PETER’S PINOY PATTER — March 2021
Bridge Generation News
BG Personality of the Month, Dan Inosanto, 85: Martial arts aficionados are certain to recognize Dan as the long-time training partner of the legendary Bruce Lee. At the same time, they may be at a loss to remember his name. However, the name “Daniel Arca Inosanto” has been well known to Stockton Filipino Americans for years.
Dan first gained recognition as a schoolboy athlete. At Stockton’s Edison High School he starred as the football team’s speedy All-Conference halfback. On the track team, he ran the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds, later breaking the record by running it in 9 flat at Stockton College.
Dan was born on July 24, 1936 in the midst of the Great Depression, the only child of immigrant father Sebastian Inosanto and Kauai-born Mary Arca. His father, a pensionado via the Philippine government, founded the Filipino Agricultural Workers Association — the first farm workers union in California. His mother was a member of a prominent Stockton Filipino family.
Dan grew up in the Filipino enclave of South Stockton where his boyhood friends were mostly Filipino Americans. He attended the Trinity Presbyterian Church his parents helped found. As a teenager, he joined the Filipino Youth Club “Padres” and played on its basketball team. Like other Filipino teenagers of the times, Dan toiled under the hot summer sun in surrounding fields. Like other young Filipino Americans, he also experienced racial discrimination. But Dan was not surprised by discrimination; he remembered his mother’s story about the Ku Klux Klan hanging five Filipinos in Hawaii when lynching was not unusual.
An academic achiever, Dan attended highly rated Whitworth University in Spokane WA and Harbor College in Wilmington CA. He returned to Stockton to earn a master’s degree in education at the University of Pacific. Dan was the first teacher from a minority background hired by Malaga Cove Intermediate School in the affluent community of Palos Verdes Estates CA. Soon after his hiring, he almost quit after being called a derogatory racial name. Dan changed his mind when reminded that his aunt went through harsher treatment but stuck it out to become a respected educator. It was a smart decision. He went on to teach at the Palos Verdes school for 25 productive years.
In 1945 Dan was introduced to martial arts by an uncle at the end of World War II. The uncle — a bolo fighter with the U.S. Army — was skilled in Okinawan style karate, judo, jujitsu, and Filipino escrima. Dan listened and learned. During the Korean War, he spent two years in the army as a paratrooper. While in the army, he was able to sharpen his martial arts skills under the tutelage of karate champion Henry Slomanski.
Dan met Bruce Lee at a 1964 martial arts convention in Los Angeles when he was selected as Lee’s “dummy” (fall guy), which ultimately led to his being the legend’s long-time training partner. Later, Dan was asked to show Lee around LA. They hit it off immediately – the beginning of a long friendship. To this day, Dan considers Bruce Lee his best friend. (Lee is godfather to Dan’s daughter, Diana Lee Inosanto — a noted martial artist, actress, and film director in her own right.)
Dan learned much from Lee. In turn, he taught him the intricacies of nunchaku — a weapon consisting of two sticks connected at one end by a short chain or rope. Dan appeared in countless martial arts films, authored numerous books, and taught the art to Hollywood luminaries Denzel Washington, Forrest Whitaker, and Ricky Nelson. In 1996 he was named Black Belt Magazine’s “Man of the Year”.
His most unusual experience was being commissioned by the National Football League Dallas Cowboys to incorporate martial arts into the team’s training in 1977. His instruction must have helped. The Cowboys finished the season with a record of 12 wins and 2 losses, became the NFL’s National Conference champions, and defeated the Denver Broncos 27-10 in the Super Bowl.
Today, Dan is considered as the foremost authority on Jeet Kune Do, Filipino escrima, arnis, and kali, as well as other Eastern martial arts. Instructors trained at the Inosanto Academy of Martial Arts in Marina del Rey are located in most states in America as well as Europe, Australia, and India.
World’s 24th Best Woman’s Bowler:
Jazz singer, Josie (Tenio) Canion, is beaming these days. Her granddaughter, Kristie Leong, averaged 209.83 at the Professional Women’s Bowling Association Kickoff Classic in Houston TX on January 20 — the 24th best woman bowler in the world.
