PETER’S PINOY PATTER– July 2022
Bridge Generation News
(Today’s Bridge Generation – now in their 70s, 80s, and 90s – are a rapidly declining population. Over the years, most members of these American-born children of the first wave of Filipino immigrants have passed away. To remember their contributions to the history of Filipinos in America, a deceased BG individual has been a recurring feature of this blog. This issue features Clemente Joseph “Joe” San Felipe, December 4, 1925 — April 28, 2010. The following account of his life is excerpted from my book “Vanishing Filipino Americans: the Bridge Generation.” When Joe learned I was writing a book on our generation, he bristled, “I get very upset whenever I run into people, especially post-1965 Filipinos, being completely unaware that we even exist.”)
Joe was born on December 4, 1925 in San Francisco to Elizabeth Pratt, a practical nurse from England and Clemente San Felipe, who immigrated from the Philippines in 1922. His early life was spent in what is today’s Japan Town in SF. The oldest of six children, he described his family as poor with the children wearing hand-me-down clothing. As Joe was walking with his siblings one day, their parish priest wondered why they were not in parochial school. When he learned the family could not afford it, he helped them get enrolled at Cathedral Presentation School at no cost. A small school, Cathedral Presentation taught students in combination classes. Joe did well academically as he listened, learned, and also absorbed subjects taught to grades above his own. Later, at prestigious Lowell High School its student body of 3000 included two blacks, many Japanese kids, and one Filipino — Joe. He made Lowell’s track team, played basketball, and continued to do well scholastically.
His social life was another matter. Not only was he the lone Filipino in school but he stood out in his hand-me-down clothes — the object of classmates snickers. On one of his rare dates, a White girl told him she couldn’t see him again because he was “different.” And when he was a paper boy he was told by a customer, “I only want my papers delivered by an American boy.” Joe was lonely at Lowell High — a loneliness that only diminished after he joined the Filipino “Mango” youth club, the Merchant Marine, and the U.S. Army.
The San Francisco Filipino Mango Athletic Club was established in 1939 — a response to America’s taboos of the times that limited social and recreational opportunities for Filipino youth. Joe — along with future Mango greats Babe Samson, Dixon Campos, Art Suguitan, and Rudy Calica — was among its earliest members. The close relationships established early on among the Mangos endured through the years. As youth, they dominated California’s Filipino American youth club basketball circuit. As young men, they served in World War II and later joined the Army Reserves as a group. As family men, they gathered together for dances, bowling and golf tournaments. As retirees, they reminisced at Filipino American Grand Reunions.
The Mangos played a major role in Joe’s decision to serve his country during World War II. As the team was playing in a basketball tournament on December 7, 1941, the game was suddenly interrupted with the announcement, “All those in uniform return to their base.” The announcement served as a clarion call for the Mangos. They joined the armed forces as if on signal. Joe joined the Merchant Marine. For the next few years, his ship was involved in the bloody battles for Guadalcanal, Saipan, New Guinea, and Guam.
After his Merchant Marine tour ended in 1944, he learned his Mango friends were undergoing basic training with the newly established U.S. Army First Filipino Infantry Regiment. Joe immediately enlisted in the army and a reunion with his old pals. American-born Filipinos comprised only a small fraction of the “First Fil.” Most of the 7,000 men in the regiment were from the Philippines. The regiment’s officers were mostly White. Due to their difficulties in communicating with Philippine-born Filipinos, officers first looked to American-born Filipinos for promotions. These Bridge Generation Filipino Americans rose quickly in rank. By the time he was 20, Joe was a platoon first sergeant.
The “First Fils” arrived in the Philippines as World War II was coming to a close. There, most of their duties consisted of mopping-up operations, excavating bodies from the Bataan Death March, and providing security for convoys. For his army service, Joe received a Bronze Star and a number of commendations. Before mustering out from active duty, Joe joined the Army Reserves. He remained with the reserves for 39 years, rising to full colonel in 1978.
