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.

Amado Gabriel Esteban, Ph.D., University President

Amado Gabriel Esteban, Ph.D. (Source: DePaul University, Photo by Jamie Moncrief)

Dr. Esteban is the 12th president of DePaul University, the first lay leader in the school’s history. He oversees a $568 million budget, more than 22,000 students on two major Chicago campuses, and about 3,450 full-time and part-time faculty and staff. Before joining DePaul, Dr. Esteban was president of Seton Hall University in New Jersey and held leadership positions in higher education institutions in Arkansas, Texas and the Philippines. He holds a doctorate in business administration from the Graduate School of Management of the University of California, Irvine, and a master’s in Japanese business studies from Chaminade University in Honolulu. He earned his MBA and bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of the Philippines. Among the many awards he has received are: Top 50 graduate and postdoctoral alumni from his alma mater, UC Irvine, “Great Immigrant” from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and 100 Most Powerful State Leaders from NJBIZ.

Lysley Tenorio, Author

Lysley Tenorio (Source: Chicago Sun-Times)

Born in Olongapo City, Philippines, Tenorio’s stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Zoetrope: All-Story, and Ploughshares, and have been adapted for the stage by the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and the Ma-Yi Theater in New York City. A Whiting Award winner and a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, he has received fellowships from the University of Wisconsin, Phillips Exeter Academy, Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His novel, The Son of Good Fortune and the story collection Monstress were named books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle. He lives in San Francisco and is a professor at Saint Mary’s College of California.

Aileen Cassinetto, Poet Laureate

Cassinetto began her two-year term as Poet Laureate of San Mateo County last January 1, 2019 with the goal of celebrating the literary arts and making poetry more accessible to people in their everyday lives. She has collaborated with other poets to help raise awareness on issues such as women’s rights, environmental protection, prevention of cruelty to animals, rehabilitation of prisoners through poetry, mental health, and suicide prevention. She is the first foreign-born and Asian American Poet Laureate in San Mateo County. Cassinetto is the author of the poetry collections, Traje de Boda and The Pink House of Purple Yam Preserves & Other Poems, as well as three chapbooks. Her work has appeared in the Asahi Shimbun, The Banyan Review and San Francisco Chronicle, among others. She is also the publisher of Paloma Press, an independent publisher of poetry and prose.

Dr. Marel Ver, Surgeon

Dr. Ver says she learned about giving back to the community from her student years at Maryknoll School in Hawaii. She took her premed studies at the University of Southern California and attended medical school at New York Medical College. She finished her general surgery residency at the University of Illinois in Chicago, Mount Sinai Hospital. She is currently the trauma surgeon at Pali Momi Medical Center in Hawaii. As president of the Philippine Medical Association of Hawaii, Ver has been actively advising and educating the Filipino community about the increase of COVID-19 cases where large gatherings and cramped living conditions are prevalent.

Jessica Hagedorn, Playwright and Performer

Hagedorn was born in Manila to a Scot-Irish-French-Filipino mother and a Filipino-Spanish father with one Chinese ancestor. She moved to San Francisco in 1963. She received her education at the American Conservatory Theater training program. To pursue playwriting and music, she moved to New York City in 1978. She received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony in the mid-‘80s that allowed her to write Dogeaters, which earned her the 1990 National Book Award nomination and an American Book Award. Critic Robert Stone wrote: “Dogeaters is a fine achievement on a very serious scale…This is the definitive novel of the encounter between the Philippines and America and their history of mutual illusion, antagonism and ambiguous affection. It is a rich and satisfying work and certainly among the best novels I have read this year.” Hagedorn says the title of the book refers to the brutality of life in the Philippines and is a “way of confronting the culture.” Some of her other works include The Gangster of Love, Dream Jungle and Toxicology.

Janice Lobo Sapigao, Professor and Poet Laureate

Sapigao is a daughter of immigrants from the Philippines. She is the author of two books of poetry: microchips for millions, which is about immigrant women workers in Silicon Valley, and like a solid to a shadow, which is about her father, family lineage, and learning Ilocano. She is also the author of two published chapbooks, "toxic city,” and "you don’t know what you don’t know,” along with other self-published chapbooks. She was named one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Women to Watch in 2017 by KQED Arts. She is the 2020-2021 Santa Clara County Poet Laureate, and a Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing from California Institute of the Arts and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Ethnic Studies with Honors and a minor in Urban Studies & Planning from the University of California, San Diego. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Skyline College in San Bruno, California teaching in the Kababayan and CIPHER (Hip Hop) Learning Communities.

