"Filipinos in San Diego" Book Launch @ Miramar College

This was the third book launch event for the newly published local book, "Filipinos in San Diego", held on Saturday, October 16th, 2010 at Miramar College.

Pictured are Gigi and Kim, two officers of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), San Diego Chapter. I believe they are the Secretary and Treasurer. They were manning the info booth for the chapter as well as selling books.

One of the vendors outside. This was the table for Anakbayan, a local youth activist organization. The dude working the booth was pretty cool.


Pnoy Apparel was also there. The company's founder Zar Javier wasn't there that day; instead it was one of his associates who was nice enough to have me snap shots of him and the booth. I have the "Sammy Sun" shirt but in purple. :)

The dude was sporting the K-Flag shirt, which I also have. I love it. It's so colorful and has the different symbols for the Philippine revolutionary flag on them and it's double sided too. The camouflage jacket is the "Veterano" design in honor of the Filipinos who fought during WWII. What I like about Pnoy Apparel is that each piece has a meaning and story behind the design. It's also a way of educating others about Philippine and Filipino American history.

Another informational vendor was KAMP (Kuya Ate Mentorship Program) in which Fil Am youth are mentored by college students.

This table was selling books for Linda Nietes' Philippine Expressions mail order book shop. She is based in Rancho Palos Verdes but couldn't make the event so these volunteers were selling books that she shipped down from LA. In the early 90's (and before I started using the internet), I would order my books from Linda and also from author Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's Philippine American Literary House (PALH), another book order company I support.

Check in sign for the event:

Table for the Gawad Kalinga Foundation, an organization in which folks go to the Philippines and help build homes for the poor. Felix Tuyay and Sal Flor (who retired this past spring and who had the awesome retirement party back in August) went there last summer and were really moved and inspired by the work they did with the folks back in the Motherland.

The day's program:

Two of the three co-authors were there: Professor Felix Tuyay with Dr. Dario Villa (author of his own book, "The Bridge Generation - Sons and Daughters of Filipino pioneers", 1996), and Dr. Judy Patacsil.

As the first book launch event was held at the historic House of the Philippines in Balboa Park, the second event was held down south at Professor Tuyay's workplace, Southwestern College where he teaches History and Ethnic Studies. It was only fitting to return the favor to the northern region by holding it at Miramar College where Judy is a Counselor and Professor of Ethnic Studies.

The welcome address was given by San Diego Councilman (District 3), Todd Gloria. I had a chance to chat with him briefly afterwards. He's a really nice guy - very chill and very supportive of the community. It was moving to hear his story about how his grandfather moved to the U.S. and settled in mid-San Diego. He would mow the lawn in a three piece suit and tie because he didn't want to be looked down upon by the white neighbors. His grandfather had to deal with a racism back then and could only live in certain parts of San Diego which had no restrictive convenants barring homeownership by minorities. It's great that Todd Gloria is a third generation and that he is now a councilman that represents the area his grandfather lived in. He is the highest ranked Filipino American in San Diego government.

There were different speakers who represented the different chapters. The older generation spoke first.  This was Barbara Monzon, a third generation Filipina Mexican. Her maiden name was Quines and there used to be a "Barbara's Photography Studio" back in the pre-WWII days. Her father owned the shop and named it after her. Her husband, the late Len Monzon was also an activist in the community back in the 60's up to the 70's.  In fact, it was his advocacy that helped with the hiring of more Filipino Americans in the Sweetwater Union High School District in the 70's. Dr. Rey Monzon, one of Barbara's 8 (or is it 9) children is the head of Testing at SDSU. I've known Barbara for years and she's such a great person.

Patricia McReynolds was also another guest speaker representing the earlier generation. I wrote about her in the House of Philippines post, but in a nutshell, she is half Filipina (dad) and Norweigan. Her father came to the US in the early 1900's and married her mother in New York City. Pat had to get married out of state because of anti-miscegenation laws in California (pre 1948). She recently retired as an Art Professor from MiraCosta College. She's such a lovely person and I can't believe she's in her 80's.

