Agnes Perez-Bartolome (First Quarter Storm ’78) is a nurse in Los Angeles. She was a Food Science and Technology major at UP Los Baños. She obtained her nursing degree in California State University Los Angeles after immigrating to the US in 1987.
Agnes
How do you find nursing as a career? Why did you choose nursing as a career when you move to the US?
I am a pediatric ICU nurse at White Memorial Medical Center, an Adventist Hospital, for 10 yrs now. I was a full time visiting nurse for 5 years before that. I love my job and I find nursing very fulfilling especially when what I do make a difference in the life of a patient and his family. At times, it is heartbreaking especially when a child dies. I have come to terms with death and dying. As I tell my co-workers, “We are not gods; we can only do so much. Let these kids pick up their wings, they have suffered enough.”
I initially wanted to finish Food Tech but the universities offering it were far from L.A. Being a new immigrant I could not relocate and my husband & and I got jobs in the Los Angeles area. I could have been an underwriter for commercial insurance but I did not really like paper works. Looking at ads in the newspaper, there were pages of nursing openings but I only saw 1 for Food Tech. I really like working with people and nursing is not just a job. It is a dedication. It is not just giving medications and shots. It is sharing yourself through compassion.
You mentioned to Tudla about being a member of the Gabriela organization. Can you give us a brief background about this organization (its objectives, when and where was it founded, current projects, membership, etc)?
Gabriela Network (GabNet) is a Philippine-US women’s solidarity mass organization. It is a multi-ethnic, multi-culture women’s organization in solidarity with Gabriela Philippines. It was founded in 1989 in Chicago. Among its founding members are Ninotchka Rosca, Raquel Sancho, Judith Mirkinson, and 50 other women including non-Filipinas. GabNet provides the means by which Filipinas in the US can empower themselves, functions as training ground for women’s leadership, and articulates the women’s point of view. GabNet effects change though organizing, educating, fundraising, networking, and advocacy. Our other programs include: summer mentorship for high school girls, leadership trainings for women, exposure trip(s) to different women’s sector/regions in the Philippines. One of our major campaigns is the Purple Rose campaign launched in Feb 2000. Its objective is to stop the trafficking of Filipino women and children for sex and labor by means of media exposure, education, and networking. Purple Rose had been initiated in different cities worldwide by different organizations we network with. We also participate in local committees involving women’s issues in the city. GabNet seats in the steering committee of the ANSWER coalition which is the largest anti-war coalition in the US. Our membership have roughly 200 members, seven chapters nationwide in New York, Chicago, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Berkeley – community and university based.
For information about Gabnet, please visit its main site at http://www.gabnet.org or its Los Angeles chapter site at http://www.myspace.com/gabnetla
When did you become a member of GabNet? Why did you join? What is the extent of your involvement in GabNet?
Los Angeles Chapter was formed in 1992 but I did not join until 1993. Some women in Alliance for Philippine Concerns (APC), the Pilipino org I was a member of, attended a GabNet conference in San Francisco, CA and they started the LA chapter when they returned. They invited me to join; I was hesitant but tried it anyway.
Initially I did not see why I should join an all women’s organization if I believe that men and women are equal. Only when I attended the Women’s Conference in the Philippines that I realized that women are still unappreciated, undervalued, oppressed as a gender aside from its class oppression. Only the women themselves can fight their own battles to be truly liberated.
I am an active member. I was the L.A. Chapter coordinator from 1995- 1999?. I don’t hold any position for a while now. I am more involved in the local chapter activities in Los Angeles. We have many young members who are running the organization.
Last Updated on October 12, 2016 by Tudla_Admin
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