Fil-Am legislator, Pulitzer winner join SF EDSA 30th celebration
WATCH: EDSA 30th Anniversary exhibit of Kim Komenich photos. Video by Vic Valbuena Bareng
SAN FRANCISCO–A Filipino American legislator and a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer joined the San Francisco celebration of the 30th anniversary of EDSA, the dramatic uprising that ended the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.
Consul General Henry Bensurto called the gathering at the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco “a coming together of many heroes who formed part of that history.”
One of those heroes was Gloria Navarette, a popular leader of the anti-Marcos movement who became known for hosting fellow activists in her home during the struggle against the regime.
“I knew that we were all fighting a common cause,” she said. “And so I opened my heart …my home.”
Rob Bonta, a member of the California State Assembly, recalled how he “grew up singing songs of revolution and chants of change.”
Bonta’s parents were activists in the California farm workers struggle in which Filipino activists, led by Philip Vera Cruz and Larry Itliong, played important roles. His mother, Cynthia, was an activist of the Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino (KDP) in Sacramento.
The gathering featured an exhibit of the work of Kim Komenich, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his photographs of the 1986 revolt.
Komenich recalled covering what turned out to be Marcos’ final speech at Malacanang before the dictator and his family were forced to flee.
“It was a fairly short speech,” he told INQUIRER.net. “It wasn’t a very long speech. I was able to climb to the top of the scaffold and make his picture. Only a few frames. And then it was over.”
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