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CALIFORNIA, United States—Berkeley is known as a crazy American city. Berserkley it’s often called. It’s had a reputation as a bastion of activism and rebellion. Think UP Diliman.
Berkeley is probably best known as a major center of the anti-war movement in the 1960s. But its record as a maverick community goes beyond just opposing the Vietnam War. Berkeley has also been known to try new things to make a better community. The city was among the first to introduce equal benefits for domestic partners, imposed one of the earliest bans on Styrofoam, and even converted city vehicles to run on biodiesel.
Berkeley is big on diversity of course. It’s a community where the other American narratives are celebrated and explored.
Including those of Filipinos.
The city is set to proclaim November 10 as “Evangeline Canonizado Buell Day,” to honor a Filipino-American activist who has devoted her life to the arts and social change causes in America and beyond.
“Vangie Buell is one of those rare people whose life has been a series of fulfilling careers. Throughout her careers as folk musician, community educator, public event producer, community leader, and author, she has engaged thousands of people in the appreciation and creation of ethnic music, art, and events,” the city said in a prepared statement.
“This has led to the arousal of a sense of individual connection with their cultural legacy and encouraged the embracing of that legacy in their daily lives.”
Berkeley cited Buell’s role in helping bring “new food experiences and cultural exchanges” at the Consumers Co-Operative of Berkeley in the 1960s and 1970s, efforts that helped bridge differences among different communities in the city. She also was active in the civil rights, anti-war, peace, and gay rights movements which the city said “opened doors for understanding and healing within the community, and her commitment to social justice, human dignity, multicultural understanding, and equality.”
Vangie Buell helped organize events at the International House at the University of California at Berkeley, and with the Pilipino American Alliance.
The Berkeley statement did not delve into what I and many others found to be the most fascinating about the honoree’s life. For Vangie Buell is a living link to an important chapter in Philippine-American history.
She is the granddaughter of Ernest Stokes and Maria Gregoria of Nueva Ecija. Stokes was one of roughly 6,000 African American soldiers, also known as the Buffalo soldiers, sent to the Philippines during the American war of occupation.
Vangie was born in San Pedro, California, and grew up in West Oakland along with other families of African American and Filipino descent. She explored her life and experiences as a descendant of a Buffalo soldier, and as a first generation Filipino American in her wonderful book “Twenty-five Chickens and a Pig for a Bride.”
“Grandpa Stokes wanted to escape from the South where he experienced oppressive racial prejudice,” she wrote. “In 1898, he found an opportunity for an overseas assignment, hoping for a life free from discrimination in another country.”
Stokes volunteered to fight for the United States in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. His encounter with Filipinos changed his perspective in a way as Vangie recalled when I interviewed her for Pinoy Pod.
“He came to identify with the Filipinos and would not shoot at the Filipinos,” she said. “He loved the people, and he loved the culture. He loved the food… He identified with the people and loved them.”
