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.

Aurora Almendral, Journalist

Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Almendral graduated magna cum laude in economics and anthropology at Hunter College. She was a Fulbright scholar to Spain and Morocco. She is currently a contributing writer for The New York Times and National Geographic Magazine and a producer-reporter for NBC News. She has also worked on assignment for FRONTLINE PBS, The Nikkei Asian Review, BBC World Service, NPR and VICE news. In addition to English and Filipino, she speaks Spanish, Moroccan, Arabic and French. Some of the stories she has covered include: loneliness in Tokyo; the new far right in Texas and Florida; Ethiopian domestic workers in Lebanon; camels and poetry in Somalia; terrorism in Sri Lanka; hope and despair on the US-Mexico border; suicide in Thailand; the violent drug war in the Philippines. She has received numerous awards including the Human Rights Press Award for explanatory feature writing in 2020 and 2021, Overseas Press Club of America Award for international reporting in 2018, Pictures of the Year International Award for documentary journalism in 2018, Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for audio news documentary in 2017, among others.

Yumi Prentice, Advertising Executive

Yumi Prentice was born in Hong Kong to a Filipino father and Japanese mother, and grew up in Hong Kong, Manila and Tokyo. While living in Manila during martial law, she was exposed to the highs and lows of the human condition and the massive gap between the rich and poor, and felt compelled to take up humanitarian causes. Her first intern job was with the United Nations in Manila. Back in Hong Kong, she got a job at Grey.

In 2017 Prentice became the President and Managing Partner at David & Goliath, a position she still holds today. She has worked at Grey Hong Kong, Grey San Francisco, JWT Singapore and T3 San Francisco. She has overseen global, regional and national initiatives for brands such as Microsoft, Nokia, Schwab and Unilever. She was also the founder/principal of Silicon Valley-based Manila Envelope Consulting, helping start-up and Fortune 500 leaders define their organizations’ brand, messaging and market strategies.

She is an advocate for women and minorities and feels strongly about elevating them to the next generation of leaders. She is a Founding Member of Chief, a private network built to drive more women into positions of power and keep them there. In an interview with Thrive Global, she said, “It’s important for women in positions of influence to make sure that they recognize other people in the room whose contributions might be overlooked, whose ideas may be ignored, whose voices are being drowned out. We’re in the system so we can improve it, not conform to it. We need to help each other, not compete with each other, so we can all bring our best forward. And doing this requires both the ability to ask for help, and to give it.”

Marc De La Cruz, Broadway Actor

Marc De La Cruz (Source: The Broadway Blog)

Last January 18, 2019 De La Cruz became the first Asian American and Filipino American to play Alexander Hamilton on Broadway. His debut in Broadway was in the musical If/Then which starred Idina Menzel. Born in the Big Island, Hawaii, his Filipino father came to the U.S. at 10 years old, and later moved to Seattle with the family. De La Cruz says he secretly harbored his passion for acting and made the jump to New York City to try his luck. Other productions he has appeared in include Miss Saigon, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Allegiance. His main assignment in Hamilton was to be in the ensemble and to perform three characters: Philip Schuyler, James Reynold and the Doctor, and the understudy for Alexander Hamilton. In his Facebook post, He says, “Thank you to the Asian and Filipino/Fil-Am communities for your words of support and cheer. It’s an honor to represent my communities in any way big or small. Since joining Hamilton I’ve witnessed the power of this show to bring people together in a positive, uplifting way. I’m so happy to have any kind of part in that.”

Jimmy Alapag, Professional Basketball Player

Jimmy Alapag at NBA Summer League (Source: Rappler)

Alapag’s parents hail from Leyte, but they raised their family in San Bernardino, California. He started playing basketball at the age of three, influenced by his father and older brother. At California State University, San Bernardino, he established himself as a three-point shooter, excellent passing and play-making ability, and intelligent decision-making especially in the final seconds of the game. Despite his small size, Alapag takes advantage of his speed and agility to break down his defender and pass it on to his teammate or score by the lay-up. From 2003 to 2014, he played for various teams in the PBA and in competitions representing the Philippines. In 2016, he announced his formal retirement in the PBA at the age of 39, but he was quickly tapped to be an assistant coach for Gilas Pilipinas, and in 2017, he became the head coach for Alab Philippines of the ASEAN Basketball League.

Fatima Angeles, Non-Profit Leader

Fatima Angeles is the new executive director of the Levi Strauss Foundation, a corporate foundation that aims to advance the human rights and well-being of underserved people in places where the company does business. Angeles will oversee the global philanthropic strategy for Levi Strauss. Her first job after college was with Hasbro Children’s Foundation as a program associate. She was previously vice president of programs at The California Wellness Foundation for many years where she led its grantmaking work, including program design, strategic planning and evaluation. There she built and led a team responsible for $40 million in grantmaking annually and established the Hope and Heal Fund to reduce gun violence in California. She continues to volunteer as a Board Member with John Muir Health, Confluence Philanthropy, Sisters of St. Joseph Health Care Foundation, and as Vice Chair for CARESTAR Foundation. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Integrative Biology and an MPH – Public Health, Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University in New York.

