Behind the Growing Popularity of Fil-Am Freemasonry
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Arthur Weiss, Grand Master of the California Grand Lodge, entering the hall with JP Cariaga, the incoming charter master of the newly instituted Jose Rizal Lodge. (Photo by James Sobredo)
Norm Tondares is the charter master for the newly instituted Andres Bonifacio Lodge in Gardenia, and he notes, “The demand for Masonry is still growing, especially for us Filipinos.” For Tondares, forming a new Lodge is an opportunity to “forge a new identity.” And they chose Andres Bonifacio because he is also a national hero of the Philippines. “Bonifacio is especially recognizable to Filipinos,” Tondares explains, “because his name instantly evokes a spirit of courage, of freedom of thought and patriotism. It also evokes feelings of struggle and persevere and is reminiscent of the risks that we and our parents took in coming to California.”
Norm Tondares (far right) is the charter master for the newly instituted Andres Bonifacio Lodge in Gardenia. Todares is joined by Filipino lodge members wearing their custom-tailored barongs, a tradition among Filipino Masonic members. Andres Bonifacio and Jose Rizal Lodges are among the newly instituted Filipino themed lodges in California, all of which have a majority Filipino membership. Ly Aquino (light barong), past deputy grand master of the Philippines, came to represent the Philippine Grand Lodge. (Photo by James Sobredo)
Filipino lodges allow Filipino Masons to share, practice, and embrace their culture. Among those cultural traits are the wearing of special barongs (Filipino formal wear made of delicate fibers). Cariaga explains, “We definitely will have our barong with our uniquely designed Masonic logo on it. It is our uniform that we wear on special occasions.”
Filipino Masonic lodges are also well-known for their huge and festive parties that come complete with Filipino fiesta cuisine, music, and dance. “When we throw a party, we really throw a party!” exclaims Cariaga. “It is a festival with lots of food, lechon (roast pig), music, live bands, you name it!”
Masonic members and their family serve lunch. Filipino Masonic lodges are well known for their elaborate celebrations, involving lots of Filipino food. (Photo by James Sobredo)
The excitement surrounding the new lodges is understandable and indicative of a growing influence of the fraternity. Named after famous Philippine national heroes, both lodges have almost entirely Filipino American memberships and add to the already sizeable Filipino presence in California Masonry. Today, Filipino Americans are the largest nonwhite contingent in California Masonry and represent the fastest-growing demographic within the fraternity. Asian Americans—particularly Filipinos--account for about 10 percent of overall membership, a percentage much higher than other newer members. In fact, over the last 10 years, more than 14 percent of applicants to California lodges were born in the Philippines.
As the ranks of Filipino Americans grow within the fraternity, they are making an enormous mark through commitment to the ritual, the introduction of many cultural traditions and celebrations, and an infusion of youth and energy. “Camaraderie, friendship, brotherly love,” says Thomas Chavez, secretary of San Francisco Lodge No. 120, one of nearly 20 lodges across the state with majority-Filipino memberships, explaining the fraternity’s popularity in Filipino communities. “That’s why it’s growing.”
Says Past Grand Master Martin Perry, a member of the majority-Filipino American Canyon Lodge No. 875, who in 2015 became the first sitting grand master to make an official visit to the Philippines, “Our Filipino brothers are an integral part of our fraternity. I’m proud of the diversity we have in California Freemasonry.”
That’s a sentiment echoed by Mike Ramos, the head of new lodge development for the Grand Lodge of California. “This is where we’re seeing the most growth, the most energy. Filipino Americans have really boosted Masonry in California,” he says.
The result is a revitalization in many lodges. “There’s new blood coming in, especially among the younger generation,” says Mike Tagulao, a past master of San Leandro No. 113 and a district inspector in the East Bay, who was born in Manila. The lodge is typical of California lodges where the Filipino influence has been strongest. Tagulao estimates that the lodge is 80 percent Filipino, but among active members, that figure is even higher. As new members join, they tend to bring with them their social circles into lodge events, and that brings more candidates into the fold. “We do events nearly every month—festivals, promotions, [putting notices in] the newspaper,” he says.
