Filipino Pioneers in DC: Stories from the Calabia Family with Tino Calabia

Filipino Pioneers in DC welcoming the Philippine Independence Delegation led by future Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon, 1933. Photo courtesy of Tino Calabia.

THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2021
7:30 pm-8:30 pm EST
LIVE via ZOOM

Featured Speaker
TINO CALABIA

We invite you to a presentation "Filipino Pioneers in DC: Stories from the Calabia Family with Tino Calabia," part of 2021 Istorya DC, a series on Filipinos in Washington D.C.

Florentine Calabia served as submariner in the U.S. Navy in World War I and arrived in the U.S. right after. He lived in different places until he settled in DC in the early 1930s. Nestora Monfero was a school teacher in the Philippines before she married Florentine. She served as an auditor at the U.S. General Accounting Office for many years and was the first President of the Filipino Women's Club in DC. The Club organized community-centered activities, benefit events in honor of Filipinos serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, and helped shape positive perspectives about Asian-Americans.

In the photograph above, Florentine and Nestora are shown with other Filipinos in D.C. welcoming the Philippine Independence Delegation - Florentine (standing with arms-folded, 4th from the left) and Nestora (second to the right of future President Manuel Quezon who led the delegation).

Speaker Tino Calabia, writer-editor and policy analyst, is son of Florentine and Nestora. Tino Calabia has an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and master’s degree in English and American literature from Columbia University. He will share stories of the Florentine Calabia family in this Istorya DC program.

To join this live program, please register at https://calabia.eventbrite.com/
ISTORYA DC ONLINE is co-sponsored by Philippines on the Potomac (POPDC), the RMC Foundation, Sentro Rizal Washington DC and the US-Philippines Society.