Fil Am community celebrates Rob Bonta as CA Attorney General
Hon Rob Bonta – Episode 8
Author: cbbc
Florante Ibanez – Episode 7
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
Carol Ojeda-Kimbrough – Episode 6
On Start of US-Philippine Relations
On Filipino Manongs & Labor Organizing
About Carol Ojeda-Kimbrough
Prior to a career in teaching, Carol worked in the public sector as a field deputy and community organizer to Los Angeles City Councilmember Jackie Goldberg. In this capacity, Carol assisted neighborhood residents and organizations in addressing issues and finding solutions with stakeholder buy-ins. Carol was also instrumental in helping Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA, Inc.) purchase its home in Historic Filipinotown.
Since 2004, Prof. Ojeda-Kimbrough has taught at various colleges and universities including Occidental College (Urban and Environmental Program), California State University, Los Angeles (Dept. of Anthropology) and USC School of Social Work.
In 2008, Prof. Ojeda-Kimbrough co–chaired the Los Angeles Singgalot Committee which brought the Smithsonian Institution Travelling Exhibit, Singgalot: Filipinos – from Colonial Subjects to Citizens, to Los Angeles for a three-month exhibit at Remy’s on Temple art gallery (in Historic Filipinotown). In the same year, Prof. Ojeda-Kimbrough joined the Pasadena City College President’s Asian American Advisory Board. In 2009, Carol returned to UCLA to co-teach a Research Methods class, Redistricting and Communities of Common Interest, in preparation for the 2010 Census.
In May 2013, the UCLA Pilipino American Alumni Association presented Prof. Ojeda-Kimbrough with its Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award and in February 2014, Prof. Ojeda-Kimbrough was nominated for Outstanding Temporary Faculty for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at California State University, Fullerton.
Outside of academe, Prof. Ojeda-Kimbrough was involved in community advocacy as a member of the Los Angeles County Citizens Commission on Economy and Efficiency (1992-2002) and Commission on Public Social Services (2002-2012); as a Planning Commissioner for the City of San Gabriel (2005-2012), and as a member of the Board of Directors of the nonprofit group Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (1992-1999) and the Board of Directors of the Filipino American Library.
2019 Year End Episode
Our guest for today is author and playwright Carlene Sobrino Bonnivier. Support the Warrior project here:
Credits:
“We Wish you a Merry Christmas” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Ramon Acoymo – Episode 5
Eliseo Art Silva – Episode 4
Silva was born in Manila, Philippines, in 1972 and graduated with honors and a full scholarship from the Philippine government at the Philippine High School for the Arts. He immigrated to the United States at 17, obtained a BFA at Otis College of Art and Design with a Getty Institute Arts Internship to work as an artist at the Social and Public Art Resource Center. This led him on a journey to creating more than a hundred public art installations all over the United States. He received his MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Md., and was recognized with a Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant Program Award. He just completed multiple art components and murals for the Philippine Nationality Room at the Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh which will be dedicated on June 9,2019.
Visit Eliseo Art Arambulo Silva’s website to see his extensive work of paintings, murals, and commissioned art: https://www.eliseoartsilva.com/about
One of Eliseo Art Arambulo Silva’s murals completed in the mid 90’s right in the heart of Historic Filipinotown. https://youtu.be/e5g4TSECbqo
Eliseo Art Silva Video Presentation gat CBBC January 2019 by James Castillo
Benjamin Long – Episode 3
Cindy Domingo – Episode 2
Cindy Domingo is the daughter of long time Filipino community members, Adelina Domingo and the late, Nemesio Domingo, Sr. It was their influence and activism in the Filipino community that contributed to her own activism as well as her brothers and sisters.
Cindy Domingo has dedicated over four decades of her life as a political activist working for social change locally, nationally and internationally. In addition, Cindy has spent twenty four years as a public servant in her capacity as Chief of Staff to King County Councilmember Larry Gossett. Cindy has served on the Board of Directors of several prominent national women’s organizations including the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom as well as local organizations such as the Church Council of Greater Seattle, LELO (A Legacy of Equality, Leadership and Organizing), APALA and the International Examiner Newspaper.
As a writer and independent scholar, Cindy co-edited “A Time to Rise: Memoirs of the Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino (KDP) (Union of Democratic Filipinos), recently published by University of Washington Press. Cindy co-authored a story in the book by Mila De Guzman, Women Against Marcos, and traveled to the Philippines in February, 2016, to launch the book. She has also written articles for Filipinas Magazine, Journal of Asian American Studies and local newspapers and serves as the northwest correspondent for Inquirer.net.
Although Cindy was born in the US, she has continued to keep deep ties with the Philippines, working first in the US to end the Marcos dictatorship and continuing today advocating for peace and democracy in the Philippines. In 2013 and 2016, Cindy was part of international observers teams monitoring Philippine national elections. And in 2014-15, Cindy helped to raise $30,000 for projects in Tanuaun, Leyte in the aftermath of typhoon Haiyan. From 1981-1991, Cindy also led the Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes in their successful efforts in exposing the role of the Marcoses and the US in the murders of her brother, Silme Domingo, and his fellow union officer, Gene Viernes.
Ermena Vinluan – Episode 1
In Memoriam (July 1949 – August 2018)
KDP’s Cultural Artist and Director of Sining Bayan
Tea and Justice by Ermena Vinluan