Women who are successful exude a sense of confidence in themselves. One of the things such individuals have in common is their ability to harness their own thoughts and behaviors; they bring a great deal of personal intention to their lives. They realize that they’re the directors of their own destinies and therefore take a positive stance as they look forward. They’re happy people-by happy, I’m referring to an experience of contentment, joy or positive well-being. It’s the sense that life is generally good, meaningful and worthwhile.
Cheryl Saban, Ph.D., 2009
Notice the LA Times newspaper in your front doorstep? That when you pick it up, it is contained in a plastic bag? When you pick it up, think of a young Abigail, an immigrant at 4 ½ yo, who sorted the inserts so her mother, brother and sister can bundle them together and put the newspaper inside a plastic bag. Do you know how early Abigail started her day with her family to work? 1am.
LA Times newspaper sorter to Magna Cum Laude at USC
Abigail was 4 ½ when she joined her mother, Lolita, and her two siblings, Michael and Shielah in America. Michael, Shielah and Abigail were first raised by their grandmother and their aunt in the Philippines, until they came to America to join their mother Lolita.
With only a New Yorker relative to lean on, and no support system in Los Angeles, the family of four fended for themselves. Shielah and Michael acted as stand-in mother and father to Abigail, while Lolita worked two jobs.
The family worked together as a unit at the LA Times shortly aftermidnight. Abigail and her siblings formed an efficient, assembly line. Barely three feet tall, Abigail stood on a stool, sorting newspaper inserts, which she handed over to her mom, standing next to her. Not knowing how to handle the work at that young age, Abigail developed eczema from unhealed paper cuts. When her young body got tired, she slept inside the shopping cart, propped next to the assembly table. The cart was her bed, where she was safely tucked in. By 6am, the morning newspaper had been delivered, their sorting shift is done, but Lolita has to go to her day job at an insurance company, while all three children went to school.
When they got home from school, Michael and Shielah looked after Abigail. Michael prepared their meals, while Shielah helped Abigail with her homework, and became Abigail’s emotional support and “stand-in mother.”
When Abigail needed anything, like lunch money or clothes for school, it was her sister that she asked, and her sister, only 10 years older than her, that provided.
“What would you be when you grow up, Abigail?” Shielah asked Abigail.
“I want to be a lawyer.”
At age 5, she was certain who she wants to be. Keep asking her and her answer is: “I want to be a lawyer.”
In high school, she was voted “most likely to succeed, carrying a briefcase.” Inside that briefcase, you will find that Abigail’s mother, sister, and brother packed into it, their own examples of discipline and pursuit of excellence.
Pushed to excel by their mother, all children were expected to bring home the highest grades from school work. She told them, no matter what and no matter what their family circumstances, the children were made to believe “you will be successful if you excel in school.”
One summer, when Abigail was in 7th grade, she brought home one B+. Not good enough for the mom, Abigail was grounded for the summer: no phone, no television and no friends. At 9pm each evening, Abigail dutifully complied and respected the rules. She would even unplug the phone and take the phone equipment to her mother’s bedroom. Even then, Abigail was aware of the concept of compliance to a higher authority.
All three siblings got close, supporting one another, becoming each other’s only avenues of support.
A Hard Worker with an Articulate Voice
Shielah described the family’s trip to New York in 1983 to visit Auntie Rose, who now lives in Las Vegas. They were all riding the subway, when young Abigail blurted out: “That man stinks.” Mom Lolita quickly told Abigail to restrain herself as that was not a nice comment.
Although Abigail grew up to learn empathy, Abigail’s voice could not be suppressed. She used her writing voice and got admitted to USC and even earning a modest scholarship through her mom’s employment. At USC, she graduated magna cum laude. Starting freshman year in college, she worked in the library 20 hours a week and by junior year, she got a second job at the LA Superior Courthouse, working 35 hours a week while going to school full-time. She relished working and earning a paycheck, but “most important for me is the people I work with. I want to work in a family atmosphere.”
She was admitted to the UCLA Law School, one of the nation’s highest ranked law schools, where she did not easily make friends. She candidly shared being uncomfortable at UCLA, a university which had done away with affirmative action, and was less than welcoming and inclusive.
With sons and daughters of rich folks going to law school at that time, she felt out of place. But, determined to be heard, she dressed unconventionally: fishnet stockings, combat boots and of course, she was seen.
She bonded with other Filipinos who were organized under a long-honored tradition of “adobo night potlucks.” She joined La Raza, where she was accepted for who she is. She also joined Asian Pacific Islander Law Student group. She adjusted, and she credits the nurturing she received from other students of color, including African Americans law students, with whom she studied [only five in a class of 300], who welcomed her in “Section 5,” as key to her success in law school.
“When I first got there, my dress was different. I tried to change my attitude to fit others. I had always received good grades throughout my life because I was true to myself. But my first semester in law school, I tried adopting a thinking process that was not my own–I studied in groups and tried studying from others’ outlines., , But it was not my work, it was not me. . In college, I had straight A’s, except for one B. After I received my first semester’s grades in law school, realizing I was below the curve, I cried for two weeks. Once my tears dried, I realized why. I needed to be me and not try to be like anyone else or study like anyone else. By second semester, I raised my grade point average to to a 3.4. And I did it studying the way I had done it the past fifteen years. I regained confidence in myself.” Abigail shared.
With that self-assurance, Abigail and the entire family applied for the citizenship process: “When I took the citizenship exam, the INS agentwas apologetic. As a third year in law school, I was more educated than he was and he felt embarrassed to confirm that I knew answers as to questions like how many stars appeared on the American flag.” Shortly after she graduated from law school, Abigail finally got her citizenship. “I remember holding that U.S. flag and crying so much.” It was a double win for Abigail in 2003, a higher education degree and finally becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen after more than twenty years. She was so proud and felt, “I can be me,” the lawyer she always wanted to be.
