peter jamero

Bridge Generation News

BG Personality of the Month, Rozita (Villanueva) Lee, 89, Las Vegas NV:

Returning to where you spent your growing up years is usually a happy event.  For Rozita Lee, however, returning to what the hurricane-driven firestorm did to Lahaina, Maui on August 8, 2023 brought only sad memories.  Just weeks after the firestorm, Rozita was once again  where she spent her formative years.  Although she had viewed the Lahaina devastation on television, she was not quite prepared to see the extent of damage heaped upon her old home town with her own eyes.  Recalled Rozita, “Part of me just died when I saw what had happened. We were driving by the area, and all I saw were slabs of concrete, everything had burned, even the cars. I felt so bad, it was so terrifying!”

Rozita’s description was apt.  The firestorm destroyed approximately 80 percent of the historic town, killing 115 people, with 110 more missing.  The house she grew up in, the school she attended, the friends homes she visited, the cannery — all were gone.  All that were left of businesses along Front Street that borders the sea were shells of concrete.  On the other hand, the famous Banyan tree next to Front Street lost all of its foliage, but new growth peeking out from its burnt trunks and limbs promised future survival.  Resigned to the reality of Lahaina’s devastation, Rozita sadly concluded, “It’s going to take years to get Lahaina back.”  Since that first visit she has volunteered several more times to assist displaced residents of Lahaina.  (On a personal note — my cousin’s two story home on Lahainaluna Road on the town’s fringe was not only a total loss, it also resulted in hospitalization in Honolulu for her husband’s third degree burns.)

The daughter of Filipino immigrants from Pangasinan, Philippines, Eugenio Estrada Villanueva and the former Leoncia (Bermisa) Asuncion, Rozita was born on October 14, 1934 in Lahaina.  Her parents’ immigration to Hawaii in the 1930s came when the Hawaiian Sugar Plantation Association recruited hundreds of Filipinos to toil on the plantations to fill jobs formerly held by Chinese, Korean, and Japanese workers. She grew up on the Keawe Camp Plantation in Maui with her family living a “privileged” existence that allowed them to have electricity, indoor plumbing, and a telephone — thanks to her father’s position as plantation camp boss. When she was a teenager during World War II,  the family moved to Honolulu where she remembered hearing air raid sirens and hanging blackout curtains in her home.  While attending Roosevelt High School, Rozita met Clifford Lee who would become a respected allergist physician and who she would marry in 1979.

Rozita and Dr. Lee’s subsequent move to Las Vegas was where their careers, business, and community activities prospered.  In 1991 they bought a luau restaurant and Polynesian show at the Imperial Palace Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.  It featured a dance troupe performing  cultural dances of Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, and New Zealand for appreciative lei-wearing tourists dining on Hawaiian cuisine.  A trained dancer, Rozita periodically performed with the dance troupe.  The troupe also became a family affair.  Several of her children and a grandson became regular performers.  After eighteen successful years at the Imperial Palace, the business was sold in 2008.

After co-founding the Asian Pacific Forum in 1993, Rozita championed causes addressing challenges faced by the growing Asian Pacific Island community and its need for representation. She was often the first person called regarding issues of the API community.  She helped facilitate the reorganization of the Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce.  Rozita was also president  of the Ilocano American Association of Nevada, as well as serving as regional chair and national vice chair of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA).

Politically active, Rozita was president of the Women’s Democratic Club of Clark County.  Her efforts helped President Barack Obama turn Nevada Democratic by winning Clark County with 380,765 votes in 2012.  She has actively served as the chairperson for the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) in southern Nevada for more than a decade.  Rozita was the only person invited to accompany the late U.S. Senator Harry Reid to meet with Philippine President Gloria Arroyo and her cabinet when he received an award for his support in the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to WWII Filipino veterans.

In recognition of her years of community service, Rozita was named one of the most influential women in Las Vegas by the Women of Diversity, and one of 100 most influential Filipina women in the U.S. by the Filipina Women’s Network. The Organization of  Chinese Americans (OCA) awarded Rozita a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.  She also has a Las Vegas street named in her honor.  (Acknowledgements: Positively Filipino January 2024, The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project, Congressional Record October 2009, and Wikipedia.) 

