Bridge Generation News

BG Personality of the Month:  Florentine (Tino) Calabia Jr, 87, Chevy Chase MD:

Tino was born on December 22, 1935 in Washington, D.C., the eldest of two sons of Florentine Calabia, a U.S. Navy submariner during World War I who later worked as a journeyman printer with the Government Printing Office, and Nestora Monfero, an auditor at the General Accounting Office and the first President of the Filipino Women’s Club in D.C.   Both immigrated to America from Laguna Province in the Philippines.  Like many Filipinos of the times, Tino’s parents were sojourners who only planned to work temporarily in America and then return to the Philippines with enough money accumulated from their earnings.  In 1937 when Tino was two days shy of turning two, the family boarded the ocean liner SS President Hoover with all their belongings —  including a car — for their return.  Sadly, the SS President Hoover ran aground on a volcanic reef off Formosa (today’s Taiwan) during a typhoon.  The family scurried aboard a lifeboat that soon capsized in the stormy waters of the South China Sea. Cold, wet, but unhurt, Tino and his parents were rescued.  With all their worldly possessions gone, they returned to Washington, D.C. — thus ending their plan to return to the Philippines as prosperous balikbayans.

The family’s economic situation took a positive turn in D.C., thanks to the earning power of Tino’s parents.  They purchased a home in a “Whites Only” neighborhood covered by a covenant clause in racially segregated Washington.  Under terms of the covenant, blacks and Jews were excluded.  Since Filipinos were neither, they were allowed to buy a home in the neighborhood.  Tino does not remember incidents of racial discrimination in his “Whites Only” neighborhood during his growing up years.  He was to subsequently learn, however, this was not the case with his parents.  His father encountered discrimination at his workplace; his mother worked at a time when women were rarely found in professional positions.  Undaunted, Florentine and Hestora established themselves as leaders in their community while also being able to comfortably interrelate with Whites.

Tino was an excellent student at the Gonzaga High School taught by nuns and earned several scholarships to Georgetown University.  He graduated with a degree in literature to the disappointment of his father who — like many Filipino parents — wanted him to become a doctor or lawyer.  But when Tino told his father he also earned a fellowship at Ludwig-Maximillian Universitat in Munich, Germany, his father was elated, “Just like Jose Rizal!” he exclaimed.  Why his father’s surprising elation over Tino’s fellowship?  Tino’s father revered Filipino hero Rizal, who, before his election as the first President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, spent the late 1880s in Germany to further his knowledge in the sciences!

In 1963, inspired with the establishment of the Peace Corps by President John F. Kennedy, Tino was among the first to volunteer for the new agency.  He was sent to Chiclayo, Peru where he created a nursing school library and served as a Language Instructor at a Teacher’s College and a Veterinary School.  Upon completion of his Peace Corps service, he entered Columbia University in New York City. His  experience with community organizing  in Peru continued to inspire him. He decided to enroll at Fordham University which had a strong social work program.  Unfortunately, his courses were primarily in case work — not community organization.  He left Fordham and returned to Columbia.  His brief time at Fordham, however, had a positive side. It was where he met his future wife, Dawn Tennant in 1966.  Born of Irish immigrants, Dawn was enrolled in Fordham’s Social Work program and went on to a successful career working on behalf of refugees and displaced persons.  Their 1967 marriage produced two sons — Florentine and Theodore, and a daughter, Allison, who collectively gave Tino and Dawn seven grandchildren.  Interestingly, their three children all have names of Filipino cultural significance.  Florentine has the same first name as Tino and his father.  Theodore’s middle name is Rizal and Allison was given the middle name of Maria Clara — the epitome of Filipina feminism.

