With our Living Legends series, we honor the pioneers and the barrier breakers in our community. They were the first Fil-Ams in their fields, all of them recognized for their outstanding work. They paved (or are paving) the way for those who came later and through them the Filipino American community establishes its place in American society.

Legislators, Politicians, and Government Officials

Dolores Sibonga

Dolores Dasalla Sibonga was born in 1931. She grew up in Seattle’s International District, working at her parents’ restaurant and pool hall, the Estigoy Café. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Washington. Inspired by Victor Velasco, publisher of Filipino Forum and a respected figure in the Filipino community, she and her husband bought the paper after Velasco was killed in a cannery fire in 1968. The publication did not survive.

When her husband lost his job as an illustrator at The Boeing Company, she returned to school to earn her Juris Doctor degree. She and her family lived off her scholarship money. “When you go through raising a family on that, you never forget what it’s like to be poor,” she said. In 1973, she became the first Filipino American female lawyer to practice law in Washington.

Sibonga initially worked as a defense attorney before becoming a legislative analyst for the King County Council. She served as Deputy Director of the Washington State Human Rights Commission. In 1978, she achieved another historical first by becoming the first minority female to serve on the Seattle City Council. She served on the Council until 1992. In 1989, Sibonga lost a Seattle mayoral election.

Dolores Sibonga is now 90 years old, but she continues fighting for democracy and encouraging the youth to vote and get involved.

Ben Cayetano

Benjamin Jerome Cayetano served as the fifth governor of the State of Hawaii from 1994 to 2002. He was the first Filipino American to serve as a state governor in the United States.

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Cayetano was raised by his father in Kalihi and attended Wallace Rider Farrington High School. He received poor grades throughout his years at Farrington and barely graduated. Upon graduation, he married Lorraine Gueco, his high school sweetheart (they divorced in 1996). He worked a variety of entry-level jobs like metal-packer in a junkyard, truck driver, apprentice electrician, and draftsman. He and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1963 so he could pursue a law education. He attended Los Angeles Harbor College and transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles where he graduated in 1968 with a major in political science and minor in American history. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School at the Loyola Marymount University in 1971.

In 1972, Cayetano was appointed to the Hawaii Housing Authority by Governor John A. Burns. In 1974, he was elected to the State House as a Democrat representing Pearl City, followed by election to the State Senate in 1978. He joined the John D. Waihee III gubernatorial ticket in 1986 and became the first Filipino American lieutenant governor in the United States. The Waihee-Cayetano team was re-elected to a second term in 1990. As lieutenant governor, he established the A+ Program, a state-funded, universal, after-school care program with chartered organizations at each public elementary school in Hawaii. In 1994, with Mazie Hirono as his running mate, Cayetano became the Governor of Hawaii. He won a second term by a single percentage point against Republican Linda Lingle. He left office in December 2002.

Among the awards Cayetano has received are: Honorary Doctor of Public Service from Loyola Marymount University; Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of the Philippines; 1993 UCLA Alumni Association Award for Excellence; 1993 Award of Merit from the University of Hawaii College of Education; Distinguished Leadership Award from UCLA’s John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management; Harvard University’s Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations award; tUCLA Edward A. Dickson Alumnus of the Year Award for lifetime achievement.

On January 19, 2012, Cayetano came out of retirement to run for the office of Honolulu Mayor. His campaign focused on greater transparency in government as well as on his opposition to the Honolulu Rail Transit Project. He lost the mayoral race to Kirk Caldwell, but he continued his opposition to the rail project by urging the Federal Transit Authority to terminate funding for it and requesting President Trump and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to withhold $800 million for the project.

Cayetano is married to his second wife, Vicky Tiu. His wedding reception was the first for a sitting governor to be hosted in Washington Place, the governor’s mansion. He is also the first sitting governor of Hawaii to divorce while in office. On August 30, 2021, Vicky Tiu Cayetano announced her run for governor, and despite having been a Republican, she says she will be running as a Democrat.

