BCI Member Spotlight

Meet Jiggs Tadas

My family’s long journey to America started in the mid-seventies when my eldest brother convinced my other older brother to apply to the US Navy which was then based in Subic during his senior year in high school.  Seven years into the US navy, my brother petitioned my mother to join him in the US and 5 years later, my two sisters, brother, and I hopped on a plane to sunny California. 

I met my wife, Cynthia through my cousin’s husband who happened to be my wife’s officemate. We moved to Indiana in 1999 when my wife got a job offer from company on the southside of Indy. Our plan was for her to take the job for a year only after her project ended and go back to California to be closer to family. That was 21 years ago.

It didn’t take long before we started meeting new friends that lead to even more friends, and invitations to Filipino parties and events. During the 20 plus years we’ve been living here in Indy, the friends we made became our family. Both our children were born in Indiana and both have godparents that we met and become close here in Indiana. More often than not, we spent more time with our friends here than our own relatives because of distance, even for Christmas, birthdays, and every other holiday. We share the same life stories and laughs over and over again. 

In 2009, I got a call from Rick Miranda encouraging me to join Rudy Casino’s officers and run as Rudy’s VP for the BCI. We won in 2010, which started my family’s lifetime involvement with the Barangay. BCI is like home away from home. BCI gatherings, events, meetings, and dance practices are moments we treasure as something to keep us in touch with what we have back home in the Philippines. Even before my wife and I started our family, we wanted our children to be proud of their Filipino heritage, great tradition, the love of family, and strong faith in GOD which is embedded throughout Filipino culture. Rather than just telling our kids stories of our childhood, the BCI helps our kids to live and experience the long and rich Filipino culture through food, dancing strong family ties and religious faith.

The Philippines is where I see my myself in the future, California is where my family resides, but Indiana is what we call home.