Meeting her Mentorand Becoming One
She applied at her first law firm and was thrust into labor, class action, and entertainment law. Before finally landing her first job, she received some help from her mentor Fritz Friedman, who acted like a big brother figure to her.
Fritz made her feel comfortable about “who I am.” She was insecure, but he assured herthat she was a good person who could do great things. He even helped her set up a few job interviews. Abigail said: “He made me believe that I was special, but he was always painfully honest. One day, he called and said honey, I just saw you in a photograph. May I tell you something? You’ve gotten fat. I always want you to be the best you can be in all aspects of your life.” That’s all it took and Abigail lost the extra weight in a matter of few months.
She is now one of the shareholders for the Jaurigue Law Group (a recent promotion to partner at the law firm), where she also acts as the managing counsel.
At the firm, she describes using “encouragement and positive language” for staff to find the best practices in what they are doing, and she holds the record of knowing how to “efficiently handle” paper, given her early exposure at the LA Times. She values the foundational attribute of the firm, a “family atmosphere,” which she nurtures for the staff as well.
38 million folks reside in California, 27% of which are immigrants, with one in four foreign-born. State Bar of California reports 248, 240 are lawyers, 72.83% are active in their practice.
In the Los Angeles’ Filipino-American Community, four are designated Super Lawyers whom I know: Joe Sayas, Paul Estuar, Michael Jaurigue and Abigail Zelenski (formerly Abigail Treanor) as a Super Lawyers Rising Star, given her young age. Three, including Abigail, have served on the Filipino American Library Board. Both Abigail and this writer were recruited to serve on the Board by Fritz Friedman.
Credibility, according to Super Lawyers, is a precious commodity that must be guarded using a rigorous process, peer evaluations and third party research on performances of these attorneys, and a recognition process wherein folks do not pay to play. Super Lawyers is a rating service choosing outstanding lawyers in various practice areas in 12 performance indicators and track record of performance. 2.5% are chosen Super Lawyers Rising Stars (for those who are under 40 years old) and 5% are chosen as Super Lawyers (for those who are over 40) each year, through a selection process, that is now recognized by the U.S. Patent Office.
4 ½ yo immigrant Abigail is now a U.S. citizen and a practicing lawyer, with distinction, shared with an elite 2.5% of the lawyers in California, publicly known as a Super Lawyer Rising Star for the past two years.
Abigail credits that designation to the trust she instills in her clients. “That’s how I get clientsI know that trust and kindness are two of the most important attributes in an attorney. Clients come to me for their legal needs because I always perform my work with those two attributes in mind..”
Her positive self-worth designed her destiny as a Super Lawyer Rising Star! But also, she carried the briefcase, that was packed by her family’s example of hard work, discipline and quest for excellence, along with her emotional anchors in life, Shielah and Michael.
Update:
In the fall of 2018, Abigail Zelenski founded Zelenski Law, PC, a boutique law firm where she services clients on a wide range of employment-related issues. She practices with her husband and partner, David, both of whom have practiced employment law for the past seventeen years. In the summer of 2019, Abigail was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti, and confirmed by City Council, to serve as a Commissioner on the inaugural Civil and Human Rights Commission and began her term in 2020. The newly formed Civil and Human Rights Department was formed to maintain and strengthen Los Angeles’ diversity, equity, and accountability through oversight, outreach, legal remedies, and empowerment. Likewise, in 2020, Abigail was tasked to serve as President-Elect of the Philippine American Bar Association, the largest and oldest local association of Filipino-American lawyers in the United States and will serve as its President in 2021. Abigail continues to volunteer her time in the community, including with Search to Involve Pilipino Americans, where she previously served on its Board. She also makes sure to spend time with her lovely family, David, Zoe, Marty, and George.
That’s the state of how I was taught, was the whole thing of Ohana, wishes family…and that’s one thing that we don’t get enough of in the Philippines; [it is] all about family and same in Hawaii and that’s one thing I’ve always enjoyed is to be able to treat my people, of the people I perform with, the people that I perform for as if we were family. I don’t go up there and become this big God and try and make people worship me. I hate that, if there’s anything about mine in my career I hate most is that. But to be able to relate to my audience to have them be the stars and not me during a two three hour concert that for me is the ultimate mission of my every show – so the upbringing of Hawaii, the atmosphere of the laid-backness of Hawaii but more than anything the Ohana factor, the family factor that became very part and parcel of my act even joking around about family how my mom raised me ala Rex [Navarrete a comedian] never end there; that kind of thing you know when he jokes about his grandmother and his mother being so Filipino is unbelievable. I put all of that in my show, okay so we got a Hawaiian Filipino with the spirit of Ohana and rich in everything.
Martin Nievera, with Philipp Harth on Fan TV (2010)
Cover Photo: AJPress photo by Noel Ty
I have watched Martin Nievera at his solo concerts in Los Angeles, and wondered about his accessibility to the audience. I was not a fan yet. It reminded me of ASAP stars on The Filipino Channel with how they literally made the audience a part of their show. It makes for an unruly audience who would at times interrupt the singing with selfies.
But, after watching Nievera with Pops Fernandez, my initial impression of a flamboyant singer who attracts his audience with his exuberance and enthusiasm turned into an expressive Martin who was balanced with Pops and her serenity onstage.
As Pops came out in her ivory, no shoulder gown, with laced cutouts, Martin admired it by holding up the bottom to showcase the designs, to which Pops tenderly remarked to put it down as she had no slip underneath.