David Valderrama

Born in Manila in 1933, Valderrama received his law degree from at Far Eastern University and his M.C.L. (Comparative Law) from George Washington University. After completing his master’s degree, he worked as a legal editor at the Library of Congress. He was the first Asian American and first Filipino American elected to the Maryland General Assembly representing Prince George’s County in 1991 where he served for three terms. He was also the first Filipino American elected to a state legislature on the mainland United States.

At 16 years old, he went into business for himself, peddling everything from cars to cigarettes. He aspired to be a concert violinist and, while in high school, he organized an orchestra, helped edit the school paper, and he also won national essay contests. He was drawn to law and politics during his college years. In the 1970s, Valderrama worked as a TV reporter for the United States Information Service.

After President Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines in 1972, Valderrama was among the few national leaders who vocally spoke out against the regime. This earned him a choice spot on the enemies list of the Philippine Embassy. In 1985, he formed the Asian Americans Against Apartheid (AAAA) to mobilize community protest actions against the regime in South Africa and called for the release of Nelson Mandela. He and eight other Asian American civil rights activists were arrested for illegally demonstrating in front of the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Before joining the House of Delegates, Valderrama was a Judge at the Orphans’ Court (1985-90), a member of the Task Force to Study Health Professional-Client Sexual Exploitation (1993-96), and the Task Force to Study Anti-Asian Violence (1995-98). He was involved in the different committees during his tenure: member, Constitutional and Administrative Law Committee (1991-92); Environmental Matters Committee (1992-94); Deputy Majority Whip (1995-2001); member, Judiciary Committee (1995-2003) gambling subcommittee (1995-97); chair, gaming law & enforcement subcommittee (1999-2003); Joint Committee on Protocol (1995-2003); Deputy Majority Leader (2001-03); and member, Law Enforcement and State-Appointed Boards Committee; Prince George's County Delegation (chair, 1995-98). He was also the founding member of the Maryland Asian Pacific Caucus of the Democratic Party and later was vice president of the Democratic Central Committee, leading to his first elective office as a member of the Maryland Democratic Central Committee.

His daughter, Kris Valderrama, represents the same county the elder Valderrama represented and she has been a member of the Maryland House of Delegates since 2007.

Velma Veloria

Velma Veloria was born in Bani, Pangasinan, Philippines and immigrated to the United States in 1962 at 11 years old, the eldest of four children. Her father served in the U.S. Navy. Within a year of the family’s arrival, her mother died of cancer, and she took over most of the household chores and caring for her siblings. Her father worked as a breakfast cook at a drive-in restaurant. They were considered part of the “working poor.”

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Technology from San Francisco State University and became an activist through her participation in the anti-war and Asian American movements. She learned about the history of Filipinos in America and saw how Filipino workers were repeatedly passed over for promotions. "When you're an immigrant to this country, there's a certain situation that happens where you want to be white," Veloria said. "When you're taught U.S. history, you're not taught about the contributions of people of color… You begin to dislike being Filipino. I was able to take more pride in my cultural heritage."

Upon graduating from San Francisco State University, Veloria traveled to the Philippines, where she observed the brutality and oppression of the Marcos regime. When she returned to the United States, she joined the Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino (KDP), or Union of Democratic Filipinos, to put pressure on Marcos and end U.S. support for the dictatorship.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Veloria was a labor activist. She worked as an internal organizer for the Office of Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), ILWU Local 37 (cannery workers), and in Service Employees’ International Union (SEIU) campaigns in San Francisco, New York, and Seattle to organize office workers and nurses. Following the assassination of ILWU Local 37 officers and KDP activists Gene Viernes and Silme Domingo on June 1, 1981, the KDP transferred Veloria to Seattle to keep the union reform movement in the Alaska cannery industry alive. For the next few years, Veloria organized cannery workers, participated in the Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes, and continued to agitate against the Marcos dictatorship. Following the dissolution of the KDP, Veloria, like many other KDP activists, folded her political work into Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition in 1988. After that campaign, she became a Legislative Assistant to State Representative Art Wang.