Dave Galbiso and his brother (forgot his name but he is sporting a traditional Barong Tagalog shirt) traveled all the way from the Imperial Valley for this event. Their father used to own Galbiso farms. In the book there are a few pictures of their vegetable labels. Unfortunately their father had a farming accident and they were no longer able to keep up the farm. I remember meeting Dave at the 2006 FANHS National Conference in Hawaii. He was selling reproductions of their vegetable labels and we chatted about Filipinos in the Imperial Valley and in San Diego.

Also representing the second chapter was Darlene Santos (maiden name "Redondo"). She also spoke at the first book event and called herself a "Flipsican" (as opposed to Rudy Guevarra's term, "Mexipino"). She grew up mixed race  in the 1950's in San Diego back when there weren't as many Filipinos in town.

This is a not so good photo (blurry) of Sal Flor, holding an award won by his father, Julian Flor, a WWII vet. His father received a commendation letter by President Truman for his services during the war.

Representing the younger generation is Mira Mesa native Tina Barlolong. She spoke about being the child of a Navyman. Behind her, the slideshow photo depicts her and her brother greeting her father as he came home from overseas. For my generation, this was a pretty common scene every year. Many of
our dads were Filipinos in the Navy and were often away months at a time. In our family's case, my dad worked on a submarine instead of a ship.

Next is Felix's younger brother Herb Tuyay. In the 70's, Herb was an activist in the Filipino American community. He along with many others in the book protested against Martial Law in the Philippines, went to conferences on the burgeoning Filipino American experience through the Filipino People's Far West Conventions and helped advocate for the elderly manongs in the community. During this same time fram, Herb, a talented photographers, took many photographs (which are featured in the book), the most notable one being, "Two Manongs at the Manila Cafe" (located on 5th Avenue in downtown San Diego). He was one of the co-founders (along with Pat McReynolds) of a local cultural group which taught the arts to youngsters (visual and performing as well as martial).

Below are teachers Jackie Magat (teacher at Bell Jr. High) and Genevieve Esmende, both of the Filipino American Educators Association of San Diego County (FILAMEDA), the organization which helped me get my start as a counselor. They represented the community chapter of the book focusing on professional organizations.

Dr. Dario Villa also spoke about the "Bridge Generation" (title of his 1996 book, the cover which is depicted on the screen behind him) and being teased as an "F.O.B." by American born Filipinos when he first moved to the U.S. in 1977. He is currently a counselor at his alma mater, Montgomery High School in Otay Mesa. An interesting story about Dario and me...it turns out that our families are from the same province in the Philippines. He'd asked where my parents were from and asked if my parents knew his uncle XX. Turns out that his uncle, a rondalla musician who often played at town fiestas, married my dad's cousin. My mother even has a photograph of Dario's uncle in one of her old photo albums. Small world!

Once again, the co-authors (sans Dr. Rudy Guevarra), Judy and Felix.

Food Vendor - Sushi Affair - Art Corpus and Nestor Vallar. Nestor's wife used to dance for the SAMAHAN dance company in the 1970's. Nestor's late father was also a prolific artist and gardener. In fact, one of my guava trees (that survived) was given to me by him.

The food vendors weren't serving a whole meal, but rather a "merienda", so it was just a little bit of pancit plus two shanghai lumpias. They also had chicken long rice which I really liked. I think they ended up running out of food later on. There was entertainment as well - a hula troupe, martial arts, hip hop dancers and more. I only stayed for the first act and ended up leaving afterwards.

Yeah, there you go, the two Filipino party food staples.

There was also a vendor selling balut, but that will be my next post!


See the other "Filipinos in San Diego" Book Launch posts below:

Book Launch 1 at House of the Philippines
Book Launch 2 at Southwestern College

Up next, the notorious balut in all of it's veiny and feathery glory...