Fil-Am Who's Who, May 2021

fil-am who’S WHo May 2021

Steven Raga

Bridging Communities

In This Issue. . .

At Your Service • Consul General Elmer Cato Milestones & Moments • 500th Anniversary of Christianity in the Philippines Movers and Shakers • Alicia Almendral, MD

A Word from The Editor

Oliver Oliveros

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Asian American Representation Matters

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Since the late 1960s, Americans of Asian descent, particularly Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Filipino Americans, have been advocating for equity in civil rights and more visibility of “Asian Americans,” which is a term coined at that time to collectively refer to Asians, in general, not just the East Asians (the light-skinned Chinese and Singaporeans) or the “Brown Asians” (the Filipinos, in particular).

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Organizations We Love • Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts Cover Story • Steven Raga

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Representation and visibility are rightly so because Asian Americans have long been here and have witnessed how American history unfolds. The earliest Asian immigrants to the United States, for instance, include Filipino immigrants who settled in the land now called California in 1587. South Asians were even there during the founding of the U.S. in 1776.

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Rewind Rewind • Event Photos by Rolan Gutierrez Community Calendar

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Between 1965 and 2015, the Asian American population grew from 1.2 percent to 6.4 percent. Data researchers foresee only continued growth, with Asian Americans making up 10 percent of the population by 2060 (Pew Research Center, 2015).

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Alas, until today, in the time of COVID-19, we’re still fighting for that elusive equity. Asian Americans are still underrepresented in national government offices not just in the U.S. but around the world. Hate crimes targeted at Asian Americans have even escalated these past few months.

Photo by Rolan Gutierrez

Some have observed an indifference to representation among Asian Americans because a massive chunk of Asian American adults today are second or third-generation Americans, U.S.born children of foreign-born parents. Thus, there has been a lack of collective history and memory of marginalization in these generations compared to their parents.

Out to debunk this theory is Steven Raga, our main story subject, and a second-generation Filipino American running for City Council District 26, which covers Woodside, Sunnyside, Long Island City, Astoria, and Dutch Skills communities—Filipino Americans’ neck of the woods.

Raga also happens to be the first Filipino American from Woodside to have qualified for New York’s City Council election.

He wants to bring change to his community and acknowledges the best way to do that is to claim a seat at the City Council table Photo by Rolan Gutierrezwhere he can be the voice for his long-time depreciated neighbors and friends.

Our cover person Steven Raga holds two copies of the Fil-Am Who’s Who magazine featuring himself in the August 2018 issue.

Asian American representation matters; Raga knows that by heart.

We use information sources that we believe to be reliable, but do not warrant the accuracy of those sources. Reasonable care is taken to ensure that Fil-Am Who’s Who articles are up-to-date and accurate as possible, as of the publication date.

fil-am who’s who

STAFF Executive Editor Myrna Gutierrez • Editor-in-Chief Oliver Oliveros • Layout Artist & Photo Editor Rolan Gutierrez • Contributing Writer Wendell Gaa • Contributing Writer Ferdinand Esguerra • Contributing Photographer Miguel Gutierrez • Publisher Upstream Management NY, Inc. Copyright © 2020 Upstream Management NY, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Fil-Am Who’s Who invites you to contribute articles, letters, comments, or pictures to the editor. For inquiries, please email filamwhoswho@gmail.com or call (917) 502-9887 • (917) 502-9891.

Marvin Dimaculagan New York

At Your Service

Wendell Gaa

Consul Elmer Cato Grown General up in a diplomatic family

Photo by Rolan Gutierrez

No stranger to the City of New York, Cato had also served at the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in years past, together with the beloved former New York Consul General Mario de Leon Jr., who has commended the appointment of the new consul general, citing Cato’s exemplary record in public diplomacy and utmost service in assisting nationals in dire crisis, as well as his contribution to establishing some key regional consular offices in shopping malls throughout the Philippines, making various consular services much more accessible to applicants nationwide.

Before his assumption as New York Consul General on March 30, 2021, Cato served as Chargé d’Affaires, e.p. (CDA) and Head of Mission of the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, for two years.

He had first visited Libya in the early 2000s when he had then been assigned by the DFA to escort to Tripoli the European hostages who were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group from Sipadan Island in Malaysia.

