Correspondence, documents, photographs, speech notes, newspaper columns, research notes and clippings, and other materials relating to Gonong's roles as a foreign service officer in the Philippine Consulate General of San Francisco, as a public speaker in that capacity along the West Coast, as a columnist for the Associated Filipino Press, and as an officer and member of several Filipino and women's organizations (government, church, and community-based) in Seattle, San Francisco, and Stockton. Includes some personal papers.

Maxine Gonong (1914-1997) was a Filipina American community leader, activist, writer, and speaker. She came to the United States from the Philippines on a scholarship from University of Seattle when she was 18. During the mid-1940s, she served on the Mayor's City Council and President of the Filipino Community of Seattle. She then moved to San Francisco, got a degree in foreign service from University of San Francisco, and in 1947 got a position as Foreign Service Officer for the Philippine Consulate General, where she worked for a decade. She held many positions and belonged to many organizations in the Filipino community in Seattle, San Francisco, and Stockton, including: President of the Filipino Women's Club of San Francisco; President of the Filipino United Community Organization of America, Inc., San Francisco; Vice President of the Filipino Community of San Francisco, Inc; President of the Women's Society for Christian Service of the Filipino Methodist Church, the Women's Society for Christian Service of the Filipino Methodist Church, San Francisco; and officer of the Ligaya Lodge No. 135 of the Legionarios del Trabajo in America, Inc., a Filipino fraternal organization headquartered in Stockton. Gonong also wrote a column--"News from the City by the Golden Gate"--for the Associated Filipino Press published in Los Angeles; Gonong was married to Cob (Cab?) Cubar Cabaltera in 1975. She died in San Francisco on September 22, 1997.

1 carton, 2 manuscript boxes (1.8 linear feet)

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