Loy Arcenas, Filmmaker

Broadway production designer turned film director, Arcenas hails from Cebu, Philippines. He received an OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence of Set Design in 1993. He was nominated twice for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Scenic Design for The Good Person of Setzuan and Night of the Iguana in Chicago. In 2010, he moved to the Philippines and started a film career. Since then he was written and directed Niño (Winner, Best Film at Busan International Film Festival in 2011), Requieme! (Winner of Special Jury Prize at the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival in 2012), Ang Larawan (The Portrait) (FAP Winner, Best Director in 2017) and Mirador, a film he finished in 2019.

Hazel Sanchez, Broadcaster

Hazel Sanchez (Source: thefamousinfo.com)

Sanchez is the general assignment reporter and anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City. Before joining CBS2, she worked as a weekend anchor and reporter for WBAY-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin. She received her B.A. in broadcasting and electronics communications degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee. She has won a Midwest Emmy Award, a Golden Eagle Cine Award and a Wisconsin Television Association Award. Her father was an anesthesiologist at a private hospital in Kankakee, Illinois while her mother was a nurse. She married Peter Joseph Rapciewicz, an AIG executive, last 2011.

Jeppy Paraiso, Content Creator

Paraiso is a content creator, chef and singer from Virginia who made famous the character Tita Che on YouTube. He says, it was his day off as a pastry chef in November 2017, when he decided to record a video poking fun at “no-chill, savage Filipino titas in every Thanksgiving dinner.” After seeing all the posts about American aunts on Thanksgiving, he couldn’t help but compare them to his own titas. “I thought, Filipinos also do that. Because titas are like, ‘you got fat,’ or ‘you’re too skinny,’ or ‘you didn’t finish school.’ There was no Filipino version, so I thought—let me make one.” The one-minute video was shared with friends who shared it with other friends and so on. There were people who would thank him for reminding them of aunts (or other relatives) they recently lost, telling him the videos were able to make them laugh and remember good things about their titas. There would also be people messaging him to say that Tita Che’s funny videos have been helping them deal with stress and anxiety.

“If I can do that with 60 seconds of material, and people are looking out for it, then I thought, I have to do this for them.” He also realized that his videos were “helping younger Filipinos growing up abroad familiarize themselves with the kind of culture and values that we have.”

Ragamuffs, Indie Rock Duo

Ragamuffs are a quirky duo from Honolulu, Hawaii, officially formed in April 2016. Hailey Fines and Joseph Carag met when they were ten years old. Their families hang out together because they were part of a church ministry. Both played the ukulele and guitar, and in junior year of high school, Joseph asked Hailey to be his girlfriend. They started performing for free at community parties, and then wrote their own songs. Influenced by artists from Arctic Monkeys and Ingrid Michaelson to Hawaii’s local underground art scene, their self-described “indie rock popsicle” sound earned them a spot performing at SXSW, as well as opening spots for the likes of Mac DeMarco and The Unlikely Candidates. The SXSW event was however canceled due to COVID-19. The Filipino American duo, who graduated last year (Hailey from University of Hawaii and Joseph from Hawaii Pacific University), recently released music videos for their songs Sunset Chaser and Swimming in Glue.

Sonia Delen, Banker and Community Leader

Delen is Senior Vice President, Global Leasing with Bank of America. In 2018, she was appointed by California Governor Jerry Brown to be a non-lawyer, public member of the Board of Trustees of the State Bar of California, the first Filipino American to be appointed to this position. She also served as a member of the Board of Trustees at the California Health Professions Education Foundation. In 2010, she founded Kulinarya Chefs Competition with the Department of Tourism to showcase and recognize the many talents of Filipino American amateur and professional chefs with competitions in California, Hawaii and New York. Kulinarya was folded into the Filipino Food Movement where she is president, to promote and preserve Filipino cuisine in the U.S. and the world. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Apl.de.ap Foundation International. A graduate from the University of the Philippines with a degree in Foreign Service, Delen has received numerous awards from the community.

Justin Viz and Dorothea Gloria, Stage Actors

Viz and Gloria played the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet at Staten Islands’ Shakespearean production this August. A second generation Filipino American, Viz was born in San Francisco, California and graduated from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in Cinema. He studied at the American Conservatory Theater and Berkeley Rep in California, as well as Royal Central, LAMDA and Mountview Academy in London, UK. He also completed a two-year actor training program at the Todoroff Conservatory in New York City where he is based. Gloria started her acting career at seven years old with Repertory Philippines and Trumpets Playshow. She graduated from Assumption College with a degree in Theater Arts, magna cum laude. She later studied at the Stella Conservatory Studio of Acting in New York City. She is the co-founder of TeamTheatre LLC, a collective of multinational artists that promote diversity. Ariana Nicoletta, who's directing the Staten Island Shakespearean Theatre Company's production of the famous play, says: "This modernization [of Romeo and Juliet] is a reflection of our world's current civil unrest that has been caused by differing beliefs over the past few years, and is a reminder that ultimately, we are all privy to the joys and unbearable pains of love."

