Filipinos have been in the United States since the 16th century, yet many of their stories remain untold. For the past year, 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.

Dr. Vicenta Gaspar-Yoo, President, Allegheny Valley Hospital

Dr. Vicenta Gaspar-Yoo (Source: *Pittsburg Post Gazette)*

Gaspar-Yoo, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist in Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania, with 33 years of experience in the medical field, is the president of Allegheny Health Networks’ 188-bed Allegheny Valley Hospital (AVH). She is the hospital’s first practicing physician president. She received her medical degree from the University of the East Medical Center’s College of Medicine in Manila and completed an internship at Crozer-Chester Medical Center near Philadelphia. She received her master’s degree in business administration from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. She worked at University Hospitals Health System (UH) in Cleveland where she served in dual capacities as System Physician Advisor and System Physician Lead for HRM Observation Improvement. Prior to these, she was the Chief Medical Officer for UH’s Bedford and Richmond Hospitals. At AVH, Gaspar-Yoo enhanced the hospital’s patient experience, improved patient safety, and reduced wait times in the emergency department and in observation units. She also plans to expand the hospital’s rehabilitation and occupational medicine capacity, cardiology services, and pain management program. The hospital also sponsors a scholarship program at Citizen’s School of Nursing to benefit underprivileged students. In 2021, Gaspar-Yoo was named to the Top 100 Women Leaders in Medicine by Women We Admire.

Justin Jones, Civil Rights Leader

Justin and Congressman John Lewis, while interning in Washington DC, 2016

Growing up in Oakland, California as a biracial person, Jones was raised by his Filipina and Black grandmothers. He didn’t know his father who is Aeta. He says his activism came from hearing stories from both grandmothers about the People Power protests in the Philippines and the inhumanity of Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. In an interview with Positively Filipino, Jones says, “My Filipina lola, Tessie, and my Black lola, Harriet, are my first divinity teachers, first theology teachers, and first spirituality teachers.” At Fisk University, he received the John R. Lewis Scholarship for Social Activism. He holds a master’s in Divinity Studies from Vanderbilt University. Jones is running for State house in Nashville’s District 52. He has spent nearly a decade protesting on behalf of voting rights, racial justice ,and other issues.

Aureen B. Almario, Artistic Director

Almario is currently the artistic director of Bindlestiff Studio, where she trained in performing arts, playwriting, puppetry, and comedy since 2004. The pandemic presented opportunities for virtual programming–developing Kwento Times Staged reading series, Stories High workshops, and creating a shadowplay video Kumukutikutitap for the SF Parol Festival in 2020. As lead facilitator for the Restorative Theater Arts for Seniors program, she pivoted to direct services by coordinating grocery deliveries to seniors and vulnerable families. Past directorial experience includes Welga by Conrad Panganiban, Chasing Papeles by Andrea Almario, Tagalog Festival, and several sketches for Granny Cart Gangstas (a sketch comedy group she co-founded). She has performed and directed shadow puppetry since 2005, and toured in the international production of Feathers of Fire by Hamid Rahmanian, in collaboration with Shadowlight Productions. In 2020 she co-directed Shadows for Carlos Villa with Larry Reed. Recent performances include Black Benatar’s Black Magic Cabaret (puppeteer), Nanay’s Lullaby (film), Interview with an Aswang, and Stories High XXI.

Gus Mercado, Businessman and Community Leader

Mercado is the State Executive Director of the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce of Texas and Founding Region Chair of the U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG), and the National Federation of Filipino Associations (NaFFAA). He is a recipient of the presidential Banaag Award for Outstanding Community Leadership. He was Publisher/Editor of Business Horizons, an award-winning global business CEO magazine with circulation in 92 countries. He graduated with honors from De La Salle University where he was editor-in-chief of the De La Salle Commerce Journal. He is chairman and CEO of Datalogix in Texas and Silicon Valley, the only Filipino-owned and one of the fastest-growing wireless IT/telecom companies in the U.S., servicing cell sites that provide 5G coverage to millions of cellphone users nationwide. Mercado gained national prominence as “the Hero of the Texas 10” when he spearheaded a national campaign to free a group of Filipino airline mechanics who were incarcerated and mistreated in Texas prisons for six months as an overreaction to 9/11. He raised funds for their legal defense, gathered 1,000 signatures meant for President George W. Bush, took care of the inmates and their families for six months, and eventually won their acquittal and release.

Catherine Ceniza Choy, Author

In August 2022, Choy authored Asian American Histories of the United States with “themes of Anti-Asian hate and violence, erasure of Asian American history, and Asian American resistance to what has been omitted in a nearly 200-year history of Asian Migration, labor, and community formation in the U.S.” She says that Asian American experiences are essential to any understanding of U.S. history and its existential crises of the early 21st century. Her first book, Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (2003), explored how and why the Philippines became the leading exporter of professional nurses to the United States. The book received the 2003 American Journal of Nursing History and Public Policy Book Award and the 2005 Asian American Studies History Book Award. She is the editor of the Brill book series Gendering the Trans-Pacific World, an editorial board member of the journal Social History of Medicine, and an advisory board member of the NHPRC (National Historical Publications and Records Commission)-Mellon Planning Grants for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History and Ethnic Studies Program. Choy is Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Justice in UC Berkeley’s Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS). She is a former Department Chair of Ethnic Studies (2012-2015, 2018-2019) and a former Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies Division (2019-2021). She received her Ph.D. in History from UCLA and her B.A. in History from Pomona College. The daughter of Filipino immigrants, she was born and raised in New York City. She lives in Berkeley with her husband, Greg Choy, and their two children.

