PETER’S PINOY PATTER — April 2016
Bridge Generation News
The Legendary Tournament Days — Memories: In traveling to Filipino American youth basketball/softball tournaments in California during the 1940-50s, we crowded into just two or three cars — sometimes eight to ten young pinoys and pinays in each car. (In those days few of us had access to automobiles.) You could easily tell the Livingston campo boys. Their shoes were always dusty. They wore stiff and seldom unwashed Levi’s. And they put too much pomade in their hair. In sharp contrast, the popular Livingston girls always looked nice. We went to a lot of Stockton tournaments. Remember the old story, “When two Filipinos got together — they formed a club.” So it went with Stockton Filipino young people. They formed so many youth clubs — Filipino Youth Association, Fils, Padres, Tri-Pres, United Filipino Youth, Eagles, Centaurs — it seemed there was a club for every corner on El Dorado Street in Little Manila. Compared to us farm kids, Stockton youth were much more sophisticated. They were the best dancers; the best pool players. Many knew how to play the Chinese gambling game, pai que. Stockton also had many jazz musicians — the Tenio’s (Jimmy, Joe, Rudy, Josie), Mike Montana, Ted Reyes, Ham and Lod Burila, Peppy Wassan, and Flip Nunez. Then there were the Big City Boys of San Francisco — the Mangos. They all seemed so tall, so slim. The Mangos were also pale (probably because they had so little sun in San Francisco). Their team — with players like Babe Samson, Ed and Dixon Campos, Joe San Felipe, Art Suguitan, Rudy Delphino, Felix Duag, and Rudy Calica — dominated the basketball tournaments. But when they went to Livingston to play softball they usually lost — they c0uldn’t handle the valley heat. They also couldn’t handle Livingston’s pitching staff of Hank Dacuyan, and the Pomicpic brothers — Sonny and Fred. Salinas had an active youth club, the Filipino Youth Council. Salinas also had lots of Filipino farm labor camps. Most of the tournament-going kids came from these campos (the Garcia, Reyes, Morales, Naldoza, Borja, and Malbas Camps). Santa Maria was too far to drive for tournaments. However, we knew a lot of Santa Maria Filipinos. Many married kids from Stockton and the Bay Area. Some worked in the fields of the Central Valley (Ray and Hal Canion and Joe Talaugan). Others like Tony, Lillian, Corrine, and Morris Artiaga moved to Stockton with their parents. The small town Livingston kids identified closely with youth club members from similarly sized towns — Isleton, Walnut Grove, Alvarado. And most of the kids belonging to Sacramento youth clubs actually came from surrounding little towns such as Florin, Rio Linda, Elk Grove, and Roseville. We also related well with young pinoys/pinays from Vallejo — many of them picked tomatoes and pears in the Delta. When girls formed their own athletic teams, the always fun tournament dances became even more enjoyable. But not everything was fun and games. It’s hard to forget those ugly signs in Stockton, “Positively No Filipinos Allowed”. We endured discrimination in public accommodations, housing, education, and employment. But thanks to those legendary athletic tournaments, we grew up to be proud, participating Filipino Americans………… I have long felt that Filipinos do not fit neatly into American racial categories. Are we Asian, Pacific Islander, Latino? Thus, it was with great anticipation for me to read “The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race” by Anthony Christian Ocampo, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cal Poly Pomona. The book is a fascinating look into attitudes of present day Los Angeles area second generation Filipino Americans. I highly recommend it. However, I found myself wondering if there would have been a difference in the book’s findings if Professor Ocampo had seen fit to also examine the views of Bridge Generation Filipino Americans while they still exist in significant, if not decreasing, numbers…………… One of my favorite movies was Black Orpheus, the 1960 Academy Award-winning Brazilian film with its unforgettable bossa nova music. Did you know its beautiful star Marpessa Dawn (nee Menor) was of African American and Filipina heritage? Born in Pittsburgh PA in 1924, she also was the cover girl in a 1959 issue of Ebony Magazine…………. Bob Luna completed his fifteenth year as leader of the Merced CA Police Department Explorer Scouts as they worked the AT&T ProAm Golf Tournament in Monterey. “A labor of love,” says Bob, a retired police officer who volunteers his time without pay………….. Previous blogs have lauded the Tenio family for its musical talents. However, I have been remiss in ignoring the eldest son, Gilbert, an