First Filipino-American Governor, First Filipino New Jersey Mayor

First Filipino-American Governor
Benjamin J. Cayetano is the first and only American of Filipino ancestry who became a state governor in the United States. He was first elected as governor of Hawaii in 1994 and was reelected in 1998. A Democrat and a lawyer by profession, Cayetano had served as a congressman of Hawaii from 1975 to 1978 and as a senator from 1979 to 1986 before becoming a lieutenant governor in 1990.

First Filipino New Jersey Mayor
Robert Rivas, 51, is the first Filipino-American mayor in the New Jersey area. A lawyer by profession, Rivas was elected mayor of Bergenfield in November 1999, with the large support coming from his fellow Filipino-Americans. Bergenfield, a working-class town of 25,000 residents, most of whom are white, is only 15 miles from New York City. Prior to his election, Rivas had served as a Bergenfield councilman (1996-98). While on the City Council, he chaired its Finance, Administration and Personnel Committee and was a member of its Police, Buildings and Grounds; Capital Improvements; and Community Affairs Committees.

He has practiced law for 24 years. He graduated from the Seton Hall University School of Law. He was the president of the Filipino-American Association of Bergenfield from 1997 to 1999. He immigrated to the United States in 1968. The first Filipino-American in US Congress was Virginia Rep. Robert Cortez-Scott, a Harvard alumnus.

First at Harvard School of Medicine

The first Asian to have entered the prestigious Harvard University's School of Medicine is Dr. Fe del Mundo, a world-famous pediatrician. Del Mundo, an International Pediatric Association (IPA) awardee, is an alumna of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Medicine. She was chosen by former President Manuel Quezon to receive a fellowship program at the world's premiere medical school in 1936. She was also the first woman to become a part of the traditionally all-male student body of the medical school. So strong were her academic records that the head of the Pediatrics Department saw no reason not to accept her.

She also studied and trained at Columbia University, University of Chicago, Boston University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 1941, del Mundo has contributed more than 100 articles to medical journals in the U.S., Philippines and India. In 1966, she received the Elizabeth Blackwell Award, for her "outstanding service to mankind". In 1977, she was bestowed the Ramon Magsaysay Award for outstanding public service.

Filipino Top Student at Wharton

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, considered as the world's top business school by the Businessweek magazine, recognized a Filipino as its best graduating MBA student in May 2001. On May 21, 2001, Victor Franco Calanog received the Thomas Gerrity Leadership Award, the highest honor given to a graduating MBA student by the Wharton School. Calanog, a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, was singled out as the best candidate for the award for his excellence in both academic achievement and extracurricular involvement.

Calanog was the chair of student affairs for the Graduate and Professional Students Assembly, the student government for the graduate and professional students of the 12 schools of the University of Pennsylvania. He also received various scholarship grants from AT&T, Ford Foundation and other companies in the United States. He completed his MBA with a triple major in finance, entrepreneurial management and multinational management at the top of his class. (Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Filipino Generals in the US

Three Filipino-Americans had the distinction of becoming U।S। Army generals। They are Maj. Gen. Edward Soriano, Brig. Gen. Archine Laano, and Brig. Gen. Antonio Taguba.

Soriano is the only Filipino to have attained the rank of major general in the U.S. Armed Forces. He was born in Pangasinan and migrated to the U.S. with his family at an early age. In 2001, he was the director of operations, readiness and mobilization at the office of America's Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans. Laano, on the other hand, is a physician by profession and a 1963 graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. President Ronald Reagan appointed him brigadier general in 1988. He also served as the president of the Philippine Medical Association of America and as such, represented the group in several medical missions in the Philippines.

Taguba is the third Filipino American general in the U.S. Armed Forces. He was born in Sampaloc, Manila and moved to Hawaii at age 11. He holds three master's degrees: Public Administration from Webster University, International Relations from Salve Regina College, and National Security and Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College.

The President's Doctor Eleanor "Connie" Mariano

For more than eight years, a Filipino-American has made sure that the world's most powerful person was physically fit to do his work. Her name is Eleanor "Connie" Mariano, a 47-year-old physician and a top-ranking officer of the US Navy. Mariano was the director of the White House medical unit attending to the health of former President Bill Clinton.

