"She wants angels to take her now..." * RIP Aunty Lucy (94): Lucia Tagle-Tando Silverio, 3 January 2023

Niece Grace Terencio deLosReyes created this priceless video of Aunty Lucy in 2020. There are no words to thank you enough, Aunty Lucy, for all the ways you've taken care of all in the family and so many communities. Thankful to have spent weekends with you at your beachfront retirement home on Tagle ancestral land in Aklan. We're blessed, too, to have been beside you this week during your last days. Now it's you crossing over, going home. More writing/photos soon, with love and gratitude for all. (*Prophetic quote by young E.deLS)

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A post shared by JoanMay T Cordova (@forcommunities)

... I started reviewing/curating Aunty Lucy's photos from 2018-2020 when I sat by her bedside during her last week with us, before Christmas 2022 and until New Year's 2023. Some of the photos I'd already AirDropped to our devoted niece Grace Terencio DeLosReyes who took care of everyone -- Aunty Lucy, caretakers, her children, and all of us who visited daily during that special holiday week -- at the retirement home Aunty Lucy built on her Tagle ancestral beachfront land. Only now am I posting, with love @ForCommunities, ~JoanMay ((I have many more photos, especially from Holy Week and other reunions, that aren't included here. iMovie on my phone didn't do justice to so many shots. Yet all is done with Love.)) >

For Rachele with love from Auntie JoanMay (read by Uncle Tony at vigil 02.08.22)

Rachele used to say, “I’m Auntie JoanMay’s favorite.” Yes, from the time she was a baby, Rachele - the third of four beloved daughters of cousins Raquel Cordova Pasco and Ernie Pasco -- was truly my favorite niece. ((We knew Rachele’s Ate’ Josie had privileges as the eldest; Tina was our Lola Ani’s favorite, and Erleen had much attention as the youngest. So Rachele became “Auntie JoanMay’s favorite” and knew it.)) I took so many baby photos of Rachele and created a special photo album I gave to her as an adult.

Since young Rachele’s so cute, charming, and chubby, elders often affectionately called her “tabatchoy” or “butiti.” Everyone knew Rachele loved food, always eating much even as a baby toddler. She discovered that my mommy, her Auntie Nena, carried extra candy in her purse just for her. Little Butiti Rachele had also been known to finish food packed in her lunchbox even before arriving at school. As an adult, Rachele’s love for food grew into a refined taste for fine wines and delicacies that she generously shared with loved ones – inviting us to her home or wineries or taking treats to sisters, cousins, friends over the years -- where we’d all toast during fun celebrations of just being together. On her 50th birthday – after first eating at a SF cultural arts fair, then supporting a fundraiser for indigenous peoples, and later toasting boba over birthday cake --Rachele invited me to a leather bar where she was quite a popular leader of the leather and LGBTQ community. Long ago we knew that Rachele had special spiritual gifts; her spiritual energies were even stronger than others in the family from Aklan, a land of spirits. She brought spiritual energies to all her nursing and healing practices. With deep respect for indigenous peoples, she valued and learned from their ancestral knowledge both in person and by reading, making a special request that books from my library about the babaylan –be hand delivered by cousins Annchella and Tony when they flew from the East Coast to San Francisco. Always finding spiritual connections in nature, she also became a core member of “Balik sa Dagat” a Bay Area community of close friends who built a bangka, hand carved from a single log - journeying through ancestral seafaring roots, rhythms, movement; respectfully connecting more deeply to land, water, breath, life. Rachele said: "The making of the canoe, the Gathering of community, The Carving, the eating, the music: it's more than just an event, it's one of the highest frequencies to be surrounded by love and laughter to truly ignite your body, mind, soul to heal."