With each, the lodge’s presence in the largely Filipino community grows, says Chavez, who also belongs to strongly Filipino lodges American Canyon No. 875 and Crocker No. 212. “The Filipino [candidates] aren’t recruited. They come to the parties. And then they say, ‘How can I join?’”
It’s a virtuous cycle powered by friendship and cultural bonds. But the connection runs even deeper than that.
A Proud History
Ask virtually any Filipino American Mason about the fraternity’s cultural appeal and the conversation inevitably turns to Jose Rizal. For many, Rizal exemplifies the interrelatedness of Filipino Freemasonry and national pride.
Jose Rizal Lodge, institution of officers & convocation ceremony. JP Cariaga, lodge charter master, in a group photo with newly instituted members of the Lodge. Filipinos are the fastest growing Masonic membership in California. (Photo by James Sobredo)
Indeed, many of the leading figures of the Filipino fight for independence, first against the Spanish and later against the United States and Japan, were Freemasons—and today many California lodges are named in their honor. In fact, Masonry in many ways provided the security, networking, and infrastructure that helped power the anti-colonial movement. As a result, Masonry has for more than a century been strongly identified with Filipino nationalism both on the islands and, increasingly, among immigrant enclaves in the United States.
“Masonry played a big role among the Filipino revolutionaries, especially in fighting against the Spanish friars,” says Rev. Bayani Depra Rico, a member of Mission Lodge No. 169 in San Francisco and Benicia No. 858. Rev. Rico is the grand chaplain of California and the rector of Ascension Episcopal Church in Vallejo, a city with a large Filipino population. A great admirer of Filipino history, he was inspired to join the fraternity in large part because of its association with those revolutionary figures.
Chief among them is Dr. Jose Rizal, the martyred hero of Philippine independence. Rizal, a highly influential writer who advocated for the expanded rights of Filipino people, first joined the Masons in the 1880s while studying in London. Later, he moved to Spain, where a nascent movement of anti-colonialist Filipino expats was taking hold, and joined the influential Lodge La Solidaridad, a Filipino nationalist lodge in Madrid. Rizal wrote for La Solidaridad, a nationalist newspaper published by lodge members. Rizal would eventually publish two major novels that are widely credited with inspiring the Philippine revolution against Spanish rule.
“Ask virtually any Filipino American Mason about the fraternity’s cultural appeal and the conversation inevitably turns to Jose Rizal.”
By that time, Masonry already had deep roots on the islands. The first Masonic lodge in the Philippines was formed in 1762, when the British temporarily occupied Manila and formed a short-lived military lodge. Many other military and expat lodges briefly sprouted up and disbanded, virtually all of them founded by and open exclusively to Europeans. These were connected to grand lodges in Britain, France, Spain, U.S. states, and Scotland. In 1890, Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar, leaders of the reform movement in Spain, were granted authority by the Gran Oriente Español to establish a new lodge in the Philippines exclusively for Filipinos. Rizal viewed Masonry as the “universal protest against the ambition of tyrants” and as the “supreme manifestation of democracy.”
In 1892, Rizal’s Nilad Lodge No. 144 was chartered in Manila, from which a wide network of Filipino lodges, all connected to the Gran Oriente Español were born. It was in those lodges, which were driven underground by the Spanish colonial government, that many of the most celebrated revolutionary figures were raised as Masons. Chief among them was Andres Bonifacio, a member of Taliba Lodge No. 165, and founder of the Katipunan, the famous secret organization that advocated for full independence, would become part of the Philippine Revolutionary Army that battled the Spanish in 1896. Clearly inspired by Freemasonry, Bonifacio’s Katipunan borrowed heavily from the craft, adopting many Masonic symbols, rituals, and organizational structures to carry out its armed revolt.
“Masonry, or more accurately Filipino Masons, were the pioneers of the establishment of democracy in this country,” wrote Manuel Camus, an important Mason, judge, and independence figure, in 1938. “And for this many of them lost their comfort, their freedom, and their very lives.”
By 1898, the revolutionaries—then under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo, another Filipino Freemason—had negotiated a truce with Spain, but not yet secured national independence. Spain ceded the islands to the United States, leading to the American colonization of the Philippines.