In 1992, Veloria became the first Filipina in the continental United States to be elected to a State Legislature, serving 12 years as State Representative for South Seattle’s 11th District. In addition to advocating for affordable housing, workers’ rights, and racial justice, she took particular interest in the impact of international trade and globalization on local communities and co-authored important legislation to combat human trafficking and require oversight of international trade agreements. She worked with the UW Womxn’s Center to gain passage of HB 1175 (making human trafficking a crime in the State of Washington) after the shooting of three Filipina Americans in the King County courthouse. As a public figure in the Filipino American community in Seattle, she wanted to regulate the mail-order bride industry in Washington by holding these businesses accountable for documented proof of registration and for payment of taxes. There were 48 states in the nation that passed similar legislation. She was also tasked with ensuring that the Filipino Community Village, a 94-unit affordable senior housing with an Innovation Learning Center, would be completed.

Veloria served as a co-chair of the UW Womxn’s Center Anti Human Trafficking Task Force and was a member of other nonprofit organizations sucha as Faith Action Network and the Coalition of Immigrants, and Refugees and Communities of Color. Her experience as an immigrant living with racism, discrimination, and American imperialism encouraged her to seek out leadership and advocacy opportunities. In 2019, the University of Washington (UW) welcomed Veloria, Director of Advocacy and Mobilization for the Equity in Education Coalition, as their first Honors Curriculum and Community Innovation Scholar. She mentored students as they identified causes and methods for community organizing. During her two-year arrangement at UW, Veloria worked to eliminate the racial and economic disparities within primary education and created an anti-human-trafficking course.

“My own experience as an immigrant living with racism, discrimination, and American imperialism encouraged me to seek out leadership and advocacy opportunities,” remembers Veloria. “These experiences provided me an analysis that this democratic form of government is very well protected and any change will have to come from those most affected by racism, discrimination, poverty and American colonialism.”

Veloria worked through so many activist organizations in order to “ensure that we live in peace and social justice,” something she continues to pursue.

Ronald Quidachay

Ronald Quidachay, born in San Francisco, is the first Filipino American appointed to the bench in Northern California. He earned his bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University in 1970. As an undergraduate, he co-founded the Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE), a student organization advocating for the creation of a college of ethnic studies. He continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a J.D. in 1973.

He began his legal career as a staff attorney with the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation, where he handled cases on behalf of tenants. Then in 1977, he joined the Office of the District Attorney of San Francisco as a deputy district attorney. Three years later he worked briefly as a named partner at Lenvin, Gesmer and Quidachay. Then he was appointed in 1983 by Governor Jerry Brown to the Municipal Court of San Francisco and was elevated to the Superior Court after the unification of the superior and municipal courts.

He was a founding member of the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California. He also served as president of the California Asian Pacific Islanders Judges Association.

Quidachay retired on June 27, 2018, the longest serving judge of the Superior Court of San Francisco County. In a statement, Quidachay said, "I could have retired 12 years ago, but I truly enjoy my judicial duties, supportive staff and colleagues on the San Francisco bench. "I look forward to continuing to help in any way I can as a visiting judge," he said.

Larry Asera

Born in Vallejo, California, Asera is the first Filipino American elected to public office in the U.S. mainland. His grandparents first settled in Hawaii in 1906 and then migrated to California in 1925. At the age of 24, Asera was elected to the Vallejo City Council in 1973. At 27, he became a member of the Solano Board of Supervisors and eventually the board chairman at age 29, the youngest board member and chairman in the history of Solano County.

Asera holds a Civil Engineering degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Davis, and a master’s in Business Administration from MIT.

In 1981, Governor Brown appointed Asera as Deputy Secretary of State of California and chairman of the State Building Standards Commission, making him the first Filipino American to serve in state cabinet-level post in California and the U.S. He was also the first Filipino American to be a chief legislative consultant to the California State Senate and California State Assembly, and “energy czar” of Vallejo, California. He is known for his work on alternative energy, particularly in the field of photovoltaic energy development, and is the recipient of the California Energy Commission’s State Energy Technology Award and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Award for Innovation, among other state and international honors. In December 2006, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo conferred the Pamana ng Pilipino Award to Asera, recognizing his pioneering leadership and accomplishments in being the first elected Filipino American to serve in various offices in the United States mainland and for his expertise in the development of renewable energy.

