August 19, 1976: The Day Joy, Lola, and I Came to America
August 19, 1976: The Day Joy, Lola, and I Came to America
Fifty years ago today, my sister Joy, our Lola Rosita, and I left the Philippines on Northwest Orient Airlines. We were not going for America. We were going for our parents.
Fifty years ago today — August 19, 1976 — my sister Joy, our Lola Rosita, and I boarded a Northwest Orient Airlines flight at Manila International Airport. I was almost ten — my birthday was twenty-four days away. Joy was nine. We are Irish twins, born less than a year apart. Our parents, Ronald and Lualhati Perseveranda, had left for Chicago one year earlier, on September 27, 1975. Our mom, a registered nurse, had been recruited by Michael Reese Hospital — her second stint working in the United States. She had worked there from 1960 to 1962, more than a decade before Joy and I were born.
We were going to America. But Joy and I were not going for America. We were going for our parents. Being reunited with Mom and Dad was everything. Going to the USA was secondary. Although our hearts partly broke leaving our extended family — my dad's siblings and Lolo lived just down the street on Carmine in SSS Village, Marikina, and we frequently visited my mom's family in Malate, Manila — Joy and I were beyond excited. And then we got there. And Chicago was awesome.
The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act ended national-origin quotas and opened the door for Filipino healthcare professionals to come to the United States. Tens of thousands of Filipino nurses emigrated to America in the 1960s and 1970s — many, like J.F.'s mother Lualhati, recruited directly by U.S. hospitals. Warren Barr Tower, built in 1973 as staff housing for Illinois Masonic Medical Center, was home to these Filipino nurses and their families.
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Kapatid — (ka-pa-TID)
Sibling. From the root "patid" (of one origin). In Filipino culture, kapatid goes beyond blood — it is anyone you consider a brother or sister. J.F. closes every anniversary remembrance with "Salamat kapatid ko" — Thank you, my sibling — a message to his sister Joy, who made the journey beside him fifty years ago today.
Before We Left
Our parents emigrated on September 27, 1975, one year ahead of us. My mom had been recruited to work at Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago — a connection lit by her earlier work at Michael Reese Hospital in 1961, the last leg of her first U.S. assignment from 1960 to 1962. She was a registered nurse, part of the generation of Filipina healthcare professionals whose skills were in demand across American hospitals. My dad bought a white 1975 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme — a two-door coupe that cost about $5,500 with the options he wanted. The base sticker was around $4,050, but add air conditioning, automatic transmission, and a V8, and the price climbed fast. He loved that car.
Two days before our departure, the Moro Gulf earthquake struck. At 12:11 AM on August 17, 1976, a magnitude 8.0 quake hit southern Mindanao, generating a tsunami that devastated more than 700 kilometers of coastline. Thousands were killed. Under Martial Law, Marcos controlled the press, and Manila was in emergency relief mode. The Philippines was shaking — literally and politically — as we prepared to leave it.
The Journey
Our route traced the Great Circle path that Northwest Orient Airlines had been flying since the postwar era: Manila International Airport to Tokyo Haneda, across the North Pacific to Anchorage International Airport in Alaska, then south to Chicago O'Hare. It was a long flight for two kids and a lola. But we were on our way.
On the same day we left the Philippines, Gerald Ford won the Republican presidential nomination at the Kansas City convention, narrowly defeating Ronald Reagan on the first ballot. We knew nothing about any of this. We were children on an airplane, watching the Pacific pass below us.
Chicago, 1976
Our parents and Tito Narding picked us up at O'Hare. Tito Narding drove our family's Cutlass Supreme. We drove to our new home: Warren Barr Tower, 856 W Nelson St, in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago's North Side.
The 20-story apartment building had been built in 1973 specifically as staff housing for Illinois Masonic Medical Center, which stood directly across the street. My mom, an RN, worked there. The building was home to Filipino nurses, Indian doctors, and medical professionals from around the world — the kind of building the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act had made possible.
Our apartment was about eight blocks south of Wrigley Field. St. Sebastian School, a Catholic parish school on Wellington Avenue, was around the corner — Joy and I didn't have to walk far. We went grocery shopping at the National supermarket nearby; it would become an A&P the following year, part of the wave of store divestitures as National Tea Company was broken up in 1976.
Lakeview in 1976 was dense, walkable, and alive. Brick two-flats and courtyard apartment buildings lined every block. Belmont, Broadway, and Clark streets were bustling with bus lines and corner shops. Lake Michigan was close enough to feel the breezes. It was a beautiful, working-class, immigrant-built neighborhood — and for Joy and me, a vibrant introduction to American city life. I loved Chicago from point zero.
What the World Looked Like
I loved American television. Morning cartoons meant Ray Rayner and His Friends on WGN-TV Channel 9 — a warm, loose kids' show that ran Warner Bros. cartoons between crafts and duck jokes. At noon, Bozo's Circus took over. Saturday mornings were Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, and Super Friends. In the evenings, Joy and I watched Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, The Six Million Dollar Man, M*A*S*H, Starsky and Hutch, and Hawaii Five-O.