Linda Nietes-Little, Bookshop Owner

Linde Nietes-Little got into the book business nearly 40 years ago as a way to preserve and promote Filipino writings in the Philippines under the Marcos dictatorship. She founded Philippine Expressions in Los Angeles in 1984 and dedicated it to Filipino Americans searching for their roots. As a specialty bookstore for the last 35 years, it has promoted only materials relevant to the Philippines and Filipino Americans. The bookshop hosts regular book publication parties, Book Talks, lectures on Philippine culture by visiting Filipino scholars, and other literary soirees. Annually, Nietes, already in her 80s and considered a gatekeeper of knowledge in the community, hosts a Pinay Gathering to celebrate the writings of women of Filipino ancestry during Women’s History Month. The store is located at 479 West Sixth Street, Suite 105, San Pedro, California, and has grown to include art galleries displaying works of Filipino artists.

Sharon Leal, Actress and Singer

Born in Tucson, Arizona, Leal’s mother, Angelita, is Filipino while her father is an African American military policeman who broke up with her mother before Sharon was born. Her mother remarried Jesse Leal, a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air force and a police officer at Clark Air Base, Philippines. He legally adopted Sharon. Leal’s career began with the role of Dahlia Crede in the CBS daytime serial Guiding Light. She joined Broadway productions like Rent and Bright Lights, Big City and appeared in prime TV series like Boston Public. Her big break came when she co-starred in Dreamgirls with Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson.

Thurgood Marshall, Jr., Lawyer

Marshall is the son of the late Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court and Cecilia Suyat, a Filipino American who was Justice Marshall’s second wife after his first wife died of lung cancer. He earned his Juris Doctor at the University of Virginia School of Law. After his work in the Clinton administration, Marshall joined the Swidler Berlin law firm and is currently with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP. Marshall has been named one of Washington’s top campaign and election lawyers by Washington Magazine, a leading lawyer in government relations law by The Best Lawyers in America and included on the Best Lawyers List of the Washington Post Magazine. Newsweek named him one of the 100 people to watch in the new century. He lives with his wife and two sons in Washington, D.C.

Steven McQueen, Actor

McQueen is an actor known for his role as Jeremy Gilbert in the fantasy drama The Vampire Diaries from 2009 to 2017. He also starred as Jimmy Borelli in the Chicago Fire. Roles in other TV series include Without a Trace, CSI:Miami and Numb3rs. He made his film debut in the Disney Channel Original Movie Minutemen where he played the villain. He was born in Los Angeles, California to parents Stacey Toten and Chad McQueen. His paternal grandparents are the late actor Steve McQueen and Filipino actress Neile Adams, whose niece is Filipino-Spanish socialite Isabel Preysler, mother of Enrique Iglesias.

Tony Olaes, Corporate Leader

Born in San Diego, California to immigrant parents from the Philippines, Olaes is a veteran of the apparel industry. His firm, Olaes Enterprises, Inc., designs, manufactures and ships nationally imprinted wearables that communicate today’s pop culture to retailers such as Walmart, Target and Hot Topic, to name a few. Except for a few trips to the Philippines while he was young, he had no desire to visit the country. He considered it “unsafe because of the news reports of kidnappings, poverty and corruption.” He says he was livid when his parents decided to build a home in the Philippines. “I felt that I worked hard to ‘make it’ and for them to just irresponsibly go into harm’s way, it just didn’t make sense.” Upon the urging of his wife, he returned one more time, and had a different experience. He saw people who were former squatters who worked together to build their own homes with the help of Gawad Kalinga. “There was a consistency of generosity and love that I felt. I had misjudged who they were because of the environment I grew up in…I went to the Philippines an American, but I came back as a Filipino.” He is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Gawad Kalinga USA, contributing his personal finances.

Lourdes Tancinco, Immigration Lawyer

Tancinco was admitted to the California State Bar in 1993 and is an active member. She is the chair and founding member of the San Francisco Bayanihan Equity Center, a non-profit advocacy organization established to provide a clearinghouse for Filipino World War II veterans. From 1994 to the present, she has been the supervising attorney for the Fil-Am Veterans Legal Clinic where she provides pro bono services to elderly seniors, mostly veterans. In recognition of her work, she has received numerous community awards. She is also a host/producer of a local TV show, Pusong Pinoy Sa Amerika, and writes columns on immigration in Filipino American publications.

The Magazine

Fil-Ams Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 9