When Pops appeared as the first Filipina judge on CBS’ “The World’s Best” hosted by James Corden in early Feb. 2019, I wondered how she became a talent judge. I, of course, did not know that she has built a formidable singing and acting career, as the better half of Martin’s love team on television and film, his former wife and the forever mother of two “wonderful treasures,” whom he referred to, their sons Robin and Ram. It was my classmate, Rose B., who reminded me of their television show, “Penthouse Live,” that she watched every Sunday for years.
But more than that, Martin has garnered 18 platinum, five double platinum, three triple platinum, and one quadruple platinum albums. That amounts to millions of records sold.
As an ex-married couple, the generosity in their friendship is palpable, when Pops said in a GMA interview with Janet Susan Rodriguez Nepales, “I got a call from Martin (Nievera, her ex). I was doing a video shoot. Martin texted me and asked me if I heard about the show. Yes, I told him. He said that they chose him. I said, Really, wow good for you. But then Martin said, I don’t think I can make it. I can’t make the dates. So he asked me if I could do it instead? I thought that was really touching of him to think of me. I said. That is so sweet of you. Little did I know that I would be the first Filipina to be featured in the show as a judge. It was a wonderful experience. It is a fantastic show. I hope they will do more seasons and I can get together again with the other 49 judges.”
The duo performed at both Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles and Samala hall at Chumash Casino on two consecutive weekends.
Samala, by the way, means “recognized by God” with a capacity of 1,500 seats, almost all claimed that evening. At the Palace Theatre, its 1,068 seats were all claimed, leaving the organizers to sacrifice their seats for others.
Palace Theatre in its golden 50 years was located on Broadway, a major thoroughfare and LA’s major commercial district. It was the largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. “This venue was once graced by Charlie Chaplin, Harry Houdini, W.C. Fields, Marx Brothers,” and add to that now, Martin Nievera and Pops Fernandez.
Today’s Palace Theatre has newly installed lighting and sound systems and their songs resonated loudly and a few times, one could feel actual reverberations of the band’s music go from one’s ears to the body, literally.
Nevermind that the sound dynamics have to be tweaked, nor that the fans were into small-talk reunions in their seats, since thousands sat inside the theater, filled with excitement to see their idols, reunited.
One of the opening singers, Cherilyn Diane | AJPress photo by Noel Ty
The opening acts occupied time, a bit raunchy for my taste that we will leave it at that. But, one singer, Cherilyn Diane, who traveled from San Diego, did not resort to any external props or raunchy dance moves, as she simply sang to the audience’s delight, “I Surrender,” by Celine Dion.
As soon as Martin and Pops appeared in the Palace theater, the minor irritations of gossiping fans, of sound dynamics that needed tweaking and stabilized later, all were forgotten as they sang their opening medley, “Together Again”: “Together/forever/To be together/Forever with You/Together again.”
They captivated everyone with this number, and Martin started relating their journey as a duo on stage and real-life. With how it all began, he sung, “No One Can Make Me Feel This Way,” and so expressively, he made us believe, “Tell me where I went wrong,” and recounted how Pops did not like him at first, as he was perceived to be arrogant.
Could it be because he was raised in Hawaii, a son of Bert Nievera, who was a member of Society of Seven? Martin got to watch his dad perform every night, at times, three times a night. He knew what a performing artist does onstage.
Martin Nievera serenades Ms. Priscilla Hunt, as producer Trinity Foliente looks on (rightmost). | AJPress photo by Noel Ty
In 1980 at Concord Pavilion, Martin was one of the back-up singers for Barry Manilow and from that stage view, he watched as Manilow was applauded by fans and that became his dream for himself. “I was 17 years old I’d sang in a singing contest with 4,500 contestants. It’s called California State talent competition, it’s four days long and I think I was one of the only Asians in there singing. There [were] a lot of Asian dancers, Bennett singers, [to make the] long story short on the fourth day I was crowned the overall grand champion of the state of California in1981,” Martin said in a FANTV interview in 2010 with Philipp Hart.
He shared that he and Pops became a stage team, fell in love, had two beautiful children, who were raised by Pops, and admitted he” messed up.” He then asked the men in the crowd, “How many of you here messed up?” Of course, to that question, no one would fess up. He declared, “They will be my life, the rest of my life. This woman and two children.”
He then dedicated the concert to Rosie Chua, one of the organizers of this August 10 concert with this song, “Ikaw lang ang mamahalin”: “Sa bawat pag-ikot ng ating buhay/May oras kailangan na maghiwalay/Puso’y lumaban man, walang magagawa/Saan ka, kailan ka muling mahahagkan? (In this cycle of life, there is time to say goodbye, even if the heart struggles, there is nothing that can be done. Where and when can I embrace you again?)”
The crowd went wild when he sang, “Sana ang tibok ng puso ko, sana yakapin mo kahit sandali, (Perhaps with my heart’s beat, perhaps you can hug me just one moment), one could feel the loving expressions. Even if the song was dedicated to his concert organizer, expressions towards Pops and her persona were what he was singing his words to.
Onstage, the expected rancor between ex-spouses was not there, only respect, candor and humor. For every verse and lyrics they sang, “Ikaw ang bigay ng Maykapal (You are a gift from God), or “Ikaw ang Tanglaw sa Buhay Ko, (You are the light force of my life), the fans could not get enough of their chemistry onstage. Though the couplehood is gone, they are thriving as a family and as they entertain their fans, moving them to tears, as well as laughter.
During the Chumash Casino concert that I attended a week later, courtesy of good friends, Martin described Pops as ”This woman [who] became the most understanding woman in the world. She raised our children by herself, Robin and Ram. He proceeded to belt out, “Baby I love you. This is my last chance for love.”
Perhaps the most endearing numbers for me were the duets of Robin Nievera, the first-born son, with his father and mother. Robin is superb with his acoustic guitar and even his composition, “Home,” that was a fusion of his dad’s rendition of a yesterday song, “Unchained Melody,” sang in tribute to 10 million Filipinos who work overseas and in Los Angeles, over 500,000 now.
