My Life's Story - By Phil Verzola (Human Relations Commissioner)

I was born Pamfilo (Phil) Carino Verzola, April 29, 1954 in St. Mary's Hospital, San Francisco, California. My father, Teofilo Verzola, alone and at the age of 17, emigrated from the Philippines to the United States in 1934. My father's first most vivid memory of San Francisco was traveling under the Golden Gate Bridge, still under construction, in the cargo ship that took many weeks to get to San Francisco. His first 4th of July in the US was spent detained for processing at Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay, where in the evening he saw fireworks being set off at Crissy Field. My father worked for almost 20 years as a migrant worker in California, working in the Imperial Valley. In San Francisco he met my mother, Pacita Carino, and in January 12, 1953, they were married.

Our family, along with other Filipino families, lived on a labor farm in Colma California, where the family worked picking flowers. I am the eldest of five children, two boys and three girls. My father had two jobs, working in the flower fields in the daytime, and working as a janitor in the evening at United Airlines. My mother worked the flower fields in the day and, after school and on Saturdays, my brother and sisters and I also worked in the flower fields. After school our dad would give us a ride to the flower fields before going to his second job at United Airlines. When it got dark we rode home with our mother and when we got home she would start dinner while we kids washed up. After dinner, we did our homework, then time for bed. Sundays were spent going to church, then either going to China town for lunch, visiting relatives, or going on a Sunday drive. Saturday nights were usually when parties were scheduled (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) in the large barn at the flower farm where all the Filipino families celebrated together.

Although I didn't feel deprived as a child and had manny happy memories during the time we lived at the labor farm, I remember an indident that made me realize that the Filipino kids at the farm were different from the rest of thekids we went to school with, which were largely of Italian, Irish and other Euro-American descent. One year my school had a food drive and we had to bring items to the school to give to the poor. My mother looked at our pantry and gave me a rusty can of white hominy corn and a can of spinach. I remember thinking ``Good, I can't stand those vegetables anyway''. I brought them to school, and they were collected to be sent out to the poor that afternoon. When I returned home later that afternoon, there was a large box at our front door with cans of food in it. I thought to myself why did we get this food that was for the poor? It was my mother that had to explain to me that to the rest of the community outside the labor farm we are looked upon as poor. She also explained to me that we weren't really poor but it would be impolite to refuse their gift, so we kept the food.

In 1965 our family saved enough money to put a down payment on a home in Mountain View, California. The new house was huge compared to the tiny two bedroom hotel we stayed in at the labor farm, and for the first week the whole family slept in my parents room. After awhile we kids eventually slept in our own rooms, but it took a couple months to get used to the idea. My father continued to work evenings at United AirLines and my mother got a job at Hewlett Packard in Palo Alto. The family continued to work at the flower farm on the weekends until it was finally sold in the 70's, and turned into a senior citizen community complex.

My brother and sisters all went to grade school and High School in Mountain View and then to San Jose State College. My Major was Pre-Med with a minor in Photography. I found that I preferred photography and found that there was a profession I could pursue called Medical Photography. I took additional courses in Medical Photography at R.I.T. in New York and at Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, and became a member of the Biological Photography Association.

In 1976 Stanford University hired me as a Medical Photographer and in 1985 I headed the Medical Photography Division in the Department of Pathology at Stanford. While at Stanford I joined the cultural groups, the Asian Staff Forum, (ASF) Filipinos at Community of Stanford, (FACS) and Filipinos for Affirmative Action (FAA). Each year I sponsor in my department the Toys for Tots drive during Christmas. In 1997 I accepted a position on the board of directors for the Dr. Norman Shumway Foundation that gives out scholarships to underprivileged youths in San Mateo County.

In 1980 I met Leila Villafuerte, my future wife, while visiting my relatives in the Philippines. I corresponded with Leila after I returned to the U S and one-year later I returned to the Philippines to ask Leila to marry me. She said yes with the condition that she remained in the Philippines until she graduated from college. Leila held a full-time job working six days a week while attending college part-time.