Yet no matter how much Rachele traveled or accomplished in the world – as a leader, nurse, healer, community cultural worker – she always had time for family, and especially for her son Sebastian as a priority. She once asked me to visit and review one of Sebastian’s private schools and years later, to sit in a meeting with teachers at his new high school. Whenever I posted photos of any of the children in the family, Rachele would ask: “Where’s Seb?” The photo on my blog shows Rachele bringing Easter bunny treats to her grand nieces and nephews. Rachele passionately worked to pass on her ancestral knowledge to the next generations of family. One day Tita Rachele mapped out and drove four generations of family, including Sebastian plus her mom’s young great-grandchildren, on a road trip through family history: They first joined a Philippine Independence Day cultural celebration organized by an aunt in Tracy; stopped to pay respects at the gravesites of family ancestors who’d been among the first in the clan to settle in California, and enjoyed Filipino food in Stockton before watching the Little Manila Rising (http://littlemanila.org ) showcase at San Joaquin Delta College where Granny (Rachele's mom Raquel Cordova Pasco) had studied as a teenager. Valuing our histories, Rachele had planned to attend this summer’s conference of FANHS, the Filipino American National Historical Society. Early last September 2021, Rachele had a long talk with our now 90 – year old Auntie Dorothy Laigo Cordova, founder of FANHS; Rachele volunteered to actively work on the 2022 FANHS national conference. I still believe that Rachele will be present at this summer's conference, just as I feel her presence during daily ocean swims and in dreams. Yes, Rachele will always be with us. I’m sharing this journey because I hope more in the family and community will continue Rachele’s work as she guides our way now “as a great ancestor.” Dearest Rachele, you will be missed by families/communities across the globe. And you’ll always be Auntie JoanMay’s favorite. We’ll love you forever.

Rachele Sullivan, nee Rachele Cordova Pasco, December 17, 1967 – January 17, 2022: "I will be a most excellent Ancestor. When my Creator Calls me home. I love you all so very much. Hugs, Rachele" via IG @sullivanrachele UPDATE: Vote to name Rachele Sullivan Park here bit.ly/ParkSurvey11

Beloved by so many, Rachele Sullivan (nee Rachele Cordova Pasco) drew her last breath in the full moon’s light close beside family on 17 January 2022 in Pittsburg, California (USA). *****We now send much love to Rachele’s only son, Sebastian Sullivan; her mother, Raquel Cordova Pasco (m. Ernesto Abatayo Pasco, RIP); her sisters Josiebel Pasco Vargas (m. Jay Vargas, SF), Ernestine Pasco Sanchez (m. Dario Sanchez, Pittsburg), and Erleen Pasco Rosendo (m. Felipe Rosendo, Jr., San Jose); and to all the many nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles in five generations of extended families who’ve traditionally gathered – in celebration as well as sadness – for decades. Many traveled to be with her before she transitioned. Now Rachele joins honored ancestors – her beloved father, Ernesto Abatayo Pasco and his parents, Josefa Abatayo Pasco and Florentino Pasco, as well as her maternal grandparents Felimon Maypa Cordova and Hombelina Ibabao Cordova. In this season of Philippine festivals in the family’s ancestral province, Aklan’s Ati-Atihan drumbeats pulse with spirits welcoming all home. ***** Rachel would speak of her birthplace as Yelamu (San Francisco) on Ramaytush Ohlone lands. Through the hard work and sacrifices of nurturing immigrant parents Raquel and Ernie, all Pasco sisters attended Star of the Sea Elementary School and graduated from Presentation High School. From childhood on, the Pasco sisters valued lifelong family friendships of the Filipino American Association of Star of the Sea Church (FAASTAR), an organization co-founded by their parents and other Filipino immigrant families in the 1970’s. While quite young, the Pasco sisters and friends organized and led FAASTAR’s first youth group. Family elders also invited the children to activities of other pioneering Filipino organizations in San Francisco and beyond. Deeply grounded in family/community, Rachele’s commitments to community service, forged since childhood, would spiral out to include advocacy and grass roots organizing in increasingly diverse communities. *****

In the video, "FOLSOM FOREVER - Frameline Q&A for Encore excerpt preview," Rachele relates how her work with Folsom Street Fair began.(Screenshot is edited from the 2013 YouTube video.) She describes in more detail the impact --the camaraderie, the lessons learned, memories, fierceness -- of the leather community on her life in the 2015 HIV Story Project and the National AIDS Memorial Grove’s 2016 video interview, “Unsung Heroes: the Leather Community’s Response to AIDS.” Most recently, the SF Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District @SFLeatherDist tweeted a photo of the ribbon cutting (actually a leather cord ;) ceremony to open the district: “We are saddened to hear of the passing of Rachele Sullivan. Rachele was one of the founders of the LEATHER and LGBTQ Cultural District. She worked tirelessly to help launch the District and was the first chair of our Land Use Committee.”

