The FilAm 07-18

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Issue 5, July 2018

Greta Lood: A love affair with Central Park p5 2018's Distinguished Women: A journalist, a publisher, and an engineer p6 Trans women and sex work: What’s real, what’s not p8

Letter from the Publishers

Honoring courageous women on the Fourth of July

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appy Independence Day to our readers.

July 4th, 2018 marks the 242nd year that America has been a free nation. A timely reminiscing brings us sadly to our present situation where we are ruled by a government that enforces an internment camp-style immigration policy that separates migrant children from their parents.

Donald Trump, this is a crime against humanity.

We think of the Central American mothers who bore these children, raised them, and then made the agonizing decision to bring them to freedom in an attempt to escape raging violence in their countries, even if that freedom meant several days crossing a tortuous border.

In a way, these migrant women are no different from the Filipino women who brave separation from families, cultural isolation, immigration raids, as well as sexual and racial harassment in the hope that one day their children can come to the U.S. and they can all reunite as one family.

Mona Lunot Kuker has a painting called “Maleta.” What other article can embody the essence of migration but the sturdy suitcase?

In her story, this nanny and artist shared her early years in NYC where she did backbreaking work as a domestic helper and a nanny working with two to three families. She remembers the time when one of her employers gave her a slice of pizza and “threw it on the kitchen table without a plate.”

IBM engineer Virginia Mayo Policarpio recalled how she used to help her mother clean houses as a young girl. While soaking the blinds in the bathtub, she vowed to work hard and do well in school so that her children did not have to experience what she went through.

Journalist Hazel Sanchez of CBS News recounted how her parents left her two older sisters in the Philippines when they moved to the U.S. When they were able to save enough money as medical professionals, they gathered everyone and made a life in Illinois.

What about our trans women? They who cannot find work in a society that discriminates against gender when hiring. They who find in the world’s oldest profession a socio-economic lifeline.

Founding Editor Cristina DC Pastor

At the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas, Honduran mother and child are among those intercepted by Border Patrol agents. Photo: Getty Images Filipino women are tough, courageous, and focused on their families. So are the migrant women from the troubled countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. We think most women are.

Being in a foreign country and not knowing where the government is keeping your children is unbearable, but for some reason, women seem wired for pain and suffering and have held on to their Faith to sustain them.

We are dedicating this issue to all women -- strong or frail, resilient or fearful, successful or powerless. The FilAm honors all of you.

Business & Advertising Manager Rene Pastor

Cristina DC Pastor & Rene Pastor

Address P.O. Box 8071 New York, NY 10116

The FilAm is a publication of A&V Editorial THE FILAM |

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Contact Editorial: 848-219-0069 Advertising: 732-428-6318 Thefilamny@gmail.com

The horror and absurdity of Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs

By Cristina DC Pastor

Ever heard of the tokhang victim who rose from the dead?

How about the ridingin-tandem assassin who fell off the bike?

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ulitzer Prize-winning journalist Manny Mogato of Reuters shared some of the grim and hilarious episodes he has learned covering Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal ‘war on drugs.’ Almost 7,000 suspected drug users and pushers (including some totally innocent fatalities) died from what is commonly known as extrajudicial killings or EJK. The number has declined since the International Criminal Court opened a preliminary inquiry on the government’s killing spree in March.

A call came in that there has been an encounter in a Manila street. Reporters rushed to the scene. Three bodies were sprawled one on top of the other. While waiting for SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operatives) to arrive, one of the bodies suddenly sat up. Apparently, the police missed him. The man is now under the Witness Protection Program of the Commission on Human Rights.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Manny Mogato with NYC-based media. The FilAm Photo There have been two to three such cases where the cops misfired, said Mogato in a freewheeling chat with members of the Filipino American Press Club of New York. A police directive was later issued ordering that all bodies be loaded in a van without waiting for SOCO to arrive to collect evidence. In some cases, autopsies would show bullet marks at close range, indicating suspects were shot inside the van, targeting the head or the heart. Doctors would declare, “Dead on

‘Not all police officers are involved in EJK. They think it’s wrong.’ Photo: Getty Images THE FILAM |

arrival,” and say nothing more.

“Takot eh,” said Mogato, a veteran journalist who covered the police and military beats for many years, including during the Martial Law period under Ferdinand Marcos. “Parang execution ang nangyari.”

Another time, a riding-in-tandem duo was fleeing a hit in a street near a church in Manila. The shooter fell off the motorcycle, and people mauled him. The police showed up and told the enraged crowd that they will bring him to the precinct and “kami na bahala dito.” The crowd followed them to the police station. The officer in the station said in all seeming innocence, “There’s nobody here.” The gunman had vanished.

One would think that police officers who had committed thousands in EJK killings would know how to do it by now. That they would have murder perfected to an art or at least not mess up so horribly.

The case of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, who was killed in Caloocan, was probably the most disputed. The police account of the killing (it was an encounter) was totally different from what was captured in closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera (he was 3

dragged and shot). A gun was placed in his right hand; Kian’s mother said her son was left-handed. The gun remained in his hand even as he lay dead on the street.

“Yung baril hawak pa. Kung encounter yun, dapat yung baril titilapon.

That’s another ‘drawing,’” said Mogato, to mean the police ‘arranged’ the evidence.

Not all police officers are involved in EJK. There are some who do not condone it because it erodes the public’s respect for men in uniform. “Tingin nila, mali eh.”

But some police officers are lured by the “reward,” usually P10,000 ($192) for a regular suspect or P50,000 ($962) for a High Value Target, such as a mayor or any local politician. (exchange rate of 52:1) The series of investigative reports written by Mogato – together with Reuters colleagues Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshal – uncovered the alarming presence of the Davao Boys, who enforced more than a hundred killings in a district in Quezon City.

This dreaded death squad reports to their commander. His name: Lito Patay.

Said Mogato with a smirk, “We call him Colonel Death.”

Dr. Connie Uy retires after 50 years as doctor, educator

On January 2, 2018, the Filipinos of New Jersey lost a beloved ‘pillar’ of the medical community to retirement.

Dancing at her retirement party.

The FilAm Photos

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onstancia ‘Connie’ Uy, one of only 11 pediatric nephrologists in the state, announced she was stepping down after 50 years of service as a doctor and an educator.

