PETER’S PINOY PATTER — FEBRUARY 2021
Bridge Generation
BG Personality of the Month — Rosalie (Salutan) Marquez: At 75, Rosalie remains as tireless as ever. She retired from full-time employment in 1996. Today, she continues to put in long hours doing the things she enjoys — but as a volunteer at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, with the Santa Maria City Block Grant Committee, and the Central Coast Chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society.
Earlier, Rosalie was employed for more than thirty years as Court Administrative Executor (CAE) for the Santa Barbara County court system. It was a job she turned down twice — unsure whether she would be comfortable with increased responsibilities. A sustained push from her boss, however, convinced Rosalie to accept the promotion. As it turned out, she loved the job. As the only minority person CAE in the county, it was a distinction Rosalie most proud of. In recognition of her service, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors named her “Woman of the Year” in 2006. And yes……… throughout her years with the court, Rosalie volunteered for her parish and community.
Rosalie’s job as CAE had its humorous moments. Once, 35 Filipino sabongeros (trainers of fighting roosters) were arrested for engaging in illegal cockfighting. The sheriff — not understanding the aggressive instincts of the roosters — had them placed into a large pen for evidence. The cocks began fighting, killed one another, or were injured. All had to be destroyed. At their trial the Filipinos denied owning the roosters and pleaded “not guilty.” The sheriff was not able to produce the roosters. No evidence. Case closed.
The tireless Rosalie probably got her energy from her hard-working parents — Philippine born father Santiago Salutan and Mexican American mother Mary Olvera. Their courtship was conducted mainly through love letters (her mother’s family objected to her romance with a Filipino). They had to marry in far-off Yuma AZ because of California’s anti-miscegenation policies. Subsequent contacts with the maternal side of her family were infrequent. Thus, Rosalie was raised in the Filipino culture of her father who was strict in her upbringing. She was not allowed boyfriends. Her seven-year marriage that produced a daughter, Michelle Deparini, was prearranged.
From the age of eleven until she was nineteen attending college, Rosalie worked in the celery, lettuce, artichoke, and strawberry fields of the Guadalupe/Santa Maria area. She worked alongside her parents and her father’s kababayans (countrymen). Working among her elders and listening to their stories about the Philippines taught Rosalie about her Filipino heritage. Working with her elders also enabled her to speak English with a Cebuano (Visayan) accent that she occasionally slips into.
Rosalie’s slips into Cebuano are not her only reminders of growing up in the Filipino culture. Like other dalagas (teenage girls) of the time, Rosalie was a frequent Filipino folk dance performer. She helped her father care for his fighting roosters. But she did not like to watch their fight-to-the-finish at sabongs (chicken fights). Rather, she enjoyed Filipino sweets like biko, bitso-bitso, and binangkal and the Philippine national dish — adobo. Rosalie also helped in roasting lechon, slowly turning the whole pig by using a makeshift spit made by her father.
Rosalie was born on February 10, 1945 in Santa Maria, the eldest of six children. Life was not always easy growing up in rural Guadalupe. The family home was drafty and not insulated. During the winter, an inefficient kerosene heater could not keep out the cold; baths were taken in an outside shack by bailing heated water from a galvanized tub. Rosalie’s grade school years were in Guadalupe; but her high school in Santa Maria required her to walk a half mile to catch the school bus. A high achiever, she received two scholarships to attend nursing school in San Jose. However, her parents forbade her to go. Disappointed over being unable to follow her dream of becoming a nurse, Rosalie enrolled at nearby Hancock College and Cal Poly and changed her major several times before deciding on business.
Rosalie learned about Filipino culture through her father, her father’s friends, and her participation with FANHS. As significant in her acculturation was her 30-day visit to her father’s hometown of Tubigon, Bohol with her father and daughter Michelle in 1986. There, Rosalie learned about the Boholano’s traditional acceptance of an often inhospitable environment and the values of family and hospitality.
Today, in addition to a busy volunteer life, Rosalie spends retirement with her husband of 45 years, Bill Marquez — a retired Santa Barbara police detective — visiting relatives in Hawaii and Alaska, exercising with tai chi, and teaching Hawaiian and Tahitian dancing. Reflecting on her life in FANHS Central Coast Chapter’s publication “Tomorrow’s Stories”, Rosalie wrote:
We were brought up the Filipino way. There were material things in life, but Dad and Mom left us with the most significant wealth — “Life is good.” Enjoy life despite your trials and tribulations.