Folsom Street’s FB page includes additional tributes for Rachele and notes that: “Her impact on our communities and on Folsom Street’s growth and commitment to safety and inclusion cannot be overstated. We would not have the Playground, our current safe space for women of every kind, and all trans and nonbinary people at our fairs if it were not for her tireless work.” Additionally, Rachele's "longer history of volunteering for an AIDS & HIV clinic in San Francisco” is cited in the 2021 volume of “Worldwide Leaders in Healthcare” where Rachele is listed as a Registered Nurse and Recognized Traditional Healer.

Though Rachele launched her professional nursing career with a degree from the College of Marin decades ago, she continued her education through her lifetime journey as a healer. As recently as August 2021, @Swedish health system of Seattle announced Rachele’s Doula Diversity Scholarship Award: "...she has routinely sought education from elders and culture bearers in the healing arts, traditional midwifery and birthwork -- and in turn, she has educated others in the ways of alternative medicine practices, the modern model of medicine and best nursing practices." In an online nursing profile, Rachele describes her work as a recognized Traditional Healer who has been a holistic nurse for over three decades: “I call myself a hilot practitioner, which is a healing tradition that comes from the Philippines. What I do falls under the definition of a Hilot practitioner and beyond. A healing session with me is based on what a person needs to help them feel lighter in body, mind, and soul. I am given permission to enter their realms - all of their elements, their spiritual bodies, etheric bodies, etc. It’s like peeling layers, and the layer that is most stuck calls to me, whether the person wants to address it or not” expressed Rachele. https://www.issuewire.com/rachele-pasco-sullivan-rn-registered-nurse-1681287055167981?utm_source=twitter - In addition to combining indigenous healing methods with contemporary nurse’s training, Rachele brings her unique gift of intense spiritual energy, evident since childhood, to each loving connection during her healing practice. Healer/artivist/truthspeaker Sammay wrote of finding in Rachele: “…a seer sent to earth (dressed in all-leather tyvm) to elevate the entire village. a messenger entrusted with the prophecies of the divine. A living embodiment of our ancestors’ most radiant of dreams. With a boisterous laughter and vivacious stride – you walked between worlds and navigated many realms in your service to our healing.”

Indeed, Rachele expanded all our horizons as she intentionally lived a life so full of heart and meaning, embodying all she values. Rachel began her 50th birthday celebration at a Filipino arts event in the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood; went on to support a cultural fundraiser for indigenous peoples; toasted boba over cake and birthday songs sung by a kindred spirit healer, all before meeting up with community brothers at a leather bar. Rachele’s work would have ripple effects that are global: Working with kindred spirits – close friends and other healers – they’d facilitate workshops with Yoruba spiritual leaders as well as with indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Coming full circle, Rachele actively shared passions for family history and ancestral knowledge with the youngest generation of family. One day Tita Rachele mapped out and drove four generations of family, including her mom's young great-grandchildren, on a road trip through family history: They first joined a Philippine Independence Day cultural celebration organized by an aunt in Tracy (CA); stopped to pay respects at the gravesites of family ancestors who’d been among the first in the clan to settle in California, and enjoyed Filipino food in Stockton (CA) before watching the Little Manila Rising (http://littlemanila.org ) showcase at San Joaquin Delta College where “Granny” (Rachele’s mom) had studied as a teen in the 1950s. ***** Dearest Rachele, As a mother, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, cousin, ally, healer, teacher, nurse, organizer, mentor and fabulous friend who transforms the world near and far – you will be missed by families/communities across the globe. Your loving spirit and wisdom will continue to guide us forever as we share your legacy while fully embracing your last words @sullivanrachele on IG: "I will be a most excellent Ancestor. When my Creator Calls me home.. I love you all so very much. Hugs, Rachele” *****((The family thanks our communities for all the many ways you've supported Rachele, especially in these recent months. A Venmo account @PascoSullivan has been created to fund funeral costs and other expenses. Any additional funds raised will go towards supporting her son, Sebastian, as he faces moving into adulthood without his beloved mother. )) *****Photo credits: (top photo) - Tita Rachele bringing Easter bunny rabbit's treats to grand-nieces and nephews in 2016, photo by AJM @ForCommunities; screenshot edited from video "FOLSOM FOREVER - Frameline Q&A for Encore excerpt preview"; 19 Janurary 2022: tweet @sfLeatherdist (collaged by ajm); tweet @swedish Health System of Seattle, WA; screen cap from multimedia gift to Rachele from The Bangka Journey / "Balik Sa Dagat" visionary Mylene Cahambing

