Happy Birthday!

On February 16, 1995, Chi Rho Omicron (XPO) was founded as the first Filipino American History Fraternity in the California University School system on the belief and ideals of creating educated Filipino men that would be great community leaders, responsible fathers, and role models within our brotherhood organization. Today, as one of the founding fathers of this great fraternity, Wenceslao Oscar Gonzales dedicated this 18 year anniversary to all our fathers who first taught their children the meaning of brotherhood, honoring their families, and the loyalty of friendships.

On October 18, 2000, Less than six months after becoming a brother of XPO on May 11, 2000, my mom died, underinsured. The brothers stepped up to raise money and assist me in giving her a proper and dignified service. If not for XPO, I would have been alone and devastated. Rather, I learned in a very touching, moving, and inspiring way that I have a family, hope, and opportunity. Nobody will ever convince me that fraternities are another form of a gang or that we just pay for our friends. Just like how Filipinos formed Filipino fraternal organizations like the Caballeros de Dimas Alang and the Legionarios del Trabajo to cope with the racism, poverty, and alienation they experienced in America in the 1920s and 1930s, XPO provided me a tight-knit sense of community reminiscent of the strong family tie I had just lost. One of the roles such organizations played was, for example, to provide full payment for members' funerals; this was particularly crucial for the large percentage of Filipinos who lived out the latter half of their lives as aging childless bachelors. In my case, XPO helped me with my mom's funeral. It's about mutual aid and I'm proud to be reminded of that today.