Walbert Castillo of Istorya: Uncovering His Great-Grandfather's Tombstone & Telling Filipino History Through Food
26 min
After losing his Lola, Walbert Castillo and his cousins traveled from across the US to Iligan City in Mindanao to retrace her roots. With just hours left before their flight home, he picked up a bamboo stick at a cemetery and uncovered his great-grandfather's buried tombstone. That moment became the spark for Istorya, the award-winning Las Vegas Filipino pop-up restaurant that tells the story of Philippine history through food, starting with the pre-colonial era. Over breakfast at Kalye on New York City's Lower East Side, Kat talks with Walbert about growing up Filipino American in the Chicago suburbs and being the only Filipino in the room as a journalist at USA Today and later at AWS. He also shares his master plan to tell the full Filipino American story, one culinary chapter at a time. Monica Blanco then joins the conversation to talk about building Istorya together in Las Vegas and why caring for the people doing the work matters as much as the work itself. The episode wraps with a rapid-fire round on suman with latik, pianggang manok, and what it means to be Filipino. Plus, a sneak peek backstage at SIX: The Musical on Broadway with Kay Sibal, who plays Katherine Howard. For anyone in the diaspora who has ever felt disconnected from their roots, this episode is a reminder that the path home is still there, sometimes just beneath the surface. Chapters 00:00:00 Cold open 00:00:25 Welcome: breakfast at Kalye NYC with Walbert Castillo of Istorya 00:01:08 Losing Lola and returning to Iligan City, Mindanao 00:01:47 Finding family through Facebook groups and renting pickup trucks 00:02:48 The only Filipino in the room: journalism, USA Today, and AWS 00:03:48 Growing up Filipino American in Chicago and Elgin 00:04:23 Reconnecting with roots alongside cousins 00:04:51 The cemetery: a barge ride and racing the clock 00:07:56 The bamboo stick: uncovering his great-grandfather's tombstone 00:09:11 Quick break: a moment from another Future Ancestors episode...