Tino’s career first found him in the midst of President Lyndon B. Johnson‘s War on Poverty.  In 1966 he was Acting Director of Head Start and Neighborhood Youth Corps in the southeast Bronx Borough of New York City.  Shortly after, he was promoted to Associate Director of the Human Services Agency, which was responsible for all anti-poverty programs in NYC. Tino returned to Washington, D.C. in 1975 to work for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights where he was responsible for Equal Employment Opportunity programs.  In 1996 he transferred to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, an early anti-poverty program that subsequently achieved cabinet level status.  At HUD, Tino served as Interagency Liaison and founded its speaker series before retiring in 2011.

As if he wasn’t busy enough with government employment, the energetic and committed Tino always made time to volunteer for a variety of personal causes and interests.  As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer he advised the State Department on refugee resettlement. He was a board member of the  PacAsian Coalition.  He also was interested in architecture.  While living in New York City he was part of a team headed by T’ing, the son of famed architect I.M. Pei, that renovated a brownstone building in Brooklyn.  Tino’s retirement in 2011 did not slow his volunteerism.  He continues to chair the Bus/Rail Subcommittee of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Accessibility Advisory Committee.  He served on the Refugee Support Committee of the National Peace Corps Association.  Moreover, he often wrote opinion pieces on his many interests that were published by the Washington Post, the United Nations, and other periodicals.  Perhaps Tino’s  most significant piece of writing was his relationship novel, Roman Proud, Wayward Widower, a semi-autobiographical story of his life, published in 2010, which received positive reviews. 

This and That:

Connie (Viernes) Pasquil was a proud grandmother as her family celebrated the graduations of three grandchildren on July 22 in Walnut Grove CA…………… In 2000, my mother, Apolonia (Madelo) Jamero, 1905-86, was among six honorees at the first annual Community Recognition Awards of the Filipino American National Historical Society, Stockton Chapter.

Happy September Birthdays:

Mardena (Ambon) Ragsac, Pam Bulahan, Narce Caliva, Jocelyn (Mercado) Revilla, Aurelio Simon.

Pinakbet — News Across America

Filipino American Historical Tidbits:

On January 3, 2011 Tani Cantil-Sakauye was sworn in as Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, the first Filipina/o American, the first person of color, the first Asian American, and only the second woman to be elected to the highest judicial position for the State of California and America.

Did You Know:

Congratulations to Averie Bishop, whose one-year term as Miss Texas ended recently!  She used her platform as Miss Texas to push back against the state’s White male leaders.  Her beliefs in diversity and inclusion enabled her to profess her liberal views on race, abortion, immigration, voting, same-sex marriage, school shootings, and sex education — much to the chagrin of the Lone State State’s extremist conservative leaders.  She is the first Filipina/o American and first Asian American to win the title of Miss Texas.  (Thanks to Juanita (Tamayo) Lott for this item).

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 XXXVIII:

This column has long decried the nation’s inability to effectively deal with gun violence.  I now ask, “Why has Congress been unable to pass permanent common sense gun legislation?”  Most Americans blame the influence of the National Rifle Association and opposition of Congressional Republicans to pass remedial legislation.  I came across an intriguing article in the respected magazine “The Atlantic” in its May 25, 2022 issue, titled The Real Reason America Doesn’t Have Gun Control, by Ronald Brownstein that provides a different point of view.  It is summarized below:

• The real culprit is a Senate rule — the filibuster — which requires the backing of 60 out of 100 senators to move legislation to a vote, thus rendering majority rule moot.
• The filibuster provides a veto over national policy to a minority of states — most of them small, largely rural, conservative, preponderantly white, and dominated by Republicans.
• Senate Republicans have represented a majority of the U.S. population for only two years since 1980; but because of its hold on smaller states, they have controlled the Senate majority for most of those 42 years.
• Congress hasn’t passed major gun legislation since 1994.
• Polling by the Pew Research Center found that the share of Republicans who live in a household with a gun (54 percent) far exceeds the share of Democrats who do (31 percent).
• America has more guns than it has people.
• The Senate’s small-state bias is impeding legislative action on other issues on which Americans broadly agree, such as climate change, abortion, and immigration as well as common sense gun control.
• If there is any hope for congressional action on gun control, it will require reform or elimination of the filibuster.

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