He authored the law establishing the California Solid Waste Management Board which is advancing alternative energy throughout California. After leaving public office, he developed energy-related businesses. He has also served as an engineering professor at CSU-Cal Maritime Academy in Vallejo.

AUTHORS

Peter Jamero

Peter Jamero was born in Oakdale, California in 1930 and raised on a Filipino farm worker camp operated by his parents in nearby Livingston. He spent four years with the U.S. Navy and saw duty in the Korean War. In 1953, he married Terri Romero and they had six children. He attended San Jose State and UCLA where he received a master’s degree in 1957, and he attended Stanford University as a Public Affairs Fellow in 1969-1970.

He went on to become a top-level executive in health and human service programs in federal, state, and local governments and in the private non-profit sector. His positions included: assistant secretary of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services; director of the Washington State Division of Vocational Rehabilitation; director of the King County (WA) Department of Human Resources; vice president of the United Way of King County; executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission; assistant professor of Rehabilitation Medicine of the University of Washington; branch chief in the U.S. Department of Health; Education and Welfare in Washington, D.C.; and executive director of the Asian American Recovery Services in San Francisco.

Jamero’s notable contribution is his autobiography, Growing Up Brown: Memoirs of a Filipino American. His story of hardship and success illuminates the experience of what he calls the “bridge generation” – the American-born children of the Filipinos recruited as farm workers in the 1920s and 1930s. “Their experiences span the gap between these early immigrants and those Filipinos who owe their U.S. residency to the liberalization of immigration laws in 1965.” His book is “a sequel of sorts to Carlos Bulosan’s America Is in the Heart, with themes of heartbreaking struggle against racism and poverty and eventual triumph.”

Peter lost his wife Terri in 2009 after 56 happy years of marriage. Retired since 1995, Peter lives in Atwater, California. He spends most of his time listening to jazz, following the New York Yankees, doing yard work, solving crossword puzzles, and being a loving father to his six children and doting grandfather to his 15 grandchildren. His latest book is Vanishing Filipino Americans: The Bridge Generation published by University Press of America in 2011. Every month, Jamero publishes Peter’s Pinoy Patter, a newsletter on the Bridge Generation and other updates on the Filipino American community.

Evangeline Canonizado Buell

Nearly 100 years ago, Buell’s family came to the United States from the Philippines. She is the granddaughter of a Buffalo Soldier, a nickname given by American Indians in the 19th century to Black American soldiers. Her grandfather, Ernest Stokes, was one of the 6,000 Buffalo Soldiers sent to the Philippines to fight during the Spanish American War in the 1890s. When Spain lost, it ceded the Philippines to the United States and Stokes was ordered to remain with about 100 others to squash the Philippine campaign for independence. But many of the Buffalo Soldiers identified with the Filipinos “because they too were treated as savages by the Caucasian soldiers, and my grandfather did not want to shoot the Filipino soldiers.” He was also one of the few who married a Filipina and stayed in the Philippines.

Stokes returned to the Philippines and stayed for 25 years before moving the family to West Oakland. While living in the Philippines, Stokes’ daughters were treated like servants and beaten due to their darker skin and coarse hair. Buell’s mother and aunt were repeatedly raped by relatives.

In the 1980s, Buell became the first public events coordinator at the International House at U.C. Berkeley, where she fostered and promoted cultural exchanges between international and American students, staff, scholars, heads of state, spiritual leaders, and the larger community. In the early ‘90s, she organized the East Bay chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FAHNS) and became its president. The chapter published Seven Card Stud with Seven Manangs Wild, the first anthology of stories of Filipino Americans in the Bay Area, co-edited by Buell. In 2006, she published her memoir, Twenty-Five Chickens and a Pig for a Bride: Growing Up in a Filipino Immigrant Family.

Buell advises the youth to “tell your story to those who will listen.” At 87 years old, she organizes musical performances (she is a folk singer and guitarist) for the residents of the retirement and nursing home where she stays in Oakland and has assumed numerous leadership positions there too.