When Pops spoke of passing the torch to one of her earlier songs, “The Little Star,” she moved me to tears with her heartfelt love for her firstborn. It reminded me of how I was, giving birth and caring for my own firstborn, a special favorite girl in my heart, Corina, and even more so, my granddaughter by her, Princess.
Pops duets with her first-born, Robin Nievera | AJPress photo by Noel Ty
But as this firstborn sang, “I am not them, I am me,” you know he is asserting his identity, separate in style and skills and talents from his parents, and one who is finding his way around Los Angeles, introducing emerging talents to Hollywood. Of course, he is not them, but he is from them, and perhaps by embracing the musical genes that produced him while in the womb, he can be the next Andrea Morricone, who declares, “I knew music before I was even born. Morricone, born to parents who both were into music, one of whom is Ennio Morricone. Since then, the father and son won an Oscar for their latest film score. I wonder if that is also in the future of the Nievera and Fernandez family, a strong composition, all their own to be sung and to win an Emmy or an Oscar?
Irrespective of that wish, when Pops sang, “I could have said goodbye/if I knew it would be the last time.” It was a very moving concert for me, now that I know their love story and how they manage to still bring out the best in each other, onstage and off, giving each one the generosity and support they need as parents to Robin and Ram.
As the concert ended, Martin went to where the first row fans were seated and sang songs to Mrs. Priscilla Hunt, a respected philanthropist, whom he serenaded. Then, other fans intruded into the song to get their selfies, which Martin encouraged. Indeed, it was Ohana night, all over again, even after 37 years of performing on stage. Martin has made every concert space his own playground, his own home, and his own comfort zone, and became ours as well, even if just for a night.
“Water is a great teacher that shows us how to move through the world with grace, ease, determination, and humility. When a river breaks at a waterfall, it gains energy and moves on, as we encounter our own waterfalls, we may fall hard but we always keep moving on. Water is brave and does not waste time clinging to its past, but flows onward without looking back.” —Anonymous
Dreamers know no bounds and see only possibilities. They are grounded in God’s infinite grace and envision no limitations to their dreams. They keep on no matter what, and step by step, they see that what they committed to do, defines them, and inspires the organizations they lead.
First, there is Tony Meloto, who imagines the poor can be middle class in the Philippines, who keeps on, despite the odds and conflicts he faced. Today, Gawad Kalinga gets worldwide donations and has built homes for 2,000 communities. Second, there is Loida Nicolas Lewis who imagines a school, so Sorsogonian children can be educated in moral values, technology and entrepreneurship, then jobs or businesses as productive citizens in a global economy. The Lewis College now has close to a thousand enrolled students from K to college. Third, there is Dado Banatao who imagines strategic philanthropy as a significant bridge amongst Filipino Americans and Filipinos, funding science and technology researches, while producing high-value goods that anchor a sustainable economy in the Philippines. Today, his partnership with Philippine Development Foundation (formerly Ayala Foundation) and the Philippine government has created a research consortium, involving seven universities, aggregating their scientific capacities. Fourth, there is Vicky Wallace who imagines a bed and breakfast in Panglao, Bohol, using local crops and local labor. She is much ahead of her times when she conceived it a decade ago, when organic cooking and baking was not in vogue yet in Bohol. Now, her visionary thinking for Bohol Bee Farms gives jobs to hundreds of Boholanos, while she raises her own bees, farms her own produce and makes new dips using malunggay, with food technologists as new uses for fruits and vegetables.
Joining this circle of spiritually–grounded visionaries is Regina “Gina” Lopez who imagines the Philippines as the eco-tourism capital of the planet.
“We are not Singapore or Hong Kong, we are 7,000 amazingly beautiful and spectacular islands. Many of us do not even know the beauty that exists in our country because these islands are not comfortably accessible, to discover the magnificence of Sibuyan Island in Romblon and to even [get] more saddened to find that a people living amidst such magnificence could be so poor, “ she said.
“Envision it like Hawaii,” I told her. “Yes, yes,” she replied!
Gina’s transformational cleaning up of the Pasig River, a river long dead, like a landfill in one section, filled with mattresses, plastic bags, diapers, tires, bottles, and a dead carcass stench, has opened up collective imaginations and collective energies that kaya pala natin ito. Used to making a big splash, as part of a media-conglomerate family, she was raised to look at the problem in a strategic way. Watching her dad, Eugenio Lopez, by example, she learned from him the importance of integrity and vision.
Gina was asked to take over the Pasig River cleanup by former First Lady Ming Ramos. But, before taking it on, she sought partnership with the Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR). DENR agreed, so she accepted. Later, she was officially appointed by President Benigno S. Aquino to chair the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission, under the DENR, along with Metro Manila Development Authority, Office of Executive Secretary of the President of the Philippines, Department of Tourism, Department of Public Works and Highways, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, Department of Interior Local Governments, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Finance, Department of National Defense, Department of Transportation and Communications, GMA Network, ABS-CBN Foundation/Bantay Kalikasan and Unilever. The commission’s goal was to have a viable river of Class C quality, fit for fishing, boating and manufacturing water supply for food processing. Mind you, this is a 15-year effort of cleanup and revival. Many unsuccessful attempts have been made in the Pasig River, including the relocation of top polluting industries, like chemicals and petroleum, which have since relocated. But, the unprocessed domestic wastes, to which only 7% of the households in Metro Manila are connected to sewage treatment, make the problem quite insurmountable. But not Gina!
