The Filipino community in Vancouver is raising funds to honor the first Filipino who settled in Canada, and the journalist who did the research on Benson Flores. 

Community publisher Ted Alcuitas secured a $3,000 grant from Simon Fraser University to memorialize Flores. 

But he did not want a tombstone only for Flores. He also wanted to do a documentary film that will give credit to radio host and journalist Joseph Lopez, whose research changed the known history of Filipinos in Canada. 

“Joseph devoted almost 10 years of his life, on and off,” said Alcuitas. “He researched the census, whatever available archival records that he could get his hands on, and wrote his findings.”

While on research in 2011, Lopez accidentally discovered an entry in the book “Bowen Island 1872 to 1972,” that mentioned the name of Flores, who came from the Philippines, and who lived in BC’s Bowen island in the 1890s.

Looking further, Lopez found that Flores arrived there in 1861. 

Flores is believed to have been recruited to work as a seaman for one of the foreign ships that docked in Manila, which eventually landed him in Bowen Island. Lopez also discovered audio tapes of interviews of people who know Flores.

“He (Flores) was very industrious. He had a boat business,” said Alcuitas. “He would do beachcombing. He was a good worker, a businessman all throughout.”

Alcuitas added: “Not only that, he was very giving, as, as one of the residents said, he would collect crabs from the beach, put them in sacks, and would just drop them in front of your house as a gift without expecting anything.”

With limited funds from the SFU grant, Alcuitas started a GoFundMe drive to raise an additional $10,000 to help pay for the tombstone, and the extra costs of producing the documentary.

If they can raise enough, Acuitas said they may get to build a monument for Flores in Bowen Island.

“This is a very significant discovery that we could leave to our children, the younger generation,” he added.

Filipino-Canadian lawmaker Mable Elmore spoke in the B.C. legislature to urge her colleagues to support the fundraising efforts for Flores.

The Mabuhay House Society, meanwhile, said the community can help in putting tombstones on other unmarked graves of early Filipinos.

In 2021, as he reached a decade of looking for clues on the first Filipino, Lopez’s research finally led him to Flores’ unmarked grave at the Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver.

Alcuitas hopes the tombstone will be put in place by April 13 to mark the 95th death anniversary of Flores.