Bank clients avoided her window, until she started talking football

Eliza Zubiri-Kustra with her staff at United Bank in Winchester, Virginia. CONTRIBUTED

SAN FRANCISCO — It was a usual busy Monday morning in offices, especially in banks. The queue was long at a bank in Winchester, Virginia sometime in 2015. All the tellers, except one, were busy attending to their white clients. The lone teller without a customer was also the only Asian, a Filipina. She was on the verge of tears. She was Eliza Zubiri-Kustra, who was just hired two days before.

“I cried to my manager, telling him that I’m resigning. He told me to hold on.” Eliza recalls, “Those who who were ‘braved’ enough to go to my line, I made sure that I gave them the best service,” she continues.

Eliza even familiarized herself with football and the locals’ favorite team–the Redskins–so she and her clients could have something to talk about. On her day-off she watched the Redskins on TV or went to local football matches with her husband, Paul.

Eliza, 42, originally from San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, is now glad that she did not give up. She is now the assistant manager at Winchester United Bank, the first Asian and Filipina to hold the position in the otherwise white-dominated branch.

But Eliza’s achievement is a product of the hard work that most Filipino immigrants do to prove their worth. Now, whenever there are problems or misunderstandings in bank transactions, the name “Eliza” is the magic word.

Off to America

Eliza finished a nursing degree, but the low salary of nurses in the Philippines discouraged her. In the early ‘90s the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry started. She applied at Skykes Asia and years later she became the operations manager. The position gave her perks to travel to Europe and America.

Mother-in-law Mary Beth Kustra and Eliza during a garage sale for charity. CONTRIBUTED

In 2009 Eliza met Paul James Kustra in the Philippines. He worked as for a Skykes 3^rd party IT provider. The two hit it off. After five years in a long distance relationship and a couple of visits in the United States and in the Philippines, Paul and Eliza were married on January 21, 2014 in Manila. The couple left for the United States after a few days. They bought a house in Winchester where Asians are rare.

ESL teacher to Immigrants

Not used to just staying at home, Eliza got bored. She could not work yet because she was still waiting for her immigrant visa. She did not pass the driving test so she had to take the bus if she wanted to go around the city. One of the bus routes is to the public library. She would often spend time reading, watching videos and playing games like PSP and X-box. The library has also private rooms for those who want to study alone or in small groups.

“I noticed a group of immigrants going out one of the rooms in the library. Curious, I asked the receptionist who were those people and what they were doing,” Eliza says.

The receptionist told Eliza that the immigrants were doing turns attending ESL (English as a Second Language) Class. Eliza decided to join the class.

“I decided to join because it was a good way to meet people too. On my first day, I was asked to read an article to assess my English skills – to my teacher’s surprise I could speak the language perfectly,” Eliza laughs.

The staff in the ESL course immediately asked Eliza if she could volunteer to teach the students one on one. The staff also said that Eliza could put the volunteer teaching in her resume and would give a good recommendation for her. She immediately started teaching students of different nationalities like Korean, German, Italian, Spanish and French.

The students never questioned her ability to speak English because they knew that the Philippines is an English-speaking country. Besides, Eliza’s training in the BPO gave her an “American” accent. After six months, Eliza finally got her green card. It was also timely that the United Bank Branch opened near their place.

Hold on to faith

“When I applied as a teller in United Bank, I only had my faith. This was my first job application in America. There were eight American applicants before I was interviewed. But the manager was more impressed with my CV, even if I was already 40 then,” Eliza proudly says.

Paul and Eliza’s wedding in Manila on January 21, 2014. CONTRIBUTED

In a few months, Eliza was in the top eight among the 400 employees. Presently, she is in the top six among the best job performers. The company keeps a scorecard to evaluate the performance of the employees and promotes them based on merit. Oftentimes, Eliza manages their branch because the manager has to manage two branches in the state.

Every Christmas, Eliza helps raise funds for St. Peter Claver Society, which supports AIDS orphans in Zambia. Mary Beth, her mother-in-law is a committee member. Interestingly, Paul’s grandfather was World War II pilot who went to San Jose, Mindoro to fight the Japanese. His plane crashed and his body was never recovered. Mary Beth always says, “Mindoro had taken my father, but gave me a daughter-in-law.

American Dream

“Probably, a lot of Filipinos would think that being here is easy–no, you still have to work hard to get the ‘American dream.’ It’s not only material things but proving your worth as a person despite your color, race etc.,” says Eliza.

Despite her success, Eliza still longs for the cheap services in Divisoria, Greenhills and wet markets where you can bargain for the lowest prices in beauty salons and riding the tricycle.

When they retire the Kustra couple plans to settle in the Philippines – Tagaytay, Laguna or Mindoro where Eliza started to dream.

“We will surely ride the tricycle when time comes,” Eliza gushes.