Updated: February 27, 2024, 12:35 PM
Vancouver, B.C.
History buffs on social media share fund drive for Ben Flores’ tombstone
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
The excitement level is high as the documentary on Benson Flores, the first Filipino on record to have settled in Canada, is set to be released in March or April this year.
The team of Philippine Canadian News editor Ted Alcuitas and broadcast journalist Joseph Lopez are working on the film project that won the Simon Fraser University Student-Community Engagement Competition in 2022.
The 20-minute documentary will be about how Lopez how accidentally discovered Flores in a book about Bowen Island and the exciting journey on finding more information about this significant Filipino who will make present and future generations of immigrants proud.
“It was serendipity. It was May 2011, when I decided to visit Bowen Island for a long weekend after hearing about the fun of climbing Mount Gardner. Bowen Island is about a 20-minute ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver. I went to the library to find out more about the place and I found a page about Benson Flores,” Lopez cheerfully recounted his experience.
Close to 13 years later and he is doing final edits to the historic documentary that started out as an unexpected discovery.
Broadcast journalist Joseph Lopez has spent close to 13 years researching about Benson Flores. (contributed photo)
“The project aims to fill the gap of Filipino history in Canada and raise the profile of the community. We will make a short documentary film to memorialize the first Filipino on record to have settled in Canada in 1861 – Benson Flores. We will interview and film significant players in the accidental discovery of Flores’ settlement in Bowen Island, B.C., and we will document the discovery and search leading to this important part of Filipino history of migration. More significantly, we will memorialize Benson Flores with a tombstone in his burial place in the Vancouver Cemetery where he was buried in an unmarked grave so that present and future generations of Filipinos in Canada will have a permanent link,” Alcuitas says in his submission for the SFU grant.
Lopez had the privilege of meeting Irene Howard, the author of the book Bowen Island 1872 – 1972, which was his first source of information about Benson Flores.
Lopez thought he had to dig deeper especially after finding out that Howard had relied on information from island residents. He decided to search existing documents.
He first looked at a map provided by the Bowen Island Museum and Archive. The rest, they say, is history.
He peered through immigration records including the Census of Canada, which is available online under Library and Archives in Canada. He also checked BC Archives using auxiliary sources such as Records of Birth and Deaths.
“I also sourced land titles, books, other directories, newspapers from mid-1800s until now, archival library records, personal interviews with authors, among others. Other provincial or territory records, across Canada, were also investigated,” Lopez shared.
All the details on his investigation will be featured in the film.
Asked how he considers the work he has done, Lopez said “I just want to correct facts. As a journalist, I’m happy with that.”
As for the tombstone for Benson Flores, Alcuitas has launched a GoFundMe drive which is still in the early stages. He is appealing to kababayans to participate in this historic project by donating any amount to the GoFundMe.
For those who wish to donate, please visit the link: https://gofund.me/7ee0a8fd.