Profile: Dr. Dorothy Cordova

Long-time Filipina American activist, Dr. Dorothy Cordova has been involved in the Filipino American movement since 1950. She was co-founder of the Filipino Youth Activities, a non-profit organization which served the educational, social and artistic needs of Filipino youth and was involved in organizing demonstrations in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Dr. Cordova was director of the Demonstration Project for Asian Americans, which conducted a wide variety of studies on the problems Asian Americans faced in the 1970s. After DPAA’s closure she co-founded the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), which still exists today. Besides her efforts to research and perpetuate oral histories of the Filipino American community, Dr. Cordova is writing a book about the historical experiences of Filipino-American women in the United States. She asserts Filipino women have always been powerful. She shares: "The women weren't following the men. They were 10 feet in front of them, leading them by the nose.