By Andrew Li-ren Wang
©2002 PoliticalCircus.com
May 4, 2002

As executive director of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), Jose Montano encourages the civic and political empowerment of Filipino Americans, while convincing the political establishment of the importance and relevance of Filipino American issues.

Mr. Montano was born in 1968 during his father's tenure as a White House steward in the later years of the Johnson administration. As a child, he moved with his family to Norfolk, Virginia, the center of a sizable Filipino American population. After high school, Mr. Montano took a non-traditional path in earning a degree in political science from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., working along the way to fund his education. After graduation in 2000, he was instrumental to the success of a NaFFAA voter registration drive aimed at registering Filipino Americans in the D.C. metropolitan area. In December 2000, he became the national executive director at NaFFAA's Washington office, taking over for Jon Melegrito.

Mr. Montano describes NaFFAA as both a clearinghouse for information and news regarding the Filipino American community and as an advocacy group for Filipinos and Filipino Americans. NaFFAA's goals include the following: promoting civic and political participation of Filipino Americans; increasing awareness of the economic, social, and cultural contributions of Filipino Americans to the United States; ensuring social justice, fair treatment, and equal rights for Filipino Americans; strengthening Filipino American communities; and eliminating prejudices, stereotypes, and discrimination against Filipino Americans.

As executive director, Mr. Montano serves as a national voice for Filipino American issues. He has spoken to college students, Asian American groups, and various congressional staffs on topics varying from general overviews of Filipino and Asian American issues to specific, emergent issues affecting specific parts of those communities. He has spoken before the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and has had the opportunity to speak to Bill Richardson, Secretary of Energy under President Clinton, Janet Reno, attorney general under President Clinton, and Spencer Abraham, Secretary of Energy under President George W. Bush.

Joe Montano lecturing at University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign Mr. Montano and NaFFAA have worked on behalf of Filipino American veterans, who during World War II were conscripted into the military and forced as U.S. nationals to fight for the United States. Through discriminatory legislation and policies that, in Mr. Montano's words, "smack of injustice," the American government has systematically and repeatedly denied them the benefits and respect accorded to other veterans.

NaFFAA has also mediated discussion among Filipino Americans regarding U.S. military presence in the Philippines and roadblocks to naturalization faced by the Filipino children of American servicemen stationed in the Philippines.

Recently Mr. Montano spoke at the OCA/JACL Leadership Conference on the ways in which new laws in the wake of September 11 have affected Asian Americans. In particular, the newly enacted Aviation Transportation Security Act has mandated that all airline baggage screeners must be U.S. citizens. This has caused many permanent residents in that line of work to lose their jobs.

According to Mr. Montano, NaFFAA's most significant accomplishment to date has been the award of a $90,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to study Filipino cultural performing arts and their relationship to community development and increased civic involvement. "The arts tell the story of our culture," Mr. Montano explains, and provide an opportunity to engender pride and togetherness in the Filipino American community. As an active participant in native Filipino dance and contemporary Filipino American drama in the D.C. area, he has experienced first-hand of the power of the performing arts to draw participants and audiences into closer connection with Filipino and Filipino American culture. It was through this bond, he says, that he gained a stake in the larger Filipino American community and felt a need to serve it in his current capacity.

Joe Montano (right) hard at work with colleague Nick Tongson Though his work with NaFFAA focuses primarily on the issues facing Filipino Americans, Mr. Montano also works with other groups which share common goals. On pan-Asian fronts, NaFFAA has worked closely with the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) and the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), amongst others. On Filipino American veterans' affairs, NaFFAA has combined efforts with such groups as Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, and Jewish War Veterans.

While he believes that NaFFAA has made numerous advances as a national organization, Mr. Montano also sees room for growth in a number of facets of the group's stated mission. The most critical issue is the continuing need for young Filipino Americans and newly naturalized citizens to register to vote and be active politically.

There have been roadblocks to this that Mr. Montano and NaFFAA continue to address. Even in areas in which their numbers are great, Filipino Americans are still a community within a larger population. In that context, it has been difficult for young people to develop and define a particular feeling of belonging in the Filipino American community above all others. This separation is compounded by the generation gap that often exists between the established members of the community, typically older Filipino Americans well-versed in the manners and traditions of the old country, and younger members, born and raised on American culture. NaFFAA has worked to surmount this problem by encouraging involvement in cultural activities, encouraging discussion and interaction between young and old community members, and providing assistance to Filipino American civic organizations.

Another concern that NaFFAA continues to address is the health and wellness of Asian and Filipino American communities. According to Mr. Montano, the current state of affairs is such that accurate data do not exist to make many significant conclusions about the health of most Asian American communities because of the reluctance to publicize illness, both physical and mental. He says, "I have a vision of NaFFAA not only attending to the political empowerment of our communities, but to their wellness also. It's pretty hard to have one without the other."

Mr. Montano currently heads a staff of volunteers and part-time employees at the NaFFAA national office in Washington, D.C.