Filipinos have been in the United States since the 16th century, yet many of their stories remain untold. For the past months, Positively Filipino has been running a series on notable Filipino Americans who have made their marks in this country. There are hundreds, or maybe even thousands more, that need to be added to this story, and we need your help. If you know of a Filipino American who deserves to be included in this line-up, please send us their names and any supporting documents you may have to pfpublisher@yahoo.com. For now, we are including only those who are currently active and visible in the media and the community, regardless of their religious, sexual or political orientation. Thank you.

Jorge Ortoll, Former Executive Director of Ma-Yi Theater Company

Ortoll was the executive director for Ma-Yi Theater Company, a non-profit theater company based in New York City, from 1991 up to his retirement a few years ago. He produced all the company’s productions and oversaw the steady growth and respect in the industry and the communities it serves. He believed that the bedrocks of longevity for an arts organization, besides artistic excellence, include fiscal responsibility and responsiveness to the communities to which it is important. He holds an M.B.A. degree from Columbia University. He worked as a junior executive at Citibank in Manila, where he is from originally. The theater’s first productions were Filipino and Filipino American plays and adaptations, but it later on expanded its mission to include works by non-Filipino, Asian American writers. Some of Ma-Yi’s productions include Sides: The Fear is Real, The Romance of Magno Rubio (Obie Award), No Foreigners Beyond This Point (Drama Desk nomination) and Trial by Water.

Roxanne Paredes, Writer and Producer

Paredes bagged the prestigious Creative Arts Emmy in the 72nd virtual Emmy Awards for her work on Season 4 of the popular American series, Mr. Robot, under the category of Outstanding Interactive Extension of a Linear Program last September 2020. She grew up in the Philippines, attended Woodrose Academy and moved to the U.S. for college. She previously worked for Pixar as a technical artist before going to Hollywood. She wants to let Filipinos know that “there is space for them in Hollywood.”

Jenifer K. Wofford, Artist and Educator

Jenifer Wofford (Source: Asian Art Museum)

Wofford is a San Francisco-based artist and educator whose work “plays with notions of hybridity, authenticity and global culture, often with a humorous bent.” She is also 1/3 of the Filipino American artist trio, M.O.B. (Mail Order Brides), with Reanne Estrada and Eliza Barrios. She is a 2017 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. She is a part-time faculty member in Fine Arts and Philippine Studies at the University of San Francisco. She also taught at UC Berkeley, Mills College, the San Francisco Art Institute, California College of Arts and San Francisco State University. She is the curator of Galleon Trade, an international art exchange between California, Mexico and the Philippines. She has been awarded artist-in-residence stays in France, the Philippines, Italy, Denmark and Norway.

Florante Aguilar, Classical Musician

Florante Aguilar (Photo courtesy of Florante Aguilar)

Born in Manila, Aguilar grew up in Cavite province where he learned to play the octavina in a rondalla group. By 16, he was enrolled at the University of the Philippines College of Music where he was trained as a classical musician. With a scholarship, he studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory for Music. His constant search for a tradition-based contemporary Filipino sound led him to champion harana music – songs used in the now-vanished Filipino courtship ritual of serenading, and the subject of the award-winning 2012 documentary, Harana: The Search for the Lost Art of Serenade, which he wrote and produced. Aguilar is a recipient of Gerbode Composition Awards (2016), National Endowment for the Arts (2014), San Francisco Arts Commission (2009), and San Francisco Foundation (2010).

Dr. Connie Mariano, Rear Admiral

Dr. Connie Mariano (Source: NY Daily News/Photo by Silvio Rone)

Born in Sangley Point, Philippines as the eldest daughter of a career Navy serviceman, Mariano’s family moved to Hawaii when she was two years old. She graduated valedictorian from Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach, California. She received her medical degree from the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. She was commissioned as lieutenant in the U.S. Navy upon graduation. In 1992, Mariano became the first military woman in American history to be appointed White House Physician. She served nine years at the White House where she was physician to three sitting American presidents. She retired from the Navy in 2001 with the rank of Rear Admiral, becoming the first Filipino American in history to become a Navy Admiral. In 2005, she founded the Center for Executive Medicine, a medical concierge practice that provides presidential-quality medical care to CEOs and their families. She is a frequent guest speaker on television and print media on the topics of care to VIPs, presidential disability, travel medicine and optimizing quality of care.