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he New York Filipino-American community has just been blessed with the arrival of new Consul General Elmer G. Cato. A veteran journalist-turned-diplomat, Cato’s post in the Financial Capital of the World couldn’t come at a more pivotal and turbulent time, with the COVID-19 pandemic still badly affecting large segments of the community, which has additionally suffered from an alarming rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. Being the seasoned career diplomat that he is, Cato’s years in the Philippine diplomatic service reveal a lifetime of global experiences and accomplishments that warrant an epic novel biography, proof of his literal battle-hardened readiness to take on the daunting challenges, which no doubt face him as head of the New York Philippine Consulate General in the coming days, months, and possibly years.

Within the past two decades of his heralded career, the Pampanga native had served in various capacities with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). At the DFA Home Office in Manila, he had been assigned as foreign affairs assistant secretary for Public Diplomacy and later for Strategic Communications during the terms of Foreign Secretaries Alan Peter Cayetano and Teodoro Locsin Jr. Under Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario, he served as special assistant for special projects at the Office of Administration; director for intelligence of the Intelligence and Security Unit under the Office of the Secretary; and executive director of the National Council on United Nations Peace Operations. He further served as special assistant for Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. and Teofisto Guingona and spokesperson and officer-in-charge of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement and officer-in-charge of the Regional Consular Office in San Fernando and Clark Field, Pampanga.

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Years later, Libya became entrenched in a çivil war throughout the 2010s after the downfall of regime leader Col. Muammar Khadaffy, and Cato would yet again serve at the front lines in Libya as chief negotiator for the release of three Filipino engineers who had been kidnapped and held hostage by armed men in the nation’s southern region. He had also met with the families of the four kidnapped Filipino oil workers based in eastern Libya. After close coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Tunis, Tunisia, Libyan military authorities, and the Red Crescent, he had the somber duty to inform the families that the gravesites of the oil workers were found along with their Austrian and Czech co-workers kidnapped and killed along with them. They had been buried in a cemetery in the eastern city of Derna. Despite the tragic outcome, Cato felt a sense of relief in fulfilling his duties and promise to the oil workers’ families in helping to bring them closure to their emotional ordeal.

Another hardship post where he was based was Baghdad, Iraq, where he had also served as CDA at the Philippine Embassy there. İn 2014, while he was still assigned at the Embassy in Washington, D.C., he had been notified of the DFA’s search for candidates for the head of post position in Baghdad, and he had been encouraged to pursue the opportunity by then-Veterans Affairs Representative Delfin Lorenzana, who today is the Secretary of National Defense.

A year later, merely days after assuming his post in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber struck the five-star hotel where he was staying, killing six people and wounding several others. Despite the highly traumatic event, Cato was miraculously among the lucky who survived. This had been the first time that he had experienced life in a war zone. Yet, despite the seemingly insurmountable odds stacked up against him, he never relented in his mission to serve his fellow kababayans based in the country.

The fact that Cato observed first-hand the more harrowing side of a diplomat’s international life and mission speaks in volumes of his familiarity with danger and uncertainty, which by default makes him a most qualified and capable leader to inspire and rally the Northeast U.S. Filipino-American community to overcome all fear and sense of isolation in this most challenging chapter in history.

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Milestones & Moments Myrna Gutierrez Photos by Rolan Gutierrez

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Alicia Almendral, MD

How Doc Alice Responds to the Covid-19

By Oliver Oliveros

Movers & Shakers Myrna Gutierrez

Photos courtesy of Monarch Medical Aesthetics

“W

e tested for COVID-19 at our driveway, literally. Thus, we had to develop a special HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant set of procedures to connect with, schedule tests, and follow-up on our patients.” - Dr. Alicia Almendral COVID-19 was a sudden, horrific virus that still lingers on, but Dr. Alicia Almendral, a family physician, geriatrician, and medical aesthetic doctor, has lived to tell the tale. A “Top 10 Doctor” recipient and a consistent “Patient’s Choice Awardee,” Dr. Almendral, or Doc Alice to her patients and friends, chooses to keep her patients well taken care of and well-informed, especially during the early battle with then-unknown attributes of the dreaded virus.

Surrounded by medical practitioners growing up in Pasay City in the Philippines, Doc Alice, who has been practicing family medicine in New York City for more than 22 years, naturally thrives in an environment of caring for each other. “My mother and siblings are all nurses, and my uncle is a physician and a medical professor.

Thus, seeing families leaving the clinic with smiles of relief as they are cared for their clinical problems is a joy you would want all families to experience, especially at this time of a pandemic,” she says.