As a doctor, she specialized in treating kidney disorders in children; as an educator she was professor of Pediatrics at Rutgers University and director of Pediatric Nephrology, among many roles and titles.

“When do I retire?” Connie began to mull the question three years ago, imagining herself on a never-ending vacation with her husband of 45 years, Nestor, a retired corporate accountant.

“There was ambivalence for me on when to retire. Nestor has been retired for the past 10 years, should I stay home? Work on projects together and share the countless blessings that we can explore together? Knowing 90 percent of my classmates are retired, should I join their ranks?” She asked these questions holding back tears as she spoke at her retirement party held at East Hanover Manor in New Jersey.

Her children, fellow doctors, and friends from college took turns commending Connie for her professionalism, nurturing kindness, hard work, dedication to children, even her determined quest to cook the perfect Adobo.

“She was Wonder Woman,” one of her friends, Dr. Zenda Garcia Lat, said.

Connie’s journey into New Jersey’s pediatric care history began in 1967 when she graduated from medical school at the University of the Philippines. A “big decision” for her then was whether to stay in the Philippines or to come to the United States for postgraduate training. She decided to go to Milwaukee for her internship and then moved to New Jersey for her pediatric residency.

“Peer pressures from classmates to travel, the adventure of the unknown and the economic incentives were all the factors that made me decide to come to this country,” she said.

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Her initial interest in pediatric cardiology would be set aside after spending some time at Martland Hospital in Newark, and seeing patients with nephrotic syndrome, chronic renal disease and hypertension.

Four doctors, who would later become her friends and colleagues, inspired Connie. It was Dr. Joan Arboit’s patients she first treated at Martland. She described Dr. Burton Fine as “that person who drills you to think logically, to be inquisitive and to be critical of the scientific literature.”

Dr. Richard Rapkin encouraged Connie to pursue new horizons and supported her professional development by giving her deeper responsibilities. Dr. Geraldine Silkans taught Connie renal biopsies and dialysis.

“My career was challenging and rewarding. I did my best and I was well rewarded in kind and in friendship,” said Connie.

For 20 years, she worked at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and University Hospital in Newark. And although she has performed laudable work as a doctor, Connie has not forgotten her FilAm community. No matter how busy, she has kept her commitments as chair of the PAFCOM board, national president of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association in Amer-

Connie Somera Uy through the years.

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By Cristina DC Pastor

ica, president of the Philippine-American Medical Society in New Jersey, just to name some of the organizations she leads.

Connie was the first Filipina to receive the New Jersey Woman of Achievement Award. In New York, she was among those honored by the prestigious Society of Foreign Consuls as one of the distinguished women leaders of the city on International Women’s Day. Her honors, awards, and recognition are much too many to mention.

Ambassador Mario de Leon Jr., who spoke at the retirement party, thanked Dra. Connie “for all you have done for the different communities you have unselfishly served – the physicians, nurses, the academics, and the Filipino community.”

Connie and Nestor have three children. Lawrence, the oldest, works in IT at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City; middle child Darryl is director of Admission at Bates College in Maine; and Natalie, the youngest, is also a pediatric nephrologist. They are the only mother-daughter pediatric nephrologists in the U.S., another first for Connie.

Now, she has all the time to pursue her interests in gardening and theater and enjoy Nestor’s hobby of photography. Both love to travel.

COVER STORY

Greta Lood: A love affair with Central Park

By Cristina DC Pastor

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magine a trio of women enjoying a scenic boat ride in a Claude Monet painting.

Artist Greta Lood Charney did not just imagine it; she made it happen. She invited two of her Filipina friends to go rowing under Central Park’s Bow Bridge. While wearing summer hats, each one cradled a dainty parasol.

There’s something about New York’s historic and most romantic park that inspires artistic visioning. Greta is drawn to the scattered elements that give Central Park its splendor: the lakes and rivers, arching bridges, sunshine weaving through the leaves, and even the laughter of secret lovers hidden amongst the stately trees. The artist interprets such sparkle using shadows and color.

I asked Greta why she is in love with Central Park, a favorite Hollywood landmark where Harry and Sally meet for a stroll one Fall day in the movie written

by Nora Ephron. She smiled, said the reasons are “all in my paintings.” She has so many of them hanging in her Manhattan apartment, enough for a full-blown solo exhibit.

“When I came to New York in 2008, I was looking for a group of artists who would paint in Central Park,” said the Zamboanga del Norte-born Greta, whose father was a local politician of the Batasang Pambansa.

Finding no such weekend club, she organized the Plein-Air Painters of Central Park, which has 200 registered members, mostly New Yorkers, currently with about 50 active. The painters meet in Central Park once every two weeks at a designated spot, spread out, unpack their tools, and begin to create art. As they paint, they become one of the park’s moving pieces, just like the families enjoying a picnic, the Shakespeare play unraveling at the Delacorte Theatre, or the children running around the ample lawns.

“Why do I love Central Park? First off, it’s close to my home,” replied Greta, who

lives a mere three blocks distance. “I just cross the Jackie Onassis Reservoir. But most of all, Central Park reflects the four seasons...the pristine snow of Winter, the fragrant flowers of Spring, the green fields of Summer, and of course, the brilliant palette of Autumn.”

Greta’s love of landscapes is another reason. “It’s nice to go out there and just paint what you see.” A UST Fine Arts graduate, she is a long-time member of the Society of Philippine American Artists in New York.

Greta came to the U.S. in 2003 and initially lived in Florida. An established artist and by then a single mother of four, she was represented by IOMA Gallery.

Also an independent curator, one of her unique and revolutionary concepts was to present art shows in The Gardens Memorial Park, which doubled as a beautiful museum in the heart of Boca Raton, and from the very first exhibit, artists were already calling to participate. Greta curated a total of eight shows, including the American Society of Media Photographers of South Florida, before moving to New York in 2008.

‘Why do I love Central Park? It’s all in my paintings.'

Greta's interpretation of 'Las Meninas' 36x48 Acrylic on canvas (Work in progress)

‘San Remo’.

36x24.

Acrylic on canvas

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Continued on page 7

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Being Filipina has been a wonderful source of strengt h ’

CBS television journalist Hazel SANCHEZ

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here is this brown girl on the nightly news who is very pretty. She reports in a clear, pleasant voice. Wonder who she is?