Estero de Paco became the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission’s demonstrative project. It was the largest estero, the dirtiest and presented the most challenge. What once was a slum-dwelling estero, it is now bordered by agapanthus and rubber plants, complete with what Gina calls “island reactor, with coco coir to filter the water, and man-made waterfalls.” Next to it is a newly built Paco Market, with stabilized rents. She is currently seeking donors to help former vendors the first rights to go back to the stalls, at $1,500 a stall. It is now a state of the art facility, with better managed and cleaner stalls, and no longer with an added stench from the nearby Pasig River.
I asked her what gives her a unique perspective in seeing the Filipino potential of healing Mother Nature and their capacity for change. While she grew up a child of privilege to the Lopez family (who owns prime real estate, utilities and biggest media network in the Philippines) and received a high school education at Assumption College, then college at Newton College of Sacred Heart in Massachusetts, she dropped out to become a yoga missionary for Ananda Marga, dedicated to the self-realization and service to humanity. Her commitment of 20 years led her to India, Kenya, Zambia, Ghana and Nigeria. She credits this part of her life as opening up her sights that poverty can be removed in the Philippines, “especially in the places which are beautiful, in these places, agriculture and eco-tourism is the way to go.” Her political will to see transformational change amongst the poor came about when she learned survival skills as a missionary in Africa.
She found herself without a safety net of being part of a media conglomerate nor the connections of a well-placed family. She learned that “when there is a will there is a way.”
“That as long as one had faith in one’s convictions, one can build dreams. I ended up with land, a house, a children’s home, a school. To survive, I would go to businesses and tell them what I was doing and invariably I would get support. I learned how the poor live. I lived in the slums of Africa where one had to stand in line for hours for water, taking a bath and washing with a bucket, where there are no toilets. I had to sleep on the floor. It was hard but I developed an affinity with the poor…I know what it is like,” she continued.
Indeed she knows. She applied the first principle in doing projects for the impoverished, malnourished children.
When she came back to the Philippines, she took on these projects that made a splash, not with fame and glamour, but with social impact. Bantay Bata is child welfare program of the ABS-CBN Foundation, with eight regional offices that provide rescue and relief for abused and sick children, while giving them quality home care and therapy, until they are reunited with their families or referred to appropriate childcare agencies. For her work in designing an all-around safety net for the abused Filipino child, she was recognized as one of the AAA awardees of the Asian Institute of Management. She was a UNESCO Kalinga Awardee for popularizing science through her innovative media work on math, sciences, national heroes, seeking help from the Department of Education to show these modules in the classrooms. In classrooms where they were shown, dramatic improvements were achieved in math and reading scores.
Her social-impact environmentalism appears to follow three principles in Van Jones’ Green Collar Economy’s book: first, equal protection for all, where the pain is minimized for the impacted group and their gain maximized; second, equal opportunity for those in pursuit of equity, where all are included; and third, reverence for all creation. She states her principles as: “commitment to integrity, compassion to care for each other, to work together, reverence for the environment and healthy lifestyle.”
She shared her work in Estero de Paco, next to Paco Market, to a group of Filipino Americans gathered in Goldilocks in Cerritos, California one evening in 2011. We were all riveted to her presentation that most folks did not leave until close to midnight. Housing for the informal settlers who lived on the banks of the waterways or esteros was first secured. They were relocated to a development called Bayan ni Juan, where concrete row houses were built, with a school and clinic in Calauan, Laguna. She is the first to say that she cannot do it alone, but together with a team of students, military, community volunteers, “where the cleanups were always a source of joy and kinship,” nothing seems impossible.
Gina is the first to admit that more investors are needed to set up businesses which will employ local folks, much like the visionary Vicky Wallace, who did it in Bohol for her province-mates, and much like Loida Lewis who is educating her fellow province-mates in Sorsogon. Gina had prevented more respiratory diseases and a new imagination has sprung from these new Calauan residents.
Now, the second principle of equal opportunities for all has to be satisfied. At the Paco Market, most of these retail vendors are provided opportunities to inhabit the new market stalls.
“Nothing can stand in the way of a people united for a noble cause,” Gina said: “I have a deep resonance with the environment. My spiritual practice is feeling the divine, entering stillness, then feeling the Higher Worlds. When one does this, one develops a very keen affinity with nature. Divine Energy is in Nature.”
As to the third principle of reverence for all, Gina succeeded in eradicating poverty in Puerto Princesa, where she helped the community residents in building trails, a waterless toilet, a visitor’s center, and other visitor-friendly improvements. With this community-based tourism, the community benefited. She has eliminated poverty in this area in just a period of two years with very minimal investment in five communities living amidst these gorgeous surroundings. “It has even reached the stage where the profit is big enough to roll over to another community,” she added.
Like water, moving with grace, ease, determination and humility, Gina has indeed been a social impact environmentalist, a peace-builder, healer and nurturer of Mother Nature by cleaning dead rivers and installing community-based eco-tourism!
Cover Photo: A hawk flying above LA’s skyline (Photo by Christine Ho)
I’ convinced ‘myself.’ The I that did the convincing was the one who needed desperately to justify the entire experience, to make it sane and right and okay and approved. Myself was convinced as the moral self, the part of me I would want to be a judge in a legal system. This moral part of us, however, in these extreme situations, is vulnerable to the overwhelming force of that part of us that needs to justify our actions. I am ashamed of this lie because it was done for nothing more than self-aggrandizement. There was no greater cause, such as saving lives. Also in the previous examples of lying, I wasn’t of two minds. I didn’t believe what I was saying for a moment. I was in control. With this lie I’d lost myself. Perhaps this too adds to the shame. It is the lie of two minds that is most dangerous.
Karl Marlantes, 2011
I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.
Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo
I was struck by Fr. Raymond Decipeda’s video post on Facebook, touching the hands and face of a weary, old man living in Alameda, an industrial corridor in downtown Los Angeles. He took his right hand first and showed him how to clean using baby wipes, while speaking to him in his native tongue, Spanish. He took another wipe to wash off the grime from this man’s face, gave him the container of wipes and then, a hug. This Catholic priest’s action showed me how we might be that speck of goodness to strangers, even randomly, by our policies and actions.
The unsheltered homeless population in LA City was 39,168 in 2008. Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority now claims that in 2018, the unsheltered population has gone down to 22,887.
Recall Steve Lopez’s friendship with a mentally ill homeless violinist, Nathan Ayers, who lived in the streets? A film was made describing their friendship: “Lopez met Ayers four years ago [2005], when Ayers was a homeless musician on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Lopez learned Ayers had been a promising violinist, and that he had left the prestigious music program at the Juilliard School because of his struggle with mental illness. Lopez chronicled Ayers’ struggle in several columns at the Los Angeles Times. These columns inspired readers to send instruments to Ayers through Lopez. The friendship that Lopez formed with Ayers eventually helped the musician get off the street, settle into an apartment and find treatment for his schizophrenia,” NPR wrote in 2009.
Recently on Jan 17, 2019, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti held the fourth annual homeless job fair wherein 50+ employers were invited. Garcetti recently attended the Washington, DC’s Conference of City Mayors wherein he was expected to make an announcement for his presidential run, crowding out the Democratic primary for 2020 to an estimated 20 candidates. Instead, a few days later, it was announced that he would not run, giving city residents a sense of relief that now, their mayor can focus his attention on solving LA’s social issues.
Sunrise at Echo Park Lake (Photos by Christine Ho)
I was listening to KPCC describe how the homeless folks can get a haircut, a shave, a cosmetic makeover, and new clothes, with employers waiting to hire them. At the same job fair, they asked folks to bring resumes and to dress to impress for these positions: “Direct Service / Entry Level: case managers, outreach workers, housing navigators, employment specialists, administration, finance. Management / Supervisory Level: supervisors, coordinators, program managers and directors, and similar positions; Professional Level and Executive Level: with advanced degrees such as MSW, MPP, MPH, LCSW, certifications; senior management.”
These are the jobs that folks can avail of and yet, we humbly ask – are these jobs that might qualify the homeless on the streets? Or is the LA mayor’s conflating a job fair with the homeless problem, so something can be showcased as addressing this intractable, complex problem, now 50,000 folks on the streets and climbing?
Would the homeless have access to computers to RSVP using Eventbrite? That was such a glaring red flag to anyone looking at this fourth homeless job fair, that it was not meant for the homeless, but meant for the employers looking for employees for their vacant positions. Intentions to solve a problem or a big social issue matter.
To the LA mayor’s credit, one can observe a marked decline in visible encampments, with lesser tents during the day. But, as soon as the sun goes down, and it starts getting dark, tents go up randomly in public sidewalks, giving the city a feel that it is one huge campground, spread out in different neighborhoods, without zero camping fees and of course, its consequence, trash.
By Thursday to Sunday, much of the human trash from camping on the streets, unofficially accumulate underneath freeway underpasses and near on-ramps, and on public sidewalks, where mattresses, garbage bags, strollers, grocery carts, paper bags, styrofoam containers, buckets, milk containers and even dirty diapers are found.
Channel 5 on Feb. 6, 2019 reported on City Hall harboring rodent fleas and the television station showed rotting oranges near this city of concentrated local power, with rodents feasting on trash and rotten produce. They featured an LA City Attorney alleging typhus infection from rodent fleas.
I wonder what happened to the Bureau of Sanitation in charge of collecting city trash – do they have roving trucks to collect trash from these randomly created garbage zones so they do not become permanent trash dumps? Or not cause illness as this LA City Attorney alleged?
What if these city agencies’ decision makers stopped for a moment, and actually lived outdoors inside a tent? Would they discover that folks who live on the streets need the basics of cooking areas, toilet and trashcans? Would they readily find the resources to address their housing needs and train them for entry-level jobs as now their hearts have been cracked open to care for these homeless folks?
From ‘drive by’ to ‘trash city’
LA used to be derogatorily referred to as ‘drive by Los Angeles’ but we no longer have that designation when the local police created partnerships with communities to reduce gang violence. Now, we are known as the ‘trash city.’
What will it be for Summer Olympics 2028? Would we have changed the culture and designation to be regarded as a clean, green city?
If Kyoto, Tokyo and Hiroshima can do it, we can too. In these cities, residents start sweeping the streets in front of their homes and even hose them down. By sunrise, the streets are clean. It is quite inviting to walk to the nearest subway station.
In Dumaguete, residents get up early too, sweeping the front spaces of their homes, collecting the fallen leaves, trash and litter.
Recently, a Facebook post reported that 700 showed up to pick up trash and litter in front of their Dumaguete baywalk, a major pathway for runners, athletes and tourists. They also have been educating the locals to discontinue the use of plastic straws as fishes die and are swept to the shores.
In Sacramento, the city has started hiring folks who inhabit the banks of the American River to keep this river clean and free of trash.
LA City’s Build, Build, Build
In a public event I attended, about three years ago, I heard Garcetti share his policy of making city government more accessible.
He said that if the city staff were approached with projects and proposals, for them to ask the question, “Why not?”
Did those two words amount to permissiveness and no oversight to developers?
In using that phrase to direct his mayoral staff, did he pretty much give the keys to the city government where perhaps his intentions may have been to cut bureaucratic red tape and promote urban development?
What about balancing that with urban planning and city residents’ local needs?
We are now finding out that LA’s urban development is now synonymous to the displacement of the limited income residents and the lower middle class, known as gentrification and skyrocketing rents.
