Bridge Generation News

Personality of the Month: Mike Ancheta Nisperos, Jr., 73:

Mike first saw the light of day in McComb, Mississippi on December 22, 1949 — thought to be the first Filipino born in this Deep South community. His father, Mike Nisperos, Sr. who emigrated from San Fernando, La Union Province, Philippines in 1927,  found work in America as a restaurant worker, gambling house manager, and boxer.  His mother, Nell Marie Welch, born and raised in McComb and whose family called America home for 17 generations, left for California when Mike was small. Consequently, Mike’s formative years were spent in McComb under the nurturing care of his grandmother, Leila Welch. At six years of age, Mike was reunited with his parents in Oakland CA.

Mike’s move to Oakland marked the beginning of personal and career experiences that would bring him to the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean.  As a youth matriculating entirely within the racial makeup of Oakland’s public schools, he unexpectedly found himself as the only Filipino at Skyline High School.  He entered Merritt College at the age of 17 only to leave after a year to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968.  Several duty tours in Vietnam earned Mike a combat promotion to sergeant.  While in Vietnam he took what was called “free leave” to meet his father’s family in San Fernando, La Union Province, Philippines where he learned more about his father’s early life.  Most important to Mike — meeting his relatives reinforced his identity as a Filipino.

After receiving an honorable discharge in 1971, Mike resumed his studies.  First, earning an Associate in Arts degree at Laney College in Oakland; then receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Rhetoric at the University of California at Berkeley in 1975; and finally, getting a Juris Doctor degree at Boalt College of Law in 1978 — also at UC Berkeley.  Shortly after passing the California State Bar, Mike was introduced to the pert and pretty pinay — Eleanor Oducayen.  Eleanor was not impressed with him. Mike was wearing a sharkskin suit; Eleanor thought he was an FOB (Fresh Off the Boat)!  But Mike was not deterred. He sent her a dozen red roses.  His persistence eventually resulted in their marriage on June 16, 1973 and a family that today includes two children — Michael 27 and Marlo 24. Eleanor also became an attorney — California’s very first Filipina American lawyer.

His legal career began in 1979 as a Deputy District Attorney at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. Mike went on to serve as Chief of Military Justice and as Area Defense Counsel for the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps;  Chief Trial Counsel for the State Bar of California; Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands; and Chief Public Defender in Guam.  However, most of his career as an attorney was with the City of Oakland.  He worked as the Mayor’s Chief Policy Analyst for Public Safety, Manager of the Citizen’s Police Review Board, and Director of the Mayor’s Office of Drugs and Crime where homicides dropped from 175 to 58 in one year. “Mike understands victims’ rights, professional responsibility and ethics,” said then Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris upon Mike’s leaving the City of Oakland to direct the California State Bar’s discipline system, “because he understands both sides of the equation,” Perhaps Mike’s most significant experience as an attorney was the year and a half in private practice with the law firm of noted civil rights lawyer John L. Burris where he carried a caseload comprising of civil rights, discrimination, and police brutality. To this day, Mike continues to be grateful to Burris for his mentoring and friendship.

Mike has an extensive record of involvement with the Filipino community. He was a founding member and president of the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California; keynote speaker at the Inaugural Conference of Filipino American Lawyers of California; Chairman, Board of Directors, Bayanihan JayCees; Chairman, Board of Directors, Filipino Community of the East Bay; and President, Filipino Youth Development Council.

Life was not always a bed of roses for Mike. Early in his career he opened his own law office and tried working in real estate.  Both brief ventures were unmitigated failures.  During the late 1980s, he went through a period of alcohol and drug abuse before checking himself into a drug rehabilitation program upon admitting he was an addict, “I was an alcoholic and later used cocaine.”  After graduating from the rehabilitation program, Mike has remained clean. In the 1990s his knowledge and experiences in addiction and rehabilitation were of great value as a member of the Board of Directors, Asian American Recovery Services in San Francisco where I was its Executive Director.

