back to the restaurant make trouble and then leave again.

So, I wasn't doing anything.

I was bad.

Yeah.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner We're born and bred to work in the restaurant.

You know, we're immigrant families.

We were forced to work.

Even during my career, because I cook took over the Elena's back in 2006.

I was a realtor before.

Being a realtor, I was still working at the restaurant, no matter what.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner I was working at the restaurant since whoa man, can't remember.

So even before I could drive,   but as soon as I started driving, I was delivering, picking up stuff, working in the restaurant, cutting meat, all around.

Yeah.

Whatever needed help I was there.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner When our parents decided to retire, they didn't say, oh, we want to retire.

They kind of just said, oh, we bought a house in Las Vegas.

We're like, what?

Yeah.

And I'm like, okay, so then I guess we're taking over.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner And at the time, you know, we were transitioning from one location to another.

We used to have a few more locations previous to that.

And so, we were kind of downsizing as well.

And, and then we were just trying to find a way to make that decision because this is a big decision is gonna, it was gonna affect us, all three of us and, you know, and but we wanted to keep the restaurant going.

And ultimately, we decided to go ahead and just go for it.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner So, during the transition when our parents decided to retire, and for our generation to take over, we had to look at how my parents ran the business and move it to the future.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner And I think it was hard for them to let go let the reins go.

It was it was a transition for all of us.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner I think it was easier because they were in Vegas.

Yeah, that helped.

Imagine if they were here.

Oh my god just the butt heading.

Um, because I'm so strong already.

I'm really strong.

And so just having my mom and my dad and me trying to like, go home.

Don't stay at the restaurant.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Especially my dad.

Yeah, he likes to manage all the way from Vegas.

He's a micromanager.

He'll call and you know, he would call them like every hour just to check what we doing, how's everyone.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner He still does.

He still does.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Til today.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner And they have a fax machine, they don't have computers okay?

So, they would draw pictures.

They'd draw pictures of how the food should look and they would fax it to the restaurant.

Hey look for mom and dad.

See this halo halo, you guys not doing it correctly.

Supposed to look like this.

They would draw pictures and then so the employees will follow which is good you know keep them you know keep them busy.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner But as for the dishes, we still kept it the same.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Yeah, we kept it traditional no matter what, it's always been my mom's recipes.

And it's something that we see with our customers, our loyal customers, they come back or, you know, decades, first generation, second, third, fourth, we see their grandchildren coming, their great grandchildren coming, because it's the same food.

It's the same homestyle cooking that they remember their parents or their grandparents fed them when they came to Elena's.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner As right now for our most favorite or popular dishes are pork adobo fried rice.

Yes.

lechon special, sari-sari.

So, we have a lot of customers that go to like the mainland or they go to different Filipino restaurants.

So, everyone, you know, they, I don't know if he got it from Elena's, but they they call their dishes sari-sari.

So, they go and they complain like, eh, it doesn't taste the same it's different.

So, I gotta tell them.

There's no such thing.

There's no such thing.

My dad made it up.

One day he just was bored.

He just made this dish for everyone.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner But now it's like a staple in Hawaiʻi.

Any Filipino restaurant you go to there's sari-sari, because everyone kind of learns from other restaurants, Filipino restaurants what to make.

So, it's like my mom was when my mom created the adobo fried rice omelet, the pork adobo fried rice omelet, no one made that dish.

She made it.

But now it's in every Filipino restaurant now.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner You won't find these dishes in the Philippines besides the most basic like pork adobo, chicken adobo, lumpias, and the pansits which are kind of basic dishes that you would find in the Philippines.

So, they, they, I think what they did was they tried to incorporate the menu to the to Hawaiʻi as well to the people that live here and try to kind of like I guess they were fusing it and before fusion became popular.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Yeah, they fused it before it came popular.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Pre-fusions.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner They came up with you know, creative names for the dishes and things like that, yeah.

And the food trucks have been around even before I joined the family.

Richard's my dad, our dad, he started with the food trucks out in   out in Campbell Industrial.

That was like starting point in 1988.

Yeah.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner It's not even a food truck.

It's called lunch wagon.

Lunch wagon, exactly.

So, lunch wagons, food trucks came later on.

Yes.

So, we were lunch wagon where we come to the restaurant, pick up the food, and just scoop the food and feed it and it was because there weren't any, any areas to eat.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner And people look forward to us to us being out there.

Because they might only have like, a few minutes to eat lunch, maybe 30 minutes.

They'll come to the food truck.

And, you know, we try to get the plates out as fast as we can and send them on their way.

It's a great way to keep promoting the business and just to be out in the community, you know, feeding people in different areas around the island.

Thank you.

So, two plates, lechon yeah.

Extra sauce.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Elena's family base, our customers have been with us, some for 50 years.

I have people coming to say, oh, we came and ate at the first restaurant in Nabarette.

I'm like, no way.

So, our customer base is just overwhelming.

Especially during the pandemic as well, that customer support that we received as far as supporting local and having them keep us in business was truly amazing.

You know, they came in they're like, we don't want you guys to close.

We're here to support you.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner It was so good to see.

I mean, I'm, I'm originally not from here.

But just to see that here was was pretty awesome.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Yeah, we were so scared.

Yeah.

We didn't know what was going to happen.

You know, when they told us oh, everybody shut down, order's a shutdown the restaurant shut down.

Or get takeout only, we're like Richard, Adrian, what are we gonna do?