SPORTS

Roman Gabriel

Roman Ildonzo Gabriel, Jr. was born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1940 to Edna Mae Wyatt, an Irish from West Virginia, and Roman Ildonzo Gabriel, Sr., a Filipino immigrant who worked at the Atlantic Coastline Railroad Company as a cook and waiter. Gabriel grew up poor and suffered from asthma, but he played high school football at New Hanover High School and graduated in 1958. He went on to star as quarterback at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

A two-time All American and two-time ACC Player of the year (1960-61), Gabriel finished his college career holding virtually every Wolfpack passing record. He saw his jersey retired after his senior season and then presented to him by North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford on January 20, 1962. As captain of his team, Gabriel set 22 school and nine conference football records. He threw for 2,961 yards and 19 touchdowns. Known for his arm length, Gabriel also played baseball and was voted the best amateur athlete in the Carolinas. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of fame in 1989. The Atlantic Coast Conference’s 50th Anniversary Football Team was announced in 2003 and Gabriel was among the top 50 players in the history of the ACC to be listed.

Gabriel was the number one 1962 AFL Draft pick, chosen by the Oakland Raiders, and was the number two 1962 NFL draft pick, selected by the Los Angeles Rams. He signed with the Rams and went on to a distinguished career. He is considered to be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Gabriel is notable for being the first NFL quarterback of Filipino American descent. He was awarded the NFL Most Valuable Player Award in 1969 and earned Pro Bowl spots in 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1973. He is the only quarterback from his era to still rank high in the “lowest interception percentage” category in NFL passing statistics. The Professional Football Researchers Association named Gabriel to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2013.

After playing, Gabriel had a two-year career as a member of the NFL on CBS broadcasting team from 1978-79. He also coached at Cal Poly Pomona from 1980-1982 and for the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks of the World League of American Football in 1991. He also had briefs roles in movies such as Skidoo and The Undefeated, and television appearances in Gilligan’s Island, Perry Mason, Ironside, and Wonder Woman.

Gabriel has been married and divorced three times. He has four sons and a daughter. He is associated with the Special Olympics and the Salvation Army and other charities working to cure multiple sclerosis, leukemia, and muscular dystrophy. He lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Raymond Anthony Townsend

Townsend was born in San Jose, California. Townsend's mother, the former Virginia Marella, is a Filipina from Balayan, Batangas while his father, Ray Sr., is American.

Townsend attended Camden High School and Archbishop Mitty High School, in San Jose, California, where he played high school basketball. As a high school senior, he averaged close to 28 points a game for the Camden High Cougars. This was prior to the three-point shot line being regulated years later. After graduating from high school, he played college basketball at UCLA earning all-conference honors in the Pacific-8 (known later as the Pac-12).

He played three seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Golden State Warriors and the Indiana Pacers where he ended his career in 1982. He was selected by the Warriors in the first round of the 1978 NBA draft, with the 22nd overall pick, and became the first Filipino American to play in the NBA. During his playing career, he was listed at 6'3" (1.91 m) tall and 175 lbs. (79 kg). He played at the point guard position. He also played in Italy's LBA with Banco Roma, during the 1984–85 season. With Roma, he won the 1984 edition of the FIBA Intercontinental Cup.

After his basketball-playing career, Townsend worked as youth sports development coordinator in San Jose, California. He was honored as UCLA's Filipino Alumni Association's Distinguished Alumnus of the Year, on May 2, 2009.

Tim Lincecum

Lincecum’s mother, Rebecca Asis, is the daughter of Filipino immigrants. From the age of four, his father, Chris, helped refine his son’s pitching motion, filming his practices and games and analyzing the video. He attended Liberty Senior High School in Renton, Washington and played college baseball at the University of Washington where he won the 2006 Golden Spikes Award. That year, he became the first Washington Husky to be selected in the first round of an MLB Draft when the San Francisco Giants selected him tenth overall.

