Following his graduation from Iloilo High School, Panay, Philippine Islands, in 1913, Rev. Catalino Cortezan (1893-1973) immigrated to Hawaii, where he continued his education at Mills School in Honolulu. Afterwards, he prepared for the Christian ministry at the Honolulu
Following his graduation from Iloilo High School, Panay, Philippine Islands, in 1913, Rev. Catalino Cortezan (1893-1973) immigrated to Hawaii, where he continued his education at Mills School in Honolulu.
Afterwards, he prepared for the Christian ministry at the Honolulu Theological Seminary and the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif.
In 1925, Cortezan was with the Hawaiian Evangelical Association on Oahu, when he and his wife, Josefina Abaya Cortezan, a nurse at Ewa, moved to Kauai.
On the Garden Isle, he served as pastor of the Koloa Filipino Congregational Church until 1946, and was a minister of the Hawaiian Board of Missions until 1953.
For 15 years, Cortezan was also employed by Koloa Sugar plantation as a welfare worker.
During World War II, Cortezan directed the Kauai USO, and helped organize and became Chaplain of the Kauai Volunteers, formed on Kauai to supplement the Armed Forces and National Guard.
After the war, he was instrumental in sending a delegation to Washington, D.C., whose petition to Congress resulted in the immigration to Hawaii of about 7,400 Filipino men, women and children — the 1946 Sakadas.
Cortezan was a director and chairman of several Kauai volunteer community organizations, and over many years he acted as an interpreter and English teacher to thousands of Filipino men and women.
Josefina Abaya Cortezan (1896-1991) was born in Candon, Ilocos Sur, Philippine Islands, and was educated at Mary Johnston Hospital School of Nursing in Manila and the University of Washington.
She was recruited from the Philippines by the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association in 1921 to provide healthcare to workers at Ewa Sugar Plantation on Oahu.
From 1925 until 1948 she gave medical care to Filipino workers at Koloa Sugar Plantation and also worked as a court interpreter, social worker, special probation officer, child care adviser and family mediator.
She later served as a public health nurse on Kauai and was active in community affairs.
The Rev. and Mrs. Cortezan had four children.