It was under the U.S. colonial government that in 1901 Manila Lodge No. 342 was constituted by the Grand Lodge of California. Cavite No. 350 and Corregidor No. 386 soon followed, and in 1912, the three lodges petitioned for and were granted permission to form the Grand Lodge of the Philippines, which would perform its work in English under the California ritual. Harry Eugene Stafford was the first grand master. The early leadership of these lodges was largely Anglo-American, but membership was open to all races. (By 1936, the Philippine grand secretary reported 2,711 Filipinos in the fraternity, working alongside 1,948 Americans, and 513 Chinese.)
In 1918, the first Filipino-born Grand Master, Manuel Quezon, was installed. Quezon was a former officer in the Philippine Revolutionary Army and an aide-de-camp to Aguinaldo, As president of the senate, he would negotiate for a peaceful transition toward Philippine independence from the United States. In 1935, Quezon was elected as the first president of the Philippine Commonwealth, a transitional state before establishing full independence. As grand master, he helped unite American- and Spanish-backed lodges under the umbrella of the Grand Lodge of the Philippines.
The legacy of the American occupation on Filipino Masonry is complicated. Many of the very nationalist heroes Filipino American Masons revere today chafed under American rule. And while today Filipino American Masons point proudly to the historical bonds between the California fraternity and the Philippines, the descendants of those Spanish lodges that birthed the revolutionary movement were largely shunned in the United States. At the same time, Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. Armed Forces of the Far East during World War II and another Freemason, is seen as a hero in the Philippines for his famous “I shall return” promise after U.S. troops were driven out of the Philippines by the Japanese. In 1944, he fulfilled that promise when U.S. troops successfully landed in Leyte. MacArthur declared:
Honoring a Legacy
Today, California lodges in Sacramento (Gen. Douglas MacArthur No. 853, chartered in 2010) and San Diego (MW Manuel Luiz Quezon No. 874, chartered 2019) are named in honor of those historical figures. On April 15, Andres Bonifacio U.D. joined that list, and this summer, Jose Rizal will follow. Says JP Cariaga, charter master of the Rizal Lodge, “There is no better way to honor Freemasonry than to name our lodge after Rizal.”
The proposed Jose Rizal Lodge currently has 33 Master Masons signed up, the majority of whom are in their 30s and 40s, Cariaga says. All are Filipino American. Cariaga is also a member of Manuel Quezon No. 874, which he says shares a close connection to the new outfit. “Rod Cuevas [charter master of Manuel Quezon] and I belong to the same Masonic motorcycle club,” he says with a laugh. Filipino Freemasonry may be large and growing, but it can often feel like a small world.
For many of today’s members, the historic interrelatedness of Masonry and Filipino history spans generations. Charles P. Cross, the assistant grand lecturer for Division VI, is a member of Metropolitan No. 352, which is nearly 90 percent Filipino. Cross himself arrived in the United States in 1993 from the Philippines by way of Pohnpei, in the Federated States of Micronesia, and now works as a chief financial officer in Los Angeles. His father served in the U.S. military during World War II and participated in the Bataan Death March. “When Filipinos immigrated to the U.S., they realized their parents and uncles were also Masons,” Cross says. “They joined so they could emulate their parents and uncles.”
Charles P. Cross (middle), the assistant grand lecturer for Division VI, is a member of Metropolitan No. 352 of Los Angeles. Cross is one of the highest ranking Filipino Masonic officers in California. (Photo by James Sobredo)
When Filipinos started immigrating to the United States in the early 20th century, they came as American “nationals” who owed all the responsibilities of citizenship but had very few of its rights. Fraternal and community organization played a crucial role in the formation and growth of the Filipino American community, especially in Stockton, which had the largest Filipino community in California and the United States. Fraternal organizations like the Legionarios del Trabajo and the Caballeros de Dimas Alang—both Masonic in nature—were bedrocks of financial, cultural, and social support for Filipino communities in Stockton, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. They provided food, jobs, and housing and functioned as social and cultural centers.
While California Masonic lodges were never formally closed to Filipinos on the basis of race, the fact is that few if any Filipinos ever approached, or were ever admitted, prior to the 1960s. A 1941 Grand Lodge of California committee reported that Filipino members of so-called “clandestine” Masonic lodges in the United States were “of a much lower grade” than those of recognized lodges, and “not even acceptable Masonic timber.” It wasn’t until the 1990s that Filipinos represented a significant percentage of the state fraternity.
