• PETER’S PINOY PATTER — February 2024

    Bridge Generation News

    Bridge Generation Personalities of the Month: Pascual “Pas” Arca Fidel Jr., 91 (March 20, 1932-December 19, 2023) and Catherine Jean (Tacal) Fidel, 90 (January 3, 1933-November 20, 2023) RIP.  

    (It is with deep personal sadness to report the passing of Pas and Cathy — friends since our teenage years.  Married for 71 years, they were reunited in heaven following Pas’ death on December 19 — just a month after Cathy’s passing. Their lives and interests paralleled the lives of many BG members — Filipino American youth clubs, college, a long happy marriage, numerous children, participation in their children’s activities, old timer reunions.  Terri and I were grateful to Pas and Cathy for helping organize a 1989 welcome-home event in Sacramento to celebrate our return to California.  Honoring a deceased couple as Personalities of the Month constitutes a first for this blog.  May the following account of their lives do justice to the beautiful lives they both led.)

    The son of Pascual Lara Fidel of the Ilocos Philippines and Conchy Arca of Kauai HI, Pas born on March 20, 1932 in El Centro CA.  However, his formative years were largely spent in Stockton CA — the residence of his extended family.  He graduated from Edison High School, which had a large population of Filipino American students, including Cathy.  He then earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.  Pas followed that up with a teaching credential at the University of Pacific.  In later years, his passion for learning gained him a Master’s degree in cultural  anthropology from California State University Sacramento. It is no wonder that his home was always filled with books and journals on a variety of topics!  Pas spent thirty years as an educator.  In 1962 he began teaching at Kit Carson Junior High School in East Sacramento.  In 1974 he taught at Luther Burbank High School in South Sacramento until he retired in 1992. Martial arts was yet another passion.  He attained a second degree black belt in kempo-style karate and practiced arnis, also known as escrima, the national martial art of the Philippines.

    Cathy was born on January 3, 1933 in Portland OR, the daughter of Eusebio Tacal from Santo Domingo, Ilocus Sur, Philippines and Maude Gibson of Austin TX.  After attending local schools in Portland and Coos Bay, the Tacal family moved to Stockton. Cathy met Pas in 1947 when they were both students at Edison High School.  It was love at first sight for Pas and Cathy.  They became high school sweethearts. then man and wife in 1952 when Pas was in his junior year at U.C. Berkeley.  Their 71-year marriage resulted in five children — Victoria, Duane, Philip, Eric, and Connie; three grandchildren, Erik, Courtney, and Elias; and one great grandchild, Theo. After the family’s relocation to Rancho Cordova, a Sacramento suburb, in 1962, Cathy began a long career at Cordova High School as administrative assistant to the principal.  She was to serve six principals in the 33 years she worked at Cordova High before retiring in 1995.  As the family matriarch, Cathy took primary responsibility for documenting the busy lives of her children and extended family.  She also took particular delight in organizing the family’s vacations.

    Pas and Cathy enjoyed a rich and full family life in their 61 years in Rancho Cordova. Hands-on parents, they were ardent supporters of their children’s activities — wrestling tournaments, band concerts, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball, and track.  The family enjoyed trips to Lake Tahoe, Santa Cruz, Aptos, Hawaii, and Puerto Vallarta. Pas and Cathy’s greatest joy was seeing their five children graduate from college.  Consistent with their belief in education, they established the annual Catherine J. Fidel Scholarship Award in 1995 to honor an outstanding and promising graduating senior at Cordova High School.  Since the inception of the award, more than $28,000 has been expended on scholarships.

    As youth Pas and Cathy attended Filipino American youth club athletic tournaments and dances.  As retirees they were regulars at old timer reunions throughout California.  They were actively involved with the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) and became charter members of its Sacramento-Delta Chapter.  They also were members of the Mr. and Mrs. Club of St. John Vianney Catholic Church.

    Pas was described by his friends as “hardworking, ambitious yet humble, successful, and principled.”  Cathy was regarded as “the sweetest person in the room; her gentle soul infiltrated all who came in contact with her.”  They left the world a better place and will be greatly missed. Rest In Peace, Pas and Cathy.