We were married in the Philippines, in July 18, 1981. While Leila became a full-time student to finish her degree in accounting, I went back to the U S, working two jobs so that when Leila graduated a year later and immigrated to the U S, we would have enough money to put a down-payment on a home. In August 1982, Leila graduated and came to the U S. Leila has made a career in banking and is presently working as a Trust Specialist at Greater Bay Trust in Palo Alto.

Our first home (which we bought in December of 82' and still own) was in Mountain View where much of our family and relatives lived. After a few years many of our family, relatives and friends began to move to Union City and Fremont, as they were able to buy new homes at a price that was much less than Mountain View. In 1984 Leila and I also moved to Fremont to be close to family, in the Ardenwood area where we lived until 1994.

In 1986, Veronica, our daughter was born. She attended Ardenwood School until the 2nd grade when we decided that we would like her to attend a Catholic School. We were also looking for a larger home as Leila's mother, Bienvenida, moved in with us. We were able to find a new home and a new school, Our Lady of the Rosary School, both in Union City.

Our family attends Our Lady of the Rosary Church where Leila is a Lector and on the development committee, and our daughter is an Altar Server. Leila also is very active in the Parent Teacher Club at Our Lady of the Rosary School. Leila organized parents and students for caroling during Christmas to raise funds for the school, and has chaired many events to raise funds for both the school and the church.

I have for several years now been the school board president at Our Lady of the Rosary. I am a member of the local Knights of Columbus and a local organizing group, Congregations Organizing for Renewal, (COR) which is part of a larger group, Pacific Institute for Community Organization (PICO) at Our Lady of the Rosary Church.

PICO was the driving force in getting the city to clean up a park in the Decoto area and to allocate $250,000 for after school care. These two items were important in that it figured in Union City becoming an All-American Award Winner. PICO's latest victory (November 99') was getting the County Supervisors to vote that all the money that the county receives from the Tobacco settlement, 19 million dollars per year for the next 25 years, go for healthcare.

In 1998 when PICO was lobbying the City Council to allocate $250,000 for after school care my wife and I saw the graduation of the first Union City Citizens Workshop in the council chambers. Leila and I were unhappy with the way PICO had handled the situation in approaching the council members to grant the request (although we did get the money for after school care, the meeting got out of hand and was too confrontational).

Leila and I decided to learn more about city government and the proper way to approach the city council so we signed up for the 2nd Union City Citizens Workshop class. We found the workshop very informative and we feel very reassured and confident that our taxes are well spent in running city government. The workshop also inspired me to do my part in civic responsibilities. I took classes to become a Community Emergency Response Team member (CERTS) and I signed up and was appointed as a Human Relations Commissioner.

My family and I met Myrla Raymundo during a Friends of the Library book sale at the library where my family bought about 50 books (we are a family of readers). Myrla, who is president of Friends of the Library, signed us up as members and mentioned that she was also president of the Union City Historical Museum. Myrla said that I should consider joining as it pertains to the preserving the culture and history of Union City. As a Union City Human Relations Commissioner it is my obligation to acknowledge, appreciate and promote the many cultures of our city. Since it is the culture of Union City that allows the many other cultures of different people to live in harmony in Union City, it was my pleasure to become the Union City Historical Museum's first lifetime member.

There is something unique about the culture of Union City that started from the very beginning of its becoming a city. The new citizens of Union City elected a Japanese-American as their 1st mayor, where as only 14 years before the US had interned all Japanese-Americans, solely based on their national heritage. It seems that the first Union City citizens had been able to look beyond stereotyping groups of peoples and instead really look into the qualities of an individual and determined that Mr. Tom Kitayama was the right person for mayor. It is stories like this that I want to make sure are remembered.

I feel very fortunate and excited to be a Human Relations Commissioner in Union City as it is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the state and the US. With 71 different languages and dialects spoken in the city, it is more important than ever to be interculturally competent in interacting with people of many cultures. It is the challenge of the City of Union City, and the Human Relations Commission in particular, to lead the way in showing the rest of the state, country, and the world how the many cultures of Union City can live in harmony. It is my hope that the work we do in the Human Relations Commission will advance the understanding, respect and insight of the many different cultures of Union City to make it, ``the City of Unity''.