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.

Seychelle Pagatpatan Wilmouth, Environmental Fashion Designer

Seychelle Pagatpatan Wilmouth (Source: Cosmo.ph)

In 2018, Wilmouth started her Filipiniana brand, Silviyana in Redmond, Washington, and in 2020 the company took its first step into a fully transparent wedding gown online shopping platform. It asks brides this one question: “What story do you want your dress to tell?” “Driven to help brides understand the impact of their once in a lifetime decision to say ‘yes’ to the dress, Silviyana is dedicated to quantifying the journey of a gown from material extraction to use, providing a final carbon footprint for each gown produced,” Silviyana declares. Wilmouth says, “Even though we’re trying to define our culture, it’s interesting because groups of our Filipino American clients are actually quite different in their opinions about what our culture is. We at Silviyana just try to explore what that would be for that person.”
The company has been working with independent designers to create one-of-a-kind, eco and vegan wedding dresses using natural and environmentally friendly materials such as by-product pineapple leaf fibers, Philippine banana trunk fibers, finest spun mulberry silk and American organic cotton. With eight independent designers (and counting) creating unique creations, it is a collective that is looking to push the boundaries on eco-conscious wedding gown designs while focusing on the story and the people behind the creation of each gown. “All eco fabrics are sourced directly from farmers and artisan. All are scrapped by hand, knotted by hand and woven by hand. Silviyana works directly with a women’s cooperative in the Philippines to create design and produce their eco fabrics. It also provides brides the option to give back to Mother Earth. Silviyana has partnered with Haribon Foundation to offset each bride’s purchase. Haribon Foundation is a nature conservation organization in the Philippines, that offers tree planting services, but what is special about Haribon is their dedication to only plant native trees in the Philippines.”

Liza Soberano, Actress and Model

Liza Soberano (Source: IMDb | Photo by Jerick Sanchez)

Born in Santa Clara, California, Soberano is the daughter of a Filipino father from Pangasinan and an American mother. When her parents separated, she was raised by her grandparents in Visalia, California. Then at ten years old, she moved back to Manila to live with her father. At 13, she was discovered by a talent scout, and modeling and acting soon followed. She appeared in several Filipino-produced television dramas. Her breakthrough was the successful romantic comedy television series, Forevermore (2014). In 2017, she was ranked first of “The 100 Most Beautiful Faces of 1027” by TC Candler’s The Independent Critics. She has also been praised for her acting prowess. In 2022, Soberano signed up with Careless Music, an American-Filipino talent agency and record label; so she moved back to the U.S. She is set to make her Hollywood debut in the upcoming black comedy Lisa Frankenstein. The 25-year-old is a veteran model and actress with nearly 18 million Instagram followers to prove it. But success hasn’t made her afraid of starting over. “I began my career here as a nobody,” she says, “which means I’m discovering things about myself that I never knew.”

Anthony Witherstone, Jr., Football Player

Anthony Witherstone, Jr. (Source: Kollective Hustle)

A standout cornerback at Merrimack in the NEC Witherstone signed up with the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent. He attended Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick, Rhode Island. He has a bachelor’s degree in Rehabilitation Science and a master’s in Exercise and Sports Science. His parents introduced him to football at a young age. Witherstone’s father fled Liberia and spent three years in a refugee camp in Ghana before coming to the U.S. where he pursued a career in nursing. His mother comes from a large Filipino family and spent her life working on her family’s rice farm until she was able to save enough money to come to the U.S. Witherstone understands that nothing comes easy, and that he has to work for what he wants as taught by his parents. On Instagram. He wrote, “Take pride in how far you’ve come, have faith in how far you will go.”

Rose Chan Loui, Nonprofit Lawyer

Last October, Loui joined UCLA School of Law’s Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy as the inaugural director of its Program on Philanthropy and Nonprofits. An expert on tax-exempt organizations, Loui will train the next generation of nonprofit lawyers, develop scholarships, and bring together the sector’s many stakeholders. She currently serves as board chair of East West Players, the nation’s premier Asian American theater. A graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in communications and international relations, and New York University School of Law, where she was an editor of the NYU Law Review, Loui looks forward to joining the Bruin family. Born in the Philippines, Loui’s parents moved to Taiwan when she was eight years old. (Submitted by Debbie Ouyang)

Jaria Jaug, School Board Member

At 23 years old, Jaug is the youngest person on the Berryessa School Board, and the first openly bisexual board member. The daughter of Filipino immigrants, Jaug grew up going to schools in the district she now represents. She aims to ensure student success across all income levels with after-school programs and additional resources. She also wants to expand mental health services, an issue that is close to her heart. “My parents grew up in the Philippines and mental health wasn’t a thing,” she explained. “I know other children of immigrants might have similar experiences.” After coming out as bisexual at age 15, she got her start in community involvement by volunteering for the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center. “My identity led me to this work and showed me that queer people can do great things for the community.” As an openly queer board member, Jaug has been dedicated to prioritizing the needs of the LGBTQ+ community since day one. She has done this by bringing questions to the superintendent such as, “How are we teaching kids about what’s going on in the LGBTQ+ community?” “How are we supporting trans children?” and “How are we creating inclusive classrooms?” In addition to serving on the school board, Jaug is the policy/legislative director for San Jose City Council member David Cohen.