Emilia (Behic) Rosal, 1928-2020:
Emily was born in Honolulu, HI on May 28, 1928 but spent most of her life in Stockton CA. Volunteering for the American Legion Manuel Roxas Post 798 and the Teodora Alonzo Lodge 123 were among her many community activities. She passed away on December 24, 2020 in Stockton.
Raymond (Arca) Paular, 1930-2020: 
It is with a grieving heart that I report the December 10 passing of one of my closest friends, Ray Paular. Ray was born on April 3, 1930 in Oakland CA to Isaias “Paul” Zamora Paular and Felicidad Salcedo — the eldest of four boys, Jerry (deceased), Paul, and Cornelio. Married to special education teacher Josie (Espineda) Paular (deceased) for more than fifty years, he is survived by daughters, Lorena “Lori” Aguila and Leilani Finley; four grandchildren; and two great grandchildren.
I first met Ray at a softball game between the Stockton Filipino Youth Association and the Livingston Filipino Youth Club “Dragons” in the 1940s. He was the star pitcher for Stockton; I was the leadoff batter for Livingston. I remember Ray squinting as he tried to figure out how to pitch to me. I was hunched over, trying to take full advantage of my short stature to coax a walk from Ray. He walked me! During the next few years, the results were the same — he always walked me. Softball was not Ray’s only sport. He was the California Golden Gloves Silver Medalist (boxing) in 1948.
Like other Filipino American teenagers of the times, Ray toiled in the fields. He sacked onions for two dollars a day. He picked grapes for a few more dollars. Employment improved in 1946 in his job at an Alaska fish cannery. While dismayed at the second class treatment of Filipinos compared to White workers, Ray concluded the pay was too good to pass up. He became an Alaskero for nine summers, earning enough money to help his parents and for his college education.
In 1949 Ray enrolled at San Jose State, graduating with a degree in accounting in 1953. It was during his college years when, along with four other Filipino Americans, Ray and I became roommates. We all shared in the upkeep of the rental and in cooking meals — except for Ray. His father operated a restaurant, but Ray never learned how to cook. Thus, he became our designated dishwasher.
Ray went to the University of California at Berkeley to pursue a masters in accounting that was interrupted when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. Sadly, he contracted tuberculosis and was confined to an army hospital in Colorado for more than a year. While undergoing lung surgery at the hospital, he hemorrhaged and was almost given his last rites.
Ray’s accounting degree led to a thirty-two year career with the State of California, culminating as Auditor for the Department of Corrections. His scariest experience — serving as Acting Warden of Prisons which held some of the most dangerous men in the state. Thankfully, he was never called to quell an uprising.
After his 1991 retirement, much of Ray’s time was devoted to Filipino community agencies: Sacramento-Delta Chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society, Filipino Political Action Committee, the Filipino Medical and Allied Professional Society of Stockton, and Filipino State Employees Association– all as president.
As to being a Filipino American, Ray said:
I consider myself Filipino American — without the hyphen because we are striving within ourselves not to be divided which the hyphen would suggest. I’ve always maintained that the colonial mentality in our people emanates from the Spanish conquerors in the Philippines, then, the Americans, who used the technique of “divide and conquer” among our fore bearers for control purposes.
Ray died from the cruel Covid-19 virus on December 10, 2020 — along with more than 400,000 other Americans. Their deaths need not have happened. Rest in heavenly peace, old friend. I will miss you.
Happy February Birthdays to: Fred Campano, Lydia (Antiporda) Galian, Gloria (Carido) Nomura, Marya (Castillano) Bergstrom, Bob Flor, Lillian Galedo, Dorothy (Laigo) Cordova, Rosalie (Salutan) Marquez, Joyce (Tibon) Balandra.
Musings
The January 6 DC Riot on the U.S. Capitol:
We all witnessed the January 6 horrific mob insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in the failed coup to overthrow American democracy. Its impact is yet to be fully assessed. Until then, I must ask, “Why didn’t more Americans see it coming?” The indications were there for all to see! At his inauguration speech, President Joe Biden said he saw it coming! Even I saw it coming! Beginning in September 2019 and continuing for fourteen issues, a regular feature of my blog was White Supremacy/Nationalism/Privilege and their impacts on People of Color. Again I ask, “Why didn’t more Americans see it coming?”
Pinakbet — News Across America
Did You Know: According to research by the late Virgilio “Gil” Pilapil MD of Springfield IL, the word “boondock” is derived from the Tagalog “bundok” — brought to America by U.S. troops after the Philippine American War of 1898…………. San Diego native Eugene Amano, 300 lb. center/guard, who played for the NFL Tennessee Titans in 2004-2012, was born in the Philippines………. the only ethnic Filipino of three NFL players who were Philippine-born.
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