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.

Francey Lim Youngberg, Public Policy and Public Affairs

Youngberg was recently appointed by the Biden administration as Assistant Director for the Office of Partnership and Engagement for ICE. She leads a team of state and local government, law enforcement, advocates, and other key ICE stakeholders to increase local and national awareness of ICE’s mission, while building relationships and fostering trust in the communities it serves. Previously, she was an appointee under the Obama Administration where she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Engagement and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Prior to HUD, she helped clients in cultural competency, merchant and community outreach, minority recruitment, language access needs, and fundraising for ten years. She was also a tax attorney in Philadelphia and a regulatory attorney for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. She left the legal practice to serve as the founding Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies in 1996, and that same year, she was named one of the 15 Washingtonians of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine. Youngberg graduated from Wellesley College magna cum laude and Harvard Law School. She was born in the Philippines.

Dr. Mark Anthony Lomibao Gonzalgo, Urologist

Dr. Mark Anthony Lomibao Gonzalgo (Source: University of Miami)

Gonzalgo is a Urology Specialist in Miami, Florida and is affiliated with the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, and took his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and a Graduate Certificate – Business of Medicine from The Johns Hopkins University, Carey Business School. From 2009 – 2013, he was at the Stanford University Medical Center as Director, Robotic-Assisted Urological Cancer Surgery and later on as Physician Leader, Urologic Cancer Care Program. He also taught Urology at Stanford during that time. Gonzalgo is a recognized expert in DNA methylation and is interested in developing new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for cancer detection and treatment. He has carried out pioneering research on the molecular biology and early detection of prostate, bladder, and kidney cancer and has published extensively on the scientific and clinical aspects of these diseases. He has been recognized as a Top Doctor by U.S. News & World Report.

Lane Wilcken, Tattoo Artist

Wilcken’s mother is from the Philippines and his father is of English and Scandinavian descent. He is a scholar, cultural tattoo practitioner, and an advocate for the critically endangered practice of pambabatok, a local practice of tattooing in the Philippines. He also has studied other related indigenous traditions of the Philippines and greater Pacific with over three decades of research and experience. A film on Wilcken, The Modern Mambabatok, chronicles the resurgence of hand-tap tattooing that is used to express Filipino and Filipino American identity today. “His interest in cultural tattooing was borne out of a desire to strengthen cultural pride among Filipinos and to reunite them and Pacific Islanders symbolically and spiritually with their estranged ancestors.” He is the author of Filipino Tattoos Ancient to Modern and The Forgotten Children of Maui. He is also a contributing writer for Back from the Crocodile's Belly: Philippine Babaylan Studies and the Struggle for Indigenous Memory and Shamanic Transformations: True Stories of the Moment of Awakening, as well as several articles for various magazines and journals. Wilcken lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Carlene Sobrino Bonniver, Writer

Conceived in Baguio City, Philippines, Bonniver’s mother, Marciana was eight months pregnant when she and her husband, Gerhard Gustav Bonniver, arrived in Los Angeles, California. However, just two weeks after their arrival, Gerhard passed away from leukemia. Carlene and her family grew up in Filipinotown in Los Angeles. At 17, she left Los Angeles to live with her aunt in Washington, D.C. There she found work as a White House administrative assistant and, volunteering for the Peace Corps and Teacher Corps, traveled to 40 countries. But she always returned to Filipinotown. Bonniver has taught writing for many years and has traveled extensively throughout Asia as a journalist. Among her books include Seeking Thirst and Autobiography of a Stranger. In 2010, she began a series of workshops in Los Angeles with Gerald Gubatan and Gregory Villanueva, gathering stories from the residents of Filipinotown. The result is an anthology, Filipinotown: Voices from Los Angeles published in 2014. Her latest work in 2018 was producing and writing the script and lyrics for Warrior – The Musical, on the struggle of the manongs against eviction from the International Hotel in San Francisco.

Kirby Pabalan-Tayag Araullo, Culture Bearer

Araullo is a renowned Filipino culture bearer and currently National Coordinator for Culture and Heritage for NAFCON. He is Datu and Lakan by blood, a direct descendant of the last Paramount Kings of Luzon. He is also a direct descendant of the anti-colonial revolutionary Katipuneros who fought for the liberation of the Philippines from colonialism. Datu Kirby's upbringing exposes him to contradicting worlds of traditional politics and grassroots activism. He is co-founder of the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies at University of California, Davis, and has been teaching Filipino history and writing in indigenous Philippine scripts for over a decade. An alumnus of UC Davis, he has also started his graduate studies in history at Harvard University, and in International Human Rights Law at Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. He is a visiting professor at various colleges in the Philippines and research fellow with Sinupan Singsing, a publicly funded institute for indigenous advocacy and study of Kapampangan language, history, and culture. Datu Kirby is well-rooted in his culture and passionate about his heritage; he strives to decolonize Philippine history and democratize Ethnic Studies through knowledge and play. Kirby is the author of the new book Black Lives & Brown Freedom: Untold Histories of War, Solidarity & Genocide.