I’ve heard this comment from some FilAms who have never heard of Hazel Sanchez, the general assignment reporter for WCBS-TV. Hazel, 46, introduced herself to the community at a Philippine Consulate event on March 12 honoring three Distinguished Filipino Women for 2018.

She began her story recalling dismaying racial episodes as she was growing up in the small town of Bourbonnais, Illinois. How she was made fun

‘To be a broadcast journalist…That’s literally what I wrote in my grade school journal.’ Photo: NYC Newswomen website of as a kid and asked if her family slept on tanning beds, how she was made to feel different because her Filipino family was in a minority in their town.

“I remember a time, when I was 6 years old I used to rub my skin real hard in the bathtub thinking I could wash off my skin color,” she began a narrative filled with emotion.

Until her father told her a tale that was supposed to make her feel better: How brown people are supposed to be God’s perfect creation because they are neither undercooked (white people) nor burnt to a crisp (black people). She derived some confidence from that fiction and grew up thinking she was born to the “perfect” race.

In college, she attended a mostly-white house party, where a classmate called out in a loud voice, ‘Hey who’s that brown girl?’ She felt humiliated, but her father’s story echoed in her mind. “I am perfect in God’s eyes. I am this beautiful brown loaf of bread.”

Growing into adulthood, Hazel said she was so proud of her Filipino roots. Prouder still of her parents who worked diligently and made the ultimate sacrifice. Her parents completed their education in the Philippines. Her father, Manuel Sanchez, became an anesthesiologist, and her mother, Carlota Sanchez, a nurse. The couple left behind Hazel’s two older sisters when they were babies when they moved to the U.S. When they were able to save enough money, they gathered everyone and made a life in Illinois.

“Mom and dad both came from purely nothing. But they looked past the challenges of poverty,” she said, stressing how their persistence as parents gave her the opportunity to be college-educated and pursue a career as a television journalist.

She graduated with a B.A. in broadcasting and electronic communications from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. She worked as a news cut-in anchor for a Milwaukee station after college. She would later join WBAY-TV Green Bay, hosting “Teen Connection” a live, hour-long show for Wisconsin Public Television. She also hosted a number of the station’s award-winning documentaries.

She has been with CBS for 18 years now reporting and occasionally reading the news.

“I wanted to be a broadcast journalist,” she told the consulate audience. “That’s literally what I wrote in my grade school journal. I was just 10 years old, and that was my life goal before I even hit puberty.”

“And that is all that mattered to her. It doesn’t matter how you are treated as long as you are who you are. If you are true to your soul and you’re dedicated to your passion, you can get through anything. And that was a lesson taught to me by my 5-year-old daughter, to be resilient,” she said.

IBM engineer Virginia Mayo POLICARPIO

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nspiring stories on grit and being earnest were shared by IBM engineer Virginia Mayo Policarpio at the Philippine Consulate’s series commemorating International Women’s Month.

Virginia, who is IBM Senior Technical Staff Member and a specialist on cybersecurity, told the audience how as a 12-year-old, she and her mother cleaned houses for a living. While soaking the blinds in the bathtub, she vowed to work hard and do well in school. The Filipino saying, ‘Sipag at tiyaga para may nilaga’ sums up her life story.

||Heartbreaking

Hazel’s memory of racial exclusion brings up the story of her older daughter Avery, 5. Avery attends a faith-based theatre program where she is the only child of color. Hazel said the children don’t talk to her daughter, which worries — and angers — her and her husband Peter Rapciewicz. (They have another daughter Kenzie, who is 3.)

“When she told me, Mommy nobody talks to me.

They talk to each other, they just don’t talk to me. It killed me,” said Hazel breaking into tears. “It’s 2018 and my 5-year-old is already experiencing that kind of isolation.”

Despite being treated differently, Avery insisted on staying in the program where she said she could continue to sing and dance.

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‘I was smart but never the smartest. But I was always the hardest working student.’

She graduated from the New Jersey Institute of Technology with a degree in Computer Engineering. Two years later she earned her second bachelor’s degree in Information Technology. In 2009, she completed her master’s in science degree in Engineering Management in between a full-time career and giving birth to her first child.

“I was smart but I was never the smartest. But I was always the hardest working student,” said the Lipa City, Batangas-born Virginia. Education, she stressed, is a “great equalizer.”

She joined IBM as a software engineer in 2003.

She currently holds the position of Senior Technical Staff Member, Senior IT Specialist, and Distinguished IT Specialist from The Open Group at a company that has made notable strides toward diversity. “My focus is on IT infrastructure and data security.”

At IBM, she said, “I am surrounded by some of the smartest people I have ever met, but it’s pure grit and persistence that has catapulted me to this role much earlier in my career than most.”

Before joining IBM, she was a chemistry teacher at St. Dominic Academy, a private Catholic school in Jersey City where she also attended high school.

There for almost a year, she was introducing new learning experiences through lab experiments, computer simulations, and molecular model building.

She recalled giving birth to her daughter Trinity, her first-born, while completing her master’s degree. “I literally gave birth between work and school. Last exams from fall semester was completed Dec. 20ish. I had Trinity on Jan. 3rd, and was on maternity leave for three months. I started masters classes again by Jan. 20th. I still don't know how I did that, but by the grace of God, I was able to.”

Valuable lessons she would like to impart? “Do what you say you will. Show up when you say you will…Know your limit and say no if you can’t.”

25 years ago could be considered atypical, she said she was noticed for being earnest. She brought a copy of her college thesis to her first job interview.

“I was overprepared,” she recalled. “After I got the job, my boss said I was the only candidate who did not intern at the influential literary magazine, The Paris Review. Why did you hire me then? She said because I was earnest. She thought I had the right character even if I didn’t have the right access, status or privilege.”

She spent 13 years at Oxford University Press, departing in 2006 as senior editor of the Trade Division as well as Literary & Cultural Studies. She has been with Penguin for 12 years now, overseeing the U.S. editorial program, including the works of John Steinbeck and Arthur Miller.

She did face discrimination when she was just starting out. She said older white males – usually a scholar, a professor, or a potential author – had a hard time acknowledging her as a publishing executive. “So subtle but very annoying. I don’t see that as ‘Never say sorry for just giving your opinion.’ Photo by much now,” she said.