Joe’s first civilian job was with a mattress company, eventually becoming the company’s Labor Relations Director. Perhaps his most important achievement at the company was marrying the office secretary, Michael Diane Wilensky — a happy 52 year marriage that produced four beautiful children. Already engaged in quasi-legal work at the company, Joe pursued a law degree. After years of night school classes, he graduated from Golden Gate University law school to become the first Bridge Generation Filipino American to pass the California State bar in 1962. Most of his successful career as an attorney was with the California State Department of Corporations, where he rose to the position of Supervisory Counsel — the highest civil service level in state government.
Joe was active in the Filipino community — helping establish the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California and writing the by-laws for the Filipino American Political Association. After his 1992 retirement, his energies went to helping organize the San Francisco Chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society, providing the keynote address at the 1997 Filipino American Grand Reunion, visiting with Mango friends, and, as the family patriarch, entertaining his eight grandchildren. RIP Joe.
Happy July Birthdays: Bob Agdoma, Rosita (Adlao) Amen, Dan Inosanto, Gilda Lum, Rudy Modelo, Loretta (Pimentel) Orpilla, Candido Oyog, Dick Supat.
Pinakbet — News Across America
Filipino American Historical Tidbits:
With her 1974 election to the Alaska House of Representatives, Democrat Thelma (Garcia) Buchholdt (1934-2007), became the first Filipino American legislator in the United States, outside of Hawaii.
Did You Know:
Congratulations to Frank Irigon of Newcastle WA! A long time social justice activist for Filipino and Asian American issues in Seattle, he was presented with the University of Washington 2022 Charles E. Odegaard Award on May 18………… Congrats also to Larry Asera of Vallejo CA! On May 12 Larry, the grandson of Filipino sakadas, was awarded the 2022 Campanile Excellence in Achievement Award from the University of California at Berkeley. He was recognized for his achievements as a “trailblazer in his career over the last 50 years as an engineer, entrepreneur, public servant, and educator”. His accomplishments are noteworthy. In 1973, at age 24, he was elected to the Vallejo City Council, the first Filipino American to rise to that position in America. At age 27, he was elected to the Solano County Board of Supervisors, becoming the first Filipino to do so in America. In 1981 he was appointed by California Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown as Deputy Secretary of State, the first pinoy to serve in a cabinet level position in the U.S. Today at age 72, he is head of Acera LLC Group, specializing in the development of renewal energy resources………… Spanning Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, the Historic Filipinotown Gateway was unveiled on May 7…………. Oops! In last month’s blog: the mass murder ten years ago should have been identified as Sandy Hook CT– not Parkland FL. Thanks, loyal reader Adele Madelo, for catching the error.
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 XXII:
In an earlier blog I was uncertain whether American-style democracy has been weakened. Based upon the following, I now believe American style democracy is indeed weakened.
- Congress is stalemated and ineffective, largely due to a 50:50 split in the Senate and its adherence to the obscure filibuster rule.
- The Supreme Court is politicized and dominated by far right justices.
- The President’s approval rating has fallen to a new low.
- Consequently, issues of great import to all Americans — especially People of Color — continue to be unaddressed, i.e.: freedom to vote legislation, civil rights protections, immigration reform, gun control, abortion rights, and climate change.
- A significant proportion of Americans believe the media is the “enemy of the people.”
- Most Americans appear to be more concerned about the high cost of gas and inflation than the weakening of American democracy.
- The ongoing House Select Committee Hearings on the January 6 failed coup continues to provide irrefutable evidence: (1) That the twice-impeached but never-convicted former president Donald Trump was at the center of the plan to prevent the transfer of presidential power; and (2) That the January 6 insurrection was an attack on American democracy.
I am not alone in my assessment of a weakened America. In its annual report on the global state of democracy, Sweden’s International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) added the United States to its list of 34 “backsliding democracies.” The report pointed to the “visible deterioration of democracy in the United States on several criteria, including unwillingness to accept credible election results, voter participation suppression efforts, increasing polarization, and declines in civil liberties.”
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