Florante Peter Ibañez, 74, passed away on Sunday, November 30, 2025. He lived a full life marked by passion to do what he loved: his family and community.

Florante was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 23, 1951. He graduated from Banning High School, and then continued his education at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Cultures in 1977.

Florante was dedicated to family and the community. He was a co-founder of UCLA’s Samahang Pilipino and UCI’s Kababayan. He was involved in the Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino (KDP) and the struggle for social justice and the anti-martial law movement. He was a committed activist who fought to restore Philippine democracy, defended human rights, protected the right to access all ideas and information to prevent censorship and continued to build progressive politics. He was always eager to contribute his time to volunteer work to many organizations. He was President of the Kayumanggi Lions Club and Asian/Pacific Librarians Association (APALA) and a Board Member of Search to Involve Pilipino American (SIPA), the Filipino American Library and FilAm ARTS.

He was an avid photographer at numerous family and community gatherings, cycled and ran countless roads and streets, was a talented musician, and mentored countless young Filipinos. As part of VC's Digital Histories program in 2024, he directed and produced “The Fabulous Rocky Fellers,” a documentary on a Filipino-American boy band from the 1950s-60s and was working on the upcoming Filipino Peoples Far West Convention: 1971-1984. He established the Florante Peter Ibanez Collection at CSU Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) documenting Filipino American history, culture, activism, and community events from roughly the 1940s to the 2020s, containing papers, photos, publications, audiovisuals, and ephemera, organized into seven series and housed in the university's Archives & Special Collections, offering primary source materials on the Filipino American experiences in the U.S.

"During my time as a UCLA grad student, I volunteered as an intern to do some data input of photo negatives into the VC Archives, and now I volunteer as an event photographer for VC. It's been a great journey from the UCLA student initiative back in 1970 to create this pathway in documenting and preserving our communities’ collective memories. As a librarian, archivist, and adjunct professor of Asian Pacific American Studies, I believe that without institutions like VC and other community focused repositories telling our stories from our lens, then we will collectively be forgotten, not only to history but to ourselves." - Florante Ibañez

100% of donations will support VC's Digital Histories program and storytellers like Florante.

Digital Histories is a mechanism for APA older adults to use their unique voices and perspectives in sharing stories with the generations to come. Since its creation in 2003, Digital Histories has provided a professional and artistic work environment for underserved, ethnic-minority seniors in the Los Angeles-based Asian Pacific American community.

This program seeks to engage the under- and misrepresented population of APAs in mainstream media in a visible way. Seniors are particularly marginalized, and a major outcome of this project is the development of a unique voice from each program participant. Digital Histories allows for the exhibition of these films to educate viewers about APA history in California and to illuminate how place helps shape identity and community.

Remembering the Life and Legacy of Florante Peter Ibañez