Obituary of Jeffrey N. Tagami

"I heard his voice speaking over fields of asparagus, intoning great love and bringing the lives of so many others into spirited words. "I looked at the dark skies over Eugene, felt their deep purples and greys shift to a patch of blue and sunbreaks shining on a shower of rain dancing across my eyes. "There was an echo - Jeff's voice in my memory somehow." Jeff Tagami viewed the world through the eyes of a poet, and so, too, did the community of poets from around the country on learning of his death. The above passage, included in a note from Eugene, Ore., resident Garrett Hongo, was among many heartfelt condolences sent to his widow, Cabrillo instructor Shirley Ancheta, as news of Tagami's death continued to spread. He died Saturday in Santa Cruz from pancreatic cancer. He was 57. Tagami was born July 4, 1954, in Watsonville, to parents of Philippine origin who emigrated to California via Hawaii. After graduating from Watsonville High School in 1972, he enrolled at Cabrillo, where his interest in poetry was first sparked. As a first-year student, he enrolled in a history class, taught by Cabrillo lecturer and local historian Sandy Lydon, that focused on Asian American immigrants and their contributions to the Pajaro Valley. A story that especially resonated with Tagami, Lydon said, was a four-day race riot in Watsonville in 1930, culminating in the murder of 22-year-old Filipino laborer Fermin Tobera. "I told that story, and over the years, (Jeff) ran off with it," Lydon recalled, adding it "hit something within him which produced some pretty remarkable poetry ... That story and that context gave him the basis for an awful lot of stuff that he wrote later on." In 1977, Tagami transferred to what was then known as San Francisco State College and joined an Asian American artist and writers collaborative, publishing short stories and poems that focused on factory and field workers, while holding down a variety of odd jobs. "He wanted to write about their backgrounds and things that weren't in print then," said Ancheta, who met her husband in the fourth grade. "It was hard to find even one or two writers of color in an anthology, so he sought to break that mold" and make Asian Americans the focal point, rather than marginalized characters. His writing eventually gained national attention, appearing in numerous magazines and anthologies, and in 1995, he appeared in the PBS documentary, "The US of Poetry." It featured his poem, "Song of Pajaro," which describes a day in the life of Pajaro Valley farmers. Tagami also authored a collection of poetry, "October Light," and helped edit four anthologies, including "Without Names" and "Monterey Poets and Writers," and lectured at universities throughout the West Coast and in Hawaii. In the 1990s, he received a bachelor of arts in literature from UC Santa Cruz, then went on to obtain a master's degree in English from San Francisco State University. Meanwhile, he began working at Cabrillo College, where he most recently taught writing, composition and literature. In the spring, around the time he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Tagami was notified that he was scheduled to be inducted into Watsonville High School's Hall of Fame at the Henry J. Mello Center. Lydon accepted the award on his behalf, and as part of the ceremony, he read Tagami's poem, "Tobera," prompted by the story he'd heard in Lydon's class 40 years earlier. To Tagami, Tobera's death was symbolic of everything that was wrong with relations between Caucasians and Filipinos, who came to the county believing in America and all it had to offer, only to have their dreams dashed when they arrived. "When they came, they got hammered, just hammered, and yet kept their idealism," Lydon said. "Even though those ideals didn't hold up in his experience either, it wasn't something he was willing to give up, and most of the Filipinos weren't either. And Jeffrey got it. He nailed it." The entire time they knew each other, Lydon said, Tagami was "very much about social justice. Justice was one of his beacons and his death seems to be such an injustice." SURVIVED BY: Wife Shirley Ancheta of Santa Cruz; sons Miles Tagami of San Francisco, and Travis Tagami of Santa Cruz; parents Robert and Judith Tagami of Watsonville; five brothers, Robert Tagami, Rey Tagami, Fred Tagami, Richard Tagami and Alan Tagami; two sisters, Andrea Bucaloy and Lene Tagami; many nieces and nephews. EDUCATION: Attended Cabrillo College and San Francisco State College in the 1970s; graduated with a degree in literature from UC Santa Cruz in the mid-1990s; received graduate degree in English from San Francisco State University in the late 1990s. CAREER: Poet COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Cabrillo College writing awards, leading poetry workshops and involved in Pacific Rim Film Festival.