Miranda Gohh, Producer

In an interview in 2022 with Los Angeles Times, Gohh lamented the fact that most stage producers were white people. She read everything she could about producing theater and founded Theatre Producers of Color, a non-profit to “diversify the decision makers bringing art to life on the Great White Way.” It aims to address the industry’s racial inequity. A 10-week virtual, educational initiative on the fundamentals of commercial producing was offered tuition-free with support from Broadway for All. Since then, four cohorts have made Broadway debuts and three have secured jobs, and 25 students selected from hundreds of applicants from around the world graduated last month. These artists of color will shift not only the stories that are being told, but also how these stories will be told. “We’re equipping people with the essentials needed to take that next step in their careers, but we’re also having frank and productive conversations about what we’re learning, and sometimes even challenging the information that’s being offered,” says Gohh of the sessions. “This industry has relied on systems that have been in place for decades, and they might have been successful and useful at a time, but many of them are no longer supporting our needs as producers today.” She hopes that other educational initiatives will strengthen the bonds between the next generation of theater makers.

Paul Gaspar, Data Expert

Corvus Insurance, a leading specialty insurance company whose products are powered by AI-driven risk data, announced last June 16, 2022 the appointment of Paul Gaspar as chief data officer. A former Wells Fargo executive, Gaspar will lead the company’s data infrastructure evolution and innovation, scaling the company’s core values to brokers, policyholders, and risk capital partners. Gaspar brings 25 years of advanced analytics experience to Corvus, having been senior vice president of Analytics, Insights and Planning at Wells Fargo. Before that, he founded the Data Science practice of AIG in Asia. He received his Master of Arts in International Studies and Asian Studies from the University of Pennsylvania – The Lauder Institute in 1998 and a Master of Business Administration in Financial Management and International Business from the University of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School. “Paul’s advanced analytics experience will be crucial as Corvus continues to lead with data — using novel insights to help curb systemic risk — and further our mission to make the world a safer place,” says Phil Edmunson, Founder and CEO of Corvus Insurance.

Martin Bakari, Tenor

Bakari, a Filipino African American, is an alumnus of the master's degree program at Juilliard, the B.M. and Opera Institute programs at Boston University, and the study-abroad program at London's Royal College of Music. In addition to the numerous opera and musical theatre roles he performed while in Boston, he was an active concert soloist with performances including Elijah at Symphony Hall and a solo concert of Italian arias with the Salem Philharmonic. As an Emerging Artist with Virginia Opera from 2014 to 2016, Bakari sang in productions of HMS Pinafore, Salome, Orpheus in the Underworld, La Bohème, Roméo et Juliette, and Der Fliegende Holländer. A 2018 George London Competition award winner, Bakari has also received major awards from the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, Orpheus Vocal Competition, Tanglewood, the Juilliard School, and Boston University. Bakari’s 2022-23 season includes Charlie Parker in Yardbird at New Orleans Opera and Dayton Opera, Frederic in Pirates of Penzance at Virginia Opera, the tenor soloist in the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s A Nation of Others at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, Messiah with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Pong in Turandot at Opera Colorado, Jalil/Wakil/Guard in A Thousand Splendid Suns at Seattle Opera, Carmina Burana with Symphony San Jose and the University of South Carolina Symphony, and a recital at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall. Opera News praised Bakari as a “vocally charismatic performer with a golden tenor.” As an educator, Bakari has served on the voice faculty at the University of Dayton, and he has been invited to give master classes for classical voice and musical theater students at Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, University of Portland, and Georgia State University. He has also joined the faculty at the Collaborative Piano Institute at Louisiana State University, where he has taught private lessons and given master classes on bel canto style, German song, and the Great American Songbook for singers and pianists.

Mocha Fapalatte, Drag Performer

Stage person, Mocha Fapalatte, formerly Derick Macabenta, says that her love for drag manifested while studying fashion merchandising, styling, and dance at City College of San Francisco (CCSF). During City College classes, she was able to model in drag for her classmates and learn to work a pair of high heels. “I pretty much have a degree in drag now,” Mocha said through giggles in an interview with The Guardsman. “A major in fashion and a minor in dance. I feel like I’m living my dream now. I really am.” She has performed all over the Bay Area for several years in White Horse Bar, the longest-running gay bar in the country. “Being able to express a part of myself that I’m not allowed to express in my everyday life—I love. Being able to wear things that are over the top, having all eyes on me and being the center of attention—I also love,” Mocha said. “But getting paid to do it—that, I really love. This is a viable job.”