    Happy February Birthdays to:

    Carlene (Sobrino) Bonnivier, Laura (Cabanero) Ente, Fred Campanao, Lydia (Antiporda) Galian, Gloria (Carido) Nomura, Marya (Castillano) Bergstrom, Bob Flor, Lillian Galedo, Cris Krisologo-Elliott, Dorothy (Laigo) Cordova, Dan Poland, Rosalie (Salutan) Marquez, Joyce (Tibon) Balandra

    Pinakbet — News Across America

    Filipino American Historical Tidbits:

    On January 8, 1815 Filipino settlers joined French pirate Jean Lafitte in Louisiana against the British in the Battle of New Orleans……….. In April 1939, 7,000 Filipino asparagus workers, organized as the Filipino Agricultural Laborer’s Association, went on strike in Stockton CA.

    Did You Know:

    Filipino artist Nilo Rodis-Jamero designed the costume of “Jabba the Hutt” in the George Lucas movie hit “Return of the Jedi.”  Attorney/activist Rodel Rodis has always insisted that he and I were related.  The November 1-15, 1983 article in Hawaii Filipino News, appears to confirm it.

    Musings

    From White Supremacy in America, (to) It has Always been about People of Color, (to) Equitable Justice for People of Color, (to) Multi-racial Democracy Weakened, (to) Political/Gun Violence) Part XXXXII:   

    White Nationalism/Supremacy has been discussed by this column for forty-one months.  The following essay by Robert P. Jones, “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy” published in the October 23 issue of Time Magazine,  provides a basis of its genesis.

    The return of Christopher Columbus from his voyage to the “New World” in 1493 precipitated one of the most fateful theological developments in the history of the western Christian church: the creation of what has come to be known as the Doctrine of Discovery.  Written in the 15th century, the doctrine claims that European civilization and western Christianity are superior to all other cultures, races, and religions.

    The Doctrine of Discovery merged the interest of European imperialism, including the African slave trade, with Christian missionary zeal.  While the doctrine has escaped scrutiny by most white scholars and theologians, Indigenous people and scholars of color have long been testifying to these Christian roots of white supremacy, while dying from and living with their damaging effects.  The doctrine furnished the foundational lie that America was “discovered” and enshrined the noble innocence of “pioneers” in the story we, white Christian Americans, have told about ourselves.  Ideas such as Manifest Destiny, America as a city on a hill, or America as a new Zion all sprouted from the seed that was planted in 1493.  This sense of divine entitlement, shaped the worldview of most white Americans and thereby influenced key events, policies, and laws throughout American history.

    A 2023 Christian Nationalism Survey co-partnered with the Brookings Institution asked: Do you agree or disagree that “God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society that could be an example to the rest of the world?”  While only 3 in 10 Americans agree, majorities of Republicans (52%) and white evangelical Protestants (56%) affirmed it.  Moreover, the survey found that among white Americans this belief is strongly linked to denials of “structural racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, anti-semitism, anti-LGBTQ sentiment, support for patriarchal gender roles, and support for political violence.”

    Is America a divinely ordained promised land for European Christians, or is America a pluralistic democracy where all stand on equal footing as citizens?  Most Americans embrace the latter vision. But a desperate, defensive, mostly white Christian minority continue to cling to the former lately in the form of Trumpism and the “Make America Great Again” movement.  It was reflected in the prayers and religious symbols participants carried at the U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, and it has become central to the trajectory of the contemporary Republican Party, two-thirds of whom identify as white and Christian.

    The contemporary white Christian nationalist movement flows directly from a cultural stream that has run through this continent for five centuries.  In many ways, this truth has always been glaringly apparent.  But for those of us who are white and Christian, our precarious position has historically required that we remain vigilantly ignorant of our origin story while demanding the acquiescence of others.  Fragmented narratives demarcate America’s “Indian problem” and “Negro problem” as distant islands, neither visible from the shores of the other.  But if we do the hard work of pushing upriver, we find, at the headwaters, the “white Christian problem.”

    We need an oral imagination that is not amnesiac, one that will hold on to the memory of the systemic injustices that have accrued to Black and Indigenous people and their forebears.  We white Christians no longer represent the majority of Americans.  We are no longer capable of setting the nation’s course by sheer cultural and political dominance.  But there are still more than enough of us to derail the future of democracy in America.

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