 and Mabuhay. Mabuhay. Navigating the journey. We are going to visit with a dear, dear friend, and you know I only talk to dear friends. I met Toy and when we both worked for the city and county I guess in 1972 maybe. But we're going to talk to Toy today about Filipino Heritage Month in Hawaii and it's one of those areas that I know nothing about and we work with, we meet with, we visit with all of us on this island, have friends at a Filipino and yet come to Filipino Heritage Month and discover we don't know anything. So I've asked Toy to be, I guess, to talk about Filipino Heritage Month, about the Filipinos in Hawaii, when they came, how long they've been here, and everything we need to know. So aloha Toy or Mabuhay. So tell us about Toy. Now of course I remember because we were, I started at the city at the same time you were already there I think. And so tell us about you. Now you told me you worked for in Manila, was it? Yes, after I retired from the city. Well I came to the United States myself in 1957 as a student and I was representing my father, my parents' store in the Wall Street Fair in New York way back in 1957. We attended that fair at the Coliseum for about a month and then a month later we also attended the Washington State Fair in Seattle, Washington. That was the time when the space needle was open and then I went back to San Francisco to stay with my, an auntie of mine. A while over there my father called me and said, you know, son, since you're already there, why don't you take this opportunity to continue your studies? So, you know, Filipino culture if your parents tell you something and they're supporting you completely all you can say is yes sir or opo. So that's how I ended up at the University of Michigan where I had an older sister already enrolled at the University under a Smith-Montford Wright scholarship. But my first winter was a horrible experience. It was going to be easy below zero. After that winter I decided to vacation in Hawaii for my sister, my elder sister at that time just opened a store in Waikiki. So I asked her if I could stay with them instead and attend the University of Hawaii. So I transferred and I think it was February and December of 1959 and I've been here ever since. So yes, tell us about the Filipino Heritage Month. When did the Filipinos come to Hawaii as a group? The first official group of Filipinos that's recognized at least in whatever historical records they are is the 16 Filipinos that came on board a steamship recruited by the Hawaii sugar planters association and they arrived here on December 6. No December 21 I should say 1906. There were 16 of them. That was the first official group of Filipinos formally recognized as the first immigrants into Hawaii. I think a good almost 200,000 Filipinos followed after them in batches over the years. The last of which came before the Philippines declared its independence in 1946 and most of them ended up in the plantation of course. The first batch was all assigned here on Onowahu all 16 of them. No, I take that back. There were divided into two groups. One group stayed in the Waipahu area. Whatever sugar plantation there was at that time. The other group went to Kona. So that's where they were located. Anyway, from then on the Hawaii sugar planters association kept on recruiting Filipino farmers until the declaration of Philippine independence in 1946. I forgot how many thousand Filipinos eventually ended up under this program prior to Philippine independence. Now when you talk about Philippine independence, let's go back and talk about the war in the Philippines. The Americans call it one thing, but you call it the war of independence. Well, you know, after the Spanish American war, the United States took over the Philippine archipelago as a commonwealth. And in 1935 under the titings MacDuffie Act, they said that after a period of 10 years as a territory of the United States, we would be given our independence. And unfortunately, after that 10 years, was immediately after the end of the Second World War. The Philippines declared its independence anyway. The whole economy was in ruin. It was right after the war. America kept its word, but I think it was the one time economically for the Philippines to do so. But now how did the war, the Filipinos that were here, because they came before that war of independence? How did that affect the ones that were already here? I don't think it affected them at all. They continued to work in the plantations. I don't know if there's an official record of them being recruited from the plantations to work, say in Pearl Harbor or here. Because most of them were uneducated and I don't know whether the type of skilled labor that was required for the war machine was something that they could provide. That's my assessment. Well, you had so many Filipinos that were in the war, in World War II that were on the American side, of course. And so there was so much going on. Now you're going to have to get me straight on this. The ones that served in the war on the American side are still having trouble getting pensions and all of that kind of stuff. Which ones that are left alive? I think that issue has been settled. I think in the last act of Congress, they decided to appropriate enough money to give all of those Filipinos located in the Philippines, the veterans anyway, a lump sum of 15,000. And the same thing with the people that were living here in Hawaii or the other parts of the United States. But the latest was that there was a, in addition to that, they were awarded the so-called Congressional Gold Medal under the leadership of General Taguba, who was then