Lambert Parong She encouraged women to learn to accept a compliment. She said, “There is a maturity and power to say with sincerity, thank you. It’s taken me a few Penguin publisher Elda ROTOR decades to figure that out.”

It is largely through her effort at Penguin Classics lda Rotor, who is vice president & publisher for that published works of writers of color are being Penguin Classics at Penguin Random House, given renewed attention, and that includes Filipino surprised many in the audience with one of the writers such as Jose Rizal, Jose Garcia Villa and powerful lessons she has picked up on her way to the Nick Joaquin. top: Do not apologize.

“I don’t know what Penguin Classics would look She explained before an amused audience: “Don’t like if I was not in charge of the series,” she said. apologize. That is, if you are late, of course, or if there “But I can say it looks the way it does now because is something for which you need to make amends.”

I pushed for more inclusion and not to represent a “Otherwise, never say sorry for just giving your opinion, for contributing to a conversation, for making white male world’s best literature.”

Then Consul General Tess Dizon-De Vega lauded a statement in disagreement with the popular view. this year’s three Distinguished Filipino Women and Don’t negate yourself. What you offer should never be said their ethnicity has always been a “wonderful considered less than anyone else,” she continued. source of strength.”

Although her entry into the publishing industry

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Greta Lood: A love affair with Central Park Continued from page 5

In New York, she met and married criminal defense lawyer (now retired) Richard Charney, and Central Park was actually the scene of their first date. It remains one of the most beautiful parks in the world in her view, and Greta has seen so many lovely parks in her travels abroad. “When you step into the park, while surrounded by the city buildings, you can also escape into a forest reserve,” she said, referring to the North Woods, the Rambles, and other secluded locations.

Greta is currently deep at work on her version of “Las Meninas” (The

Ladies-in-waiting), a 1656 masterpiece by the Spanish painter Diego Velasquez. Many artists have done their own interpretations of this iconic work, where a privileged young girl is attended by women in a large salon.

“My version,” said Greta, “represents a journey through art movements from past to present, with traditional Filipina figures juxtaposed against a gallery of legendary modern paintings, many of which have been personally inspirational. The diffused light and bold strokes of Impressionism and THE FILAM |

Post-impressionism, Monet’s “Water Lilies” and Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” respectively, are followed by colorful works of Fauvism, including “The Dance” by Matisse, “The Dream” by Picasso, and Gauguin’s “Tahitian Women on the Beach.” Secessionism is highlighted by the luxurious designs of Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss”.

The angles of Cubism are exemplified

by Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase,” Warhol’s “Marilyn Monroe” is a quintessential lesson in Pop Art, while Dali’s melting clock from “The Persistence of Memory” provides a touch of Surrealism. The 7

blue “Balloon Dog” in the foreground acknowledges the modern metal sculptures of Jeff Koons. Finally, samples of Jackson Pollock’s drip technique and Mark Rothko’s minimalist color fields reflect the dramatic mid-century school of Abstract Expressionism.”

In Greta’s interpretation of the Velasquez painting, it is her hope “that the viewer will “feel the wonder of antiquated souls enveloped by future artworks and sense a certain reversal of time and space.”

Greta Lood’s works may be viewed at www.gretaloodart.com.

Transgender FilAms confront

the stigma of prostitution

By Elton Lugay

At a pageant for transgender women, contestant Priscilla was asked: Why is prostitution prevalent among Asian transgender women?

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lustered, but not totally unprepared, she replied, “We are known to be amiable and hardworking people, thank you!”

It was a cheeky reply which the audience wildly applauded. It was brave of Priscilla to have the humor to confront it. But long after she has left the stage, folded her sash and gown and went back to work as a chef’s assistant, the question lingers. It’s a question she is being forced to confront once again for this report.

“Many reasons,” she began, before reciting to The FilAm her litany of heartaches as a transgender immigrant.

Among some Filipino transgender women in New York – out of an estimated transgender population of 12,500 in the city — prostitution is a way of life. Employment and survival are the usual reasons for being a sex worker, but advocates are finding out there are others.

Transgender sex workers who are undocumented often bear the twin burdens of discrimination and oppression, say advocates. In some cases, even those who are gainfully employed engage in the sex trade, prompting sneer comments directed toward a lifestyle some would consider revolting and immoral.

Not all transgender women are sex workers, cautioned Sienna Baskin, co-director of the Sex Workers Project (SWP) advocacy organization. Neither is she saying that all transgender women doing sex work feel oppressed or discriminated. “But some of those who chose to do it, do so possibly because there are no other options.”

A way of life for some “It is the easiest way to make a living without getting exposed to the harsh reality of the world of straight people or heterosexual environment,” explained former school teacher Kristina, who lost her job when her gender became an issue in a New Jersey school.

Malou, a hair-and-makeup artist, opened up about her legal status. “I have no papers, but I am able to send money to my parents and siblings in the Philippines. What I earn from the salon is nothing compared to what I do on the side.”

Like many undocumented Filipinos, trans women would rather stay in the U.S. than go back to the Philippines where homosexuals – especially the openly gay ones — are often viewed as freaks, if not errant Catholics.

“Filipinos in the Philippines have not yet fully embraced the gay lifestyle, how much more transgenders?” asked Maxie, a nurse. “Besides, why earn pesos, when I can earn in dollars?”

The bitter, hard-edged outlook comes from many years of working the bars or finding men online. Maxie may be earning a respectable sum as a nurse,

Sienna Baskin of Sex Workers Project; Dr. Kevin Nadal of John Jay College of Criminal Justice THE FILAM |

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but there are siblings to send to school, and a family’s middle-class lifestyle to support. When there is a nurse working in the U.S., the family’s living standard in the Philippines is expected to be better than most – it’s like having a family member who is a highly-paid doctor, lawyer or engineer in America.

“We’ve been marginalized in many undeveloped countries so the only chance is to seek greener pastures in countries in Europe or America,” said the poet Leticia. “And why would you go back to the Philippines when T girls in the Philippines have limited resources to better themselves and discrimination is still prevalent? At least here, you are protected by anti-discrimination laws even if you are not supposed to be here legally.”

Many trans immigrants often find New York a “safe place,” according to Baskin, who was interviewed for this report. SWP advocates for women as well as transgender sex workers.