accomplished escrimador. Guro Gilbert taught countless young Filipinos the intricacies of Filipino martial arts………….. Meet Rich Tenaza, the new president of the Stockton Chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society. Rich is a recently retired professor of biology at the University of Pacific. A world traveler, he has a unique distinction — the U.S. Geological Survey named a mountain peak in Antarctica after him. Like most of Bridge Generation Californians, he worked in the fields as a young man. But unlike most of his contemporaries he enjoyed farm work. “Working in the fields was not a hardship, it was a passion, I loved it,” says Rich………… Octogenarian Gregg Bambo of Salt Lake City is still hitting the slopes. He was seen at Utah’s Solitude Resort skiing on powdery snow with his wife Marie in February…………. Eugenio “Junior” Bayron of Vancouver WA passed away on February 15. His ashes were placed next to his father in Galt CA on March 1 in a ceremony attended by family and friends. He grew up in Isleton CA and settled in San Jose before moving to Vancouver……….. Happy April birthdays to: Mary (Gorre) Cantil, Mel LaGasca, Ray Paular , Esther (Navarro) Romero, Dolores (Rosales) Supat, Ed Ventura, and Art Villarruz.
Pinakbet — News Across the Country
Movie publicist Fritz Friedman was recently appointed to serve on the credentials committee for the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia by Democratic National Committee Chair and Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. He will help review delegate credentials. Before his retirement last year, Friedman served as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Publicity for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Worldwide Acquisitions…………… The popular Seattle Filipino restaurant Inay’s recently shut its doors, reportedly because of a rent hike. Besides its well earned reputation for serving Filipino delicacies, Inay’s featured periodic drag shows starring transgender entertainer, Manila Luzon — always drawing large crowds. So it came as no surprise to see the entertainer in the midst of the crowd of gyrating dancers at the restaurant’s closing celebration…………. Speaking of restaurants, Vanessa Garcia, Filipino American owner of the historic 7 Mile House in Brisbane CA, says that she is fortunate to include Filipino food on the menu as the restaurant celebrates its 163rd anniversary. Adobo and sisig are just some of the Filipino items that are a big hit for customers. “People want to try it,” said Garcia. “Especially when I see that they’re not Filipino, I get really excited when they come in here and say we heard about it or they come back and they want it again.” 7 Mile House also features live music seven nights a week — jazz, R&B, rock, reggae, and zydeco……………. Shooting guard Jordan Clarkson led the Los Angeles Lakers to an upset 112-95 win over defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors on March 5. Just a few days later, he and a Laker teammate were accused of sexual harassment. Say it isn’t so, Jordan…………. Felicisimo Limon, 76, of El Sobrante CA, a retired postal worker, longshoreman and Navy man, lost $35,000 to the disreputable Trump University. He is part of a class action suit that accuses Trump University as a fraudulent enterprise…………… The Asian Hall of Fame named retired Major General Antonio Taguba among its Class of 2016 along with TV journalist Connie Chung, actor and martial artist Bruce Lee, and gold medal skater Kristi Yamaguichi. General Taguba is known for his scathing report on the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, accusing the Bush Administration of war crimes. The induction ceremony is scheduled for May 14 in Seattle………… In February, actress Leslie Ann Huff took on the role of recurring character Rayna Cruz. the vampire huntress, in the television hit show “The Vampire Diaries”. She previously appeared on TV in “CSI:NY”, “NCIS”, “Bones”, and “Days of our Lives”……………. Geena Rocero — the model, producer and transgender rights activist — is one of the hosts and correspondents for a new TV show on the USA network, “Aspireist”. It is a 30-minute feature news program specially designed for millennials. The show tells inspirational stories, not only to inform, but to empower its viewers to do something about issues that matter to them…………. Filipino American History Trivia — (1) Name the Seattle civil rights activist whose father was a popular prize fighter during the 1930s-40s. (2) Name one of two former SF Mango youth club basketball players who rose to the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve? (3) What was the 1934 law that limited Filipino immigration to the U.S. to 50 per year?