PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
By Terri Torres
It’s Filipino American History Month! And it’s time for our annual Community Recognition Awards on Oct. 21st -- this year we have five honorees (see page 2). Remember, start thinking now of who you want to nominate for next year – as always, the deadline for nominations is July 1st – anyone, even if you’re not a FANHS member, can nominate any Filipino American from our area that they deem worthy of recognition. Normally, we award 4 living honorees and one posthumous award (only because that is the amount of names we have received each time – or less) but we could honor up to ten persons in total along as space prevails – but we have to have the nominations! Sometimes, it’s like pulling teeth to get people to nominate someone – no one wants to take the time to interview a person who they feel is worthy – they want someone else to do the work. YOU do the work before it’s too late! Not only will you gain a boatload of new interesting and historical knowledge, you will likely make a new friend! Take the time to become a historian so that one day, we will have the complete history of Filipino Americans, at least in our community, but hopefully, for all of the United States.
Okay, now that the rant is over, I want to take the time to thank all our members for making this year a success! This is the last newsletter of the year, so I want to say “thanks” now. We’ve been very busy this year with our annual fundraisers for the Museum and for our chapter operating expenses and I’m very grateful for all your help and continued support! We know that a lot of you aren’t able to attend some of the events, but you still manage to show your support in many ways, and we thank you for that! And since the year isn’t over yet, we want you to continue supporting us – we have our Awards event coming up Oct. 21, UOP’s Kilusan students are planning a barrio fiesta with Rizaline Raymundo as their guest for a book signing on Oct. 27 (see page 4 for a review of Riz’s book), planning sessions for next year’s golf tournament Museum fundraiser, our monthly meetings and our Christmas party. So keep looking at your emails and snail mail for information on all of these, and I hope to see you soon!
Wow! Did we have a great time in Hawaii! I just got back from FANHS’ 11th Biennial National Conference and am very grateful for being able to go. The workshops were very educational and fun, with most of them focusing on the Sakadas, since this year marked the 100th anniversary of the first Filipinos coming to Hawaii to work in the sugar plantations. We had over 25 of our members attend with some of them making presentations, including Anita Navalta Bautista about California’s anti-miscegenation laws (reprinted in this newsletter) and Dawn Mabalon about saving Little Manila. Mel LaGasca, FANHS National Museum Chairperson, updated the National Trustees and Officers about the progress of the museum project and we were able to “pass the hat” at the Saturday night banquet and raise over $2000 for the project! The silent auction at the banquet raised over $2800 for the National FANHS Office which included some of the items our chapter donated, such as the “Adobo Powered” license plate frames, the “Filipino Plaza Manongs” drawing by Laurena Cabanero and hand-made jewelry by Mollyn Bohmen. Congratulations go out to Nena Teves Calica, one of our members, who has been newly elected to the FANHS National Board of Trustees! Check out some of the conference’s photographs in this newsletter.
Don’t forget about our upcoming events – August 19th’s “Polynesian Island Night” with special guest Guru Danny Inosanto, where we will be honoring the “Queens of Yesteryear”; the annual Barrio Fiesta on August 12th and 13th at the Filipino Plaza where we will have an information-only booth with displays, and our annual Awards Recognition event on October 21st, which will be a luncheon this year. Nominations have been pouring in and we will announce the honorees at the August 19th event, as well as in our upcoming calendar of events.
This year is already half over! We have a list of projects that we want to start and complete, one being a book about Stockton Filipino Americans, as well as cataloging and photographing what we have in our two storage units. A list of projects will be sent out to all our members after the August 5th meeting with hopes that you’ll volunteer to helm one of the projects. Take care!
By Terri Torres
Wow! This year is going by fast! At least it feels like it to me. We've been very busy planning the museum fundraiser with meetings once a week! We're really banking on all our FANHS supporters to make this a successful event - and I do mean “banking”. We're hoping to make a “huge chunk of change” for the museum fund so our dream can come true a little bit sooner. Please come out and join us!
I hope everyone's been checking out our various exhibits that we've been displaying throughout the year at different places. We owe a great big “Thank You” to Bob Cabigas, Anita Bautista and Virgie Melear for their tremendous job of getting the word out- letting people know about Filipino American history, especially to the students. Our exhibits at the local libraries have been very successful, they even ask for our displays now.