Today, Mike is semi-retired while serving as a part time member of the Vallejo Civil Service Commission.  He and Eleanor reside in Vallejo where Mike spends hours on some of his favorite pastimes.  He loves to cook — particularly soul food and Filipino dishes — and regularly posts recipes on Facebook.  His unique brand of humor is also often found on Facebook. Stay clean, well, and happy in retirement, Mike!

(Credits to Wikipedia for the photo and article)

Passings:  

Cecilia (Suyat) Marshall, 94, born in Hawaii and wife of the late civil rights icon Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, on November 22 in Falls Church VA.

Happy January Birthdays:

Al Baguio, Leatrice (Bantillo) Perez, Frank Carido, Beverly (Daquioag) Ventura, Nina (Dublin) Gonzalez, Larry Flores, George Jamero

Pinakbet — News Across America

Filipino American Historical Tidbits:

In April 1939, 7,000 Filipino asparagus workers, organized as the Filipino Agricultural Laborer’s Association, waged a successful strike during the height of the asparagus season in the delta area surrounding Stockton CA.

Did You Know:

The “California is in the Heart” exhibit which opened on October 29 at the California Museum in Sacramento underlines the critical role Filipino Americans have played in the State’s history.  The exhibit highlights their influence in the Golden State from their first landing at Morro Bay in 1587, through the labor and civil rights movements of the 1960s, to current leadership in local and statewide offices. The exhibit is scheduled to run until April 9………… The talented H.E.R. (aka Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson) is the first Filipina/Black artist to play “Belle” in Beauty and the Beast, which aired on ABC-TV on December 15………… According to the National Federation of Filipino American Associations, a record number (47) of Filipinos were victorious during the November 8 midterm elections. North Carolina Congressman Bobby Scott remains the highest-ranking Filipino American elected official. In California Rob Bonta was reelected Attorney General. But the state lost its highest ranking jurist when Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Tani Cantil-Sakauye chose not to run again after 12 years in the position…………. Constance Santos, 101, a pioneering leader in the Chicago Filipino community, passed away on August 24.  She was active in the Democratic Party long before Filipinas were active in politics. Our condolences go to her daughter, Vicky Santos, of Fremont CA.

Musings

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, Part XXXI:

My November blog spoke of White Supremacy threats to multi-racial American democracy resulting from the increase in political violence. Before the month was over, however, America was again beset by violence. This time, however, violence was not political. Instead, violence was by mass gun attacks on some of the nation’s marginalized populations.

On November 19 at a LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs Co, five persons were killed by a gunman carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon.  Just three days later another gunman slayed six persons at a Walmart store in a Chesapeake VA working class neighborhood. The two shootings bring the 2022 year’s count of murders by mass shootings to 610 –the third straight year in which the U.S. mass shooting rate has exceeded 600!

Mass shootings of marginalized people have been going on for too many years. Or have we already forgotten the murders of 10 African Americans in a Buffalo NY supermarket on May 14, 2022; or the Uvalde TX school shootings of 19 Mexican American children and two teachers ten days later; or the El Paso TX murders of 10 Latino shoppers on August 2, 2019; or the 2018 Pittsburgh shooting at a Jewish synagogue that killed 11; or the Pulse gay nightclub carnage in Orlando FL that slaughtered 49 people on June 12, 2016?  Have mass shootings become normalized in America?

Breaking News:

On late evening December 22, the final report of the House Select Committee To Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol was published.  Its 845 pages concluded,  “…….. the central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed.”  The Select Committee unanimously recommended that the twice impeached former president be criminally prosecuted for his conduct relating to the insurrection and for the Justice Department to pursue four criminal charges against Trump: (1) obstruction of an official proceeding; (2) conspiracy to defraud the United States; (3) conspiracy to make a false statement; and (4) incitement, rebellion or insurrection. Also recommended were numerous legislative reforms that would prevent future attempts to interfere with the transfer of presidential power.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

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