May 21, 2024
In this episode, we meet the
humans behind the artistic and cultural project that is the
TNT Traysikel.
We start, in random order, with
Mike Arceaga. Mike was born in the Philippines and
moved to LA with his family when he was 10. He says that the
transition from his homeland to LA was difficult. The
family first landed in Highland Park, which Mike points out
wasn't hip then. That's where he got started doing graffiti
art.
In the mid-to-late-Eighties,
they moved, first to the Eagle Rock neighborhood in LA, then
Pomona, where, by the time he moved there, he'd become a
full-fledged graffiti artist. He says it's what got him into
art
In high school, Mike learned
technical drawing. He went to junior college, had art school on his
mind. He was in a hip-hop crew, tagged ramps, and was friends with
skaters, but never skated himself. He also breakdanced, but says it
never took.
After high school, he just
wanted to get out of his parents house, and so he signed up to join
the Army. But when Mike's dad found out about that, he cried and
urged him to go to school instead.
And so he visited San Francisco
to attend a summer program at the Academy of Art University. And he
fell in love with The City almost immediately. He shares the moment
of coming up the escalator at Powell BART and seeing the scene on
the street as the moment SF got his heart.
He loved walking around the
hills before art class, where he was starting to meet artists from
all over. And slowly, he discovered the rest of The City by hopping
on Academy shuttles. Soon after this summer program, Mike came back
to visit the Art Institute. When he and a friend saw the view from
the roof at SFAI, he decided to try to get into school
there.
Next, we meet TNT
Traysikel's Paolo Asuncion. Paolo came to the
US from the Philippines when he was 14. Before that migration, he
had found his first girlfriend as well as a friend group that
wasn't bullying him. The move abroad disrupted that
progress.
Paolo's family first came to
Ontario, California, just outside of LA and not far from where Mike
and his family were. His mom had met a family in church and she and
her three kids lived with them. A family of four crammed into a
single bedroom.
He went to high school all over
LA, first in Echo Park (before it was hip), then in the Rampart
District, and at Torrance High (think Fast Times at Ridgemont
High). Then Paolo's mom put him in Marshall High in Las Feliz
(think Grease).
Paolo's dad was a fairly famous
actor back in the Philippines. But when he moved to the US to be
with family, he ended up managing the apartment building where they
lived and did door-to-door sales. His parents soon got divorced and
his dad went back to his home country.
Paolo went to Diamond Bar High
School his senior year (which he says was very Breakfast
Club-ish). He started playing guitar, which he says got him in
with the cool kids. He even formed a band, but after high school,
he went back to the Philippines, where he got his girlfriend
pregnant.
Then Paolo moved back to
Glendale in Southern California. He was still on a tourist visa and
tried to get jobs that would sponsor his work visa, which was
difficult.
One day, his uncle in LA asked
to help him move to SF and they left Glendale at 10 at night, drove
up I-5 to 580, then crossed Bay Bridge at sunrise. Looking out the
windshield at the scene in front of him, Paolo thought, WHAT IS
THIS PLACE?
He spent a week here on that
trip, during which time he had the same Powell escalator experience
as Mike. Heloved it so much that he decided to move here. A friend
of his uncle's got him a graphic design job and in 1996, he moved
here.
Last but not least, we
meet Rachel Lastimosa. Rachel was born and
raised in San Diego, the kid of a Navy person, which is how her dad
got his U.S. citizenship.
Members of Rachel's family have
been in SF since the Forties, and when she was a kid, they visited
here a lot from San Diego. Rachel's first memories of San Francisco
involve mostly touristy things. From a young age, 12 or so, she
knew she wanted to live here. Rachel says she loved the culture
here and felt a friendliness from strangers unlike what she
experienced back home in San Diego.
She grew up in a strict house
and, because of that, was into extracurricular
activities.
Her parents expected her to
cook and do laundry, but she escaped into music—playing, writing,
and performing. Rachel wrote her first song when she was in first
grade. Today, she plays piano, keyboards, and bass, and does
vocals. And she produces and writes
music.
Rachel says she always wanted
to build community. She helped put together the first culture night
at her high school. But as soon as she could, after graduation, she
came to San Francisco. In fact, SF State was the only school she
applied to.
Once here, she joined a band
and majored in electronic music. This was the early 2000s and she's
been here ever since. She writes scores for theater and films and
has been in a few bands. A collaboration she did with the Filipino
Center made her realize how art can bring communities
together.
Check back next week for Part 2
with Rachel, Paolo, and Mike. In it, they'll share the origin story
for TNT Traysikel—the part
motorcyle/sidecar, part karaoke machine, part mobile Filipino
cultural pride project.
We recorded this podcast at TNT
HQ in South San Francisco in March 2024.
Photography by Jeff
Hunt