Happy April Birthdays to:  

Mel LaGasca, Patti (Monares) Greathouse, Esther (Navarro) Romero, Dolores (Rosales) Supat, Art Villarruz.

Pinakbet — News Across America

Filipino American Historical Tidbits:

On February 4, 1899 the Philippine American War began.  Called the “Philippine Insurrection” in most American history books,  approximately 600,000 Filipinos and 4,000 Americans died in the war.

Did You Know:

On January 15 Houston TX native R’Bonney Gabriel, was crowned the 71st Miss Universe in New Orleans LA — the ninth American to win the title.  You may remember her as the 1922 winner of Miss USA.  In the aftermath of her crowning, she spoke out against the extremist anti-transgender and anti-abortion laws of her Texas home state……………… Alec Cabacungan, the longtime ambassador/spokesman for Chicago’s Shriners Children’s Hospital is now 21 and going to college.  Part of the Shriners family since he was two months old, Alec was born with a genetic brittle bone disease — osteogenesis imperfecta — in which the bones break frequently and easily…………….  Nikko Remigio, wide receiver of pro football champion Kansas City Chiefs, was the only Filipino American player on the player roster for either team in the February 11, 2024 Super Bowl between the Chiefs and the SF 49ers.

Musings

From White Supremacy in America, (to) It has Always been about People of Color, (to) Equitable Justice for People of Color, (to) Multi-racial Democracy Weakened, (to) Political/Gun Violence) Part XLIV:

The Doctrine of Discovery in America by Robert P. Jones — continued: 

(The Doctrine of Discovery, written in 1493, a year after Columbus returned from the America’s, merged the interest of European imperialism with Christian missionary zeal. The doctrine furnished the foundational lie that America was “discovered” and enshrined the noble innocence of  White “pioneers”.  This sense of divine entitlement would influence key events, policies, and laws throughout American history.  As Jones aptly concluded in his essay, “……a desperate, defensive, mostly white Christian minority continue to believe America is the divinely ordained promised land for European Christians.” )

Today, because of the Doctrine and later White Supremacy events and policies, the U.S.  Constitution is being questioned, the rule of law ignored, and  freedoms of speech, press, and religion have been weakened.  Today, after decades of “Indian or Negro Problems” we have the “Muslim and Southern Border Problems.”  Today, led by twice impeached and four times indicted former president Donald Trump, we are confronted with the MAGA extremist movement. Perhaps of greatest concern — the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by several thousand insurrectionists to overturn an orderly transition to a newly elected government, almost succeeded.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 — restore voting rights:

(On July 1 the Supreme Court of the United States, in a 6-to-3 decision, upheld two restrictive voting provisions in Arizona, ruling that they did not meet the definition of overt discriminatory behavior. The decision opened the floodgates to emboldened state legislatures nationwide to release a torrent of new voting restrictions, more secure in the belief that such provisions will not be struck down by SCOTUS.  By upholding Arizona’s restrictive laws, the court essentially weakened the remaining provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, thus giving support for the many states introducing bills that suppress the vote.  In writing for the majority Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “Just because voting may be inconvenient for some, doesn’t mean that access to voting is unequal.”)

Over the past 10 years, at least 24 states have enacted new restrictions on voting, including requiring voters to show photo IDs and reducing time for early voting. Millions have been purged from voter rolls.  Hundreds of polling places have been closed in POL/low-income communities.  Voting districts have been gerrymandered to dilute POL voting power. State officials say the measures prevent voter fraud and keep registration lists updated. But voter advocates say the intention is to suppress voting, particularly in POC communities.  Several studies have concluded that voter fraud is extremely rare; the Washington Post said it found just four cases from the 2016 election.  The Voting Rights Act prohibited jurisdictions with histories of racial discrimination from changing voting rules without federal approval.  Since that provision was struck down in 2013 by the U.S. Supreme Court, more than 1,600 polling sites have closed; 21 states disenfranchised voters with a past conviction, 18 states enacted strict photo id requirements; 4 states have no option to vote early, 2 states require an exact match or proof of citizenship.  (Southern Poverty Law Center Report).

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