In the courtyard of Mexican Heritage Plaza, accompanied by the gentle sound of a waterfall and a slow sway of a dense crop of palm trees, Jonathan Borca admits he’s often a bit too busy. And in a moment of reflection, he shares the fascinating reason why.
“I feel I have an existential window,” shares Borca. As a very proud advocate of San Jose’s East Side, he feels a deep connection to, and urgency toward, his community work. But even after 10 years in the nonprofit space, he’s still finding ways to grow.
“This is the first time where I’ve never had to compartmentalize who I am,” he says of his time at the School of Arts and Culture (SOAC), where he serves as deputy director. The role is quite the achievement for someone still in his 30s, but Borca’s nonprofit success is merely one dimension to his story.
His life is a tale of dualities. Born to a Mexican mother and Filipino father who met at Eastside Church of Christ near Alum Rock Avenue, Borca spent his earliest years in Japan before returning to San Jose at age 7. Raised by his mom and grandmother, he remained entrenched in the East Side until he attended Bellarmine College Preparatory through a yearly, merit-based scholarship.
“It was visceral to me, the gross inequities [compared to] where my homies went,” says Borca of the transition he experienced. “[You take] a 12-minute drive to Bellarmine’s campus, and it’s a completely different world: state-of-the-art library, multiple sports facilities, you name it.”
Fueled by a desire to help even that divide, he first got involved with nonprofit work in high school. While juggling course loads at the University of San Francisco, he commuted home to work 30 hours a week at YWCA Silicon Valley.
“This is the first time where I’ve never had to compartmentalize who I am.”
That fervent pace was burning him out, but a fateful meeting with Jessica Paz-Cedillos, co-executive director at SOAC, in early 2020 helped reignite faith in the work he was doing. “I felt her passion immediately and saw her vision as a leader,” he notes. “So for her, I leaned in.” In two years, he’s successfully led state-wide programs and grown SOACs sponsorship numbers, earning two promotions in the process.
Yet well before finding his place in such spaces, he was a confused kid trying to make sense of the world. “Coming from Japan and arriving in San Jose, I was a bit of a knucklehead,” he recalls of his childhood. His mom and grandmother tried desperately to figure out ways to ease his temper and channel his energy. He found a release in hip-hop.
First learning from the works of Arrested Development and Tupac Shakur, Borca used rap as a framework to better make sense of the paradoxical nature of his experience: “I used to think I wasn’t Mexican enough, Filipino enough, East side enough / Too private for public schooling / Too hood for private students,” he shares in his poem “Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá” (“Neither Here, Nor There”). His narratives are often woven into a jazz-centric framework, intimately shared alongside a lone piano or strewn atop a wall of sound when he’s spitting bars as the resident emcee of 7th Street Big Band.
The name “Francis Experience” is an invitation toward deeper connection with those listening. It’s also a reference to his personal journey of cultural acceptance. For years, he thought his middle name was Francisco, but later found out it was actually Francis. It was a call back to his Filipino side—and the father he rarely saw—reminding him of his layered story: Mexican and Filipino, Francisco and Francis, performer and community builder.
In 2019, he took his passion for the arts one step further by presenting his first “Francis Experience” event at Tabard Theatre. Rather than present a variety show, he chose to stitch together different musical styles and arts disciplines into a thoughtful, three-act format. The concept was also a bit of a thought experiment.
“The inspiration was really based on an assumption. We hear that life imitates art, but I thought, ‘Can art imitate life?’ ” he points out. “Just like I’m trying to chase the thread between different creative offerings, [I hoped] that people in the audience could find a thread amongst each other.”
He’s brought that same programmatic diversity to more of his events, including A Little T.L.C., a literacy event spearheaded alongside Oakland’s Akira’s Book Club, and “Colour Me Gold,” an affordable monthly series meant to empower small businesses and showcase local BIPOC creatives.
“Living in between worlds doesn’t have to be a deficit,” Borca goes on to share in “Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá.” “It can make you a bridge builder / It can birth new hues and add to your specialness.”
Though he may not have seen someone living the example he’s now setting, he’s making sure to be as visible as possible to those in his wake.
Instagram: francis_experience
