Jersey City Times: How Filipinos Figured in Jersey City’s Rich Mosaic
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- May 24
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In the early 1990s, the city rededicated a section of Grove Street, between 12th Street and Newark Avenue, as Manila Avenue.
How Filipinos Figured in Jersey City’s Rich Mosaic by Ron Leir
Jersey City Times
May 3, 2025
In the early 1990s, the city rededicated a section of Grove Street, between 12th Street and Newark Avenue, as Manila Avenue.
As an ethnic group, they constitute only about 7% of the city’s population – an estimated 18,000 –but Jersey City’s century-old Filipino community has made its mark since federal immigration laws were loosened in the mid-1960s.
A public program was hosted last month by the Museum of Jersey City History as part of a state-funded lecture series on the roles played by the various ethnic groups in the life of their host city.
The moderator, Philippine American Friendship Day Committee Jessa Bonafe, organizer of the annual (PAFDC) parade, introduced speakers who reviewed the group’s local impact.
Among those speaking at the event was Joyce Castillo, president of PAFCOM (Philippine American Friendship Community), who moved here in the 1980s, later left due to crime in the schools but stayed active in many local Filipino activities such as the annual June parade.
Among the earliest arrivals who made Jersey City their new homes in the mid-1950s were Filipino-trained nurses health care professionals, many of whom got nursing jobs at the Jersey City Medical Center and Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital.
Phoebe C. Andes, R.N., came to Jersey City from her native Philippines in 1957 to continue her education and training in maternity nursing. It was there she met her future husband Ralph Andes, who was serving with the U.S. Coast Guard.
Only recently did the couple’s daughter Pam Andes – an aide to Ward C Councilmember Rich Boggiano and subbing for her mom as a speaker – learn from fellow guest speaker Nestor Enriquez, a U.S. Navy veteran and founder of the Filipino American National History Society’s New Jersey Chapter, “… that all of the Filipino sailors from the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard waited at the hospital employee exit so that they could meet the Filipino nurses.”
After completing advanced degrees, Phoebe returned to New Jersey in 1967, was professor of nursing for 20-plus years at Middlesex County College and self-published her memoir, “From Sweet Potatoes to French Fries.”
She was the founder of the Philippine Nurses Association of America and PNAA Foundation which, during COVID, distributed meals and masks to seniors and health care workers.
And she was appointed to the N.J. State Board of Nursing in 1993.
Since an overwhelming majority of the Filipino arrivals in Jersey City were Catholic, they developed a natural affinity for local Catholic houses of worship and, for Downtown residents in particular, St. Mary’s Church, host of the annual Santacruzan pageant held in May.
Another speaker, Victor Sason, a Filipino-trained priest who became one of the founding members of the procession, recalled how an empathetic developer provided loans to nurses and other new Filipino arrivals to purchase newly-built Downtown homes during the ‘60s.
After leaving the priesthood, Sison pursued a career as a lawyer, opening a local practice in 1993, then a rarity for Flilipinos now living in Jersey City. He continued taking cases for nearly three decades before then-Mayor Glenn Cunningham appointed him municipal judge.
Sason was recognized, twice, by N.J. Legal Services for “continuing commitment and tireless efforts in helping address the legal needs of disenfranchised clients and secure for them a greater measure of justice.”
An active community leader, speaker Joey Mayo said he is among the first-generation-U.S.-born Filipinos and his legacy got its tutelage from his mom Linda Mayo, the first Filipino and Asian American to be elected to the Jersey City Board of Education in 1997. She also served as deputy mayor under Bret Schundler.
After an unsuccessful City Council bid by three Filipinos, including Linda Mayo, the Filipino community groups agreed to support one candidate in 2011 and that candidate — Rolando Lavarro Jr. – won a seat on the council.
Ramon Tolentino was named the first Filipino-American purchasing director in 1983.
Just before that victory came a series of “firsts” for local Philippine-Americans with these appointments by Mayor Glenn Cunningham in the late 1990s: Ed Soloza as tax assessor, Sarafina Sengco as chief financial officer and Sason as municipal judge.
Other “firsts” were Elmer Andal as Municipal Utilities Authority director in 2013 and Jennifer Wong as traffic and engineering director in 2023.
According to Mayo, currently there are 25 Filipino-Americans serving as city police officers and Lt. Joel Villabrosa was the first promoted to that rank in 2022.
An architect by trade, Mayo is a board member of the Pan American Concerned Citizens Action League. Among other citations, he is a member of the N.J. Chapter’s Council of Elders of the Knights of Rizal and of Catholic Action of Mary.
In Jersey City, he has spearheaded annual projects such as Filipino American History Month, observed in October.
After spending his early years in the mountains of Nueva Vizcaya in his native Philippines, speaker Nestor Enriquez joined the U.S. Navy and, after two decades of service through 1978, partly as a submarine chief petty officer, settled in Jersey City where he was appointed assistant city controller.
As a retiree, Enriquez – president of the N.J. Chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society – said he’s been using his online skills to research the history of Filipino sailors in the U.S., including those who were aboard the USS Monitor in the Civil War.
He said he was proud to learn that onetime boxing champion Pancho Villa, Filipino flyweight boxing champion, had fought in Jersey City’s old Oakland Park in the Heights.
Today, Wikipedia notes, Jersey City “is home to a high-profile Little Manila,” focused on Five Corners, Newark Avenue and Manila Avenue in Downtown, featuring a retail and professional office strip “significantly large and growing,” including the former Phil-Am Food (now known as FilStop)” which became “the first Filipino-owned grocery store on the East Coast” when it opened in 1973.
In the early 1990s, the city rededicated a section of Grove Street, between 12th Street and Newark Avenue, as Manila Avenue, recognizing the Filipino capital as a way of paying tribute to the Filipino-Americans who settled in the area during the 1970s. Along that stretch, the city also dedicated a park and statue memorializing Jose Rizal, national hero of the Philippines, and Filipino-American veterans of the Vietnam War.
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