
Reading Update: Filipinos in the East Bay
6 July 2008
Filipinos in the East Bay by Evangeline Canonizado Buell, Evelyn Luluquisen, Eleanor Hipol Luis
Wow! This book is so amazing! We just picked it up today at Books Inc. in Alameda. It’s bittersweet to see some faces of community folks who’ve since passed away, namely Helen Toribio and Ray Gatchalian.
My only criticism is that no one project is ever 100% complete, and there are obvious absences within these pages, for example, Pusod and its former staffers. Pusod was formerly based in Berkeley, and in its heyday, a bustling East Bay center of the Fil Am arts and activist scene, however short-lived it was.
Despite these absences, this project fills me with warmth; it’s a well organized compilation of historical evidence, generations of workers making families and homes here. We see the wives and descendants of Buffalo soldiers, agricultural workers, military men actively making community, claiming this place. Filipinos have been here for a long time. I look at these old pictures of Fil Am communities in Oakland, and think about how our centers seem to have moved. I see a map of Oakland Chinatown and see the Fil Am family owned businesses, community centers, and gathering spaces, and as I have worked in Oakland Chinatown for over 8 years now, I see how those have vanished.
As well, I am honored to be included in this book, as a longtime Fremont resident, now Oakland resident, and Fil Am community artist. Also in the section of artists in which I am included are writers Vangie Buell, Janet Mendoza Stickmon, Oscar Penaranda, and Aimee Suzara, vocalist Golda Supanova, blues singer Sugar Pie Desanto (my god, how hot is she!), blues musician Carlos Zialcita, the band Mahal, and musicians Ben and Joachim Luis. They include pictures of the FAA sponsored Lasa ng Jazz show which took place at the Alice Arts Center in the early-mid 1990’s (across the street from my old studio apartment), and which showcased Fil Am musicians contributions to and immersion in American jazz throughout the century. In these Lasa ng Jazz pictures we also see Rudy Tenio, Melecio Magdaluyo, Flip Nunez, et al.
There is so much in this book. I love it.





Russell Leong’s 