“The pandemic brought out the best in me as a medical warrior fighting to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

My partner and I have opted to face the crisis head-on and developed ‘driveway testing,’ which then turned into ‘concierge COVID-19 testing’ and now ‘mobile testing.’ Doc Alice’s patients were tested, isolated, and kept safe from infecting others.

“Our struggles were real.

We weren’t sure if we’re going to be infected and be a danger to our families. We even work on Sundays to make sure we test as many people as we can.”

An author or co-author of numerous medical research studies, Doc Alice saw the onslaught of the COVID-19 a research subject that’s inexorable because of its novelty. “My partner, who is a data scientist and healthcare systems improvement specialist, and I have collected and still collecting homegrown COVID-19 data, which we use to compare with other research findings. These data help us understand better why and how the population fares against the virus. Along the way, we also found re-infection and postvaccination infection cases, which is an interesting development to study and solve for.”

Although the pandemic has crushing effects on small businesses, such as mom-and-pop restaurants and community-based retail shops, and physicians in small-to-medium-sized practices, Doc

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Photo by Rolan Gutierrez

Almendral PLCC testing at Steven Raga rally in Sunnyside, NY

Alice’s private practice in Bronx, N.Y., and her regular teaching workload on medical aesthetics remains afloat. Doc Alice confesses, “Financially, we didn’t know how we will recoup our costs because the pandemic wasn’t into the matrix of insurances then. But we pushed to overcome all these struggles.”

Besides attending to her practice at her very own Alicia Almendral, MD, PLLC primary care practice in Bronx, N.Y. and CityMD Urgent Care, also in the Bronx, Doc Alice and her partner have also just opened a primary care clinic in Woodside, N.Y., where many Filipino-Americans reside since the ‘70s.

In these clinics, she proudly marries the practice of geriatrics and medical aesthetics. With the multiple diseases an elderly usually face in their twilight years, geriatrics practice poses many challenges to our esteemed doctor, which she embraces full-on.

“Medical aesthetics, on the other hand, is the best of both worlds for me,” she says. “I can see immediately the results of my work whenever I provide anti-aging medical solutions to my patients.”

“You can feel their happiness upon seeing their amazing reactions to the treatments. In my work, a happy patient sets their mind towards wellness—and that’s my mission as a doctor.”

Looking beyond a post-pandemic reality, Doc Alice, a mother of four beautiful kids, has her eyes on expanding her private practice into a multi-specialty practice with branches in the five boroughs. “With more locations, I can reach more people and help them.”

Working on a 15-minute nose lift

“Ultimately, my fulfillment as a medical doctor is seeing my patients well, happy, and beautiful. I think all three should go together,” which we couldn’t agree more.

Vaccination program at the St. Adalbert Catholic Academy

Doc Alice with Managing Partner John Baltazar

The COVID testing crew

Group of foreign interns may 2021

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Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts

By Staff

“T

he creative place keeping via various public art interventions in Woodside, Queens, and in other areas in Metro New York builds visibility that engages conversations with the community among Queens-based Fil-Am artists and immigrants.” - Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts

Organizations We Love Myrna Gutierrez •

If creativity is activated, our collective histories, dreams, and realities will be visibilized.

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If our experiences are visibilized, our communities can catalyze healing and growth, especially in a period of heightened anti-Asian hate crimes brought about by the pandemic, which traces its origin in Asia.

This Queens-based art group, Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts (LMQBA), aptly uses the Filipino term “bayanihan” in its name. “Bayanihan” means collaboration, a common approach among artists who band together for a purpose: in this case, build on the visibility of the Filipino diaspora in the city.

Graphic for upcoming LMQBA art intervention in Little Manila, Queens, to celebrate Philippine Independence Day and amplify efforts to get out to vote for the upcoming NYC primary election.

Graphic credit: Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts

LMQBA collaborates between artists and cultural workers who support communitybased arts and creative placekeeping efforts that reinforce the diasporic Filipino community in Woodside, Queens, and the greater NYC area. Case in point, Xenia Diente and Jaclyn Reyes, 2020 Create Change Artists-inResidence at The Laundromat Project, have co-created community-based art and creative place-keeping interventions with LMQBA, Meal to Heal initiative, Mabuhay Mural, and Little Manila Street Co-Naming Initiative.

Asian Americans, including Americans of Filipino ancestry or FilAms, make up approximately 5.8% of the U.S. Population. Still, the dynamism of this particular minority group is often overlooked.

