Filipinos have been in the United States since the 16th century, yet many of their stories remain untold. To celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month, we would like to give you weekly short biographies of famous Filipino American role models and achievers, some of whom you may not even know are Filipino.

There are hundreds of names, but this month, we are only focusing on those who are still active, visible, in the limelight and who have a high “audience following” – those who continue to make us proud to be Filipino, regardless of their religious and sexual orientation and political flavor.

Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice of California

Cantil-Sakauye was sworn into office on January 3, 2011. She is the 28th Chief Justice of the State of California, the first Asian-Filipina American and the second woman to serve as the state’s Chief Justice. Her father, Clarence, is Filipino and Portuguese, while her mother, Mary Gorre is Filipino. Born in Sacramento, she received her BA from the University of California, Davis, graduating with honors in 1980. After taking a year off to visit the Philippines, her ancestral homeland, she entered the UC Davis School of Law. When she graduated in 1984, she was unable to find a job because of her young age, so she became a blackjack dealer in Reno, Nevada. Shortly thereafter, she was recruited to work at the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office. In 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated her to replace retiring Chief Justice Ronald M. George, and voters retained her for a 12-year term as Chief Justice. Some of her policy initiatives include bail reform and decriminalizing minor traffic offenses, improved funding for courts and the bar, and civil discourse education for students. The Chief Justice also cautioned the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) not to make arrests at state courthouses. She is active in numerous professional community organizations and has received many awards including the Filipina of the Year Award. She is married to Mark Sakauye, a retired police lieutenant. They have two daughters.

Noel John Francisco, Solicitor General of the United States

Francisco is the 48th solicitor general of the United States, and the current one under the Trump administration. He is the first Asian American to hold the position. His father, Nemesio Maharice Francisco, was born and raised in the Philippines and grew up amid the ravages of WWII. His father’s family pooled all its resources to send Nemesio, the youngest son, to medical school and eventually to the U.S. where he met Francisco’s mother. Noel Francisco earned a Juris Doctor degree with honors from the University of Chicago Law School. He clerked for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1997 term. He was part of the legal team that worked for George W. Bush on the Florida 2000 presidential recount. In 2017, he was appointed by President Trump to the position of Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States, then as Acting Solicitor General and Solicitor General in 2018. Francisco is married with two daughters and resides in Washington, D.C.

Matthew Libatique, Cinematographer

Matthew Libatique was born in Elmhurst, Queens, New York to Filipino Americans Justiniano Libatique, now deceased, and Georgina Porter (who remarried an American citizen). His father, an amateur photographer, gifted Matthew a Nikon camera as a child. “He taught me the fundamentals of photography at an age when I didn’t realize I would spend the rest of my life using them.” Matthew studied sociology and communications at California State University Fullerton before earning a MFA in cinematography at AFI Conservatory. His notable films include blockbusters such as Iron Man and Iron Man 2. In 2010, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Black Swan, for which he won his second Independent Spirit Award. He was also nominated for Best Cinematography for Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born. Libatique is proud of his Filipino heritage, speaks and understands Tagalog and loves to cook and eat Filipino food, especially pinakbet.

H.E.R., Singer and Songwriter

H.E.R (for Having Everything Revealed) is really Gabriella Wilson who rose to fame by participating in Radio Disney’s Next Big Thing in 2009. At the age of 14, she signed up with RCA records, released a single Something to Prove under her real name in 2014, but re-emerged in 2016 with her new persona, H.E.R. She was nominated for five Grammy Awards at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019, winning Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Album. The next year, she was nominated again for five awards at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards including Album of the Year for I Used to Know Her and Song of the Year for Hard Place. Born in Vallejo, California to a Filipina mother and an African American father, she was introduced in public when she was only 12 years old. This is what she has to say about her identity: “The mystery is a metaphor for who I am, or who I was at the time of creating the project….I feel like oftentimes we don’t like to be open as a people about our emotions or things that we are going through. At the time (of recording), I was very closed off except for when I was writing or when I was in the studio….I am a voice for women who feel like they’re alone in these situations. This project came from emotion, and that’s what I want it to be about – not what I look like or who I’m with, but the raw emotion and support for women.”

Sheila Lirio Marcelo, Entrepreneur

Sheila Marcelo is the founder of Care.com, the world’s largest online destination for finding and managing family care. She is a Henry Crown Fellow with the Aspen Institute and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011. She is also the youngest recipient of the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award in 2014, where she received her M.B.A. and J.D. degrees. She also received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Economics. Marcelo was born in the Philippines and raised in an entrepreneurial household with businesses from coconut mills, mangoes and bananas, to transportation and coal production. Before founding Care.com, she was a consultant, teaching fellow, marketing vice president and an online manager helping people find jobs. Marcelo is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Development Foundation. She also launched WomenUp.org to increase women’s role in the global economy by providing leadership, training, mentorship and support to girls and women through every stage of their lives and careers. She lives in Weston, Massachusetts with her husband and two sons.

Lynda Barry, Cartoonist, Author and Teacher

Lynda Barry (Source: Virginia Tech Daily)

Born on Highway 14 in Richland Center, Wisconsin, Linda Jean Barry changed her first name to Lynda at age 12. It was also when her parents divorced. Her father was a meat cutter of Irish and Norwegian descent, while her mother, a hospital housekeeper, was of Irish and Filipino descent. She grew up in Seattle, Washington. At 16, she was working nights as a janitor at a Seattle hospital while still attending high school. Her mother strongly disapproved of Lynda’s love of books and desire to go to college. She wanted Lynda to get a job. She began drawing comic strips compulsively when her boyfriend left her for another girl. In addition to comics, Barry adapted her illustrated novel, The Good Times are Killing Me, as an off-Broadway play. She offers a workshop titled “Writing the Unthinkable” through the Omega Institute in New York and The Crossings in Austin, Texas. Barry was married to Ira Glass but it didn’t last. He had told her she “was boring and shallow, and…wasn’t enough in the moment for him.” She responded with a comic titled “Head Lice and My Worst Boyfriend.” Glass says: “I was an idiot. I was in the wrong…about so many things with her. Anything bad she says about me I can confirm.” She is now married to Kevin Kawula, a prairie restoration expert and they live in Footville, Wisconsin. She received the Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013; in 2016 she was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame, and in 2019, Barry was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship as part of the Class of 2019.

Dave Bautista, Actor and Retired Professional Wrestler

Dave Bautista (Source: Wikipedia/MinglemediaTV)

David Michael Bautista was born in Arlington, Virginia. His mother, Donna Raye, was of Greek descent, while his father, David Bautista, was a hairdresser and son of Filipino immigrants. Bautista said he lived in poverty and had a hard life: stealing cars at 13; estranged from his parents at 17; working as a nightclub bouncer and lifeguard while pursuing a career in body-building. When Dave Bautista began his wrestling career, he used the name Batista. He was a four-time World Heavyweight Champion and two-time WWE Champion. Bautista began acting in 2006 and starred in the following movies: The Man with the Iron Fists (2012); Riddick (2013); the James Bond film Spectre (2015); Blade Runner 2049 (2017); Guardians of the Galaxy (2014 and 2017) as Drax the Destroyer; Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). He has been married three times. He has many tattoos, including the flags of Greece and the Philippines on his arm.

Sources: Google and Wikipedia

The Magazine

Fil-Ams Among the Remarkable and Famous Part 2