Bridge Generation News

Personality of the Month, Benjamin J. Cayetano, 85: 

Most Americans know Benjamin Cayetano as the fifth governor of the State of Hawaii who served two terms from 1994 through 2002. Filipino Americans  proudly know him as the first pinoy to serve as a state governor in the United States.

One would assume a person occupying a lofty position would come from wealth or at least a middle-class background.  Not so. Born on November 16, 1939 in Honolulu, Ben grew up in the city’s hardscrabble, tough, Filipino enclave in the Kalihi neighborhood. His mother, Eleanor Infante, left the family when he was six leaving his step-father, Bonifacio Cayetano, to raise him and his half-brother Brandon. His biological father he only knew as Jerry never made an effort to spend time with him nor got to know him. All of this toughened Ben and helped shape his straight-forward, no-nonsense style when he later became a Hawaii state legislator and governor. 

Ben attended Farrington High School where he received poor grades and barely graduated. Soon after high school graduation, he married Lorraine Gueco, his high school sweetheart.  He worked in a variety of entry-level jobs — metal packer in a junkyard, truck driver, apprentice electrician, and draftsman. But Ben always wanted to pursue a college education. A twist of fate gave him the opportunity. After winning a considerable amount of money in a football pool, it was enough to take his wife and Brandon to Los Angeles. There, he graduated from UCLA in 1968, majoring in political science and minoring in American history. He received a Juris Doctorate degree from LA’s Loyola Marymount University in 1971.  But Ben returned to Hawaii alone. As his own mother did years earlier, his wife Lorraine also left her family.  

Not long after Ben began private practice, he was appointed by then Hawaii Governor John A. Burns to the Hawaii Housing Authority. Noting Ben’s leadership skills, the governor encouraged him to run for the Hawaii State Legislature. Thus began his whirlwind ascent into the state’s politics. In 1974, he was elected to the State House as a Democrat representing Pearl City, followed by his election to the State Senate in 1978. In 1986 he joined the John D. Waihee III gubernatorial ticket becoming the first Filipino American lieutenant governor in the U.S.  The Waihee-Cayetano team was re-elected to a second term in 1990.  

It was as Lieutenant Governor Cayetano when he experienced perhaps his greatest achievement in public office – a first-of-a-kind after-school program for elementary school latchkey children that he dubbed the A-Plus Program. Despite massive opposition from the teacher’s union, the program proved to be hugely successful, serving 20,000 children in its first year and becoming a model for other states to emulate.

As Governor Cayetano he went on to serve two terms with Mazie Hirano (today’s U.S. Senator) serving as lieutenant governor. While he improved the state’s education system and was a strong supporter of addiction programs, his tenure as governor was marred by economic uncertainty, declining tax revenues, and budget shortfalls. On May 5, 1997, he married Vicky Tui, born of Chinese immigrants in Manila, Philippines. He now had a blended family of five children — his three children and Vicky’s two.

Today in retirement Cayetano spends most of his time serving on community boards of directors and catching up with a houseful of books. He always makes time to chat about his days in elected office.  In a 2009 television interview on PBS Hawaii, he talked with disdain of how elected officials today are so unlike those of his day —  attributing the difference to life experiences.  According to Cayetano, his former colleagues, such as the late U.S. Senator Daniel Inoyue, “went through hard times and had gone to war.” On the other hand, he said today’s elected officials were “former staff members of a Senator or a Representative and decided to make politics a career.”  It is indeed refreshing the former governor of Hawaii continues to favor the straight forward, no-nonsense style he used so well as an elected official. (References: Cayetano, Benjamin J. (2009). Ben: A Memoir, from Street Kid to Governor. Watermark Publishing.)

Book Becomes Music: The San Francisco Girls Chorus concluded its season on June 22-25 at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre, with the world premiere of Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary. The musical performance was based on the book Tomorrow’s Memories, A Diary, 1924-1928, the writings of Filipina immigrant Angeles Monrayo as edited by her Bridge Generation daughter Rizaline Raymundo. The musical reflects on  the Manong/Manang Generation’s early experiences in Hawaii and California.