“Real estate economists are now forecasting that CA will be a majority renter state by 2025,” according to Mia McLeod.
Rock bearing a social justice message
Could these be the outcome of decisions by detached and unfeeling investment groups who maximize their profits by flipping real estate properties and selling them at the highest market value?
Check out rents downtown and you will find that they are priced from $3,000 to $12,000 – prices that are out of reach for most working families. Well, unless you are the son or daughter of someone like Eli Broad or Rick Caruso in Los Angeles.
As soon as the mayor’s two words of ‘why not policy’ became known, Los Angeles’ skylines were dotted with cranes and more cranes. I visibly counted at least eight cranes were simultaneously within a 10-mile radius in and out of downtown and almost choked the life out of city residents, signaling for us massive gentrification.
Right smack in the downtown area, close to the federal courthouse, is an unofficial tent encampment. It is next to a construction zone for another skyscraper and near newly built apartments.
Do you suppose the folks who live in these tents are calling attention to their plight since we cannot miss seeing them as one drives the freeway and takes the on-ramp from Broadway?
Is this not a city of unequal contrasts – folks who are on the streets with meager resources and nearby upscale apartments advertised in the thousands per month?
There is hope since the voters just passed, “With the state facing a massive housing shortage that has driven up prices, California voters passed Proposition 1, a $4 billion affordable housing bond. Voters also approved Proposition 2, a separate measure that will allow the state to use a past tax on millionaires to fund housing for the mentally ill,” KQED reported on Nov. 7, 2018.
Does this mean these housing developers would get low-interest city bond monies?
It begs the question – is Garcetti part of the problem or is he part of the solution?
Lensball taken by the clean Echo Park Lake (Photo by Christine Ho)
I know he has the smarts and political will to do it as he endeavored to transform what was once debris-filled, stinky Echo Park Lake to a bustling, clean water space, where millennials want to spend time at the lakeside restaurants or pedal boats, some of which are shaped like giant swans. Clearly, this is one of this city mayor’s crowning achievements, while then a councilman. He took an almost blighted area and renewed it to reach its full potential.
The question now is will he transform blighted, decaying areas of Los Angeles, Silverlake, Temple St., Alvarado, Alameda, Virgil, downtown LA, Koreatown, and other parts of the city, where the homeless folks set up tents?
Perhaps, we have enabled this urban complex problem by not doing our share as informed voters, who by our voting, have installed public officials who are much cozier with hotel and condo developers? Instead, should we vote for those who are zealously addressing the public’s need for low income and affordable housing and have a desire of strategic public service, longer than their terms in office? Will we have the vigilance as caring voters to become community guardians and not depend on savior-like politicians in LA City Hall who still need to grow as diligent and conscientious public servants?
We need to stop the ‘lies of two minds’ and LA City Hall needs to be in alignment with publicly serving the needs of all city residents, such that no one is deprived of their rights to live a quality life and stand up to corruption, the public officials who need to be weeded out from causing any more trouble to others. They need not look to the temporary tenant in the Oval Office, but to the prior one who served with honor, the 44th U.S. president.
Let the sight of blood frozen on the icy streets of Chicago from the death of 18 homeless folks be not the case in Los Angeles. After all, we are called the city of angels and we all need to live like saints to merit that designation. Yes, saints, as we are surrounded by so much local and federal wrongdoings, anomalies and the ‘lies of two minds.’
Strive for peace with everyone,and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.See to it that no one be deprived of the grace of God,that no bitter root spring up and cause trouble,through which many may become defiled.
We never know how our small activities will affect others through the invisible fabric of our connectedness. In this exquisitely connected world, it’s never a question of ‘critical mass.’ It’s always about critical connections.
Grace Lee Boggs
Four decades after Dr. King’s death, we are a very different nation. We are a nation where the White population will become the minority in the nation’s schools in just a few years. We are a nation where nearly a fifth of public school students come from linguistic minority families. Even though there is no significant effort to desegregate our schools now, thousands of American schools, mostly in the suburbs, are going through racial and ethnic change as Black and Latino families move away from central urban areas and many city schools experience displacement of one minority by another. Since teaching is the one profession that must interact effectively and in great depth with nine-tenths of the nation’s young people, lack of training and support means, at best, lost opportunities for deeper and more effective relationships. At worst, it means being helpless in the face of serious divisions coming into our schools from the outside community. American parents, by very large majorities, want their children to grow up understanding how to relate successfully with all groups in a diverse society. For this to happen, and for our society to avoid projecting into ever larger sectors of suburbia the kinds of poor race relations and resegregation that damaged so many urban neighborhoods, teachers must have the tools to understand and relate to students and parents from all backgrounds and to help children understand the very diverse and changing society they will live in.
Gary Orfield, The Civil Rights Project at UCLA
Group photo from Saturday, January 26 shows nearly 70 attendees during the first summit for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) educators. (Photo courtesy of Bianca Nepales)
A group of about 20 Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) educators and advocates voluntarily organized a summit for Southern California AANHPI educators during the last weekend in January.
The intent was to build community across schools, districts, and identities, deepen its collective understanding of AANHPI experiences with education, and create space to affirm and respond to the needs and challenges.
Nearly 70 attendees, some traveling from as far as Sacramento and San Diego, convened at Bright Star Rise Kohyang Middle School in Koreatown on Saturday, January 26 to engage in the summit’s theme of “Inward, Outward, Onward” as a way to build community, learn from each other, and set the stage for future action.
A highlight of the summit was a focus on deepening the collective understanding of AANHPI experiences with education, and the ways in which AANHPI experiences might be represented in education equity conversations.
“Now, more than ever, our voices are heard, our leadership is seen and convening other folks who have long not seen themselves in famous leadership is an important part of healing. It is an imperative to fully represent the stories and hope the future holds,” said Ruth Le, one of the summit organizers and current special education high school educator.