Yeah.

Are we going to have to close?

Are we going to have to, you know, shut down the restaurant and not be able to open?

How we're going to survive?

We have to sell everything.

Yeah, you know.

And then, I said then Rich, Adrian and Richard were like, we just do what we have to do.

So, because I was scared, they know I was scared.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner And when she gets scared, whoa we're like whoa, we get scared.

But we so we had to be like level minded.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Yeah.

So yeah, Richard and Adrian was like, we just open for takeout.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Going back to the food trucks that helped a lot because we could go outside, we could serve outside within the comfort of the food truck.

And people were okay with, with coming to the food truck as well.

So, we were trying to just, you know, bouncing ideas back and forth.

But our main our main goal, I think our objective was just to stay open.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Yeah, but our employees, oh, my God, our employees, they stayed with us.

They stuck it out.

You know, we have some of our employees that's been with us since when my mom and my dad still had the restaurant.

They're so loyal and hard working.

You know, we're truly grateful that they're still with us.

I never laid off anyone.

I kept them employed.

Yeah, we just kept moving forward and we survived.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner  They worked hard during the pandemic.

Yeah, it was crazy.

Yeah.

And they just got super busy.

Food trucks were busy.

I didn't want to go out some days.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner The customer support.

The local community.

Everyone.

People were coming from all over the island to come to eat at Elena's because there was no traffic.

Right, the island was shut down.

So, we have people coming from Kāneʻohe, Kailua, Hawaiʻi Kai.

They could make it to Waipahu in like half an hour because didn't have any traffic.

So just having that and they're like, oh, we want to support Elena's.

We want to support the mom and pops.

We want to support you guys cause we don't want you guys to go out of business.

Yeah.

And that was the reason why it was very humbling for us to be where we are today.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner And that ties back to our loyal customers or generational customers.

They still kept coming.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner As far as our third generation, we don't know.

We're hoping.

Two of my nieces and three of my nephews, two are engineers.

You know, what, three are engineers, but our one engineer is working at the restaurant, Richard's son Tyler.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner So, he is kind of like the manages this place.

He comes in, he watches it.

I'm glad you know, cause he's, he comes to work.

Yeah, he comes to work.

I don't need to tell him what to do.

He knows he knows his job.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner So, our saving grace, really our saving grace is Eythan.

He's like 10 years old.

And he's told me he wants to run the restaurant.

But we don't know.

You know, he's too young yet to even know what he wants.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner My oldest son said he wanted to run the restaurant.

But you know, plans change.

So, I'm kind of glad also that, you know, they go out and make a life of their own.

But it will be nice for someone to take one of my children to take over.

But I I truly believe they will take over.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner If we do have a third generation, I'm hoping that they will be as welcoming and they feel like it's home when they come to eat at the restaurant.

Adrian Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Yeah, that's one of the things I noticed when I came on, the interactions between our parents and the customers, it was, it was like something I'd never seen before.

It was like, they were there.

They were involved, they cared.

And they were grateful.

They were very successful.

But that's the kind of thing we would like to keep going, that people to show people that we care that we're here.

You know, sometimes, you know, sometimes we have good days, sometimes we have bad days, but we still care.

You know, we try to make it right.

That's all we want to do.

Just keep it going, keep the keep the business going as long as we can, and just be involved as much as we can, whenever we can.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner As as I was growing up, like when, when we’d do family things with my parents, like we would have to go to a party.

And they would always like, oh, we have to stop at the restaurant.

I never understood that.

Like you would stop before we go to like a party then my dad would go in and greet all the customers.

My dad is a really good PR guy.

So, he kind of you know rubs off on me because I, I talk a lot to people you know, like in Hawaiʻi, we call 'um talk story.

I talk story with everybody.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Too much sometimes.

Richard Butuyan / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner Even when we're serving at the food truck.

Mellissa Cedillo / Elena’s Restaurant Co-Owner  It's like brah the line is so long already.

He over there talking to people, I’m like.

I'm like shut up already we gotta help all the other customers.

Just to be in a business, or be in a family business for 50 years, we gotta keep going because there aren't any more mom and pops stores left in Hawaiʻi.

And that's our culture.

That's our community.

And that's the reason we have to keep going every day.

And we'll fight to the end until we don't have any more fight.

Kalaʻi Miller / Home is Here  Thank you for joining us.

Go to pbshawaii.org for bonus features from this episode, including how Elena came up with her famous pork adobo fried rice omelet, and Bonhui’s favorite piece of artwork.

For Home is Here, I’m Kalaʻi Miller, a hui hou.

(instrumental music)  Sometimes I pick up a new word, and I like it and that's become part of my inspiration.

And also, like songs or music.

Like Bob Dylan's my idol.

He's my age, you know?

Like Stay Forever Young, you know, that's kind of that you feel like you should do that.

I love soup.

So, you know, I mean, you know, it all depends on the day I'm feeling maybe I like fried stuff, you know, like you know other stuff but my favorite dish is chicken paria or chicken with bitter melon leaf.

So, my favorite dish all time is lechon.

I know I shouldn't be eating it but I can eat lechon every single day.

My favorite dish.

I, I had to get used to the food first of all, being from from Dallas.

But one of my favorite dishes that my dad used to cook at the house when I met Mellissa was chicken papaya, local papaya with the chicken with the broth.

That was that's one of my favorite dishes.

And I still enjoy it.