2010--The Year That Was

2010--The Year That Was as we welcome the new year

Last year-2010  was distinguished from the other years with specific events.

It was marked with one successful conference, an exciting  community Mayflower festival,  a case filing for the veterans and widows , two deaths  and ended in two weddings.

Citing the sad episodes, the Filipino-American community lost two of its most young promising leaders. John De Lloro, a long time friend in the activist community died unexpectedly. The one that always reminded me to “slow down” I had to view him from his  casket.


The sad part is that the family except his father and some of them really appreciated his work with the community. The others  were so bitter that they shielded the immediate family from his burial. Like most of the immediate families of activist in the Philippines, I understood their jealousy from the love of an activist.

They thought maybe the labor leader could have lived  longer if he was who he was. A fallacy that  destroys people who were never politicized.

Another one who departed was Peter Corpus. The community tribute to him was a testament of his beautiful work that will be his lost lasting legacy to his community. What ever good that was lost because of his departure, will be gained by what Peter has sown in the future in the community he has helped built.

Milestone

Another event that was a milestone in the community was the case filing of the veterans and widows last October 8, 2010 in San Francisco. The denied veterans that numbered more than 22,000 who were denied by the DVA because of a flimsy excuse that they are not on  the so-called “Missouri List”made the hard decision to fight for their rights.

The JFAV, AWARE and the Migrant Heritage Commission (MHC)  are leading these efforts of more than 56,000 living veterans and at least 120,000 widows in the Philippines and in the United States.


It was a undertaking that took more than two years in planning. Yet the gain outweigh the cost. It proved that we Filipino Americans are not mendicant and are not push-overs.

Another exciting event was the Mayflower Festival at the eastern end of Historic Filipinotown. It was almost perfect until the City threw a monkey wrench into the affair. They wanted the event to pay $ 2,000 for a procession so we have to scale it down to an indoor festival. So much for a large scale planning. We have to make do with what we can have.

As usual a usual socialism conference was held in USC in Los Angeles last November. The difference this time, more activist sprung out from the ground to move the socialist agenda forward. Old faces are gone, new faces emerged to take up the challenges of the times.

The two weddings

And the last but were also exciting events was the two weddings of the year. Actually it was more than weddings. It was a political consolidation of sort. Doubled as a reunion and a show of  community strength and friendship.

A ninja and a cook got hitched.It was both a product of long political relationships. A warrior and a diminutive  lady got married in the library after that.


On a sorry note, we arrived just in time for the speeches. We were early but we have to spend time looking for a parking space because my friend wont want to pay for parking.


I was not even able to take off my green military overcoat and was shoved into the limelight for a speech that almost everybody did not understand but I delivered. I looked like a soldier coming from the battlefield to report to the HQ the good results of a great battle that won the war! Minus the helmet of course!

What a way to end the year in heavy drinking and getting up in the morning with a hangover. But that was the year that was folks. Not let’s get ready for the next year with more hope, more perseverance and more hard struggle.

And hard drinks!

Happy New Year!

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