Nationally, only 2.5 percent of all public school teachers identify as Asian American Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, while 6 percent of all students in the LA Unified School District (LAUSD), the nation’s second-largest school district, identify as AANHPI.
The summit organizers believe that Southern California can and should be prime space for its kids and families to receive an affirming and responsive education, which starts with teachers understanding the unique role they play given their own identity in relationship to their students. By creating a space to affirm and respond to needs and challenges experienced by participants, the summit organizers hope to set the stage for a future of community-building and collective action.
“Growing up, I didn’t have many role models to look up to who looked like me. Spaces like these guided me in finding my leadership voice and political identity — a space of transformation and community,” shared Jacqulyn Whang, a current educator with Compton Unified School District who is also leading a yoga workshop at the summit.
In America, analyses of racial inequities in education typically focus on disparities between the experiences of African-American or Latin@/x kids (colloquially, “black and brown” kids) and their white peers. Framing the fight against educational inequities in this way renders invisible the needs and contributions of AANHPI communities in any of that work, according to research conducted by Benjamin Chang on Asian Americans and education.
For a moment, it took me back to 1980s with organizations like Asian Americans Advancing Justice (formerly Asian Law Caucus, Asian Pacific American Legal Center) and Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education (APAHE) who were focused on addressing social inequalities through civil rights work and training leaders in higher learning.
I remember attending education conferences of APAHE and leaving inspired. It was empowering to listen to conference speakers: black, brown and white professors who had stellar academic achievements in the field of education, know how to teach from the ground up, and are able to speak from a wealth of experience, from praxis or actual practice, what it takes to teach with equity-centered leadership and fairness and to develop curriculums. They invited community leaders as well to speak on best practices.
They were not just buzzwords, but APAHE’s conference workshops reflected teaching and leadership development content, borne out of actual leadership and educational experiences for decades and more.
Ricco Siasoco and Sarah Ha (Photo by Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz)
It paralleled what I saw in SoCal AANHPI Educators Summit presenters, Sarah Ha and Ricco Siasoco, each having 15 years plus experiences of teaching and advocacies. It was a unique combination of seeing a Ricco, a former professor at Boston College presenting with his former student Sarah. They had a positive mindset, ability to influence others with their presentations, who work with respect and humility for those who attended the summit workshop.
In a short period of time, they got folks to reflect on their past, position themselves in a collective timeline prepared by LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics), an organization we had supported in the past. LEAP timelines for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders first dated back to June 9, 1880 when 148 Japanese were in the continental United States.
However, this session also illuminated how the AANHPI community is missing a complex and comprehensive AANHPI history. I noticed that the timeline glaringly lacked the history of Filipinos Americans in Louisiana since the 1700s, who originated the dried shrimp industry. They were Filipino sailors under the rule of the Spanish who escaped the Spanish galleons to establish the fishing village of Saint Malo in Louisiana, “Filipinos pioneered the dried shrimp industry, the predecessor of the modern shrimp industry,” says Robert Romero, the President of the Filipino Louisiana Historical Society. “There [was] no refrigeration then, and after you have been catching all these shrimp, so you have to just dry them.” Manila Village, Bassa Bassa and other Gulf Coast Filipino settlements would later be credited. (Source: Ricco Siasoco’s slide presentation at the Summit, Jan. 2019).
This caught my attention that one of the tenets of this summit’s session on ‘Sharing our Stories: Solidarity Across AANHPI Lines of Difference’ is – “We cannot understand U.S. history without understanding Asian American history,” Dr. Erica Lee, author of the Making of Asian Americans. My challenge to the summit organizers is to contact LEAP and correct this significant milestone omission.
A multicultural summit of educators
Equally valuable in the exercise is an impression that we are all coming from diverse backgrounds, previously census-profiled at 25 Asian American groups in the 1980s, to now 48 diverse groups, speaking 300+ languages, according to Ha, who is also the Senior Managing Director of National Asian American and Pacific Islander Alliance at Teach for America.
What was heartening was that the SoCal AANHPI Educators Summit gathered 90 teachers from different parts of California, and were from these cultural backgrounds: Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Indian, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander.
The use of technology assisted in the profile assessments of these attendees. The diversity of experiences and backgrounds represented reflected the need for AANHPI teachers to have stronger self-awareness of their identities and impact. Workshop leaders Ha and Siasoco emphasized that those represented also must be cognizant of many other groups are not represented and their narratives still need to be included, as their voices.
The erasure of AANHPI folks from education conversations also means that AANHPI educators can often be ill-prepared to think critically about the impact of their identities in the relationship to their students and schools. According to an article from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, AANHPI educators often have a less robust foundation of research from which to interrogate the impact of their identities on students of all races and ethnicities.
The summit provided spaces for these young teachers to articulate their voices, to share their past histories and to have the agency to do so – meaning they are empowered and presumed to have the “critical literacy.” That would mean having the facility to critically process the information they have absorbed, and apply logically to present situations and find solutions and address the problems. Schools can better serve all students if teachers more deeply understood AANHPI needs, and ways to address these challenges using tools such as “critical literacy.”
The erasure of AANHPI communities reinforces the “model minority myth,” a (false) belief that allegations of systematic racism (voiced initially by African-Americans) must be unfounded because Asians have been able to leverage hard work toward their American success.
In this case, when inequities facing AANHPI folks are not given space in education conversations, we perpetuate the incorrect notion that AANHPI communities do not face challenges in education. This assumption of AANHPI earned immunity against inequity both disservices AANHPI youth and fuels excuses that allow the needs of non-AANHPI youth of color to be ignored.
Here’s hoping that the summit organizers and participants continue to fuel their momentum to address these inequities in this generation.
