Bridge Generation Personality of the Month: Joey Tabaco, 77
/At the 1994 National Conference of the Filipino American National Historical Society, members of the Bridge Generation (BG) were defined as: “Children born in America by the end of 1945 to at least one Filipino parent who immigrated to the United States during the early 1900s.” For years, author Peter Jamero has profiled a member of the Bridge Generation in his monthly blog – “Peter’s Pinoy Patter.” As part of a recurring series, PF is pleased to repost his profile of a Bridge Generation Filipino/a American.
Joey Tabaco (Source: “The Ties That Bind: Filipinos in New York | Asian American Life,” CUNY-TV)
At the UN's first site at Lake Success, discrimination in housing was rampant and posed a serious problem for the hundreds of people of color (POC) delegates and staff. Parkway Village in the Borough of Queens was subsequently built to accommodate the POC delegates and staff, including the Tabaco family. Queens was then a predominantly white borough. Consequently, during Joey's growing up years, whenever he ventured outside Parkway Village into other areas of Queens, he always felt "isolated" and "had to assimilate or die.”
Later, as a teenager, he got a job at the 1964 New York World's Fair as a busboy at the Alaska Pavilion operated by Filipinos. Ironically, he found he related more easily to the native Alaskan Eskimo co-workers than with the Filipinos.
A Vietnam War veteran, Joey began a long career in weather service in 1968, flying into typhoons and hurricanes throughout the world. It began with his enlistment in the U.S. Air Force and then with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Today, in retirement, Joey continues his association with weather, working part-time as a contracted weather observer with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
In recent years Joey has become a dedicated member of the Filipino American National Historical Society, serving as a board member of the Metropolitan New York Chapter, and attending biennial national conferences. His FANHS affiliation has provided Joey with opportunities to become more aware of the Filipino experience in America and of his cultural heritage and roots. He resides with his wife, the former Jacqueline Bleza, in Lake Ronkonkoma in Long Island, an hour from New York City.
(Acknowledgements: My Baryo, My Borough Collection at the Archives at Queens Library.)
First posted in the author’s blog: peterjamero.net
Peter Jamero was born in Oakdale, California in 1930 and raised on a Filipino farm worker camp in Livingston , California. Recipient of a master’s of social work degree from UCLA, he is a trailblazer having achieved many “Filipino American Firsts” in his professional career. He is the author of Growing Up Brown: Memoirs of a Filipino American and Vanishing Filipino Americans: The Bridge Generation. Retired, he lives in Atwater, California.
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