On Colonial Mentality
On Pinoys: Agency in Arts and Culture
About Florante Ibanez
Florante Peter Ibanez became involved in community activism after high school. He served as the Director of Community Services for the Associated Student Body of Cal State Dominguez Hills and joined their original Asian American Student Association. As the ASB Director of Community Services he provided draft counseling to students and in the nearby communities and at LA Draft Help, an outreach storefront near the LA Induction Center. He later worked at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center in the early 1970s and was a co-founder of the UCLA Samahang Pilipino. He was encouraged to return to school and co-founded UC Irvine’s Kababayan where he also pushed for creation of the Cross Cultural Center as part of the Third World Students Coalition.
He received his BA in Comparative Cultures from UCI in 1977. He also became an activist of the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP) who opposed the Marcos Dictatorship in the Philippines and called for social change in the U.S. While a KDP activist he served on the Chapter Executive Board and SoCal Regional Executive Board. As a KDP student organizer he led student/community delegations to the annual P/Filipino People’s Far West Conventions (FWC) and in 1977 was the elected FWC Chairperson held at UCSD.
He was also part of the volunteer student/union brigades that journeyed to Delano and built the Agbayani Village for retired United Farm Workers Union manongs. He has been an AFSCME, AFL-CIO union organizer, Kayumanggi Lions Club president, Hula dancer, computer technician, AMWAY distributor, and now a worship team musician at Light and Life Christian Fellowship West, in Long Beach, CA.
He has participated as a rider and fundraised in the California AIDS Ride in 2001, and the AIDS Life Cycle in 2007 and 2011, In 2003 he also rode on 4 islands during the 2003 Hawaii AIDS Paradise Ride raising over $5K for each AIDS ride to support patient services and research.
In 2006 he received both his Masters in Library Information Science and Masters in Asian American Studies from UCLA. Florante has worked at Loyola Law School since 1992 and presently is their Manager of Library Computer Services and Archivist. He was also an adjunct professor for Asian Pacific American Studies at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) and now Pasadena City College (PCC). He now serves on the board for the Filipino American Library. Previously he served on the Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) Board for six years and later on the Fil-Am ARTS Board for six years and currently serves on the advisory council of the Serve the People Institute. He was also appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to serve on the Calif. State Library Services Board (2014-2018) and recently reappointed to serve till 2022.
Florante is a past President of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) and represented them on the Steering Committee for the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC2012). He was selected to be an American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leader in 2007. He co-authored with his life partner, Rose Ibanez, Filipinos in Carson and the South Bay and has two daughters, a son-in-law and two grandsons (and two doggies). He was a major contributor and served as advisor to the recent 2017 Los Angeles Chinese American Museum Exhibit of Roots: Asian American Movements in Los Angeles, 1968-1980s.
Florante has also contributed articles to the following publications:
- Through the Archival Looking Glass: A Reader on Diversity and Inclusion, edited by Mary Caldera and Kathryn M Neal., 2014 SAA
- Asian American Society: An Encyclopedia, edited by Mary Yu Danico,.2014 SAGE
- Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political History, edited by Xiaojian Zhao & Edward Park,.2013 Greenwood
- Great Lives from History: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, edited by Gary Y. Okihiro., 2012 SALEM
- Florante also is a Los Angeles Community Correspondent/Photographer for the online Newspaper – INQUIRER.NET (several articles since 2013)
Florante Ibanez’s Archives
Connect to the Online Archive of California (OAC). This link takes you to the CSUDH Finding Aid of the Florante Peter Ibanez collection (Filipino/Asian/Pacific Americans) donated in 2020-2021. You can also search the OAC for other related collections, artifacts and documents in other linked institutions. Click Here