BOOKMONGER
Essays pay tribute
to Pacific Northwest
Filipino community
After being the first in his family
to graduate from college, Peter Bacho
launched a career as staff attorney for
the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Now he’s decided to devote his life to
writing and teaching.
In “Uncle Rico’s Encore,” a collec-
tion of autobiographical essays, Bacho
writes about being a first-generation
American, the son of Filipino immi-
grants and the nephew of a colorful
crew of uncles. His essays tell of grow-
ing up in a redlined, multiethnic neigh-
borhood of Seattle in the 1950s and
1960s.
As blue-collar Filipino Americans,
called “pinoys,” Bacho and his family
were expected by teachers and employ-
ers alike to stay in their own lane. The
men took on the hard, low-paying jobs
that nobody else wanted, like field labor
or work in canneries.
Meanwhile, Filipino kids stuck to
simple pleasures within their own com-
munities, like jigging for shiners off of
the public dock or playing pickup bas-
ketball in a church parking lot. Male
teens signed up for military service and
a ticket to Vietnam right out of high
school, rather than waiting for the draft.
As a kid, Bacho wasn’t blind to the
inequities. He entertained futile dreams
about buying the fishing gear displayed
in the family’s much-thumbed-through
Sears catalog.
And while playing on the junior var-
sity basketball team for O’Dea High
School, a school that served working
class families, he grew to despise the
opposing team at a predominantly white
preparatory school. “The privileged and
smug sons of doctors, lawyers, business
leaders... For them, the teenage years
were easy. And life beyond high school?
No sweat. Decades of success? It’s in
their DNA,” Bacho writes.
But the author also bore witness to
changes that were beginning to hap-
pen in Seattle and throughout society.
His favorite baseball team, the Brook-
20 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
This week’s book
‘Uncle Rico’s Encore’ by Peter Bacho
University of Washington Press – 176 pp –
$24.95
lyn Dodgers, was an integrated team,
and even the Seattle Rainiers had Bobby
Balcena, “the Filipino flyer,” playing
center field.
Bacho’s Uncle Vic was responsible
for getting a major bridge and adjoin-
ing park in Seattle named after José
Rizal, a national hero of the Philippines.
This made Seattle’s Filipino community
more visible.
Redlining was dismantled, and his
family moved into a new neighborhood
with more amenities. But Bacho didn’t
forget his roots. When his old stomp-
ing grounds in Chinatown were threat-
ened with gentrification and the building
of the kingdome, the author was one of
those who mobilized Filipinos and other
Asian American allies.
They pressured the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development
to develop federally subsidized hous-
ing and services within that community
for low-income residents who had been
threatened with displacement.
“Uncle Rico’s Encore” knits together
everyday routines and decisive moments
that have shaped the life of one Pinoy.
These subtle essays, a teaspoonful of
words at a time, explore the universal
human experiences of love, loss, mis-
takes made and wisdom gained. Over
70 years, Bacho has borne witness to,
and participated in, significant shifts in
society. But he’ll always be his uncles’
nephew, his parents’ boy.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly col-
umn focusing on books, authors and
publishers of the Pacific Northwest.
Contact her at barbaralmcm@gmail.
com.
‘Uncle Rico’s Encore’ is by Peter Bacho.
THESE SUBTLE ESSAYS, A TEASPOONFUL OF WORDS AT
A TIME, EXPLORE THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN EXPERIENCES
OF LOVE, LOSS, MISTAKES MADE AND WISDOM GAINED.