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Are ‘Manilamen’ For Real?: Debunking an Urban Legend
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Chicago, ILLINOIS --- Ever since I wrote a column about a bit of Filipino American history four years ago, I have since hesitated in revisiting the matter after I got a feedback that the source of my accounts was of dubious origin.
But recently, I found a reason to revisit the issue after I found an opening.
Atty. Rodel Rodis, a member of the Filipino American Historical Society from California, posted a message in several newsgroups dated 9/27/2005 8:00:43 PM Eastern Standard Time:
“(Regardless of the final historical record on this issue, let us all hope and pray that Marina Espina and her family are all right.)
”Folks,
“According to the PDI (Philippine Daily Inquirer) article below, Espina and her husband are well at their daughter’s home in Lafayette.
”However her house in New Orleans together with some important documentation may have been severely damaged. Their home was located on the shores of Lake Ponchartrain.
”Regards,
”Paul Kekai Manansala”
Indeed, if true, Mrs. Espina’s family needs help from her kababayans.
Controversial Statement
Going back to the PDI article, headlined, “History of ‘Manilamen’ of New Orleans lost to “Katrina,” that was posted on the Internet on Sept. 18, 2005, Mr. Frank Cimatu wrote among others: “According to Marina Espina’s research, the first Filipinos to arrive in the United States settled in the marshes around New Orleans where they became known as “Manilamen” or “Filipino Cajuns.”.
“One of the better-known descendants of the Manilamen was boxer Bernard Docusen for the world welterweight title but failed to wrest the crown when he lost by decision to champion Sugar Ray Robinson in a 1948 bout in Chicago.”
No “Manilaman”
This bit of information was news to Mr. Ed Navarra, region 3 director of the National Federation of Filipino American Association based in Michigan, when he responded: “Bernard Ducusen (sic), the American born boxer who almost defeated Sugar Ray Robinson, is not a descendant of the Manilamen. He was born and raised in New Orleans by a Filipino father and a French mother.
“After he retired from boxing he brought his family to Michigan in the early fifties to settle and work here.
“I interviewed him at length and his father came to the states in the early part of the century from Pangasinan. I have the 100 page journal he wrote himself. And I have clippings from his scrapbook. It is preposterous to claim that he is a descendant of the Manilamen who settled in Louisiana in the 1700’s., when his father, a Philippine Scout, arrived much later than the so-called Manilamen.”
I Became a FANHS’ “FAN”
I wanted to butt in the discussion but I have nothing new to contribute until Wisconsin’s Princess Emraida Kiram NaFFAA Region 3 vice chair invited me to attend a three-day convention of Filipino American National Historical Society in Chicago, Illinois early this month.
Since Ms. Espina is a trustee of FANHS, I thought it was an opportunity for me to bring up the matter raised by Mr. Navarra at the FANHS convention. So, I scribbled a letter addressed to the Princess and raised the point of Mr. Navarra.
Chicago’s former FANHS chair Larry Seneris, one of the resource speakers at the convention, although still grieving following the death of his wife, Siony, a week earlier, picked me up at 8 a.m. from my house and took me to the convention site.
There, I met Dr. Virgilio Pilapil, FANHS Journal Editor based in Springfield, Illinois, who forwarded the letter I wrote to the Princess to ‘FANHS National.”
Better Known as “FANHS National”
The “FANHS National” turned out to be Mrs. Dorothy Cordova, an unpaid volunteer FANHS executive director based in Seattle, Washington.
I found this out yesterday, when, out of the blue, I got an unsigned email from “FANHS National,” saying, “I am not aware of the article you are upset about. I am impressed by your ability to ferret out information about Mr. Docusen. I am concerned that you plan to write an article debunking me and FANHS and what pleasure you would get out of this.
‘I am an old woman who does not use e-mail frequently. I prefer phone calls - so a calm discussion takes place - not nit-picking via e-mail.”
So, I responded to her email and followed it up with a phone call, knowing that she is not a big fan of email.
In our phone conversation, Mrs. Cordova, wife of FANHS Founder Fred Cordova, said that if investigation will bear Mr. Navarra out, she will communicate with Mrs. Espina’s daughter to rectify the error of Docusen’s inclusion as descendant of “Manilamen’ in the book, “Filipinos in Louisiana,” (1988, A. F. Laborde & Sons) written by Mrs. Espina.
It’s Never Too Late to Rectify a Mistake
I told Mrs. Cordova, although, the dubious information has been in the book since 1988, rectifying an error is never too late.
After all, it took the Pope 359 years to realize that the Papacy made a mistake and apologized for the Roman Catholic Church’s persecution of “the 17th century astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei, who debunked Claudius Ptolemy’s (c. 100-c. 170 AD) ancient “geocentric” universe theory, which had all the planets circling the Earth, and instead supported the new “heliocentric” system of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), where planets and earth circled the Sun.”
(lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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