“One thing I notice is that people come here looking for a safe place. Not only transgender people but people looking for a community where they can freely express themselves, where they are not isolated,” she said. “They can come from places like Iowa or the Philippines, and they are looking for places where they can meet other people and they have that level of safety (with them).”

||Easy cash

Prostitution brings in easy cash — anywhere from $150 to $300 an hour, according to the trans women.

There are many ways to reach a potential client but “Craigslist still tops them all,” said Bonita, a dancer.

As law enforcement continues to monitor personals sites like Craigslist, the women know that subtlety and cryptic codes usually work to establish contact with sex-seeking clients.

“Something like ‘T4M party and play’ or ‘Asian TS seeking,’ would get you away from serious trouble,” revealed Bonita.

In terms of fees, they use words like

“150 roses” to mean $150 for an hour’s work. The haggling could take a couple of hours or a matter of minutes especially for willing parties. Many of the patrons are straight, married men across all professions, socioeconomic status, and ethnicities.

“I would post, then a potential customer sends an email. And if you’re both in agreement, you then give your cell number and home address, that simple,” Bonita said.

For Halle, a busboy, the lifestyle comes with a price.

“It’s very expensive to be a tranny.

And on top of that it’s exhausting to pretend like one,” she said grousing about the lifestyle’s requirement for them to “look hot” by investing in regular salon visits, celebrity-style clothing, plus the upkeep to surgery.

||Extreme isolation

The unlawful nature of most sex work often results in “extreme isolation,” according to a study by the SWP.

“Sex workers live under the daily threat of arrest, deportation, and violence. These dangers are compounded by the stigma, isolation, and invisibility associated with their work,” says the study entitled “Behind Closed Doors: An Analysis of Indoor Sex Work in New York City.”

RN Maxie recalled how she was beaten up by a client, and how for several days she stayed home and avoided her friends to nurse her swollen face.

“I didn’t have the right equipment yet,” she said, referring to her incomplete reassignment surgery at the time of the encounter. Why didn’t she come clean with her date? She just shrugged her shoulders.

You’ll never know who might be standing in your doorway — a cop or a psycho killer — said caregiver Gina, recalling her harrowing experience with an NYPD officer. An undercover cop showed up as a client then announced he was about to bust her for her “Illegal services.”

“I thought it was the end of me,” she said. “I was shivering, sweating like a pig.” The officer let her go and told her to get a massage therapy certificate.

There are generally two types of sex workers – street-based and indoors – according to Baskin. While the experience may be different, both face the same “risks of violence from customers and law enforcers and stigma because of the way society looks down upon them.”

In the Filipino American community, there is no organization that advocates for transgender women. The FilAm called several non-profit organizations and was told their services are “open to everyone.” But there is nothing geared specifically for transgender or gender non-conforming people, like, for example, the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in Chelsea which offers assistance in terms of housing, insurance benefits, therapy, STD screening and other services.

“There are very few services that provide resources or support for

transgender people in general and there are no known services for transgender Filipinos in New York,” said Kevin Nadal, associate professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Filipino and FilAm community services need to do a better job of providing resources and support for transgender people because many of them feel isolated and discriminated from their own community.”

But even if there is one, the transgender women said they would rather seek help from non-Filipino organizations because of fear and “hiya” (shame) of being exposed within their community.

For Dina, prostitution is a means to an end. This former nightclub waitress has been in a loving relationship with an American banker over the last 10 years. Having found the right man, she quit and never looked back.

“Every one of us goes through obstacles, it’s up to us to rise above and move on,” she said. – With additional reporting by Cristina DC Pastor

MAKILALA TV to broadcast globally via TV5

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s it celebrates its fifth year, Makilala TV notched up another milestone, reaching an agreement with the Kapatid channel to distribute its program across North America, the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa.

The television talk show featuring three Filipina American (FilAm) hosts, will soon be available in Guam, Canada, and all across the U.S. It will also be viewed in the following territories: the Middle East, North Africa region, Europe, Australia, Papua New Guinea and South Korea.

Produced through the facilities of Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Makilala TV is currently being aired in three of NYC’s five boroughs, namely the Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan.

In an agreement finalized on June 7, 2018 with Pilipinas Global Network US (PGNU), the exclusive distributor of Cignal and TV5 programs, Makilala TV’s cultural, political, and lifestyle programming can be viewed alongside programs such as Aksyon News and the PBA. All shows are under the station’s Kapatid banner in North America. Through this agreement, Makilala TV is able to widen its reach and present a much bigger storytelling platform for notable FilAm leaders and organizations.

Makilala TV is a studio format program with three Filipina Americans interviewing a panel of guests on a wide variety of issues, from the provocative to the personal to self-help topics. There have been discussions on the culture of gun violence, the #Metoo movement, creating a successful

business, caring for seniors, and life after divorce, just to cite a few themes.

The three hosts are women known throughout the community for their meaningful involvement, their opinions and their talent. Jen Furer is the author of the immigration memoir “Out of Status,” is a certified personal trainer, and the Scholars Chief of Advancement for Rural Kids. Rachelle Ocampo is a public health professional, works in development and communications with the Asian American community, and is a board member of Roots of Health (Ugat Ng Kalusugan). Cristina Pastor is a journalist and the publisher of The FilAm community newspaper.

Makilala TV is the first Filipino program in the 25-year history of the BronxNet. It is currently the only FilAm programming on MNN and Queens Public Television.

“I felt that it was very compelling with high production value and would make a great addition to our multicultural channel,” said Bernardo Moronta, Traffic Manager of BronxNet. “Filipinos constitute one of the fastest-growing ethnicities in the United States, and BronxNet is proud to provide strong programming for this under-served audience.”

“PGNU is committed to broadcasting relevant content to the Filipino community. We believe that with the addition of Makilala TV to our programming line-up, we are fulfilling this commitment,” said Ernesto D. Sta. Maria, Jr. PGNU President and CEO. “We’re constantly hard at work in making sure that more Filipinos all over the world get to enjoy quality content from PGNU.” THE FILAM |

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Makilala TV co-hosts, from left: Jen Furer, Cristina Pastor and Rachelle Ocampo Zenaida Mendez, the director of MNN’s El Barrio Firehouse Community Media Center, said she is happy for the show and its three hosts.

“These Filipinas are excellent journalists,” she said.

