Memorial Tributes
2020 and earlier
In Honor of CYNTHIA MAGLAYA (1947 – 1983)
By Elaine Elinson
Cynthia Maglaya, a founder of the KDP, made enormous contributions to the organization in her tragically short life. Though only in her twenties, she brought with her great wisdom and powerful experiences as an activist in the Philippines. As a member of the Kabataang Makabayan (KM or Patriotic Youth), the largest youth National Democratic formation, Cynthia participated in student organizing and mass actions including the First Quarter Storm and the Diliman Commune.
While she was on a visit to the United States, Marcos declared Martial Law and she was unable to return home. She moved to the SF Bay Area knowing it was a center of Filipino activism in the US.
After arriving in Berkeley, she joined revolutionary minded Filipino and Filipino American activists to mobilize protests to the Marcos dictatorship around the U.S., including a rapid response to the declaration of Martial Law. Cynthia’s thoughtful, skilled ability to build relationships among people enabled her to forge strong bonds with activists as we launched the KDP.
When the organization was founded in 1972, Cynthia became a member of the National Executive Board (NEB). As a key leader of the KDP, Cynthia helped to bridge the connections between Filipino immigrant and Filipino American members, critical to the success of the organization.
Cynthia taught Tagalog at UC Berkeley and inspired many Filipino and Filipino American students as well as her colleagues in Asian American Studies at the university. Though she died so young, only 10 years after the formation of the KDP, she will always be treasured for her leadership of the US based Filipino community’s opposition to the Marcos dictatorship and indomitable support of social justice in the United States.