With LMQBA, Fil-Am residents, non-profits, businesses, and the arts can co-create in the thrivance of an already vibrant neighborhood.

The organization aspires to see a change of mindset in the following:

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If Fil-Am artists engage with local Filipino businesses, the community’s collective creativity will be activated.

“Ethnic labeling does not arise simply from an area’s demographic composition; ethnic entrepreneurs also play an important role,” as noted in Sage Publications’ “Urban Ethnography” (2010).

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Still from “We Are They”, an experimental documentary film currently in post-production. The film is expected to be shown on local NYC television in October 2021.

Image credit: Diana Diroy and Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts

Notable Projects

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Little Manila Street Co-Naming

LMQBA, together with various Philippine organizations in N.Y., leads the effort to install the “Little Manila” street sign in Woodside, Queens--a first in the city. For the Filipino community, Little Manila is their home away from home. It serves as a dynamic portal where community members maintain their connections to their loved ones locally and abroad.

The application was submitted to the City of New York in August 2020. Currently, street co-naming applications are on hold due to the pandemic.

Historically, the beginnings of Woodside’s Little Manila date back five decades. After the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act passage, the U.S. was opened to skilled workers worldwide.

In the 1970s, N.Y. hospitals faced nurse staff shortages and recruited from the Philippines, bringing many Filipino nurses and their families to Queens.

• “We Belong” “We Belong” is a sign art project consisting of separate banners that each highlight and acknowledge the unique ethnic

backgrounds within the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

Inspired by the visual culture of sign-saturated immigrant neighborhoods, the configuration of the banners follows the symbolism of Tibetan prayer flags, which promotes peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The phrase “We Belong” is thoughtfully translated into the languages spoken by East, Southeast, and South Asian communities in Queens.

• “Oras Na” On June 12, “Oras Na,” an art installation and tsinelas-making workshop, will be conducted by artist Karl Orozco to celebrate Philippine Independence Day. During the workshop, participants will customize tsinelas or flip-flops using elements found on highly-valued sneakers. The making of the tsinelas is an invitation to reflect on the ways footwear has been symbolic of different forms of leadership throughout Philippine history. From the myth of hero Jose Rizal sacrificing his tsinelas, to the infamous shoe collection of former first lady Imelda Marcos, to the “tsinelas leadership” popularized by politician Jesse Robredo, Orozco reminds us it’s time or “oras na” in Tagalog to consider the paths we walk and how we get there.

Alongside the workshop is an installation of a modern bahay kubo or nipa hut called “The Art Home,” created by architect duo Sabrina Herbosa Reyes and Antonio Rivera of Almasphere.

Still from “We Are They”, an experimental documentary film View of the “We Belong” banners drying at the end of the public banner-making workshop in the atrium of the Queens Museum.

Photo credit: Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts

“Oras Na” is open to the public; admission is free.

• “We Are They” “We Are They” is an experimental documentary video created in collaboration with filmmaker Diana Diroy, composer Will Simbol, and choreographer Joyelle Cabato. Approximately 10 minutes long, the video features interviews with Filipino health care workers reflecting on their battle with the COVID-19 crisis, music and choreography inspired by indigenous traditions from the Philippines, and snippets of performances filmed at various sights in the Little Manila neighborhood of Woodside, Queens.

The film will be broadcast on the local TV channel BronxNetTV in October 2021.

Follow Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts on Facebook: lmqbayanihanarts or Instagram: @littlemanilaqueens.

Check out its website, too: LittleManilaQueens.org.

Graphic from Little Manila Street Co-Naming materials. The street co-naming application is still on hold, but the hope is that the Little Manila street sign will be installed later this year.

Graphic credit: Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts Still from “We Are They”, an experimental documentary film currently in post-production. The film is expected to be shown on local NYC television in October 2021.

Image credit: Diana Diroy and Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts may 2021

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By: Vic

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Steven Raga

Our Relevant Young Leader S

teven Raga is running for City Council District 26, which encompasses Woodside, Sunnyside, Long Island City, Astoria, and the Dutch Kills neighborhood. He recently made history as the first Filipino American from Woodside to qualify For New York’s ctoria Leahy City Council election.