Flashback: Holiday Greetings, 2007

Dr. Dawn Bohulano Mabalon #DawnMabalonIsInTheHeart

Dr. Dawn Bohulano Mabalon August 17, 1972 - August 10, 2018

Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, 45, died suddenly on August 10, 2018 in Hawai’i, on a family vacation she’d dreamed about and organized.

She is survived by her beloved husband of nearly 10 years, Jesus Perez Gonzales; her sister Darleen Mabalon; nieces and godchildren Tayondee and Nonaiya, and nephew Cayden; her mom Christine Bohulano Bloch; her uncle Delfin Bohulano, Jr. (Wendy); aunts Virginia Bohulano, Adeline Bohulano Suguitan (Mel), and her uncle Tex Mabalon, Sr. - together with her large family of cousins, nieces, godchildren, godparents. Preceding her in death are her grandparents Delfin Paderes Bohulano and Concepcion Paloma Moreno Bohulano; her aunt Florencia Mabalon Pastrana, her father Ernesto Tirona Mabalon, and grandparents Pablo Macavinta Mabalon and Isabel Timtiman Tirona Mabalon. Of the Mabalon family, “five generations deep,” Dawn writes: “We are all the seeds they planted in America, now almost 100 of us, flourishing because of their (ancestors’) sacrifices.” 

Dawn cherished family and the community they continue to build in Stockton, California. She’d forever identify with the Filipino community of the historic “Little Manila” in Stockton’s Southside. Growing up in a tightly knit neighborhood of people of color with aunts and uncles everywhere, “Everyone watched out for you,” Dawn says. From winning Stockton’s spelling bee as a youth to winning national competition that led her to New York as guest editor of teen magazine Sassy soon after graduating from Edison High School, Dawn excelled. She published numerous articles in nationally distributed newspapers and magazines - all before age 20.

From San Joaquin Delta College, Dawn went on to earn a Master’s degree from UCLA - where her fierce Stockton Southside stance and gaze (Watch out!) shaped rhythms of Dawn’s powerful spoken word poetry as well as her lifelong passion and activism for justice. At UCLA, she began her rigorous scholarship that addressed gender, community displacement, youth organizing and more. 

Yet Dawn didn’t just write about community displacement, she fought for the historic preservation of her beloved Little Manila. She says, “In 1997…that's when the demolition started. And that’s when we started the Little Manila Foundation [now Little Manila Rising] and I was essentially going to seminars at Stanford and then rushing back home on the freeway filming the demolition…it ended up being a non-profit that is... amazing for what it’s been able to do
 for our youth. And now we've been able to save the three original
 buildings, and it’s been incredible.”

Dawn became one of the first Pinays to earn a doctorate degree - a PhD in history - from Stanford University. Her dissertation eventually became the award winning book, “Little Manila is in the Heart: The making of the Filipina/o American community in Stockton, California,” now in its 6th printing. Of her book, Dawn says, “It really was a love letter to my family, to my community, to my elders and really putting my hometown on the proverbial Filipino American map. I had always believed and many of the elders believed that Stockton was Filipino America's hometown.”  