acting on behalf of AAP to push this particular issue in Congress. And it was approved. So that issue has been settled. That's wonderful. Domingo Las Baños was a friend. And he was on the show with me. And he was very proud of the medal. He was wonderful. We talk story all the time. And I'll come back to him. So tell us again now. Now once you're independent and people are beginning to move from the plantation into other, well, their children are getting educated and they're moving into other jobs and other things. So what happens with the culture after that period? Once you leave the plantation, or while they were at the plantation, did they hold on to their culture? Let me backtrack a little. Because after I finished my master's program at the University of Hawaii in 1960, I was fortunate enough to end up with a job also at the university. And at the university, I noticed that I felt anyway at that time that the Filipinos sometimes hide their own identity. They didn't want to be recognized as Filipinos. They'd say they're part Spanish or somebody else. But there was one activity where we were able to participate, representing our own ethnic culture. This is the Kapala-Pala Queen Contest, where the Japanese selected their own queen, the Koreans selected their own queen, the Filipinos selected their own queen. I remember dancing Filipino folk dances with the students from the East Coast Center at that time. But I had a feeling that they were ashamed, to some extent, to even accept that they were Filipinos. Because we were the latest group of immigrants that came from the plantations. But the Filipinos that have started to come in since the Philippine independence, most of them are educated. They're trained engineers, doctors, physicians. So the type of immigrants that started coming after the Philippine independence was a different kind of person. They were no longer the uneducated agricultural workers recruited by the Hawaii sugar hunters. So now you have a different group, but on the whole, I'm talking about holding on to your culture, your music, your dance, the storytelling, about holding on to your culture, bringing it with you. Yeah, the people that did this were mostly the town associations or association of provinces representing the area that they came from in the Philippines. And usually they select a queen, they elect officers from their town organizations. That's how they hang on to, and that continues to this day. Now, tell us about the Philcon Center. You were part of that. So tell us about the center. It's beautiful. The Filipino community center was a dream for, I don't know, decades, at least by some people I know. One of those that saw the need for one was my late sister, Mrs. Sulidad Alconcel, who was married to Ambassador Nnedad Alconcel in the mid-70s. And they felt that there was a need to have one that could be used as a meeting place for the many different Filipino organizations on this island. Similar to, at that time, the Japanese Cultural Center and also the Korean one. The Okinawan did not have theirs yet. It's located in Waipahu. The effort to do this, and there were, in fact, there were several efforts to create, to spearhead the creation of a Filipino community center. But the one that succeeded putting up the wonderful facility that there is in Waipahu was handed by Roland Casamina and Andy Flores of LNL Vane. Between the two of them, they were able to gather enough people to obtain the money from the state and federal government and solicited donations from the community to put up the center. And it was inaugurated, I think, in 2002. So I'm not mistaken. It's a wonderful facility. The only thing is the building cost roughly $13 million to construct, but they had only about nine and a half million dollars in money collected from grants and community contributions. Most of it were grants from the city, from the state, and from the federal government. And they ended up borrowing a $4 million loan to complete the construction of the building. Unfortunately, that is now the thing that weighs down the programs and other things that are done in the Filipino community center, because a substantial portion of its revenues, either generated within the center or collected from the contributions outside, have to go in pain of that debt. Oh, wow. And I think the payments now are running around $18,000 a month. Oh, when I was there, it was $23,000. We were able to refinance it at a lower rate, so it went down to $21,000. And then it's been refinanced twice since I left. And they were able to pare down the payments a little bit more. But that is a tremendous financial burden from the little revenues that the center generates. Do they have programs there regularly so they can generate income? Not at the present time. We had a computing center. We had 32 computers there where we offered computer training programs. But we also received some money to provide these programs free. We never saw them as a money generating program. In fact, the whole concept of the center was to be able to provide some space that the community could use for their benefit. And unfortunately, the only revenue generating our portion of the center of the spaces that are rented to the various vendors. As you know, we have the YNAI comprehensive health center over there. We have a dental office. We have an eye doctor. We have a financial company. And then most of the revenues are actually generated by the volume, both from the rental of the facility itself. And a percentage commission from the food sales by those that cater in these events. Well, everybody loves Filipino food. So that should generate some