Those that know Steven liken him to a titan in the Filipino-American community. For over 15 years, Steven has been a dedicated public servant working in the non-profit sector and the government, advocating for immigrants. His advocacy and organizing work began while he was a student at Stonybrook University. He was the Philippine United Student Organization (PUSO) president and the Asian Student Alliance (ASA) senior advisor. After college, he began working with immigrant advocacy organizations on full alert due to HR 4437. Steven helped organize protests along Roosevelt Avenue to fight for our immigrant neighbors. Eventually, he served as a program coordinator for Philippine Forum’s Bayanihan Filipino Community Center in the heart of Little Manila.

Steven now works as the Northeast regional manager for Policy & Advocacy for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, where he oversees healthcare policy in 11 states. Before, he was the chief of staff to Assembly member Brian Barnwell, where he managed an office of over 100 members while also serving as the main contact for community groups and organizations. Prior to that, Steven spent four years at AARP’s National Headquarters in Washington D.C., starting as their national urban fellow and eventually rising to their senior strategist for multicultural leadership.

Steven’s campaign is built around a fight for an equitable New York City. He aims to provide our residents not only with the services they need but that they deserve.

This is all while Steven holds many board memberships and committee memberships; most notably, he is a board member of Queens Community Board 2, Woodside on the Move, and Queens LGBT Pride. Steven is a NY State Advisory Committee member for the US Federal Commission on Civil Rights, where he was appointed under President Obama. Steven has served on the National Board of NaFFAA since 2014, where he previously was the NY State chairperson and the Northeast regional executive director. Steven is also the founding vice president of the FilipinoAmerican Democratic Club of New York. In 2009, Steven founded Pilipino American Unity for Progress (UniPro) in Woodside and now sits on the Board of Trustees.

With every project, task, and position Steven has taken on, he has approached it with creativity, ingenuity, and determination. He leads with empathy, charisma, and knowing what needs to get done. A lot of his care for his community stems from Steven’s personal life and the role of his parents in his childhood.

Steven, a Queens, NY native, was born to Filipino immigrant parents, Andres Raga and Adela Cabildo, and lived with his aunt

Dr. Mila Cabildo Liwanag. When Steven turned one, his father decided to go back to the Philippines, taking Steven with him until Andres would become a lawful permanent resident.

For the next seven years, Steven would learn about Filipino culture while staying in his parents’ homeland. While living in San Pablo, Steven learned all about the agriculture business from his Lolo Miguel, who took him to meetings with farmers. Steven also learned about business from his father’s lolo, Félix, who owned a street cart, selling all types of grocery needs.

Steven was also introduced to politics at a very young age as his father worked in the local government office in Manila. You could find Steven mingling with his father’s fellow employees, farmers, laborers, and many community members. When Steven turned six, he and his father returned to Queens and reunited with his mother.

Unfortunately, three short years later, Andres passed away from a rare disease, leaving his mom to be a single parent.

Adela worked multiple jobs and was forced to move several times from Woodside to Bellerose to New Hyde Park to stay afloat, but always made sure Steven had the best and did his best. In high school, it became apparent he would have many achievements.

Steven was a member of the Math Olympiad Club and was a point guard for his school’s basketball team. When Steven was a junior in high school, he was selected out of 500 applicants to participate in Special Biomedical Engineering Program. All his hard work won him a seat at several Ivy League schools, but for financial reasons turned them down and attended Stony Brook University.

From his experience as a young child learning about business and politics to the adversities he faced in his personal life, his strong ties to the Filipino community and the recent Asian American and Pacific Islanders’ hate crimes have led him to decide to run for City Council. Steven wants to bring change to his community and knows the best way to do that is as an elected official, where he can be the voice for his neighbors and friends. After a year of watching small businesses be forced to close, families be faced with eviction notices, and a health care system succumb to a global pandemic, Steven desires to help rebuild his community for a better New York.

Steven’s campaign is built around a fight for an equitable New York City. He aims to provide our residents not only with the services they need but that they deserve. The inequities within the City’s many systems were always present and always visible to Steven, but COVID-19 has increased them tenfold. He believes that any approach to recovery needs to establish equity and justice for every New Yorker.

Steven’s campaign priorities include providing economic recovery to tenants, small business owners, and homeowners; passing safe staffing for healthcare workers; and improving the City’s transportation system. Steven also wants to see the strengthening of tenant protection laws, increasing funding to cultural groups and organizations, and making sure Little Manila is an officially recognized cultural neighborhood. He also wants to make sure the City is actively working to end anti-Asian violence and all identitybased violence by expanding education programs, creating widespread bystander intervention training, and investing further in community infrastructure.

