Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

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Revisiting NaFFAA’s Colorful History
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When hundreds of Filipino American community leaders and organizers converge in Seattle this month, they will encounter an environment different from the environment when the organization was born.

The year was 1997.

The then Philippine News Publisher Alex A. Esclamado, TLC Beatrice CEO & President Loida Nicolas Lewis, nationally-acclaimed Guitarist Michael Dadap, and San Francisco State College Board President Rodel Rodis were talking over dinner in New York about how to unite the 3,000 Filipino American organizations all over the country.

This was when the seeds for what is now known as the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) were sown.

It was decided that the time was ripe to convene a national conference and forge a common agenda for empowerment and Mr. Esclamado volunteered to lead the effort. On August 1997, over 1,000 delegates representing various Filipino American organizations across the United States held the first National Filipino American Empowerment Conference in Washington, DC.

With the conference theme Panahon Na!, Filipino American community and youth leaders, seniors, veterans, civil rights activists, and Filipino American elected and appointed officials, addressed four major issues: immigration, affirmative action, welfare reform, and equity for Filipino World War II Veterans.

To dramatize the urgency particularly of the last issue, delegates marched to the White House on the first day of the conference, led by hundreds of uniformed Filipino veterans, to demand "equity now."

For the first time, the veterans’ issue became a national campaign for justice.

11 years later and we’re still fighting.

This year, "Forging a New Filipino-American Agenda for the 21st Century" is the theme of the three-day national conference, in fact the 8th NaFFAA Empowerment Conference, that will be held at the Westin Hotel in the heart of downtown Seattle.

The issue was a staple in the previous empowerment conferences, from the 2nd also held in Washington, DC to the 3rd national convention held in New York in 1999.

Hosted by the Eastern Region and chaired by Loida Nicolas-Lewis, the 1999 convention’s theme "Filipino Americans Leading the Way to the Millennium" affirmed NaFFAA’s vision of establishing a solid and powerful presence of Filipino Americans in the United States.

Its keynote speaker then was no other than then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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