We have a lot of things planned for this year, as usual, so please make an effort to come by and say “Hi” and reacquaint yourselves with the group. And if anyone has any suggestions about themes for displays or topics for workshops to be held at our monthly meetings, please contact us, let us know, we're here to please! Our mission is to collect and tell our Filipino American history in as many ways as possible and we can't do that without your help, without your histories, or without your willingness to listen.
See you soon!
Hello Everyone! Happy New Year!
I am honored to be the chapter president again, thank you! I hope to build upon the great job that Mel has done for us the past two years. Our membership has grown, and we have more “helpers” volunteering at our events, which is always a good sign. I am back in Stockton, after almost 2 adventurous years in Kansas - everything is back to “normal” now. As always, our chapter will continue to bring the history of Filipino Americans to the community through our displays and exhibits at the various venues we have been known to attend (see page 9) and we will be focusing on the Museum project through our first annual Golf Tournament happening in May (see page 11). This is also a National FANHS Conference year and it will be held in Hawaii in June (see separate flyer). There are about 10 of our members so far that will be attending. It will prove to be very educational, since it is the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Filipinos to Hawaii, who were recruited to work the various sugar plantations as cheap labor. I know I'm looking forward to attending!
I want to thank Mel, very much, for all his hard work and dedication to our chapter and to the Museum project. He has been single-handedly making successful strides on the Museum project so much so that we are getting closer to our goal in seeing our museum built within our lifetimes. We all, and that includes all 24 chapters of FANHS, need to give him our thanks!
I look forward to seeing everyone again, and hope you all attend our regular meetings and our events.
See you soon!
Happy New Year to all of our chapter members, FANHS supporters and friends.
A special appreciation goes out to our dedicated FANHS Officers, Committee Chairpersons, active members, Tony Somera & Bahala Na Martial Arts Association and UOP Kilusan Pilipino Organization.
In 2005, our FANHS mission of educating and preserving the history/culture of Filipino Americans in the United States again was reflected in the exhibit/displays and dinners. Just to name a few: May Picnic, Fiesta Filipiniana in Hercules, 33rd Annual Barrio Fiesta at the Filipino Plaza in Stockton, the Stockton Reunion 2005, Maya Angelo Library and Cesar Chavez Library in Stockton. The August museum fundraiser with Bahala Na Martial Arts and Danny Inosanto plus the 7th Annual October Recognition Dinner was two special ways of appreciating Filipinos in our community. We also entered a FANHS Tree in the annual Festival of Trees at the San Joaquin County Historical Society Museum, Micke Grove Park, Lodi California.
This was my last year as President and again it was a very challenging, rewarding and educational two year experience. I semi-retired after 34 years with Sandia Laboratory in 2002 and started working in September 2005 for Gowan Construction on a part time basis (it pays for my golfing and community involvement). I will continue to be a member of the Stockton Chapter and support all FANHS activities. It was only fair to the busy Stockton Chapter that they had a President who could spend more quality time with chapter business. I will continue to focus on the museum project and being a National FANHS trustee.
As Chairperson of the FANHS National Museum Project I can proudly say you all have helped raise $50,000 in the Museum account. We will need several hundred thousands more to purchase a building and staff an operation. The plan is to occupy a building in the Little Manila area of Stockton, once the owner decides to sell or create a long-term lease. The Little Manila Foundation received the funding this summer to purchase the Mariposa Hotel. The task of developing the Gleason Park Project is still pending. I also made a presentation on the status of the Museum Project at the Annual Board of Trustees meeting held in Seattle in July. A key museum fundraiser for 2006, and beyond, is an annual FANHS National Museum Golf Tournament and Family Picnic, this year being held on May 13, 2006. We hope to raise $10,000 at this event.
Your special talents and skills can help our chapter achieve its goals. You all are personally invited to attend our monthly meetings, held on the first Saturday of the month at 10am, at Dameron Hospital's conference room B. Special thanks to Terri Torres for making our Newsletter and minutes available to us on the internet.
Let's all help our new officers and committee chairpersons meet the mission of FANHS in 2006 and thank you for all of your past support.