After President Clinton's term ended in January 2001, Mariano pursued her duty as rear admiral of the US Navy, the highest military post ever occupied by a Filipino-American woman in the mighty US Armed Forces. First Lady Hillary Clinton, who has just won a seat in the senate in the recent elections, personally thanked Mariano for her service to the American nation. "Our family loves you and we're grateful to you," Mrs. Clinton told Mariano in a ceremony tended for her in June 2000 when she was promoted as rear admiral of the US Navy.

Mariano was born at the former Clark Air Base in Angeles City, Pampanga in 1955. She was only two years old when her parents, Angel and Lu Mariano, immigrated to the United States in 1957. Her father served in the US Navy as a steward and retired as a master chef after serving 29 years. Mariano's four Filipino godfathers were also Navy master chefs. Mariano grew up in Imperial Beach near the Mexican border. She graduated valedictorian from Mar Vista High School in 1973 and cum laude from Revelle College at the University of California where she obtained a degree in Biology in 1977. She earned her medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland in 1981.

Following an internship in Internal Medicine at San Diego Naval Hospital in 1982, Mariano was assigned as the General Officer on board USS Prairie where she served as the sole physician for a ship's company of 750 men and women. In 1991, she was selected as the hospital's head of internal medicine. In June 1992, she became the first military woman to serve as White House physician under President George Bush. When he got elected, President Clinton asked her to stay and even promoted her as Senior White House Physician in February 1994 and director of the White House Medical Unit.

By attending to two American presidents for more than eight years, Mariano had the longest service as a White House physician in American history. The National Federation of Filipino American Associations honored Mariano for her remarkable achievements.

Beauty Queen Gloria Diaz

Gloria Diaz won the Miss Universe title for the Philippines in 1969 and Miss Margarita Moran did in again in 1973. The Miss International crown was worn by Gemma Cruz in 1964, by Aurora Pijuan in 1970 and by Melanie Marquez in 1979. Filipino women have also won the Miss Asia Pacific award four times since 1965. They are Ines Zaragoza who brought home the crown in 1982; Gloria Dimayacyac, 1983; Lorna Legaspi, 1989; and Michelle Aldana, 1993.

Dotcom CEO
At the height of the dotcom craze in 1999, a 30-year-old Filipino-American woman set the fashion trend among Internet executives in New York's Silicon Alley, the East Coast version of California's Silicon Valley. Her name is Cecilia Pagkalinawan, the founding president and CEO of Boutique Y3K (www.boutiquey3k. com), an online fashion retail and marketing company. As a computer professional, she drew the admiration not only of the IT people but also of the discriminating fashion editors in New York. One publication described her as an example of the new "cyberstyle".

She appeared in the pages of various international magazines, such as Vogue, A. Magazine, Industry Standard, Internet World, and AsiaWeek. The US-based Filipinas Magazine gave her an Achievement Award. In 1998, she was named as one of the ''10 Hot Asian American Entrepreneurs under 30.'' The following year, she was included in the Silicon Alley Reporter's "Top 100 Internet Executives in New York". In March 2000, she was named "New York City Woman Business Owner of the Year" by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).

Cecilia was born in the Philippines. Her mother used to own a restaurant near the UST Hospital while his father had a paint store in Bulacan province. She was only eight years old when her middle class family moved to US.

Miss America Angela Perez Baraquio

Angela Perez Baraquio, the 25-year-old Physical Education teacher who was crowned Miss America in October 2000, is a daughter of Philippine-born parents living in Hawaii. Her father, Claudio Fernandez Baraquio was born in Pangasinan, while her mother, Rigolette Perez grew up in Manila. Angela has three brothers and six sisters, the three eldest of whom were also born in the Philippines. The beauty queen, on the other hand, was born in Hawaii and has yet to make her first visit to Manila.

The Baraquio family has found success in the American state which is inhabited mostly by Asians and whose governor, Benjamin Cayetano, grew up in the Philippines. On October 14, 2000, Angela was crowned Miss America 2001 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, replacing former title holder, Heather Renee French of Kentucky. Angela is the first Asian American to win the Miss America title, and the second Miss Hawaii to win Miss America, after Carolyn Sapp won it in 1992.

Angela was born on June 1, 1976. She graduated from the Moanalua High School in 1994 and earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education at the University of Hawaii-Manoa in 1999. She was a consistent honor student in high school and a standout athlete in girls' basketball. She was in the dean's list in college and was a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society.