Mona Lunot Kuker juggles playdates, Pampers, and paint brushes

By Cielo Buenaventura

Even in a city where many people juggle two or more jobs, Mona Lunot Kuker has an unusually double-headed calling card. She is a nanny who is also an artist.

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y day she takes cares of one family’s 2-year-old toddler. For a long time she had a cleaning job on Park Avenue. At night, or at least on nights when she can summon the energy after a full day of playdates, feedings and cleaning, she sets up brush and easel in her apartment in Queens, and paints, for long hours.

She calls painting her therapy.

“It’s a way of easing my heart and mind from isolation from my family and friends as an overseas Filipino worker,” she said.

Her colors are bright, her images often symbolic, her representations direct and bold. And the subjects are often heartfelt. Her subjects are mostly other Filipino migrant women who have joined the exodus abroad to earn money to send to their families back home. Many of them are college-educated – teachers, clerks and factory workers – who come here as domestic workers hoping that babysitting and cleaning houses are just stepping stones to better jobs. But often disappointment meets them at the first stop.

For Mona, the transition was rough. A former electronics company worker in the Philippines, when she came to the U.S. in 2000 her first job as a live-in housekeeper for a diplomat was literally full time — no days off. “I worked for seven days a week and was paid $250 a month,” she said. She toughed it out for eight months then “escaped in the middle of the night.”

From there, she has made the rounds of Park Avenue’s gilded high-rises in various jobs: housekeeper, companion/cook, house manager and server during private parties of wealthy people.

Some of the people she worked for were kind, but others did not hesitate to put her in her place. She still remembers the time when one of her employers gave her a slice of pizza and “threw it on the kitchen table without a plate.”

She quickly learned that her story was not unique.

Domestic workers are easy targets of exploitation and abuse from employers. Often part of an underground economy, they are largely invisible and easily replaceable. But rather than give in to despair and helplessness, Mona found a way to tell her story – and those of other Filipino nannies.

One way was to put old skills to good use. She had been a union officer during her 14 years as a machine operator for Temic Electronics in the Philippines. So, she thought, why not organize here? Before long she headed a domestic workers’ group in New York and

spoke out at rallies and hearings demanding legal protections for migrant workers.

But she also gave voice to the plight of nannies through her newfound passion for art. Five years after arriving in the U.S., she started painting.

She learned to paint by reading art books and visiting museums, although she had a brief, memorable exposure to art as a child. Her father, Leonido Lunot, painted as a hobby. “I saw my father painting when I was very young,” she recounted.

“He loved to paint but because we were poor he could not afford to buy the necessary supplies.”

Her father passed away when she was 17. Mona, an only child, was a college freshman at San Sebastian College-Recoletos in her hometown of Cavite when her father died.

“I decided to work to support myself and my mother,” she said. She found a job at the electronics company and stayed for 14 years until she was laid off after a strike.

Mona’s painting ‘Maleta’ (Suitcase). Art is her therapy THE FILAM |

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The nanny is also an artist She never knew she had in her to be an artist, she said. “Basta isang araw na lang para akong hinihila.” (“One day, I felt its powerful pull.”)

She got a chance at the spotlight in 2011 when she was selected as one of 12 artists for the show “Arrivals/Departures: Women’s Experience of Migration Under Globalization,” at Project Reach in Manhattan. Organized by the Guatemalan-Mexican artist Leilani Montes and the Filipino novelist Ninotchka Rosca, the exhibition, sponsored by the feminist group AF3IRM, brought together women artists from various ethnic groups to explore the theme of migration.

Mona’s painting “Maleta” (“Suitcase”), she said, “is my story, and it’s also the story of all Filipino women who migrate or are forced to migrate to support their family.”

The piece, rendered in acrylic, features a Filipino woman in her Sunday best, lugging a suitcase, her face reflecting both hope and apprehension; around her are skyscrapers, Lady Liberty, the Filipino flag and sad, tortured faces peering behind bars. A snake, whose tail is coiled on Lady Liberty’s crown, seems to say, “Beware, this journey is fraught with danger.” But the woman stamps on the snake’s head.

Although she is not ready to give up her day job, she looks to the day when she can fully pursue her art.

“I’m happy that I was able to fulfill my late father’s dream,” she said. “I will not stop doing this to give honor to my father and our country.”

In 2014, Mona illustrated the children’s book “Manny and the Mango Tree” about a young boy who organizes a protest against the landlord who forbids children from picking ripe mangoes. Mona is married to Steve Kuker, who works as a Fire Safety director at a private Manhattan building.

Speed-interviewing Hella Pinay founder Stephanie Gancayco

By Cristina DC Pastor

In late 2016, a pretty magazine called Hella Pinay made landfall on the FilAm community. It quickly created a buzz among younger women looking for a publication that spoke to them about anything from fashion to activism and relatable to their experience as women of color.

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he magazine is full of visually stunning images that grabbed my attention.

I found myself delightedly looking at the photos. Days later, I returned to read.

The writers, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, wrote personal stuff, articulating their thoughts on decolonization, spirituality, finding personal space in the workplace, “pekpek power,” etc. Its editor, Stephanie Gancayco wrote reflectively about her cancer and how she vowed not to let that stop her from “getting up again, forging ahead.” I spent hours reading topics that were interesting to me, and there were many.

California-born Stephanie and I met at a coffee shop days after I gatecrashed her party; we shared a croissant. It was not meant to be an interview but when you’re a journalist, every question sounded like you’re expecting answers tailor-made for an article. With two journalists, the conversation led to comparing notes about writing, editing, and running our own digital magazines.

Stephanie studied fashion design, and worked in the fashion industry in San Francisco and New York for about 10 years. She is trying to find a niche for her Haliya label of contemporary streetwear in the vast fashion spectrum.

I said her surname Gancayco reminds me of a prominent family in the Philippines. She nodded. On her Chuidian side, she has a great great grandfather, Telesforo Chuidian, who financed the Katipunan revolution of Andres Bonifacio in the late 1800s along with Mariano Limjap. She was raised by her mother. Her father is Spanish and comes from New Mexico.

too? I just brought in a team of people who have experience, who can help make it grow.

CP: Have you always been a writer?

SG: I wrote a lot as a kid. I was with a newspaper in high school. I went to art school for college, I studied fashion design. I was just working working working and was in the industry for a long time. But I would write for myself.