Sony Coranez Bolton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Sony Coranez Bolton, Ph.D. (Source: LinkedIn)

Coranez Bolton is an assistant professor of Latinx and Latin American Studies in the Department of Spanish at Amherst College. His book, Crip Colony: Mestizaje, U.S. Imperialism, and the Queer Politics of Disability in the Philippines (2023), proposes the study of disability and colonialism as a unified ideological structure through an examination of Anglophone and Hispanophone literary, cultural and archival texts produced by US colonial administrators and elite Hispanic mestizo Filipinos. His second book, Dox X: Disability, Migration and Racial Dysphoria in Latinx and Filipinx American Culture, explores the connections, affinities and misrecognitions that materialize in the shared racial domains of Latinx and Filipinx cultures. Born in Olongapo City, Philippines, where the Subic Naval Base was located, his research interests were shaped by his own personal experience of U.S. militarism. He grew up in San Francisco and outside of Chicago. Coranez Bolton holds a B.A. degree in Spanish and M.A. in Foreign Languages and Literatures both from Marquette University and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Jan Paul Ferrer, Financial Planner

Ferrer is a Senior Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager at Morgan Stanley with over 20 years of financial services experience. A graduate from Robert Morris University with a degree in Business Administration, Ferrer is also a community leader and entrepreneur who uses his talents to help provide jobs for weavers and farmers in the Philippines via his social venture, Ambension, in collaboration with the Chicagoland Gawad Kalnga supporters. He is active with several organizations such as the Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce, Court Appointed Special Advocates of Cook County, Philippine Engineers Scientists Organization, 10,000 Kwentos at the Field Museum, UP Alumni Association of Greater Chicago, International Society of Filipinos in Finance and Accounting, Philippine American Cultural Foundation, Filipino American Network and Tinley Park-Frankfort Rotary Club.

Stacey Anne Baterina Salinas, Historian and Assistant Professor

Stacey Anne Baterina Salinas (Source: Facebook)

Salinas is now Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California. The College of the Redwoods President wrote the following statement in his letter welcoming their new faculty hires: “Dr. Salinas received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Irvine and received her Master’s degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, both in American History. Her research focused on Asian American History centering on the roles of Asian American women and their impact on America’s Civil Rights Movement(s) and contributions to the diversity of the American woman’s experience. Her Doctorate is from the University of California, Davis in Cultural Studies, with an emphasis on Asian American Studies, American History, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, BIPOC Feminisms, and Critical Filipinx Studies. Dr. Salinas is a talented author, having published two books— Philippines' Resistance: The Last Allied Stronghold in the Pacific in 2017 and Pinay Guerrilleras: The Unsung Heroics of Filipina Resistance Fighters During the Pacific War in 2022, and has contributed to several scholarly articles related to Filipino/Filipina American Studies.” Previously, as Senior Historian, Salinas co-curated the recent “California is in the Heart” exhibit in Sacramento and has done work for the Central Coast Fil-Am community by preserving the oral histories of our local elders, among other acts of service throughout her four and a half years at the UC Davis Bulosan Center.

Ali Ewoldt, Broadway Actor

Ali Ewoldt as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway (Source: aliewoldt.com | Photo by Matthew Murphy)

Filipino American Ewoldt made her Broadway debut in 2006 as Cosette in Les Miserables. Since then she has performed in other productions such as The King and I, West Side Story, The Fantasticks and Phantom of the Opera, making history as the first woman of color to play the role of Christine in the show’s Broadway production. Born in Chicago to a Filipino mother and a European father and raised in Pleasantville, New York, Ewoldt graduated from Yale University cum laude with a B.A. in Psychology.

Nikko Remigio , Football Player

Remigio is a football wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He started playing football at the age of five. In 2018, Remigio committed to the University of California, Berkeley where he spent four years with the Golden Bears, playing 36 games as a wide receiver and return specialist where he earned the Joe Roth Award for courage, sportsmanship and attitude. He grew up in Orange County, California, attended Mater Dei High School and obtained his bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 2021. His mother, from Pontiac, Michigan, is half-Black and half-white while his father was born in Seattle, Washington but raised in Southern California by immigrant parents from Iloilo, Philippines. “I love being Filipino: The family dynamic, the music, the dancing and the get-togethers — where you know there’s going to be like a thousand trays of lumpia and massive pots of rice to go with pounds of meat and fried fish — and the next morning you know we’re going to heat those leftovers up, fry an egg and make that a Filipino breakfast,” Remigio said in an interview with news.berkeley.edu.

Source: Google and Wikipedia

The Magazine

Fil-Ams Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 51