Happy August Birthdays:  Terry (Cataab) Bautista, Vangie (Canonizado) Buell, Beverley (Cabalar) DeToro, Richard Gacer, Herb Jamero, Mike Nisperos, Tony Ogilvie, Aurie (Omania) Kearns, Nemisio Paredes, Roni (Roslinda) Calibjo

Pinakbet — News Across America

Filipino American Historical Tidbits:

In 1993 Apolinar Sangalang, the former Mayor and City Councilman of Lathrop CA had the distinction of being the first Filipino mayor in the United States.  In 2006 Sangalang, a Bataan Death March survivor, also had a park named after him by grateful city residents.

Did You Know:

On May 19 U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced that a yet to be built guided-missile destroyer will be named USS Telesforo Trinidad (DDS-139).  The designation honors the bravery and heroism of Fireman Second Class Telesforo De La Cruz Trinidad, while aboard the battleship USS San Diego in 1915.  The only Filipino and Asian American in the U.S. Navy to receive the Medal of Honor, he was cited for his heroic act of saving two shipmates during two boiler explosions on the battleship………… After dining there with my family on June 24, I highly recommend the Musang Restaurant located in the pan Asian neighborhood of Beacon Hill in Seattle. Named by “Seattle Metropolitan Magazine” in 2020 as Restaurant of the Year, its menu consists of Filipino dishes with a Pacific Northwest flair. Its pinakbet, short rib kare kare and sarciadong rainbow trout are particularly recommended.   Owner-chef Melissa Miranda deserves all the praise heaped on the restaurant since its opening in 2017…………. Readers may recall that Stockton native Flora (Arca) Mata was honored of having a school posthumously named after her in 2019 — only the second school in California named after a Filipino.  Patricia (Billedo) Mata, the wife of Aaron Mata, Flora’s grandson, was recently named as the new principal of the Flora Arca Mata Elementary school. Incidentally, grandson Aaron is also a Stockton Unified School District principal………… I was saddened by the May 3 death of Japanese American Norm Mineta, 90. In 1953 when I was 22 and a struggling college student, I took his place on a summer job with a San Jose packing house after he was drafted into the U.S. Army. Decades later when he was in Washington, D.C. and I was in San Francisco, we collaborated in funding Filipino/Asian American addiction programs. The first Asian American mayor of a major U.S. city, Norm had an international airport named after him and served in cabinet-level positions under the administrations of Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush………… Jollibee, the popular Filipino international chain of fast-food restaurants, is in 63 locations in America. The first U.S. franchise was in Daly City CA.

Musings

House Select Committee Hearings Investigating the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol: 

Like millions of other Americans, I have been glued to my television watching all eight episodes of the January 6 hearings. The testimony, documentation, graphics, and presentation of the hearings all produced riveting real life television drama rivaling that of fictional TV.  But most important, the hearings provided strong evidence of the central role that the twice-impeached, election sore-loser, former president played in organizing and directing the unsuccessful coup by violent insurrectionists. Why? So, he could remain in office; no matter what it took — legal or not. 

The hearings also provided my most frightening moments.  As I reflected on what I saw, I realized American constitutional democracy came very close to being forever lost on January 6, 2021.  What if Trump was more strategic instead of an impulsive-prone egotist?  What if White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson hadn’t testified on what really happened?  What if the armed insurrectionists began shooting police? What if former Vice President Mike Pence didn’t follow his Constitutional duty and declared Joe Biden’s election illegal?   

America dodged a bullet – but just barely. The hearings showed that American democracy is fragile and continues to be susceptible to the ambitions of a power-hungry demagogue. The following post in the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. is a stark reminder of America’s vulnerability: 

Early Signs of Fascism: Powerful and continuing nationalism, disdain for human rights, identification of enemies as a unifying cause, supremacy of the military, rampant sexism, controlled mass media, obsession with national security, religion and government intertwined, corporate power protected, labor power suppressed, disdain for intellectuals and the arts, obsession with crime and punishment, rampant cronyism and corruption, fraudulent elections. 

And to confirm America’s current vulnerability: In its annual report on the global state of democracy, Sweden’s respected International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance added the United States to its list of “backsliding democracies” joining such countries as Colombia, the Philippines, and Myanmar.  

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