I write because I kinda have to. I like to do it but I wouldn’t say I’m a “writer” exactly… Is it hard for journalists now that the Internet has kind of democratized what gets published?

CP: I studied journalism, but writing now has a different sound to it. In journalism, there are a lot of rules.

Writing now is more freewheeling, more intuitive.

SG: Totally, and I think it’s opened the door for a lot more people.

Her great great grandfather helped finance the revolution of Andres Bonifacio.

Photo by Kimberly Requesto.

Stephanie Gancayco (SG): Your magazine is so news news.

Cristina Pastor (CP): Actually when I conceptualized it about seven years ago, I was thinking of something like yours. I wanted more personal stories, but not limited in gender, age, etc…Still have family back home?

SG: Tons. We have family in Manila, Batangas, Albay, Bicol. I’ve always wanted to go home but my mom has this thing about not wanting to go back, so I’ve gone twice by myself now, with friends.

CP: She probably has concerns about personal safety…Tell me about Haliya.

SG: I wanted to start my own line, I want to see what I can do with indigenous textiles.

CP: Since late ‘1990s. Husband was petitioned by his company. We, the family, came as part of the package…

How did you start Hella Pinay?

SG: It’s actually been on Instagram for about a year, about 2016. It started as just postings and I was like how come there’s nothing for us out here at all? I launched my clothing line recently then sort of relaunched Hella Pinay. I brought on a team. So I’ve been struggling over the summer. I feel like I wanted to have more perspectives and content but I didn’t want to ask them to work for free… so it took me a long time to feel comfortable reaching out to the community but I’ve been really blessed to have so much support.

CP: What kind clothes?

SG: Just clothes that I wear, but collaborating with indigenous women artisans in the Philippines. Contemporary streetwear, baggy unisex things.…

How long have you been here?

CP: I wish I could pay my writers because as a writer I would want to be paid. Still trying to be sustainable.

SG: I see how Ebony, Latina, and other magazines for people of color are successful and I think, why not us

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CP: The core of journalism is still facts. Someone said journalists are educators because they help explain concepts to readers. Unfortunately, facts are being distorted and don’t mean anything to some readers anymore.

SG: Honestly, I think I’m a much better editor than a writer. I edit the girls’ stuff.

CP: No complaints about ‘you’re changing my voice’?

SG: Not at all, I still keep their voices as much as possible, that’s really important to me.

CP: Your writers are mostly younger women. Can women of a certain age write for you?

SG: Most of our writers are in their 20s and 30s, which is around my age.

Millennial is kinda like the target but I’m interested in different perspectives, diversity in the Filipino community, and I think we definitely can gain a lot of wisdom from women “of a certain age” that’s worth listening to.

Will Gina Ortiz Jones become

the first Filipina American in Congress?

By Rene Pastor

A Pinay raised by a single mother is running for a Congress seat to represent the 23rd district in Texas in November.

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ina Ortiz Jones, 37, who won the Democratic primary runoff, is a former Army intelligence officer who served in Iraq. She and her sister were raised by Victorina Ortiz, a single mother who graduated from the University of the Philippines in Diliman and migrated to the San Antonio area in the late 1970s as a domestic helper. While serving in the military, she kept her sexual orientation to herself because of the ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy.

Checking off the boxes in her life, Jones is a woman, a Democrat, an Asian American, a veteran, and a lesbian.

“I’m very proud of my Filipino background,” Jones told The FilAm during a June 3 fundraiser at an East Village restaurant. “My mother is from Pangasinan. She is Ilocano, I am Ilocano.” Her mother is an educator in the Harlandale school district and works with children with special needs.

If she pulls out a win, Jones will join Virginia’s Bobby Scott as members of the U.S. Congress who are of Filipino descent.

Texas is a state where Republicans have ruled the roost for decades, but immigrants and changing demographics could change that picture. Jones is running in a district that spans the city of San Antonio in south-central Texas to El Paso on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Her opponent is Will Hurd, an AfricanAmerican Republican who narrowly won elections in 2014 and 2016 and used to work in the Central Intelligence Agency. He is seen as a nice guy whose voting record Jones has

described as “awful” because he supports Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.

The race, though, will not be easy because the district is a toss-up. Out of a total population of around 773,000, about 68 percent are Hispanic and 29 percent are white, according to the 2016 U.S. Census.

Asians make up only 1.6 percent of the population. Hillary Clinton won this district by three points in the 2016 presidential election. In the 2014 election, only 115,000 voted, and this rose to 229,000 in 2016. As in many tight election races, turning out the vote is crucial to victory.

In a year when Democrats could win control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Jones is part of the spearhead in a building wave of Democrats who could be swept into office in the U.S. mid-term elections in November. Her story is compelling because she came from very humble beginnings.

Jones got a college education by winning an Air Force ROTC scholarship to Boston University. She served in Iraq as an Army intelligence officer. She worked as a director in the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

For a while, she thought she could work for the Trump administration. She found out she could not stand it and left.

Her strategy to win is fairly simple. It is based on showing up in all of the 29 counties in her district to campaign for turnout and overcome the incumbent advantage of Hurd.

“I’m going to go to the mat on the issues,” she said.

Jones will focus particularly on the issue of

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Jones in a Filipiniana-style blouse. ‘I am Ilocano.’ Website photo: Ana Isabel Photography Dreamers, the group of young immigrants brought to the United States as infants and concerned about their status.

She said Hurd has been silent on the issue and has belatedly thrown his support for the Dreamers.

“The Dreamers are a big issue” for the Hispanics who make up an overwhelming majority in the district. Jones is going to tie Hurd to Trump and his hostile immigration policies.

“I’ve been honored to serve our country in and out of uniform. I studied hard and worked hard,” Jones said. “We are being tested as Americans.”

If the Democratic Party is to win control of the U.S. Congress, she declared that “it’s districts like this that is key to flipping the House.”

Asked about her chances, a confident Jones replied, “A hundred percent.”

Classical pianist Cecile Licad: ‘I’m like a carpenter, I build stuff’

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was at Carnegie Hall in January watching “Cecile Licad, Piano,” a recital made memorable by the pianist’s ebullient performance and her hypnotic way with the keys. She was wearing an elegant gown beaded at the back. On the day of my interview, a week later, it was Cecile Licad, Homebody I was meeting at her Upper West Side apartment, a lovely mess of books, CDs, music sheets, and paintings. She was dressed in jeans and black shirt that hugged her lean frame.