Thank You’s to:
Erwin Tiongson for featuring yours truly on Ystroria DC Online on February 18 and to Emil Guillermo for interviewing me on the Filipino American National Museum “Popup” in January.
A Mountain Peak Named After A Filipino American:
Tenaza Peak in the remote continent of Antarctica is named in honor of Rich Tenaza, retired professor of biology at the University of Pacific, for his research on the Antarctica penquin. Rich is the former president of the Stockton chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society.
Happy March Birthdays To: Bob Balandra, Eleanor (Engkabo) Paular, Pas Fidel, David Galanida, Evelyn (Guillermo) Agdoma, Dolores (Ladaga) Abasolo, Manuel Luna, Rich Tenaza, Ed Ventura.
Pinakbet — News Across America
Violence Against Asian/Filipino Americans:
President Joe Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are to be applauded for calling attention to growing anti-Asian violence. Since the pandemic, 3,000 incidents against Asians were reported. Among recent victims was Filipino American Noel Quintana who was slashed from ear to ear with a box cutter in New York City on February 3. No one on the crowded subway assisted Quintana. This was only the latest example of nationwide anti-Asian/Filipino incidents of children being bullied at school, elderly being assaulted, and Covid-19 patients refusing to be treated by Asian/Filipino doctors and nurses. Former president Trump fomented anti-Asian hate; President Biden and Speaker Pelosi consider such incidents as hate crimes.
Did You Know:
On February 9, 1716 the new Spanish province in southwestern America was named Nuevas Filipinas (New Philippines). Today, it is known as Texas………. On January 20 President Joe Biden appointed water policy expert Camille (Calimlim) Touton to Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation at the Department of Interior…….. The best thing about Super Bowl LV — H.E.R. (nee Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson), the Filipino/African American singer, who kicked off the game with her rendition of “America.”
Musings
Trump’s Aquittal: Implications for People of Color:
- Trump’s racist supporters such as White Supremacists, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other extremists continue to be emboldened and dangerous to America.
- Trump is the undisputed leader of the Republican party.
- Trump’s racist views will continue to guide extremists and Republicans.
- Trump is expected to support Republican candidates in 2022 elections.
- Trump plans to rebuild the Republican Party or establish his own party.
- Trump is expected to run for president in 2024.
- Trump’s acquittal frees Republican big-money donors to continue to make sizable financial contributions to Trump and/or the Republican Party.
How did I arrive at “Implications for People of Color?”
Loyal readers may recall more than a dozen of my earlier blogs decried the threat to America from avowed racist White Supremacists, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other extremist groups — all participants at the January 6 mob desecration of the U.S. Capitol. For weeks Donald Trump exhorted his followers to stop Congressional certification of the presidential election, falsely claiming the election was fraudently stolen. The ensuing violent insurrection perpetrated by the mob of thousands was predictable. But inexplicably, at the February 13 impeachment trial, the Senate found the former president “Not Guilty” of inciting the violence. The reason senators voted “Not Guilty”? Not that they believed Trump was innocent of inciting the insurrection. Rather, they based their vote on a technicality — that Trump cannot be convicted because he no longer was in office.
Critical to the Senate’s final vote was Republican leader’s Mitch McConnell‘s vote to acquit. Trying to have it both ways, his vote to acquit came only minutes after repudiating Trump as “practically and morally responsible for provoking the event.” McConnell’s repudiation confirmed findings of House Managers: that Trump was guilty of inciting the mob of White Supremacists, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other extemists to desecrate the U.S. Capitol. His contradictory positions were disingenuous and self-serving, only meant to assure McConnell continues to remain in power in the Senate.
Covid-19 — Mixed Results for People of Color:
Good news:
- The number of covid cases is decreasing markedly.
- President Joe Baden‘s goal of innoculating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of his presidency is on target.
- On February 11, the president announced the U.S. will have enough vaccine supply by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million Americans.
Not so good news:
- Nearly a third of the nurses who died of coronavirus in the U.S. are Filipino, even though Filipino nurses make up only 4% of America’s nursing population.
- Persons of color deemed “essential” (health care transportation workers, farm workers, and meat packing workers, etc.) continue to be by-passed for covid vaccinations.
- Covid variants from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil are beginning to be found in the United States.
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