PETER’S PINOY PATTER — June 2022

Bridge Generation News

Personality of the Month:  Anthony Barretto Ogilvie, Jr., EdD:

Shortly after moving to Seattle in the summer of 1970, I was invited to a meeting of a group of young pinoy/pinay activists.  (The activist group would soon become known as the Filipino American Young Turks.  For the next twenty years, the Young Turks would play a major role in helping bring the Filipino community into Seattle’s sociopolitical mainstream.)  Relating easily with everyone was a young man with a Fu Manchu moustache and flowing black hair down to his shoulders.  A few inches shy of six  feet, he stood out compared to his pinoy-sized companions. Standing out even more — his white features among the sea of brown faces.  The young man was Tony Ogilvie, a mestiso and the Young Turks’ affable, energetic, committed, and intelligent idea man!

Born on August 12, 1945, Tony’s mixed ethnicity comes from his Filipino/Spanish father Anthony Barretto Ogilvie, Sr., raised in the Tondo slums of Manila, and his Ilocano/German mother, Emily Flunker, from the province of Pampanga.  As is often the case in mixed ethnicities, the twelve Ogilvie children ran the gamut of physical characteristics.  Tony and a sister are the only light skinned siblings while the others are of varying shades.  His siblings all identify as Filipino; but Tony believes his own identification as a pinoy is the most fervent — thanks to discrimination he personally experienced.  Also contributing to his strong identification as a Filipino was his participation with the Filipino Youth Activities. With FYA Tony learned about his heritage; but he also learned about the Filipino experience in America where values of freedom and fairness often fell short for Filipinos.  Over the years, curious Filipinos have occasionally wondered about his Caucasian appearance. Tony’s response, “As a kid, I was always around Filipinos. Their questions didn’t bother me then, they don’t bother me now.”

His strong identification as a Filipino American is reflected in the choices he made as an educator.  Possessor of a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Seattle University, Tony’s impressive body of work includes numerous publications focusing on Filipino issues. His “National Study of K-12 Filipino American Students in Ten Urban Areas” in 2009 is considered to be among his most significant.

Tony also devoted much of his energies on the issues of Asians and other ethnic minorities.  Beginning as a teacher at Seattle’s Blanchet High School and ending with two decades as Executive Dean at Seattle Central Community College — with a variety of other positions in-between — he amassed a wide-ranging set of accomplishments.  Following are career highlights:

• In 1969, as an undergraduate at the University of Washington, he developed a paper bemoaning the lack of Filipino American students at the university.  Armed with his paper’s data, he led an Asian Coalition for Equality (ACE) protest demanding the university establish a Filipino and Needy Asian Students Unit within UW’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP).  The arguments from Tony and ACE were persuasive. UW President Charles Odegaard ultimately agreed and instructed the university to immediately establish the unit.  From only 20 students in 1969, Filipino students number in the hundreds today.  Tony regards opening up EOP his most significant accomplishment.  Not only has the program been hugely successful, it has made a difference in the lives of countless Filipino Americans who otherwise would never have entered UW.
• In 1971 he chaired and coordinated the inaugural Young Filipino Peoples’ Far West Convention at Seattle University — A Quest for Emergence — which drew nearly 400 attendees. Labor icon Larry Itliong‘s keynote address provided a strong start to the convention.  But it was Tony’s rousing speech at the closing plenary session that invigorated the crowd as he called for inclusiveness for American-born/Philippine-born Filipinos and for those of mixed ethnicity.
• He was elected President of the Washington Asian and Pacific American Education Association (1974-79); was co-founder and first President-elect of the Filipino American National Historical Society (1982); and served as board member of the National Association of Asian Pacific American Association (1978-1983).
• He led the successful effort to raise $3 million for the renovation and expansion of Seattle’s Filipino Community Center (2000-2008).
• Tony chaired and coordinated the Filipino Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest’s (FCCPNW) Washington State-Philippines International Trade Conference in 2005.
• He was elected for several terms as President of FCCPNW (2014-2021).
• He will be serving as chair of the National Federation of Philippine American Chamber’s International Trade and Business Development Conference  (August 18-20, 2022).

