BRIDGE GENERATION NEWS

Remembrance of a BG Filipino American

(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 is a recurring feature of this blog. This month features Cecil Bonzo — wartime survivor, migratory farm worker,  Alaskero, dedicated farmer, organizer, humanitarian, corporate officer.) 

Cecil was born on June 15, 1932 in Chicago IL. At the age of two, his family moved to the Philippines. While attending grammar school, students were given a small portion of land to plant whatever they wanted. Cecil chose bok choy because he understood he would get the best yields from the leafy vegetable. It was a learning experience that would define the rest of his life!  However, World War II broke out in 1941, stranding the Filipino American family in the Philippines. His father immediately joined the Philippine Army to fight against the Japanese. With his father gone, the eldest and the only male of the Bonzo family, thirteen year old Cecil assumed responsibility for his mother and three younger sisters — Mary, Patricia, and Trudy. For the remainder of WWII, he kept his family safe by constantly moving them within the surrounding mountains and jungles to avoid being caught by the Japanese occupiers.

Unable to locate his father after the end of the war, the family moved back to the United States.  Cecil’s mother was acquainted with Rev. Maurice Legare, minister of the Trinity Presbyterian Church (Filipino) in Stockton.  Reverend Legare offered to make available several rooms above the church for the family until they were able to afford their own home.  His mother found employment.  The children all went to public schools.  Cecil attended Stockton High School where he met two students who would become his best friends — Pastor Engkabo Jr. and Jerry Paular.  Likeable and outgoing, he soon became closely associated with other young Filipinos who called him by his last name in expressions of friendship.  To help provide for his family, Cecil dropped out of school to to become a migrant farmworker — cutting asparagus, picking fruit, and harvesting vegetables in the heat of California’s Central Valley. He also toiled long hours in the frigid fish canneries of Alaska, with other Stockton BG youth Ray Paular, Pastor Engkabo Jr., Rosalio “Sleepy” Caballero, Terry Cano, Joe Oriarte and Martin “Little Kanak” Kihano.

Migratory life as a farmworker and as an Alaskero prevented Cecil from graduating from high school. During the early 1950s, however, he passed a civil service examination as an engineer surveyor — without the benefit of formal training.  He subsequently entered the corporate world — aided by his fluency in three Filipino dialects, Japanese, and Spanish.  His multi-lingual fluency was particularly helpful in obtaining employment with the Johns Manville Corporation in Stockton, where he rose to become Vice President of International Development.

In 1955, Cecil bought five acres of land in Lathrop, five miles south of Stockton, and began farming. At home and nearby fields, there was  vegetation he would tend. If anyone asked him what he did, he always proudly replied, “I’m a farmer”.  He remembered the farmers markets in the Philippines where farmers sold directly to consumers. He wanted to do the same in America. With financial backing he obtained from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Cecil organized the Stockton Certified Farmer’s Market that continues to operate today.

In the early 1970s, Cecil made his property available to newly arrived Southeast Asian refugees. He taught them how to lease land and create  livelihoods that did not require mastery of a foreign language. These indigenous Hmong people from the highlands of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam formerly made their living as self-sufficient farmers and food gatherers.  Now as farmworkers in America, they consistently generated high yields enabling the Certified Farmer’s Market to grow quickly.  The Stockton Market’s growth enabled Cecil to establish the Heart of the City Farmer’s Market in San Francisco. Farmers markets continued to grow, thanks to the Rural Economic Alternative Program (REAP) — also funded by AFSC. Cecil became the unofficial guru of farmer’s markets in towns and cities throughout California, bringing vegetable, fruit, flower and nut growers to urban residents.

Cecil was an active member in many organizations — Filipino Youth Association, Rural Economic Alternatives Project, Land Utilization Alliance, California Alliance of Family Farmers, the California and National Direct Marketing Conference, the Emergency Food Bank’s Jubilee Farm, and the San Joaquin  County Juvenile Delinquent Farm Project.  He helped found and later served as first Vice President of the Stockton Chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society.  He worked with foster children and refugees of all nationalities, and volunteered at area festivals to cook traditional Filipino food for attendees. Cecil was also active in the Trinity Presbyterian Church where he met his future wife, Betty Acoba.  They married in 1950 and raised their family of four sons in Lathrop.

Cecil passed away on May 31, 1998 at the age of 66 after a ten-month battle with cancer.  Rest in peace, Cecil!

(Acknowledgements: Manuel Bonzo, Terri Torres, Leatrice Perez, Mel Lagasca, FANHS Stockton Chapter, Positively Filipino, Stockton Record)

Happy May Birthdays:

Bernie Cantil, Jeannette (Castillano) Tiffany, Jose Fidel, Irene (Plaza) Edralin, Walter Yuponco

PINAKBET — NEWS ACROSS AMERICA

Filipino American Historical Tidbits:

In 1903 President Teddy Roosevelt dedicates a monument to Admiral George Dewey’s victory in the Battle of Manila Bay in San Francisco’s Union Square (its caption has since been updated for historical accuracy)……………  In 1930 Congress passes the Anti-Miscegenation Act making it illegal for Negroes, Mon­golians, Mulattos, and Malaysians (includes Filipinos) to marry within the white race………… On November 2004  Christopher Cabaldon becomes the first Filipino American mayor of the City of West Sacramento CA.  He is re-elected in 2006, 2010, 2012, 20114, 2016, and 2018 — the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history.

Did You Know:

On November 8 Democrat Steven Raga, a lifetime resident of the New York City Borough of Queens, became the first Filipino American elected to the New York State Assembly after his decisive victory against his Republican challenger. Raga tallied 57.84% of the votes…………… Melissa Miranda has been named one of the 11 best new chefs in America by Food & Wine magazine for her work at Musang, the acclaimed Seattle Filipino restaurant. The magazine praised her “deeply seasonal and local Filipino cooking and for making Filipino food inclusive for all dietary restrictions.”

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 XXXV: