In July 2025, we inaugurated the Helen Toribio Kapwa Fellowship to support the work of Filipino and Filipino-American writers and activists in the United States. The fellowship is funded by a generous gift from an anonymous donor who was inspired by the experience of organizer/writer Christine Cordero, a 2024 resident at Mesa Refuge. Christine, in turn, was inspired by the work of the late Helen Toribio, an activist, writer, educator and scholar, whom she first met as a student over two decades ago.
We had an overwhelming number of impressive applications (40!), so much so that we decided to add a second cohort for the inaugural year of this fellowship.
This Photo Top Row L to R: Kamala Tully, Christine Cordero, Christine Araneta, Abe Ignacio, Elaine Elinson, Rene Ciria-Cruz
Bottom Row L to R: Jassmin Poyaoan, Mary Grace Bertulfo, Angel Trazo
The first cohort—Isa Borgeson, Rona Fernandez, and Aimee Suzara—explored themes around climate change in the Philippines and Bay Area through poetry, fiction, and a screenplay. Their residency was bookended by amazing Filipino meals cooked by Abe Ignacio, Helen’s widower. Then we welcomed our second cohort—Mary Grace Bertulfo, Jassmin Poyaoan, and Angel Trazo—in January 2026. Our second cohort explored themes of precolonial ecological Filipino knowledge, growing up between the Philippines and diasporic communities in the Bay Area, and colorism. Read more about the formation of this fellowship in an article written by Mesa alum Elaine Elinson for Positively Filipino.