Aurora Austriaco, Lawyer

Aurora Austriaco (Source: vablawfirm.com)

Austriaco is a shareholder in the Valentine Austriaco and Bueschel P.C., an all women owned law firm concentrating in the areas of commercial and business litigation, and real estate. She is also the Commissioner for the Illinois Courts Commission and is on her 12th year as Chair of the Cook County State’s Attorney Asian Advisory Council. She is the immediate past president of the Chicago Bar Association, and was named Super Lawyer-Real Estate, one of the Top 10 Women Consumer Attorneys by Leading Lawyers, one of the Top 10 Women Lawyers in Real Estate, Today’s Chicago Woman “100 Women of Influence in Chicago” and “100 Women Making a Difference,” and in 2019 Chicago United’s “50 Business Leaders of Color.” She received her Juris Doctor from De Paul University School of Law.

Allan Camaisa, Serial Entrepreneur

Camaisa is the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Calidi Biotherapeutics, a company that wants to bring a cure for difficult-to-treat cancers to market. The company signed a collaboration agreement with the National Institute of Health. Silicon Review Magazine named Calidi one of the “50 Most Trustworthy Companies of the year 2019.” Before Calidi, Camaisa was CEO of Parallel6, Inc, a digital mobile/cloud software platform for managing pharmaceutical patient clinical trials, which he sold in 2017 to PRA Health Sciences. He also founded Anakam, Inc., a software security company, focused on healthcare, which safeguarded digital medical records. Anakam was recognized by Inc. 500 as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. The company was acquired by Equifax in 2010. Another company, High Technology Solutions grew from two people to more than 500 employees and $50 million in revenues, and was sold to Wireless Facilities, Inc. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Camaisa served eight years as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy. He currently owns seven U.S. patents and has received numerous awards including the Deloitte FAST 50, the Governor’s Small Business of the Year Award, and the Ernst and Young Regional Entrepreneur of the Year.

Elda Rotor, Publisher

Rotor is the Vice President and Publisher of Penguin Classics at Penguin Random House. She oversees the U.S. editorial program and the works of authors including Keith Haring, John Steinbeck, Dorothy Parker among others. She has published editions of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo by Jose Rizal, and Doveglion: Collected Poems by Jose Garcia Villa. She has also edited, produced and recorded the Penguin Classics app Poems by Heart, chosen by Apple as one of the Best Apps of 2013. Rotor worked previously at Oxford University Press and serves on the Advisory Board of Kundiman. At a recent tour of the Philippines, Rotor says, “Having the opportunity to speak with local publishers, educators, students, writers and book lovers in the Philippines was an enriching experience, both professionally and personally, The warm welcome for Penguin Classics was great from both new readers and devoted Classics enthusiasts, some of whom are the best collectors of our books out there.” While in Manila, she also launched a new Penguin classics High School Essay Contest in partnership with National Bookstore.

Josephine Santiago-Bond, NASA Engineer

Josephine Santiago-Bond (Source: Twitter)

Santiago-Bond is the head of NASA’s Advanced Engineering Development Branch where she oversees a team of 21 engineers and interns. She came from a family of scientists and is the youngest member in a family of doctors. She graduated from the University of the Philippines with an Electronics & Communications Engineering degree and a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from South Dakota State University. Despite having problems with Math, she was determined not to give up on her degree. She had an opportunity to spend time at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and she gained a passion and love for its surroundings. “I fell in love with the passion of the people that I briefly worked with, and the exciting mission of the agency.” In NASA, she contributed to projects including a lunar exploration mission called Regolith and the tail-end of the Space Shuttle program. Women make up only a third of NASA’s workforce, and Santiago-Bond is one of them.

Christopher Cabaldon, Mayor of West Sacramento, California

Mayor Christopher Cabaldon (Source: cabaldon.org)

Cabaldon became the first Filipino American mayor directly elected by West Sacramento voters in November 2004; he was re-elected in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018. The Sacramento Bee says that “under his leadership, the City has become one of the municipal stars of the region.” He is currently chair of the Jobs, Education and Workforce Committee with the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He earned his B.S. in environmental economics from UC Berkeley and a Master of Public Policy and Administration degree from CSU Sacramento, where he received the Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2006, in his State of the City speech, Cabaldon told his constituents that he was gay. West Sacramento was the first city in its region to launch an app that maps homeless encampments; the city launched Kids’ Home Run to better align the local education system with workforce needs; and its own on-demand rideshare service run by a private company that allows residents to get anywhere in the city for $3.50. In 2015, President Obama appointed Cabaldon to the National Advisory Board for America’s College Promise.

The Magazine

Fil-Ams Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 12