income from the approved service. Yeah. But that's not enough. No, of course not. Of course not. Does it have a museum? Is there a museum as a part of the field concept? We wanted to do that, but there is really no space because every square foot of the space, the community center is rented to be able to generate some income. I wish we had a space, even just for a small cultural display that can be changed every month or every quarter. That would really be nice. It would be. And the federal government has money for cultural in, I'm not sure how that, but it's for museums of certain cultures that are dedicated to the culture. And there is federal grant money for that. Oh, yes. I think there is plenty of money for activities like those, but in the case of the Philkong Center, the need to generate funds is so great so that the debt could be whittled down to something more manageable. Yeah. Well, now before we run out of time, I have to tell you this story. Well, to you and to our listening audience, it's my one story that I know that I dearly love. And Los Baños, as you know, was in the Army, and my husband is a retired submarineer. And every year at Memorial Day of military holidays, at the submarine base at Pearl Harbor, at the Parchee Memorial, there is a ceremony dedicated to all of the submarines and submariners that were lost at sea. And so every year, Los Baños would come and some other Army people. And I always wonder, why is the Army here? Because this is all submarines. Well, so the story is that on one of the submarines, the Virgin, there were a sailor, well, they were Army, but they were on the submarine. And the submarine's service was segregated, of course, during World War II. And the minorities, there were Black and Chinese and Chamorros and Filipinos, were messmen. But this group of messmen from California were very well educated. They were special, special forces, and they were Army. But they would dress them up like messmen, put them on the submarine, and then off to the Philippines. And they were special duty. But it looked like everybody knew the military was segregated, so they looked like messmen, so nobody paid attention to them. But what they did, they transferred money and supplies and all kinds of things to the war effort in the Philippines, in the Philippine Islands. And nobody suspected that they were spies. No one. And they went through the whole war in and out of the Philippines with no one being the wiser. And I'm making this really short. So on their last trip, and it's the last day of the war, last few days of the war, everybody knew it was coming to an end. And they're on the submarine coming back to Hawaii. And it was bombed by friendly fire. So they lost everybody on that submarine. And that is why they are at the submarines of Parchi, is what it's called, the Parchi Memorial. And every year, from that day to this, those Filipino soldiers are honored with all of the other Navy submarines. So I have to tell you that story, because it's really a special story. You know, Parchi, that's how I make a Domingo. Yeah, I have read the, I don't know how many volumes, 10 or 12 volumes of history of the Second World War. But I did come across this particular episode that you said, I think I'm going to take a good look at it. Yeah, we were aware that there were advanced elements that were inserted by submarines into the Philippines to kind of scout the area, you know, to find out what the military installations were, et cetera, et cetera, so that this could be fed to General MacArthur, so he can figure out how best to retake the Philippines. But I didn't come across this particular story. Well, I would send it to you. Yes. It's about it. I'd like to read about it. Absolutely. But it's my favorite story, because like I said, I met Las Baños and we were friends until he died. And in fact, he was the last thing he did was on my show. And that was such a special story. And it's not told. If I hadn't asked why the army is here, and Las Baños and the other army people were with him in their army uniforms. And then finally, finally, after I kept asking and asking, then the story came to light. And Las Baños said they were called MacArthur's Navy. And so there's all kinds of stories about MacArthur's Navy. But this is this is the story. And it was a great subterfuge because the Navy was segregated and they dressed them up to look like messmen. Even the guys on the submarine didn't know what was going on. They just knew that special. So there. But I will send it to you because it's one of my favorite stories. And I want to thank you for taking the time to be with us to talk about the Philippines and your heritage. And we'll have to do this again and talk some more about it. There's a lot of things a lot to talk about. Yes. Now that I have your number, we can communicate this way or by email. We must tell the there's so many Filipinos in Hawaii. And you know, when I was trying to talk about I kept asking people and they said, Well, I don't know. Well, I'm not sure. You know. And did you know Abelina Shaw? Yes. Yes. She's practicing law. Yes. Yeah. And she is born on the plantation and now she's a big shot. And she worked for Jeremy. Yeah. She was the chief of staff. Yeah. And she was she also served as deputy director of the Department of Health under the ocean. Oh, great. Yeah. So she's a dear friend. And but anyway, I want to say Mabuhay. Is that the right to say Aloha and Maraming Salama. Okay. All right. Thank you again so much. And we will do this again. We will talk more. I'm sure everybody wants to know more about the Philippines. We will do. We'll do. Okay. Thank you. Aloha.