“I’m usually at the piano eight hours a day,” she began to talk about a typical day in New York, in an apartment with two grand pianos by the living room – one a gift from Imelda Marcos, the other she bought right off a roadside in Philadelphia. “Continuous, yeah because I’m always learning many different things, I’m playing many different stuff. That’s just the way I am.”

From that point on in the interview, I got a glimpse of Cecile Buencamino Licad, the person, the passion.

A world-renowned pianist, she has received numerous awards – including the prestigious Leventritt Foundation Gold Medal previously conferred on virtuosos Van Cliburn, John Browning, and Malcolm Frager, among other accomplished musicians. She was 19 then, the youngest Leventritt honoree.

Cecile first learned the piano at age 4 from her mother, Rosario Buencamino Licad, who was also teaching piano to Cecile’s three brothers.

“We were all in the kitchen. She had the blackboard there for the recipe for the day, and then sometimes there’s a treble clef and bass clef. That’s what I remember as a kid.

Looking at notes,” she said, enjoying every bit of this pleasant memory as it came to her.

She remembered also with amusement hiding under the bed in an aunt’s house to avoid playing the piano.

“I was hiding underneath the bed with lots of bananas just so I didn’t have to play.

You’d rather play with your cousins,” she recalled with laughter. “These are incidents as a child I wouldn’t forget.”

While her mother initiated her into the fundamentals of music, it was her father, Jesus Licad, a surgeon, who made her appreciate discipline.

“I remember as a child he would wake me up at 4 in the morning before I even brushed my teeth (and I would go) from the bed to the piano,” she said. After practice, she would be rewarded with fried ‘bangus’ and

By Cristina DC Pastor vinegar, which is her favorite. It is her comfort food of choice even now in New York where she has lived for more than three decades. “My father was quite a perfectionist, strict, you can’t make mistakes.”

At 5, Cecile took formal piano lessons under Rosario Picazo of the University of the East School of Music and Arts, and grew into this young girl that had this abundant talent and dedication. At 7, she had her concert debut and caught the eye of then President Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady Imelda Marcos. She continued to train with the Imelda’s Young Artists’ Foundation which made Cecile its First Piano Scholar.

And that’s how she became known as Imelda’s favorite prodigy.

At 12 and already a recognizable name in the Philippine classical music scene, Cecile decided to pursue her studies in the U.S. She enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music, a conservatory in Philadelphia, and three years later, at the Rudolf Serkin’s Institute for Young Musicians in Vermont. “I was living in the mountains in Vermont,” she wrote in a published essay. By this time, her music education had been taken over by distinguished American concert pianists.

She’s been called gifted a lot of times, but Cecile felt a certain unease with the label. “(Piano) is what I do,” she said. “Concerts is my job, it’s my way of living. I’m always learning non-stop. It’s not like I’m learning because I’m preparing for one concert or one recital. I’ve been playing for such a long time but I feel I’m always a beginner when I learn my piece.”

One morning the janitor in her apartment building told her how he was dancing with a broom outside her door as he listened to her piano music.

“I get a kick out of those (stories) because it’s great that you can communicate with people who are not into classical music, and you’re able to make them listen,” she said.

To a neighbor who complimented her, she said, “I’m just like a carpenter, I build stuff.

But it’s very nice when somebody enjoys it.”

She moved to New York in 1981, and shortly after married Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses whom she met at a music festival in Austria. Their son Otavio, who works as a bartender in Midtown, was born in 1987. The marriage lasted nine years.

“Sometimes, you don’t get along with a person anymore, and that’s it,” she said.

Mother and son are like most others, enjoying one another and getting on each other’s nerves, but always “great buddies” at home or wherever they travel.

More from The FilAm’s interview with Cecile: The FilAm (TF): How do you educate people about classical music?

Cecile Licad (CL): Not by talking. The way I express myself to people is through my music. By playing and communicating wherever I think the music should go. It’s very difficult to do. I never find it easy, but when I perform people think it’s easy, right? But nobody really knows what goes behind. It’s the same with film actors.

With any instrument, some musicians just memorize and play notes memorize, yeah that’s great, but to put that certain emotion that has to be in that piece that I want to communicate, ah that’s hard.

TF: You’ve said in interviews that the piano is your best friend.

CL: It is. It’s the only thing I can control in my life. The other facets of life are uncontrollable. It’s where I feel like I’m

Her well received concert at Carnegie Hall. Photo by Edwin Josue

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At the Upper West Side apartment she shares with her son and two pianos.

The FilAm Photo having fun and nobody is bugging me.

That I’m in my own world.”

TF: Was there ever a time you didn’t want to see the piano at all?

CL: Of course. As a 6-year-old, who wants to sit on the piano all day? When I was starting out it’s good and I played very well.

Sometimes I needed something in my life other than a piano.

TF: Your mother must be proud of your success. Does she take credit?

CL: They (parents) always do. I was always stubborn. Maybe it’s a good thing. When I moved to the States, my mother was living with me for a while, somehow she couldn’t tell me what to do.

It’s just the way my personality is. I may be polite but sometimes but I do what I think should be. I was not a very obedient kid. Sorry mom (laughs).

TF: How are you as a parent to Otavio?

CL: I’m freer.

TF: Do you have a favorite composer?

CL: I’m always asked who my favorite composer. I can’t have a favorite. I mean I do enjoy every single music I do. That’s the only way I can play for people.

TF: Do you ever play pop, like Elton John or Billy Joel?

CL: No. I do read a lot of Broadway songs in somebody’s house who adores Broadway. I do have certain instincts that when I see the notes in the music something tells me how it should go.

TF: What’s a typical day like for you?

CL: I’m usually at the piano eight hours a day…I just did my laundry. I cook when I have the time. Sometimes I don’t have the time and I’d rather focus on practicing. Of course, New York, I love it where you can just call, and the food is there whatever kind of food you want. And I like walking to the store.

Issue 5, July 2018

The piano is Cecile Licad's best friend p15 The horror, absurdity of Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs p3 Will Gina Ortiz Jones become the 1st Filipina in Congress? p14

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Photo by Natalie Nesser