As an Associate Professor in history at San Francisco State University, she also became part of the Pin@y Partnership Program (PEP family). Dawn’s love for teaching/learning - sustained by love for/by family/community/history/legacy - is imprinted on the souls of so many blessed to engage with her. Just search #DawnMabalonIsInTheHeart on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for unending testimonies to her brilliant legacy as a “dope professor who still sounds like a homegirl” and who has transformed lives - as a friend, comadre, mentor, fellow warrior, scholar, teacher.

When Dawn graduated from UCLA, Uncle Fred Cordova (Founding President Emeritus of the Filipino American National Historical Society where Dawn served as National Scholar) wrote:

“It is an honor to welcome an Aklanon of the Pamilya ng Cordova to the scholarly ranks of the learned. Your Lolo Ambo would be so proud and all of our departed loved ones…” 

Dawn now joins them.

Dawn so loved being Auntie/Ninang to her mga inaanak (godchildren) and nieces and nephews. With her husband Jesse, they’ve been teaching them how to cook their grandparents’ recipes, and to honor history and legacies. 

Now they - and all of us - will continue to honor Dawn’s powerful legacy…

…with love,

@ForCommunities, 

Ninang /Auntie/Cousin Joan May Timtiman Cordova

For more tributes, see https://www.littlemanila.org/ https://fanhs-national.org

D. Lee Inosanto @ "The Sensei" Stockton Premiere, 17 October 2009

"The Sensei"
STOCKTON PREMIERE with DIANA LEE INOSANTO Director/Actress

Saturday - October 17, 2009

Two Screenings: 2 pm & 6:30 pm / Reception between screenings
Tillie Lewis Theater @ San Joaquin Delta College

5151 Pacific AvenueStockton, California 95207

$5 suggested donation
Sponsored by: Delta College Asian and Pacific Islander American Staff Association (APIASA) and Delta Cultural Awareness Program (CAPS)

For more info: Debra Louie 209.473.3821 or Joan.May.Cordova@post.harvard.edu

RSVP on Facebook: http://bit.ly/Sensei_Facebook

Meet Director/Actress Diana Lee Inosanto at the Stockton premiere of her movie, "The Sensei." http://blog.thesenseimovie.com/

With the Inosanto family's legendary history deeply rooted in Stockton, California, this premiere will be like a homecoming for Diana Lee Inosanto (aka D. Lee Inosanto). Her grandparents Mary Arca Inosanto and Sebastian Inosanto, as well as other founders of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Stockton's historic Little Manila neighborhood, all offered support to striking Filipino farmworkers in 1939. Within the extended Arca and Inosanto families are generations of community leaders and educators including Flora Arca Mata, the first Filipina teacher in Stockton's history. We welcome everyone to two screenings of this special Stockton premiere of "The Sensei."

http://www.myspace.com/thesenseimovie

http://www.dianaleeinosanto.com/

A DIFFERENT KIND OF MARTIAL ARTS FILM: A Different Kind of Martial Arts Film: D. Lee Inosanto's 'The Sensei' battles prejudice and homophobia in 1980s small town in Colorado

If there's one thing D. Lee Inosanto is no stranger to, it's martial arts. Her father is martial arts legend Dan Inosanto, her godfather was the late Bruce Lee (whom she refers to simply as "Uncle Bruce"), and Inosanto herself is a highly trained martial artist who has worked as a stunt person on projects from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Face/Off. So when Inosanto decided to write, direct and star in her first feature film, it made sense that it would take place in the world she knows so well. But what might catch people off guard is the story she chose to tell.

Inosanto's feature, The Sensei, is set in a small Colorado town in 1985, the early years of the AIDS epidemic. McClain (played by Mike O'Laskey) is a gay teenager who is constantly being ostracized. He tries to sign up for classes at the local martial arts dojo to learn to protect himself, but they won't accept him either. Enter Karen (D. Lee Inosanto), the black sheep of the family that runs the dojo who returns to the town after several years away. Karen privately trains McClain, and the two develop a friendship until a secret Karen harbors changes everything.
Tackling issues like AIDS and homophobia in a martial arts setting may seem odd, but it made perfect sense to Inosanto. The inspiration came from a family friend named Gilbert Johnson who was an editor/ publisher of martial arts subjects.