Aurora Saulo, Ph.D., Food Technologist

Dr. Aurora Saulo (Source: GHIWorldcongress.com)

Saulo is a Professor and Extension Specialist in Food Technology of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources of the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she handles food safety and quality, consumer behavior and attitude, risk communication, tropical fruit processing, new food product and process development. A graduate from the College of the Holy Spirit in Manila, she pursued graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst as a Fulbright-Hays scholar where she completed her M.S. Chemistry degree. She received her Ph.D. Food Science degree from the same university. After graduation she worked with United Brands Company in Newton, Massachusetts and Hunt-Wesson Food Company in Fullerton, California. She is an elected Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists, Outstanding Alumna of the College of the Holy Spirit and an IFT Outstanding Volunteer in the Extension Division.

Jason Tanamor, Author

Tanamor is an author, writer and entertainment interviewer. He works at the Bonneville Power Administration but also writes novels at the same time. His novels range from the dark to satirical, from young adult to children. Anonymous and Drama Dolls have received critical acclaim from major publications such as Publishers Weekly who called him a “promising writer with lots of potential.” His urban fantasy novel, Vampires in Portlandia, is about a family of Filipino vampires who immigrate to Portland, Oregon, only to discover that there are other breeds of monsters living amongst them. “Overall, I think that each character has a little bit of me in them. But, mostly Filipinos have similar traits – they point with their lips, and are always offering you food," he said. “My hope is to introduce the folklore to the mainstream and encourage other stories about Filipino folklore and culture.” He has contributed to numerous publications including Yahoo!, Cinema Blend, and Celebrity Cafe. Tanamor is the founder of the entertainment website, Zoiks! Online, and his work has also appeared on Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Georgina Pazcoguin, Ballerina

Georgina Pazcoguin (Source: Sunday Times)

Born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Pazcoquin began her dance training at the age of four at the Allegheny Ballet Academy. Her father is a retired surgeon who immigrated from the Philippines while her mother is Italian. In 2002, she became an apprentice with New York City Ballet, and in October 2003 she joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet. In 2013, she was promoted to soloist, being the first Asian American and Filipino American to reach this level. She has also appeared in On the Town and Cats in Broadway, and in the film, NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ which aired on PBS and won an Audience Award at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival. She is a recipient of the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise in 2002. Pazcoguin considers herself the "complete antithesis" of the stereotypical ballet dancer. During her early days at NYCB, she struggled with body image issues, noting in a 2013 interview with Time Out New York that she "will never be that super, super thin, skeletal [dancer]." She has since styled herself as "The Rogue Ballerina" as a means of embracing the qualities that make her stick out as a dancer, such as her body type and ethnicity. She is a proponent of greater diversity and inclusion within the ballet community. With former dancer Phil Chan, she started "Final Bow for Yellowface" in 2017, a campaign to combat Asian stereotypes in ballet productions such as The Nutcracker. Pazcoguin's memoir, Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina, is being published in 2021.

Cecilia Caparas Apelin, Founder of Ciel Creative

Cecilia Caparas Apelin (Source: Medium.com)

Caparas was born and raised in the East Bay, San Francisco, California to Filipino immigrant parents and to an artistic father. She and artist Alexia Laurent co-founded Ciel Creative Space, an artistic sanctuary for creatives to explore, collaborate, co-exist and craft visual content and experiences. It offers open and private studios, office suites and dedicated desks in a space filled with plants and natural daylight. Activities hosted at Ciel include everything from large productions such as art gallery viewings, runway shows, dance competitions, DJ sets, music videos, green-screened interviews and fashion editorials. Since opening in 2019, Ciel’s bookings have tripled and it is now a $2.9 million company.

She graduated from California State University-Hayward with a B.S. Business Administration – Marketing degree with a minor in Music. She had wanted to own her own creative agency. She worked for Logitech and Old Navy where she was a creative director and brand manager. In 2015 she opened Indigo Sky, a creative and production company in Oakland, which has since moved into Ciel (meaning “sky” in French).

In an interview, Caparas said, “That’s my entire mission, making space to be human. The reason I started this company was so that I could make a positive change in the world, and I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think it was possible. As humans, creation is our birthright. However, when you create things that come from within, you’re susceptible to being vulnerable and exposing your inner truth, and that can be scary. But this is vital to the human experience, because it is how we heal and grow. So, if I can offer a creative sanctuary for people to do this work, I believe I am making the world a better place.”

Source: Google and Wikipedia

The Magazine

Fil-Ams Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 29