nwasianweekly.com
Nov. 12, 2005

(Photo by Ann-Marie Stillion)
Frank Irigon is credited with jumpstarting the flow of money into the International District. He will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award Dec. 8.

Always outspoken, always Frank

By Pat Tanumihardja
For the Northwest Asian Weekly
For more information about the community dinner on Dec. 8, click here.

“Getting arrested,” Francisco “Frank” Irigon replies matter-of-factly to the question of the most memorable experience of his life.

His answer is an indication that Irigon has not led an ordinary life, and he hasn’t. In addition to getting arrested — twice — he has a long history of activism in the civil rights movement. Irigon’s friends are quick to credit him for being at the forefront of many positive changes in the local Asian Pacific American community.

For his many contributions, he will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award on Dec. 8 at Four Seas Restaurant. The ceremony will be part of the Top Contributors to the Asian Community awards banquet, organized annually by the Northwest Asian Weekly.

Born in the Philippines, Irigon immigrated to the U.S. in 1950 when he was 3. His father, a Philippine Scout, was fortunate enough to come to America after serving in World War II. Following three years in Kansas, the family moved to Germany, then settled in Fort Lewis.

Irigon first felt the stirrings of his inner activist after he graduated from high school and joined the Army. “I started knowing who I was … through a friend, Gary Largo, from Hawaii,” says Irigon. “I wasn’t political, but he taught me to be proud of being Filipino.

“And then the journey started from there.”

Irigon left the Army after three years and enrolled in the University of Washington in 1971. He became an anti-war protester, printing flyers and marching in demonstrations, but it wasn’t until he joined the Asian Student Coalition that he became a true leader in the civil rights movement.

Irigon co-founded the Asian Family Affair, a newspaper that was a political mouthpiece for Asian Americans. “We had a vision of educating our community, and we felt that we needed to have a voice,” says Irigon. “We were reporting on the news that we made ourselves!” he says, laughing.

One of those headline-making stories was the demonstration against the building of the Kingdome, an event Irigon believes really galvanized the APA community. “There was a misperception that the demonstrators wanted to stop (the building of) the stadium,” explains Irigon, who was responsible for gathering the troops. “We knew it was already being built … we wanted to let out our frustration. And that’s what we did: We disrupted the groundbreaking ceremony, (and) that made us feel good.”

This show of force also established the APA community as a powerful political group that could no longer be ignored by city or county officials.

John Spellman, the King County executive at the time, met with the demonstrators to negotiate. Irigon and his team demanded that money be put into low-income housing and health services in the International District.

“Health needs of the Asian community were not being met,” explains Irigon. “Elderly in the International District had to go to the Pioneer Square health clinic to get primary care. And they had to walk,” and the care they received there usually didn’t take their cultures into consideration.

That was the beginning of the International District Health Clinic, which has evolved into International Community Health Services (ICHS), now serving not only the I.D. community, but also immigrant and refugee groups throughout the Greater Seattle area.

Al Sugiyama, executive director of the Center for Career Alternatives, credits Irigon for jumpstarting the flow of money into the I.D. “What started out with several thousand dollars, today has a budget of $14 million,” says Sugiyama, referring to ICHS. “It’s huge and serves thousands in the community. The idea came from Irigon.”

Irigon was also the clinic’s executive director in the early 1990s.

Getting arrested in 1980 was an eye- opener for Irigon, who had been protesting the UW’s admission policies, which had toughened its standards for ethnic minorities participating in the university’s Educational Opportunity Program. “That’s when I realized I had a commitment,” he says. “When you march, there’s always the threat of being arrested, always the threat of getting clubbed, but it never happened.

“I was married with two kids, and my wife was pregnant with a third child. I had a job, was paying the mortgage,” he continues. “When confronted with it, I didn’t have to think twice, it just happened.”

His wife, Felicita, on the other hand, didn’t react to the arrest quite the same way. “My wife was pissed!” recalls Irigon, laughing.

This commitment has not gone unnoticed. Yvonne Kinoshita Ward, an Auburn attorney and a community activist, wholeheartedly believes the APA community is better off because of Irigon’s efforts. And Sugiyama counts Irigon at the top of the list of individuals who have made a substantial difference in this community.

“He always puts issues above himself and family. He worked hard in bettering the community. There are very few people like that,” Sugiyama says.

Ward believes Irigon’s motivation comes from his knowledge and experience of the past. “Frank has seen what happens when the community does not stand up for our rights — we become invisible and marginalized. Frank also knows how precious and hard-fought our rights are, and that without advocacy and diligence, we could backslide.

“So I think Frank’s motivation is his knowledge and experience of what it is like without community advocacy, and how important it is to future generations that we continue to make our community stronger,” Ward says.

Sugiyama added, “Frank is the best example of an Asian American. He is the ultimate community activist and civil rights activist.”

Although retired, Irigon continues his activism as chair of the Asian Pacific American Caucus of the Washington Democratic Party. “(We want) to get APAs elected and the Democratic Party to take notice of us as a community to reckon with,” Irigon says with characteristic passion.

In terms of the APA community’s political influence, Irigon thinks, “We’re a lot better off than in the ’60s. … We’ve come a long way in terms of empowerment.” He is quick to rattle off the names of numerous APAs, past and present, who have served on the City Council and in the state Legislature.

It is Irigon’s belief that “nothing moves in King County without APA support.”

Despite all the progress that has been made, however, the APA community still has more mountains to climb. “Those who remember and those who know about (our past struggles) realize that, one, the struggle isn’t over and, two, that there were people before them and that they’re carrying the torch (today),” says Irigon.

And Irigon is proud to see that the younger generation is carrying the torch high and proud. Citing a recent meeting of Filipino American activists involved in the anti-Arroyo movement in the Philippines, he says, “They were following their hearts and their minds, and they believe in the cause and the movement,” he says. “I saw it in these young folks, the movement’s alive and well.”

“To me, the struggle still continues,” says Irigon. “It’s our contribution, and I’m still contributing.” 

Pat Tanumihardja can be reached at scpnwan@nwlink.com.

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