Jomar Tagatac, Stage Actor

Tagatac earned a BA in Theater at San Diego State University and an MFA at American Conservatory Theater. He has appeared in numerous productions including Jesus in India, The Happy Ones, Every Five Minutes, Dogeaters, War of the Roses, As You Like It, and Life is a Dream. His latest performance in Hold These Truths as Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese American who defied the incarceration of Japanese Americans by breaking the curfew and refusing induction to military service, is done “with sweet depth and comic turns as he encounters, picaresque-like, a broad swath of humanity across the vast spectrum of WWII-era America. It’s a moving masterclass of live, in-person performance with teeth made sharp by its relevance today,” as one critic noted. He is a recipient of a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Principal Actor in a Play, and a TBA Award for Outstanding Performance in a Featured Role.

Maryles Casto, Businesswoman

A former Philippine Airlines flight attendant, Casto founded and led Silicon Valley-based Casto Travel for 47 years, the largest privately owned travel management agency on the West Coast. Casto Travel was ranked among the Top 100 Fastest Growing Businesses in Silicon Valley and San Francisco and was ranked second in revenues among Silicon Valley women-owned businesses by the Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2006. In 2019, she sold the company to Flight Centre Travel Group of Australia. She is also the founder and owner of Casto Travel Philippines, Inc. and CEO of MVC Solutions, which provides travel industry businesses with back-office support, accounting, and other services. She established the Casto University, a comprehensive training program for upcoming travel professionals where they can learn geography, the airline computer system, travel agency responsibilities while developing Casto-level customer care skills. In November 2021 her autobiography, A Hole in the Clouds, will be available. The “hole” refers to looking for opportunities, a lesson her father taught her while she was growing up in Bacolod, Philippines.

Isabel Sandoval, Filmmaker

Born in Cebu City, Philippines and graduating summa cum laude from the University of San Carlos, Sandoval moved to New York City and earned an MBA at New York University’s Stern School of Business. In 2011, she directed Senorita where she played the film’s protagonist. Although she was not out as trans at the time, the role helped her realized her identity. In 2012, she directed Aparisyon and in 2019, Lingua Franca. In the latter film, she plays an undocumented Filipino trans woman who falls in love with the adult grandson of an elderly woman for whom she is working as a caregiver. The film won the beat narrative feature at the Bentonville Film Festival and streamed on Netflix. She was also named Best Actress at the 18th International Cinephile Society Awards and at the Pacific Meridian International Film Festival. She is developing a drama for FX, Vespertine and a film, Tropical Gothic, about the haunting of a Spanish conquistador in the 16th century Philippines. Tropical Gothic won the VFF talent highlight award at the Berlinale, worth 10,000 euros towards its production.

Marc Anthony Nicolas, Producer

Marc Anthony Nicolas (Source: Alba Productions)

Nicolas is a consulting producer of the daytime talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show on NBC. The two-time Emmy Award-winning producer has extensive television credits with over 15 years of experience producing shows like The Talk on CBS, The Tyra Banks Show and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. In 2019, he was inducted into The Asian Hall of Fame and recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential Filipino Americans 2020. Before he became successful in the entertainment industry, Nicolas supported himself by working various jobs such as a pharmacy tech at Kaiser Hospital and working at Olive Garden and BJ’s Restaurant as a cocktail server. He was born in Manila to Teresita Rodrigo Nicolas from Pasig and Marianito Nicolas from Sampaloc.

Jay Espano, Artistic Director, PrideArts

Espano is the new artistic director of PrideArts, an organization that tells queer stories on a variety of platforms including live and virtual performances in Chicago. He was trained in the Philippines and Singapore in international theater and has performed throughout Southeast Asia. Espano says, "My goal is to continue PrideArts' tradition of telling a diversity of queer community stories that not only entertain, but also encourage the audience to reflect on their own views, beliefs and biases. It's particularly exciting for me to be an artistic director in this moment as we return from the COVID pandemic. This is the perfect opportunity to try on new ideas, with the understanding that as we try new ideas, we will be having some successes and making missteps as we move forward. And that's all part of change and we'll just have to learn from it." Born in Manila, Philippines to a photographer and small shop owner, Jay started his career at the age of 17. He apprenticed as an actor and dabbled in production work such as stage management, sound design, set building, prop making, and assistant directing. He also assisted in the summer theater programs of various theater companies — responsibilities which eventually led him to teach summer camp every year. He joined the prestigious Tanghalang Pilipino's Actors Company in 1998, where he trained with acclaimed Filipino director Nonon Padilla. It was there he realized his vision for a theater acting career. Espano moved to Chicago in 2008 and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at Columbia College in 2016.

Source: Google and Wikipedia

The Magazine

Fil-Ams Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 28