"He was the first person I knew to contract AIDS," Inosanto said. "He was a straight man, a very conservative man - the last person you would expect to get AIDS. But in his final months, he became an activist - marching alongside the gay community. He was one of my favorite people."
By the mid-'90s, AIDS had impacted major sports figures like Magic Johnson. Inosanto's own cousin came out around this time as a lesbian, and Matthew Shepherd was killed in a high-profile hate crime. All inspired Inosanto to write The Sensei. "Being a child of a mixed marriage instilled in me the idea that any type of prejudice is wrong," she said. "That was the drive behind the film."

Shot on a low budget, the project faced many hurdles on the way to the big screen. The school where the shooting was originally to take place pulled its support after realizing the lead character was a gay teen (making news nationwide when the Associated Press picked up the story), and one of the main funders pulled out after the controversy broke.

Another possible problem was the martial arts community's conservatism and its sometimes blatant homophobia.The Sensei's trailer was first screened in public at a large martial arts convention in Las Vegas where Chuck Norris' birthday was being celebrated. Inosanto worried how the trailer might be accepted, but was surprised by the reaction. "So many people came up to me afterward and said 'thank you,'" Inosanto said.

Since then, she has received similar reactions. Many of the strongest supporters are martial artists who are gay but in the closet, or others who cannot openly take a stance.
"This one guy in Alaska said his black belt would be stripped away if he took in a gay student," she said. "Even with all the progress, it's clear we still have a long way to go."

Article by Philip W. Chung, a writer and co-artistic director of Lodestone Theatre Ensemble. Lodestone's latest production of Trapezoid runs until May 25 in L.A.: lodestonetheatre.org.

Possibilities: Thank you Diane & Letty and others...

The following letter is from good friend Diane Rhonemus. We met in the pre-school class at First Presbyterian Church in Stockton long ago, even before Trinity had its own DVCS (daily vacation church school). I still have photos from that time and may post them ;-)

~~~~~~
Happy Spring

Sunday, March 29, 2009 8:47 PM
From:
"D Rhonemus"

To:
joan.may.cordova@post.harvard.edu

Hi, Joan May,

How busy are you at this moment? How many other things do you have going on right now? Me? I can only do one at a time. Did you just get through travelling again? My Spring Break is over and I am not ready to return. It feels like summer out...warm and relaxing. Bad weather to be stuck indoors working.

Time for Tree business. The inevitable has happened. The 3 majestic trees have fallen. Letty Perez took pictures. I told my mom that one picture shows one tree standing and another lying in the parking lot. It reminded me of a fallen soldier with his/her buddy looking on. But from the base of one, shoots arose. How sturdy they are and with such fortitude. Letty Perez was able to save 2 rounds or slices from one of the trunks. We may be able to get a few more slices before the stumps are unrooted.

Letty Perez and several others would like to use one slice to keep as a memorial. Their idea was to have a metal plaque secured to it once it has been planed and varnished and then have it placed in an appropriate place. She asked me to ask you for suggestions about what wording you might like on the plaque and also if you had any ideas where to place it (be careful with idea now, Joan May :-) . The wording could be as simple as "In memory of Braulio and Tranquilina Cordova" with dates or anything else you would prefer. Also, Letty P. thought the round could be placed near future trees. I personally don't see other trees happening in the next 5 years. It would be nice if small chairs could be made out of a round/slice or two for the children since you worked often with them. The slices aren't quite wide enough for a table, I dont think. They seem to be about 2 ft in diameter. Letty P. also spoke of maybe laying ceramic tiles on one for a small table. Someone could design a picture and DVBS children could glue the tiles on. All just ideas for the time being.

Think about these things, Joan May. I know it isn't much consolation. The trees were planted so the wood would be harvested from time to time. How would Rev. Litherland or your parents use the wood? What thoughtful, appropriate memorial could we make? We need to do justice with this fiasco in some way. We still pray for understanding.

Let me know your thoughts.

Happy Bunny time,

Diane

P.S. I cut off one of the shoots and will wave it in church next Sunday for my Palm!


YOU are God's gift to the world!