Marily's Mission

Published October 25, 2007
INQUIRER.net

Google “Filipina” and you will likely find Web sites about mail order brides or international dating – online destinations that typically bring to mind the many stories of Filipinas being exploited or abused.

Marily Mondejar wants to change that.

The first time we met, she was trying to do it by producing and promoting Eve Ensler’s internationally renowned play about female sexuality, The Vagina Monolgues. Not only was the production composed of an all Filipina-cast, it was also in Tagalog.

I interviewed Marily, who is president of the Filipina Women’s Network, on Pinoy Pod, the San Francisco Chronicle’s podcast focused on the Filipino American community. (The feature marked the first time that the Tagalog word for the female organ was published on a major U.S. metropolitan newspaper’s Web site. You can check it out here).

Marily is trying to overhaul the image of Filipina women again this year by identifying the 100 most influential Filipinas in the United States.

“We want to be showing on the first page of any Yahoo or Google search with the meaning for ‘Filipina’ as ‘someone doing influential things,’” she said.

The idea for the campaign, which culminates this week at the organization’s 5th Filipina Summit in Washington DC., came to Marily and her group last year during the celebration of the centennial of Filipino migration to the United States.

That commemoration had focused largely on the Filipino men who came to America as migrant farm workers. “There were very few women mentioned, just the war brides,” Marily said.
For the bicentennial celebration of Filipino presence in America, she said, her group “wants to make sure there are at least 100 Filipinas” mentioned in the stories about the Filipino American journey.

For this to actually happen, FWN wanted to find influential Filipinas willing to take part in a campaign to reshape their public image. Marily and her team didn’t want another popularity contest or another feel-good schmooze-fest for the rich and famous.

“We did not want that,” Marily said. “You may be high society, you may come from a wealthy family. But we want to make sure that’s not your only claim to fame.”

And making it to the list is just the first step. Each honoree has a job to do.

“We want you to promise to be a womentor,” she quipped, using FWNspeak for “mentor.” Each honoree must commit to help younger Filipinas as they begin their careers or take on other challenges in their community and beyond. “The goal is to change the face of power in America,” she said.

The organization solicited nominations from all over America, from the world of business, the arts, education, and nonprofits. After the list is completed, Marily said, FWN will then launch a mentorship program that it hopes to become fully-developed by 2012.

It’s a tough challenge, she acknowledged.

While there is a lot of excitement now about the campaign to identify the 100 Pinas, sustaining that energy will be difficult even for an established organization like FWN with its 500 active
members and network of 5,000 supporters throughout the United States.

“The fear is obviously sustainability,” she said. “Are we going to get the support of the community? Is the program going to get the support of the community?”

But for the 57-year-old business consultant and single mother, it’s worth a shot. A native of Tacloban who grew up in San Juan, Metro Manila, Marily married young, had two sons and got divorced after moving to the United States in the early 1980s. She later built a successful career as a business development and image consultant, but she did not play to active a role in Filipino issues.

“I had been here 20 years but never got involved,” she said.That changed in 2000 when she signed up to be a member of FWN which she has turned into a vibrant civic organization.
“This is my legacy to the community,” Marily said. “That’s all I ask for.” Laughing, she added, “I don’t even have a daughter. That’s probably why I’m involved in this.”

To find out more about the Filpina Women’s Network go to http://www.ffwn.org/.