Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joseph Allen “JoJo” Ruanto-Ramirez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Joseph Allen “JoJo”, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
In 1991, I came to the United States as a natural disaster refugee from the Zambales, Philippines – evacuated by the United States Navy with my mom and 1 year old sister. I remember running to sheltered area as ash and flaming rocks dropped from the sky. As a 5-year old, I thought the world was going to end – the ground shook while the sky was pitch dark with small pockets of light from vehicles and flashlights being the only faint, yet visible light aside from the balls of fire that flew across the sky.
We were processed and stayed in Long Beach, CA and I had to adapt really quickly to my new life in America. My experiences not just as an immigrant, but as a refugee, being supported by food stamps and other forms of government aid throughout my childhood, grounded me in understanding the struggle of what it meant to be new in a foreign land – eating new foods, learning a new culture, and refining my English. With the birth of my little brother, we moved to San Diego where many of my extended family also settled and had to rebuild a new me.
My resilience is not just my experiences as a child, but also understanding and having compassion for others. As a Buddhist, I am very cognizant of other peoples’ and other communities’ struggles. I understand that I, too, can support others and empower them to be resilient. I live by a Buddhist prayer as my foundation for my activism and community engagement – “May I be the protector for those without one, a guide for those traveling on the way. May I be a boat, a bridge, a barge for all those who wish to cross the waters.” (Shantideva Bodhisattva)
Resilience is about being able to reflect on yourself – your past, your present, and your imagined futures – and being able to be ok with changes around you, in you, and by you.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and Director of the Asian American Studies Program at Southwestern College in San Diego County. I currently also serve as the Commissioner for Asian & Pacific Islander Relations for the County of San Diego Leon L. Williams Human Relations Commission and chair of the San Diego County Office of Education – Asian American & Pasifika Advisory Committee. A lot of my community work and activism seeks to provide support, services, and advancing the Asian American and Pasifika communities of San Diego County either through cultural productions, educational support, curriculum visibility, civic engagement, and community empowerment.
Recently, I worked with my friends Dina Somsamouth, Margaret Marshall, and Steven Khamphouy for the first ever Burmese, Cambodian, Lao, & Thai New Year celebration as part of San Diego Padres’ Heritage Celebration on March 31, 2025. I work closely with Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition of San Diego, a coalition of over 50 Asian American & Pacific Islander organizations, institutions, programs, and special interest groups, seeking to uplift the communities in San Diego County. Working with San Diego County Office of Education, we are looking to create a county report on the status of API students and education, and how the community can help empower students to learn about their histories, cultures, and identities. Some of the programs I support with are the Lunar New Year Celebrations with the San Diego Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and Vietnamese American Youth Alliance, Cambodian New Year with Khmer American Mutual Association of San Diego, the Lao Food Festival with Lao American Organization of San Diego, Karen New Year with the Karen Organization of San Diego, the Pacific Islander Festival of San Diego, and work with BIBAK-San Diego (the Igorot American community) and Pakaraguian Kulintang Ensemble to promote Indigenous Peoples from the Philippines and their diverse cultures. I also work with the Madjal Center of El Cajon to support the Arab communities of the county and the Buddhist Temple of San Diego to promote Japanese American culture. One of the organizations I am very proud to support is the Pacific Arts Movement’s San Diego Asian Film Festival as a professor and academic who looks at Asian American media. My future project is to help create the high school curriculum for Asian American Studies for the county as well as work with my college to house an exhibit on the Philippine Refugee Processing Center that processed Khmer, Lao, and Vietnamese refugees that later settled in San Diego, with the support of the Southwestern College communities like CHAI – Asian & Pasifika Employee Affinity Group, the Bayan Learning Community, and the Sangam Learning Community.
I also have my own consulting business – Professor JoJo Consulting, LLC. where I work closely with different organizations and institutions on leadership development, professional growth, and API cultural programming. I am proud Barangay Advisor for Barangay Dirita-Baloguen of Iba, Zambales, the town where I was born, where I was able to bring 6 of my students from my program and the staff, faculty, and administrators of Southwestern College, along with 2 community leaders (Lauren Garces and Thao Huynh French) from San Diego, to experience the diverse cultures in the town and do community service projects with the local youth.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
There are many skills and qualities that I have gained and also let go of as part of my growth as an individual that supports communities who are in the margins. A journey allows you to unlearn, learn, relearn, and relearn some more, never really settling on a fix identity, but more so, on how you can constantly change and grow as a person. Someone who is starting their journey needs to know that the journey will change you – what you know, how to strengthen some qualities you have, how to let go of some skills that are not needed anymore, and that those around you will always change who you are. You need to adapt to your environment and even adopt new qualities and skills. Don’t be stagnant on yourself and remember that you need to care, love, and ground yourself first, before you can show care, love and help others to grow.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
As an academic, I read many historical and theoretical books, but I tend to forget the enjoyment of reading novels and fictions that allows me to imagine other worlds and realities outside of academia. In 2021, I came across Green Lantern: Legacy (DC Comics, 2020) by Minh Le and I saw the very first Vietnamese American Green Lantern – where he gains, in part, his power from the will power of his grandmother during the Vietnam-American War and her refugee experiences. I began to be very interested in graphic memoirs that allows individuals to create literary works that shows their histories and identities with graphics that are impactful to the readers. Minh Le later moved to San Diego and became a friend of mine, where I invite him to my class and programs to talk about his his book and other projects. For me, this was a space and place that allowed me to connect the academic with the artistic – where history and the personal connect and where the theory becomes flesh. Now, I enjoy reading graphic memoirs and the greatest impact for me when I read these books is that it reminds me that I am human – with struggles, with ups, with downs, with successes, with failures, that gets joy and experience fear, goes through stress and yet able to grow – and that one can just take time for themselves, with themselves, read a book, and drink a nice cup of tea on a Friday night.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jaruantoramirez.com
- Instagram: jaruantoramirez
Image Credits
n/a (all are personal images)
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