Filipino Masonic lodge members come from all over California to attend the institution ceremony. Masonic members from the Manuel Quezon Lodge (No. 874) in San Diego, another Filipino themed lodge pose with JP Cariaga: Rodridgo Cuevas (bottom left, tuxedo), Nathaniel Torres (top left) and Ferdinand Abella (middle, baron). They are joined by Mel Casasola (dark blue barong), past master of San Diego’s Claude Morrison Lodge (No. 747). (Photo by James Sobredo)
Marrino Berbano, longtime chaplain of Morning Star No. 19 in Stockton, has seen that transition firsthand. Berbano, now 85, joined the lodge in 1972 and recalls with fondness the Little Manila that once flourished in downtown Stockton. “I miss the old Filipino American community,” he says. He remembers the earliest Filipino members of the lodge like Toribio Rosal, a World War II veteran with the First Filipino Regiment who was featured in the PBS documentary An Untold Triumph.
Oscar Gonzales III, a Master Mason with Martinez No. 41, is also connected to the “pioneer” generation of Filipinos who came to America in the early 1900s. His grandfather, Oscar Gonzales, came to the United States from Aklan Province in the Visayan Islands. “His membership in Freemasonry really helped him survive in America,” says Gonzales, who cared for his grandfather in old age and credits him as a major life inspiration. Like Rosal, his grandfather volunteered with the First Filipino Regiment. Today, the younger Gonzales owns a private kinesiology clinic. While in college, he founded a statewide Filipino American fraternity, Chi Rho Omicron (XPO), but Freemasonry remains the foundation of his civic life. “It’s important to get all these educated Filipinos into mainstream organizations and to make good men better men.”
For others, the familial connection to Freemasonry has come as a welcome surprise. Tony Cimarra, the assistant grand lecturer for Division III, was first drawn to Masonry as a young man in Manila. “I would see these gentlemen wearing their aprons and marching in the parade for Rizal” in Luneta Park, he recalls. In 1996, while working as a manager for a major American airline company in California, he approached Sublime-Benicia No. 5. During his interview process, Cimarra was surprised to find out that members of his family back home were Masons.
A Celebration of Spirit
Today’s Filipino-inspired lodges have infused California Masonry with more than just fresh blood. They’ve added a jolt of much-needed energy and helped birth a unique Fil-Am lodge culture.
That can be seen all over the state, but especially in the blowout fiestas so many Filipino American lodges are known for. Like the Filipino Independence Day party held each June at Columbia-Brotherhood No. 370, where members and their families celebrate with traditional food, dances like the tinikling and habanera, a band of rondalla guitar players, and more food. Or at the annual interlodge fellowship party Sir Francis Drake No. 376 hosts the night before Annual Communication, a party that often draws visitors from the Grand Lodge of the Philippines. Or at the Filipinana celebration hosted each year by members of Anacapa No. 710, a lodge comprised almost entirely of current and retired Filipino American Navy men stationed at Port Hueneme and Point Mugu.
It can be seen in the lodge-specific barong Tagalog worn by many Filipino American members for formal events, a sheer dress shirt embroidered with Masonic flourishes. (Lodge barongs come in many colors and designs, from light blue to black, gold, and violet, among others.) “There is a strong fraternal connection for Filipinos,” says Emmanuel “Emix” Dial, master of Torrance University No. 394, who immigrated to the United States at age four. “There are always lots of activities. It’s like a family environment.”
That’s a common sentiment shared among many Filipino American members. “When you join Masonry, you can feel you’re home right away,” says Alfredo Dumaop, secretary for Anacapa No. 710. He invokes the Tagalog phrase matulungin, or helpfulness. “That’s what hospitality is all about. It becomes your second home—your natural environment.”
Mike Tagulao, an inspector for District 305 and a past master of San Leandro No. 113, puts it succinctly and eloquently. “We just genuinely care for each other,” he says.
*Reprinted with permission from the California Freemason Magazine, June 2020: https://californiafreemason.org/2021/06/02/a-second-home/
James Sobredo, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of Ethnic Studies at Sacramento State University, where he specialized in Filipino American history. He is also a journalist and documentary photographer.
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