Unapologetic, Mocha explained how she found self-acceptance through her art form: “For me, drag has allowed me to be myself through being someone else. Mocha is not a different person, but she is like the other side of my own coin.” She is currently the Vice President of Prism Foundation (formerly GAPA Foundation), an organization that empowers the Asian & Pacific Islander LGBTQ+ community through scholarships and funding of under-resourced and under-represented local community projects. She is the current reigning Ms. GAPA (Gay Asian Pacific Alliance).

Earl Valencia, Venture Advisor

Valencia is a venture advisor for start-ups and corporate innovation teams. He focuses on growing companies or emerging business units from seed to scale. Based in San Francisco, he is currently a managing director for Digital Transformation for a Fortune 500 bank, and Co-founder of Cognity Labs, one of the first virtual startup accelerators connecting emerging markets and Silicon Valley tech diaspora. He was part of the Advanced Engineering team for Dell EMC and previously was the program manager for Corporate Data at Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. Valencia was a business incubation manager at Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group, a senior systems engineer at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems in Los Angeles, and worked in VC firms H&Q Asia Pacific in Manila as well as Investor Growth Capital in Menlo Park. He is a member of the Science and Technology Advisory Council and co-founded both QBO and IdeaSpace Foundation in his commitment to contribute to the Philippine start-up ecosystem. Valencia obtained a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from Boston University, a master’s degree in Systems Engineering from Cornell University and a M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, AAJA Executive Director

A Filipina immigrant who grew up on the island territory of Guam after her family immigrated from the Philippines in the 1980s, Underwood received her Master of Public Policy from UCLA and her undergraduate degree in Journalism and A/P/A Studies from NYU. She is the executive director of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), a national membership nonprofit advancing diversity in newsrooms, and ensuring fair and accurate coverage of communities of color. Prior to AAJA, she served as director of programs at The Faith & Politics Institute, where she crafted programs to foster bipartisanship on Capitol Hill. She has nearly two decades of experience in nonprofit management, coalition and stakeholder engagement, legislative advocacy, and impact-oriented program development and management. Her career has been built on empowering communities and building capacity for successful and effective civic engagement partnerships and coalitions. She also developed voter contact plans for the 2010 and 2012 elections, oversaw training capacity building, outreach and media efforts for the 2008 presidential election, and mobilized partners in 14 states to turn out AAPI voters. Through her work, she has increased the visibility and the civic potential of the AAPI community.

Rey E. de la Cruz, Author, Educator, and Cultural Influencer

Rey E. de la Cruz (Photo courtesy of Rey E. de la Cruz)

De la Cruz has the following degrees: A.B., Broadcast Communication, University of the Philippines; M.A., Communication and Theater, University of Illinois at Chicago; M.Ed., Special Education, University of Illinois at Chicago; Master of Liberal Arts, University of Chicago; and Ed.D., Special Education, Illinois State University. An educationalist, he originated and disseminated the use of the ancient Philippine board game sungka as a teaching strategy. He is a recipient of Gawad Pambansang Alagad 2022 for Drama in Filipino. He was given this prestigious award by the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) on April 30, 2022, in Manila, Philippines. The Gawad Balagtas (Francisco Balagtas was a prominent Filipino poet during the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines) is a lifetime-achievement award given to living Filipino writers by UMPIL, the country’s largest organization of Filipino writers. It is a recognition of the success and excellence of writers who have contributed outstanding words in any language in the Philippines. De la Cruz received the Gawad Balagtas “for his pioneering creative spirit that imagined and expanded what can be possible for today’s modern theater.” His first play, which he wrote at 16, Tatlong Manyika (Three Dolls; 1971), a tragic farce on Philippine class warfare, has become a classic in Philippine theater and literature. His next play, which he also wrote at 16, Kombensiyon ng mga Halimaw (Monsters’ Convention; 1971), a satire on the Philippine Constitutional Convention, pioneered the use of Philippine monsters in theater and modern literature. The play won third prize in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature 1971-1972, the Philippines’ most prestigious literary awards. De la Cruz was 17 when he won the Palanca. He was one of the youngest winners, if not the youngest winner, at the time. His play at the University of the Philippines, Programang Putul-Putol (Fragmented Program; 1975), a satire of television, pioneered Pride Theater in the Philippines. De la Cruz is one of the honorees of the Philippine Cinema’s Centenary in 2018 for his exemplary achievement as a pioneering alternative filmmaker. He wrote the screenplay of Ballesteros on My Mind – The Film (Gakka Films, 2022), which is based on his book, Ballesteros on My Mind: My Hometown in the Philippines (Carayan Press, 2016). He has won numerous film awards, including the following: Best Script in Short, at the Dubai Independent Film Festival (United Arab Emirates); Best Original Story, Prague International Film Festival (Czech Republic); and Best Short Screenplay, Roma Shorts Film Festival (Italy).

Source: Google and Wikipedia

The Magazine

Fil-Ams Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 35