Within this photo, multiple layers, facets, and dimensions reveal themselves the more I gaze at it. First of all, that's Janet Alvarado on the left. She is the Executive Director of The Alvarado Project and the Curator of "Through My Father's Eyes", a collection of 52 photos from her father Ricardo Ocreto Alvarado's work. She and I are pictured here during the exhibit's closing event at the History San Jose Museum on January 6, 2013. Sandwiched between us is her father's photo "Box Social"(circa 1950). Way back in 1998, when "Through My Father's Eyes" debuted at the San Francisco Public Library, I brought my son, then seven-years-old, to the exhibit. I gasped in wonder when I came to this photo because I discovered that my mother, Anita Alfafara Suguitan, was the woman on the left! My mother passed away in December, 1965 and I know she would have been thrilled and honored to know that this photograph was among the other gems of Filipino-American history in this exhibit.
I decided to approach Janet Alvarado, the curator, in order to share this connection. But there was a previous connection between me and her. She had been a student of mine. I'm going to leave the time stamp at "back in the day" lest readers begin taking out their calculators and dating us. The point is, when I look at this photo of a photo, it reveals all the the many layers leading up to a richly faceted promise of more to come.
I think the The Alvarado Project's board of directors had it spot on when they titled the History San Jose's Closing Event, "We Shall Return".