Did Charlie's Angels start yet? Almost. The pilot movie had aired on ABC on March 21, 1976 — five months before we arrived — and drew a 54.8 viewing share. But the weekly series did not premiere until September 22, 1976, about a month after we landed. Joy and I would have been among its very first audience.
"Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John and Kiki Dee was the number one song in America on the day we arrived. Taxi Driver, The Omen, All the President's Men, and Logan's Run were in theaters. The Montreal Olympics had ended three weeks earlier, and Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10 was still the biggest story in sports. Back in Manila, the radio had been playing Hotdog's "Manila" — a song that captured the exact bittersweet feeling of leaving home.
Cost of Living, 1976
| Item | United States (1976) | Philippines (1976)* |
|---|---|---|
| First-Class Stamp | $0.13 | ₱0.30 |
| Gallon of Gasoline | $0.59 | ₱1.50 |
| Movie Ticket | $2.13 | ₱2.50 |
| Loaf of Bread | $0.35 | ₱1.20 |
| Average Monthly Rent | $210.00 | ₱350.00 |
*Philippine figures are per Gemini AI research and may not be precisely accurate. U.S. figures reflect commonly cited 1976 national averages.
St. Sebastian School
Joy enrolled in third grade. I enrolled in fourth. We started at St. Sebastian Catholic School on Wellington Avenue, around the corner from Barr Tower, in the fall of 1976. We didn't have to walk far.
Although I didn't have too many toys, I walked around Chicago freely within a one-mile radius of Barr Tower. After school and on weekends, I walked to Brian Muza's house and Jerome Melgar's house to play Atari. In summer 1977, that meant dedicated Pong consoles — the Super Pong and Video Pinball that Atari had on the market. By fall 1977, Atari released the Video Computer System at $199, with Combat packed in the box. We played that, and Air-Sea Battle, and Street Racer, and anything else we could get our hands on. It was a good time to be a kid in Lakeview.
It would take me decades, but I managed to track Vince Tibudan down by adding his wife on Facebook. We exchanged cell numbers, and Vince and I watched a Cubs game together at Wrigley Field with his wife and my youngest daughter Chesca in July 2022. Shirley Santiago and I are still connected on Facebook. Some friendships survive the decades. You just have to look for them.
Leaving Chicago — June 3, 1979
On June 3, 1979, Dad drove our family away from Chicago in the white Cutlass Supreme. Mom and Joy in front. I stood by the open door on the other side. Illinois Masonic Hospital rose behind us — the building that had brought our family to this city.
Tito Narding took the photo. Full circle. He had been there to pick us up at O'Hare on August 19, 1976. Now he was the one to see us off. Five days later, on June 8, 1979, we arrived in San Francisco. We moved permanently to California — to Vallejo, where I would grow up, play tennis for Hogan High School, and eventually raise my own three children.
The Odyssey Continues
I would return to Chicago every year from 1986 to 1991, and lived there on my own in 1989 and 1990. But my sister Joy did not return until mid-December 1991 — more than twelve years after our family had driven away.
In this photo, you can see most of "856 Nelson St." etched on the building's front wall. "Nelson" is partially obscured by my head. Nelson is also the name of my dad's youngest brother. Destiny, or fate? Either way — the street named itself after our family, whether it knew it or not.
It has been an odyssey. From 1976 to 1991 to 2026.
This morning, I texted my sister:
Me: Happy 50th Anniversary!
Joy: Happy 50th Anniversary coming to America!!
I've always considered myself lucky. We had three years in a beautiful metropolis before we moved to suburban Vallejo. Chicago shaped my worldview: it was a city of immigrants, ethnicities, cultures. Everyone acknowledged that they — or their ancestors — came from somewhere else. That understanding has never left me.
Thank you to America for the opportunities that opened up for my family and our extended family. My parents' siblings are mostly here in the United States now, with extended families of their own. We miss those still in the Philippines, but my parents and relatives have assisted them through the years.
Salamat Pilipinas. Thank you, USA. But most of all — Salamat kapamilya!
Happy 50th, Joy. Thinking of you always, Lola Rosita.
1976 Republican National Convention — Wikipedia
1976 August 17 Moro Gulf Earthquake — PHIVOLCS
Billboard Hot 100 Number Ones of 1976 — Wikipedia
Charlie's Angels — Wikipedia
1975 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Ad — Consumer Guide
National Tea Company — Wikipedia
Ray Rayner — Wikipedia
The Warren N. Barr Tower — Advocate Health Institutional Repository
Atari 2600 — Wikipedia
August 19: Our Migration Journey to the USA — PinoyBuilt (2025)
Family photographs from the Perseveranda personal archive.
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Founder & Editor
J.F.R. Perseveranda
J.F. (Jonjo) left the Philippines at age nine, spending a lifetime bridging the gap between his Marikina roots and his Chicago/Vallejo upbringing. A proud Hogan Spartan from East Vallejo and resident of LA/SF, he founded PinoyBuilt not just as a digital archive, but as a cultural compass for his three children to navigate their heritage, language, and identity with Pinoy Pride.
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