He was nicknamed “The Freak” by his University of Washington teammates because of his ability to generate powerful pitches despite his slight physique – 5 feet 11 inches and 170 pounds. He led the National League in strikeouts for three consecutive years from 2008-2010, led the league in shutouts in 2009, and won the Babe Ruth Award in 2010 as the Most Valuable Player of the MLB post-season. Lincecum also won consecutive Cy Young Awards in 2008 and 2009, becoming the first MLB pitcher to win the award in his first two full seasons. He appeared in four consecutive All-Star Games from 2008 to 2011 and pitched no-hitters in 2013 and 2014. He won World Series rings with the Giants in 2010, 2012, and 2014.

Sportswriters Bob Nightengale and Robert Falkoff compared Lincecum to pitcher Corey Oswalt. “When pitching, Lincecum would start with his back slightly to the plate, his left leg raised, and his glove held over his head. Then, he would take a step of about seven feet forward, maneuvering his hips over the place his left foot was now planted as he released the ball. This helped him to generate high velocity despite his slight build. The power behind the throws was generated not just from the arm, but also from the long stride and the hip muscles.”

In September 2019, Lincecum appeared at a postgame ceremony held by the Giants to mark Bruce Bochy's final game as the team's manager. In an interview at the ceremony, Lincecum acknowledged that he had not formally retired from baseball and was "trying to transition." He added, "I think the hardest part was coming to grips with who I was after baseball, and I haven't even done it fully yet."

Erik Spoelstra

Erik Jon Celino Spoelstra is the head coach of the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association, the first Filipino American and Asian American head coach in the history of four major North American sports leagues. Spoelstra’s mother, Elisa Celino, is Filipino and hails from San Pablo, Laguna. His father is Dutch-Irish-American and a former NBA executive. He spent his childhood in Buffalo, New York before moving to Portland, Oregon. He studied at the Jesuit High School in Portland where he excelled at point guard on the basketball team. He received basketball scholarship offers and accepted one from the University of Portland, where he graduated with a degree in Communications. After graduation, he was hired as a player-assistant coach for TuS Herten, a German professional basketball club based in Westphalia, Germany. It was here that Spoelstra got his first coaching job, as coach of the club’s local youth team.

In 1995, he was offered a position with the Miami Heat. He started as the team’s video coordinator and moved up to be an assistant coach and director of scouting from 2001 to 2008, during which time the team won the 2006 NBA Finals. He was promoted to head coach in the 2008-2009 season. In April 2008, Spoelstra became the head coach of the Miami Heat after Pat Riley's decision to step down. Spoelstra was Riley's hand-picked successor. In naming Spoelstra as head coach, Riley said: "This game is now about younger coaches who are technologically skilled, innovative, and bring fresh new ideas. That's what we feel we are getting with Erik Spoelstra. He's a man that was born to coach." Following the addition of free agents LeBron James, and Chris Bosh in 2010, the Heat made four consecutive NBA Finals appearances under Spoelstra, winning the championship in 2012 and 2013.

Spoelstra was named the NBCA Co-Coach of the Year after leading the Heat to a 30-win record in the final 41 games of the season. During the 2019–20 season, he had again coached the Heat back to the 2020 NBA Finals before falling 4–2 to the Los Angeles Lakers. On April 28, 2021, Spoelstra earned his 600th win as the Heat's head coach, and also became the sixth head coach in NBA history to win 600 games with one team. He was voted as the Best Head Coach in the 2020-2021 NBA season.

In July 2009, Spoelstra embarked on the first of four trips to the Philippines where he hosted basketball and coaching clinics, promoted the importance of education, healthy living and wellness.

“He is very dedicated to giving back. Kids respond to him and he truly enjoys teaching them,” said a volunteer of the outreach program Spoelstra runs during his yearly visits to Manila. Most of this program is centered on teaching kids about basketball and discipline.” It is one of the things that make him feel very Filipino, said Spoelstra. “I’ll always be proud of my heritage and I feel blessed that I get this opportunity to reach out and give back,” he said. “I think that urge to give back to my roots is something I got from my mother.”

Source: Google and WIkipedia

The Magazine

Living Legends, Part 1