In Memoriam

Ka Cyn By Melinda Paras

She was Ate Cyn and I was her Parasiya.

In 1973 I was deported from the Philippines back to the United States after spending several weeks in Concentration Camps after the declaration of martial law.

At that time Cynthia Maglaya had connected with overseas Filipinos from the national democratic movement and also with Filipino Americans who were fighting racism and oppression of their community in the US. We know that “the people are the makers of history”. An uprising of the Filipino middle class which culminated in the EDSA revolution, culminating years of resistance from all classes throughout the county – ultimately overthrew the dictator Marcos.But individuals can and did play critical parts in the drama that unfolded in the resistance to Marcos.

Cynthia Maglaya – Ka. Cyn played such a role.

Among the unique gifts that Ka Cyn played in the Filipino revolutionary movement was a critical element in the linkage between the national democratic movement in the Philippines and the struggle of Filipino Americans against discrimination and oppression.

This linkage was significantly displayed in the role that Ka. Cyn played in the formation of the KDP. In response to the declaration of martial law in the Philippines, Filipinos in the US came together to oppose the dictatorial regime. Filipinos in the US were aghast at the complete elimination of civil liberties by the regime, the jailing and murder of Marcos opponents and the shuttering of TV, radio and newspaper entities. 

The community quickly formed organizations in response to martial law and launched protests at Philippine consulates. For the first time Filipino activists across the US began to work together in this crisis. As Filipino revolutionary activists came in contact with Filipino Americans in this effort, leaders sought to unite them in a revolutionary Filipino activist organization – the Union of Democratic Filipinos or KDP.

Ka. Cyn was a critical part of the creation of the KDP. The creation of KDP was no easy task. National democratic immigrants from the Philippines made up the core of activists in Chicago and the East Coast. The core of radical Filipinos in the West Coast were primarily Filipino Americans. The establishment of trust between these two groups was an essential component to the coalescing of both groups into a single revolutionary organization.

Cynthia Maglaya played a critical role in the establishment of that trust. As a KM member in the Philippines, she was acknowledged as a leader for that cause. And her relationships with Filipino American leaders in the Bay Area helped to cement the core of the KDP leadership and win the support of Filipino immigrant activists across the country.

The Power of Organization

When ordinary people begin to rise to fight oppressive conditions, the creation and maturation of organization is the most powerful force that can be mustered.

What was the result of the KDP’s formation?

The KDP became a powerful force in the fight for democracy in the Philippines. Spearheading anti-martial law mass organizations, the KDP helped to educate thousands of Filipino Americans and the American public about the crimes of the Marcos dictatorship. It helped to lead protests at the Philippine consulates and lobbying work in Congress to oppose US aid to Marcos. It remained such a thorn in the side of the dictatorship, that Marcos had to direct a vicious response of intimidation against the US based opposition – including the murder of KDP members Gene Viernes and Silme Domingo

In addition to building the trust that led to the KDP’s formation, Ka. Cyn brilliantly reflected the understanding that the building of a Filipino progressive consciousness in the US also required Filipino national democratic activists to help lead in the opposition to discrimination and oppression of Filipinos in the US.

In a unique political program at the time, the KDP also led the fight for progressive change for the Filipino community in the US. KDP members fought for the creation of Filipino studies courses and Ethnic Studies programs. KDP helped lead a masters degree course at Goddard College allowing activists to earn advanced degrees and step into teaching positions in newly created Filipino studies courses. KDP members helped to lead the Far West Conventions which gathered hundreds of young Filipinos throughout the west coast each year to build community, learn their history and focus their activism. 

KDP advanced cultural work in the Filipino community founding the Sining Bayan which produced full length plays with progressive content, performed throughout the country. KDP members helped to lead unions of cannery workers and health care workers. KDP members helped to form and lead community health care clinics and fight for the rights of Filipino immigrant health care professionals.

Ka. Cynthia played a central role in the leadership of these actions through the National Executive Board of the KDP, which she joined along with Bruce Occena and myself. The NEB established a trusted core which advanced the plans for all of these actions and organized their implementation. The KDP trained hundreds of Filipino leaders in organizing skills and a progressive vision which produced such an impressive body of activism. 

Ka. Cynthia understood the power of organization and used her passion, organizing skills and personal relationships to build a powerful force of progressive and revolutionary activists in the Filipino community in the US, a force that still reverberates in the community today. While the KDP organization took up both the struggle for national democracy in the Philippines and the movement to fight the oppression of Filipinos in the US, Ka. Cynthia personally fought on both fronts of this struggle. 

Through her teaching position at UC Berkeley, Ka. Cythnia came to know and work with Filipino American young people, struggling to understand their identity as Filipinos. She embraced them and their concerns and helped to fight for Filipino studies programs and a progressive Ethnic Studies program at UC Berkeley. She introduced students to the I-Hotel struggle for affordable housing for Filipino manongs.She embraced the struggles of both Filipino activists seeking democratic change in the Philippines and the efforts of Filipinos in the US to defeat discrimination.

Che Guevara Quote: The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality. While this spirit of love was demonstrated among all of the Filipino activists of this period, Ka. Cyn played a unique role in reflecting this spirit with all of the comrades she touched. When I came to see her as my Ate Cyn, it was because she was the comrade many of us turned to, to share personal difficulties and problems. She made time and was a wise counsel when we talked to her about problems we experienced in our political work and in our personal lives. 

Cynthia Maglaya’s love and support of her comrades helped to forge an atmosphere of generosity and compassion that made the KDP a progressive home for a generation of activists.

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