Steven faces 14 other candidates in the packed Democratic Primary for the single seat. The Democratic Primary is on June 22, 2021. may 2021

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Join Our Campaign

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Photos by: Rolan Gutierrez-

Photo by Rolan Gutierrez Steven rallyimg voters and supporters in Woodside

Raising the Flags and People’s Hope and Spirit

Photos courtesy of the Steven Raga campaign

Steven distributiing full meals at NYCHA Woodside Houses

Steven speaking at the White House to support vaccine shipments to the Philippines

Steven hosting the Anti-Asian Hate Rally in Sunnyside may 2021

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500th Anniversary of Knight of Rizal Metropolitan Philippine Dinner KnightingChristianity & Induction Ball Celebration atbyTito Rad’s Grill Riccardo’s the Bridge

Photos by: Rolan Gutierrez: Photos by: Rolan Gutierrez:

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Rewind Rewind Rolan Gutierrez

Steven Raga Fundraising at the Ilocano Center

Altagracia

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Darlene Dilangalen turns 65 Crystal Springs Golf Club, NJ

Photos by: Rolan Gutierrez:

Rewind Rewind Rolan Gutierrez

Nelia Ferrette turns 75 West Islip, NY

Photos by: Rolan Gutierrez:

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Photos by Rolan Gutierrez

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Community Calendar June 6 123rd Commemoration of the Philippine

Independence Day Celebrate the 123rd Commemoration of Philippine Independence Day with the Philippine Independence Day Council’s (PIDCI) streaming of hybrid virtual/live presentations at Facebook.com/ PIDCIOfficial/live on June 6, 2021, from 11:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Enjoy this day with family and friends, honoring our heroes who fought for our freedom and independence!

June 6 Philippine Independence Day

Hybrid Virtual/Live Gala PIDCI holds a virtual/live gala starting at 11 a.m. at Astoria World Manor (25-22 Astoria Blvd., Astoria, N.Y.). Donate ($125) by calling Myrna (347) 440 6186, Sofia (347) 558-3728, Nora (732) 925-2608, Margie (201) 273-2081, or Jean (347) 880-6043.

June 12 “Oras Na” and Bahay Kubo Installation “Oras Na,” an art installation and tsinelas-making workshop, will be conducted by artist Karl Orozco to celebrate Philippine Independence Day. Alongside the workshop is an installation of a modern bahay kubo or nipa hut called “The Art Home,” created by architect duo Sabrina Herbosa Reyes and Antonio Rivera of Almasphere.

Admission is free.

June 12 Virtual Celebration of 123rd Philippine Independence Day The Philippine Consulate General in New York hosts a virtual

celebration of the 123rd Philippine Independence Day. For more information, visit Facebook.com/PHLinNY. July 8, 17, 24 & 31

Virtual Paaralan sa Konsulado

The Philippine Consulate General in New York’s Paaralan sa Konsulado is a virtual summer workshop for Fil-Am children and youth between the ages of 5 and 15. The program aims to provide the students who were born and raised in the United States with opportunities to learn about Filipino culture and heritage. For more information, visit Facebook.com/PHLinNY. October 7

11th TOFA Awards

The annual The Outstanding Filipinos in America (TOFA) Awards, which celebrates Filipino-American History Month, starts at 8 p.m. at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall (154 W 57th St., N.Y.). For more information, visit Facebook.com/ TOFAINY. TBA

“We Are They” Documentary Broadcast

“We Are They” is an experimental documentary video created in collaboration with filmmaker Diana Diroy, composer Will Simbol, and choreographer Joyelle Cabato. Approximately 10 minutes long, the video features interviews with Filipino health care workers reflecting on their battle with the COVID-19 crisis, music and choreography inspired by indigenous traditions from the Philippines, and snippets of performances filmed at various sights in the Little Manila neighborhood of Woodside, Queens. It will be broadcast on the local TV channel BronxNetTV in October 2021.

SHOOTER’S TIP During the Steven Raga fundraising campaign at the Ilocano Center, I asked the beautiful Cherry Marmes Smyth, one of the committee organizers and a sponsor of the event, to model for me. I asked her to pose in the dark by the colorful disco lights. I had to take several shots as the lights kept changing.

I set my camera Canon 5D MkIII to program to keep up with the dancing lights.

The lens used was my reliable Canon L24-70 .

Keep on shooting! may 2021

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