Willy Santos On Skate Talk

In the neighborhood I grew up in I had a lot of Filipino neighbors, in fact you could say I grew up in an Asian neighborhood. You would think that being the lone white boy in the crew would make me the butt of most jokes (it did) but it also taught me a lot about Asian culture, especially Filipino. As I got older I realized that the more films I watched the Filipinos weren’t really seem in too many films; if Filipinos were in films they played one of three characters:

3. Nurse

2. Cleaning Lady

1. Prostitute

This really bothered me because I knew a lot of Filipino folks and their vocations varied from these three positions. The other thing that bothered me was that there was no Filipino “bad-asses”; yeah there was Ernie Reyes JR. Ernie could kick some major ass, but he was a nice guy. Ernie seemed like the kind of guy that would go to a debu and save some of the lumpia for the old ladies and would dance to Earth, Wind, and Fire with the little kids. Needless to say Erine could fight but he was no bad ass.

It wasn’t till 2004, when “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” brought the idea of the Filipino bad ass to the silver screen. Finally some Filipinos like the ones I grew up with, kicking ass and taking names. For all of you that haven’t seen this film, you really should, its freaking amazing. Here is the for mentioned part that to tempt your taste buds:

On the subject of Filipino bad-asses, Willy Santos is Filipino and one of the most bad-ass skaters of all time. Like Ernie Reyes JR he is a nice guy, but like the pirates he kicks ass and takes names. Willy is going to appear on Skate Talk tomorrow 9/29/09 at 8pm PST. Check it out and listen to some words from a true Filipino bad ass.