SAIPAN, Northern Marianas –There are four of them in the family and all have the same interest—the law.

Fil-Am Mike A. Nisperos is chief of Guam’s public defender’s office. His wife, Eleanor, is an assistant attorney general of Northern Marianas. Their daughter, Marlo, is a deputy district attorney in California. Their son, Michael Jr., is a third-year law student.

All of them share a love and passion for the American justice system.

Just until recently, Mr. Nisperos was Northern Marianas assistant attorney general. He headed the white-collar crime unit of the Office of the Attorney General. Like the Philippines’ Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), the Guam counterpart provides free legal aid and service to indigents in the territory.

Making a mark

Growing up as a minority in the US, the Nisperos couple struggled to make their mark as second generation Filipino-Americans in the mainland. And they have succeeded in their own little ways.

Mr. Nisperos became a lawyer out of love for his wife who was among the first Asians to earn a law degree from the University of California Berkeley ’s Boalt Hall, School of Law .

The two met at a Christmas party in 1971 after Mr. Nisperos took a leave from his tour of Vietnam .

“She encouraged me to take up law,” said Mr. Nisperos who is the first member of their family to earn a college degree.

Poor family

He traces his roots from a poor, white, inter-racial family who struggled to make ends meet.

“I came from a poor white family,” he said in an interview.

His story is about a young man’s struggle to rise above poverty and change the course of their life by taking opportunities that come his way.

At 18, he enlisted as a Marine Corps because “he wanted to serve his country.” He was later deployed to Vietnam where he earned the title of a sergeant at age 20.

Nisperos said his biological father was a third-grade farmer from Leyte, Philippines who took his chance in Hawaii after World War II.

His mother was of Scottish-Irish origin who worked as a waitress and then as a cook.

He was born in Mississipi and his parents later divorced.

Study now, pay later

His mother remarried his Filipino stepfather who hails from La Union, a province in the northern Philippines .

He earned his law degree through the G.I. Bill and it took him 20 years to pay his student loan.

In 1978, Mr. Nisperos worked as deputy district attorney for Alameda County . His first major case involved three Filipinos accused of murder in California .They were convicted but only of assault and battery.

Nisperos later established his own law firm while teaching in various colleges.

In 1982, he was assigned as a JAG for the U.S. Air Force in Guam—and that’s when he was introduced to its neighboring U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands

“As the chief of military justice, I was the chief prosecutor of the two bases—Andersen AFB-Guam and March AFB-Riverside, California, to which I was assigned. It was my responsibility to provide legal training to base police and agents of the Office of Special Investigations,” said Mr. Nisperos.

Education key to success

But his legal career wasn’t that smooth sailing.

Mr. Nisperos confessed to substance abuse and entered himself to rehabilitation—a humbling experience which he said made him love more the law profession and those around him who tried to save him from self-destruction.

Looking back, Nisperos said education, knowing where he came from and giving back to the community, were the keys to his success.

“It’s been a good career. Very satisfying,” he said.

From Davao to Hawaii

Mrs. Nisperos retired last year as presiding administrative law judge in Sacramento Field Office Headquarters.

She herself is an icon among Filipinos in the legal community of California as one of the founding members of the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California.

Mrs. Nisperos was born in Manila and was raised in Davao City until she was eight.
Their family later moved to Honolulu , Hawaii when his father, also a lawyer, was asked to relocate to the U.S. as part of his reward for helping the American forces during World War II.

Mrs. Nisperos said Hawaii is a friendly state to people of color like her.

Discrimination

She only felt the discrimination in the U.S. when she entered law school in 1968 which was then a predominantly white-male field.

“It was hard,” said the petite Mrs. Nisperos. “They were teasing me that I don’t belong there.”

Back then, Mrs. Nisperos said women were stereotyped as nurses, secretaries or teachers.

Her determination to become a lawyer in an era of sexual revolution later paid off–she was hired as legal counsel/hearing officer at the State of California ’s Department of Benefit Payments after passing the bar.

She moved up as deputy attorney general at the state’s Department of Justice office and later worked for the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board where she retired as presiding administrative judge.

Human talent

With the Philippines as one of the leading exporters of manpower globally, the Nisperoses believe the country would someday rise above poverty.

“The human talent in the Philippines is everywhere,” said Mr. Nisperos. “There’s still hope for the Philippines .”

But getting rid of corruption, he said, is key to changing the country’s system.