Rita M. Cacas is a native Washingtonian and daughter of one of the
Depression-era pioneers. A longtime federal government
employee, Cacas previously worked at the National Gallery of Art
and currently works at the U.S. National Archives. Juanita Tamayo
Lott was raised in San Francisco, but her adulthood has been spent
in the Washington, D.C., area. She is a retired federal senior
demographer, policy analyst, and special assistant to the U.S.
Census Bureau director. She cofounded the first U.S. Filipino
American Studies at San Francisco State in 1969 and the Filipino
American Studies Program at the University of Maryland, College
Park, in 2007.
Title: 'Images of America' book launched in D.C.
Author: Maurese Oteyza Owens
Publisher: Philippene News
Date: 12/11/09 Who were the Early Filipinos in the Washington, D.C.
area? Ever wondered about this? There's a new book that tells that
story -- Images of America: Filipinos in Washington, DC, by Rita M.
Cacas and Juanita Tamayo Lott. The book was launched December 1 at
the Marvin Center of the George Washington University. Here's the
story of Filipinos in the nation's capital told through more than
200 vintage photos pulled mainly from family albums centering
around settlements and stories of our community from 1900-1964
(before the beltway was constructed), as well as photos from the
National Archives collections. The book launch was sponsored by the
Philippine Cultural Society of the George Washington University
(GWU) in cooperation with the Philippine Arts, Letters, & Media
Council (PALM). The Philippine American Foundation for Charities
(PAFC) and the National Federation of Filipino American
Associations supported the project. The launch, organized by Mitzi
Pickard of PALM and Kaye Ablen, president of the GWU Philippine
Cultural Society, drew a diverse audience. Questions from the
audience elicited curiosity and awe at who these Filipinos were at
the turn of the century. Director of the Asian American Studies
Program at the University of Maryland, College Park Larry Shinegawa
was present and applauded the publication of the book. Filipino
Americans who are interested in their history will find this
128-paged pictorial both fascinating and informative. Copies of the
book may be purchased from PAFC. Please contact Ador Carreon at
adorcarreon@aol.com/tel. 240.475.2645 or Maurese Owens at
mpapoose@aol.com or 703.606.8796.
Title: Authors shine a light on local Filipino heritage Author:
Brooke Kenny Publisher: Gazette.net Date: 1/27/10
Rita Cacas decided to remedy a situation that disturbed her. After
realizing that most accounts of Filipino immigration to the United
States focus on the West Coast, the Silver Spring resident created
the book Filipinos in Washington, D.C. to spotlight the lively
community and rich culture that exist on the East Coast.
She teamed up with demographer and fellow Filipino-American Juanita
Tamayo Lott to research and write the book. It is part of Arcadia
Publishing's Images of America series that seeks to preserve the
history of various communities across the nation.
Filipinos in Washington, D.C. documents area Filipinos from the
early 1900s to the present, from pioneers through the generations
that followed, mostly through pictures of families, cultural events
and workplaces. The photographs have detailed captions that place
the people and events in a larger historical context.
According to Cacas, Filipinos who came to the U.S. between 1900 and
1945 sought education and opportunity. The book highlights the
lives of ordinary people who served in the U.S. military in World
Wars I and II and Vietnam, and continue to be an important part of
the military, as well as academia and the private sector.
Both women brought a wealth of personal and professional knowledge
to the project. Lott, who grew up in San Francisco and now lives in
Colesville, is a retired demographer and policy analyst who worked
as the special assistant to the U.S. Census Bureau director.
Cacas, who works at the National Archives, is an experienced
photographer. Her father arrived in the D.C. area in 1929. He tried
to tell his children about his experiences, but We weren't ready to
hear those stories.
Later, when her father began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease,
Cacas realized it was time to document his experience and those of
other Filipino immigrants he knew.
A lot of the stories that he tried to tell us about were
disappearing, she says.
In 1993, Cacas received a small grant from the Prince George's Arts
Council to document the local Filipino community through
photographs and began her project, A Visit with My Elders:
Portraits and Stories of Washington area Filipino Pioneers. She
presented the photographs and gave talks at conferences, libraries
and cultural centers. Along the way, she connected with even more
people in the Filipino community.
The project laid the groundwork for the book that Cacas and Lott
began working on in earnest in 2008.
Trying to collect pictures for the book was one of the biggest
challenges, Cacas says, explaining that some of the older people
she dealt with did not save old family photos.
Fortunately, she found mounds of pictures collected by the
Toribios, long-time family friends. She gathered some 1,000 photos,
and chose about 250 for the book, the ones she thought best told
the local Filipino story.
Another challenge, Cacas notes, was that publishing guidelines
dictated that the captions could not exceed 70 words. Boiling down
life stories was difficult.
Cacas feels the stories in the book have value to anyone interested
in the immigrant experience in America, and hopes to encourage
young people to keep track of their family histories.
You have to understand and appreciate your past to move forward,
she observes.
Lott believes the personal nature of the stories makes it easy for
readers to connect with the experiences.
We tell the story of people who overcame a lot of things so that
they could have the American dream, she says.
Filipinos in Washington, D.C. is available at Politics and Prose
Bookstore & Coffee Shop, 5015 Connecticut Ave., Washington, D.C, as
well as online at www.arcadiapublishing
.com or www.amazon.com. The authors will sign copies of their book
from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on April 18 at Barnes and Noble, 4801
Bethesda Ave., Bethesda, as part of the Bethesda Literary Festival.
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