`Barkada Sindrome' -- A Filipino Writer-Director Tackles The Gang Problem Onstage

Timoteo Cordova came to the interview wearing a bright purple sweatshirt emblazoned with a message of Filipino-American pride.

The attire bespoke Cordova's strong identification with his Filipino roots. "I'm very ethnocentric," he noted, with typical bluntness. "It's not so much a militant thing. I'm just proud of who I am, and I want to speak out for my people."

After years of activism in a variety of local causes, Cordova has a new forum for sharing his views: the Sining KulUSAn Performing Arts Theatre Ensemble.

In 1991, Cordova formed Sining KuLUSAn (rough translation: Filipino-American art movement) to produce his original show "Across Oceans of Dreams." The musical drama traced several decades in the lives of two Filipino immigrants to the United States. After premiering in Seattle, it toured California and Western Washington.

Now Cordova has written and directed a second musical. Titled "BARKADA SinDROME," it portrays the impact of escalating gang violence on an urban community. The show runs Wednesday through Nov. 27 at Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center (461-4870 or 322-0203).

Gangs are everywhere

Though all the characters are Filipino, Cordova insists the drama has broader implications: "Gangs are a problem now in Bremerton, Kent, Bellevue, among poor kids and middle-class kids. They're everywhere."

Cordova grew aware of burgeoning gang activity in the mid-1980s, when he worked as a counselor for the Seattle Assistance for Troubled Youth program. But his activism stems from growing up in a Seattle clan steeped in social commitment.

His parents, Fred and Dorothy Cordova, are leaders in the Filipino community. They founded Filipino Youth Activities, and also the Filipino American National Historical Society, which (with King County Arts Commission) is helping to fund "BARKADA SinDROME."

The third of eight children, Cordova admits he was "the black sheep for a while. I wanted to be judged as myself, not as a Filipino. But I got back into community work, and now, of all my siblings, I'm the one most similar to my parents."

Cordova bypassed college for what he calls "a practical education." In his teens he helped start the Asian Multi-Media Center, which spawned the Northwest Asian American Theatre Company. His later work with youth alerted him to the gang scene.

"I don't think the city took it seriously in 1985," Cordova says. "We kept telling everyone if we nipped this quickly, we won't have to worry about second- and third-generation gangs. My argument was that we shouldn't be spending 90 percent of our resources on the 5 percent of kids already in trouble. For every kid you helped, you saw hundreds fall through the cracks."

Convinced the city was "just putting a Band-Aid on the problem," Cordova moved out of social services and back into the arts: "After all the frustration, I felt the best thing I could do for kids was become a more visible role model. And there's no better way than through the arts."

De-glamorizing gangs

"BARKADA SinDROME," which made its debut in Tacoma last month, considers the hatred between two barkadas, or gangs: the Killapinos (Killas), made up of Phillipine-born youth, and the Fil-Am Brotherhood (Fabros), an American-born group. It also shows how a TV reporter, store owners, a teacher and other community figures respond to the mounting violence.

The piece, Cordova says, is a satire, designed to de-glamorize gangs. "Our society tends to romanticize them, and ignore the good kids. You can buy bandana scarves at Nordstrom's like the ones gang members wear. A former hit man for the Crips just signed a $250,000 book contract. Somehow the wrongdoers are getting all the attention, and the kids who stay clean are considered the squares."

Though 10 of the 30 people working on the musical are teens, Cordova did not involve gang kids.

That casting decision might have cost him some media coverage: "When TV's `Evening Magazine' heard we had no gang members in the show, they didn't want to do a story. But my question is, when the opera does `The Ring Cycle,' do they use real Vikings?

"We wanted to work with young people who didn't have a lot of major problems, or have to be bailed out of jail when they should be at rehearsals. These are good kids, who should be supported and applauded."

As the parents of three children, including a 12-year-old son, Cordova and his wife, Gigi, have a personal stake in seeing the gangs erode.