Tony’s interests have gone beyond education and Filipino/Asian communities.  He also has been a successful musical impresario.  When he was 22 he was known as the “King of Cabarets” for organizing twelve nightclub events over a three-year period that provided music in BYOB settings for young Asian Americans.  In 2001-02 he organized two jazz concerts featuring Filipino musicians.  And in 2015 he helped raise $12,000 at a dinner benefit for the Seattle Chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society in which a well-received demonstration of various dances was performed by Filipino volunteers.

While Tony takes justifiable pride in his accomplishments, he is most proud of his only child — Tara Kahikina Allianic-Ogilvie. After earning a Masters of Public Health at the University of Washington, Tara is now an epidemiological researcher.

Now retired and in his late 70s, Tony shows no evidence of slowing down.  Not only is he chairing an international conference in August, he is considering taking on several other projects.

Passings:

On March 24, my sixth great grandchild came into my life — Tennyson Milo Jamero, son of Jordan and Taylor Jamero of Seattle. And on March 19 Michael and Maria Silverio of Sacramento announced the expected September arrival of my seventh great grandchild.

Happy June Birthday:  Virginia (Velez) Catanio

Pinakbet — News Across America

Filipino American Historical Tidbits:

In 2015, Filipino Americans successfully fought for the Alvarado Middle School to be renamed the “Itliong-Veracruz Middle School” after noted Filipino American labor leaders Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz — the first school on the U.S. mainland named after a Filipino(s).

Did You Know:

In the aftermath of the recent spate of attacks against elderly Filipinos in New York City, Filipino Americans gathered in early April for the “Filipinos Rise Up” rally.  Noel Quintana, one of the first anti-Asian hate crime survivors, spoke on being attacked aboard a subway in February 3, 2021 when a man slashed his face with a box cutter.  He called for more police visibility — not just in tourist areas. He also asked victims of crimes to speak out, “Our silence is interpreted as ‘it’s okay for us Asians to be violated’.”………… Bree Purganan from my ancestral hometown of Livingston CA is the mother of Jalen Green, shooting guard of the NBA Houston Rockets…………. On March 29, Hawaii-born Nani Coloretti became the highest-ranking Filipino American in the Biden Administration when the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination as Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget.  She is the first American of Filipino descent to be named to a cabinet level position………… On April 3, a record number of five Filipino Americans earned 22 nominations for the 64th Grammy Awards in Las Vegas with Olivia Rodrigo, Bruno Mars, and H.E.R. coming away with Grammys………… On March 20, the Seattle Filipino community mourned the passing of Obdulia “Dolly” Rigor Castillo — educator and community leader………… The President of California State University of the Channel Islands is Filipino-Chinese American clinical psychologist Richard Yao, PhD.

Musings

White Supremacy in America, (to) It Has Always Been About People of Color, (to) Equitable Justice for People of Color, (to) Multi-ethnic Democracy Weakened, Part XXI:

It is highly doubtful that remedial actions will soon be taken to provide equitability and protections for People of Color.  In the U.S. Senate — hopelessly ineffective with its 50:50 Democrat/Republican split — Republicans have used its arcane rule, the filibuster, to stop every House-passed bill on the following:  freedom to vote legislation, restoring civil rights protections, immigration reform, gun control, abortion rights, and climate change – all issues that disproportionately impact POC.  

On May 24 the need for federal gun control legislation again surfaced in the wake of the mass murder of 19 children and 2 teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde TX by a lone gunman using an AR-15 that tears apart its victims. The murders came 20 years after school shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and 10 years after Parkland High School in Florida. It came just 10 days after a White Supremacist murdered 10 people in an African American neighborhood market in Buffalo NY. Because of Senate Republicans — beholden to the National Rifle Association — nothing was done by the Senate about these murders. Again, the Senate will use the filibuster and do nothing about the Uvalde murders. Yes, Senate Republicans may call for hearts and prayers; they may make empty gestures about gun control. But soon after, it will be more of the same – no legislative action — until the next mass shooting — and another inaction. 

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