A few years after Dominique’s mother, Linda Guevarra,
became an American citizen herself, she also filed a family
reunification petition for her children still living in the
Philippines. “I knew it would be at least another very long
ten-year wait,” said Dominique. “And at the time, ten years
felt like forever, and I wasn’t really thinking seriously about
it.”
Dominique graduated from the then all-male San Beda
College in the Philippines with an Economics degree. “I
was lucky to be raised in a family that valued education.
The thinking is that education is a solid investment that
will open doors for us. I could study to become a doctor,
a lawyer, an engineer, or any other degree. Those were
the usual career options my family was thinking as most
suitable for me.”
There was only one problem with this well thought out
plan. Dominique found no enjoyment in the path laid out
for him. Instead, he said, “I began to get interested in other
things such as working for newspapers and magazines.” He
also had an interest in radio.
When a friend whose family was in the footwear
manufacturing business in Marikina (the shoe capital of
the Philippines) asked him to lead a media promotional
campaign for their newly introduced high-end women's
shoe brand, he saw it as his chance to move in a different
14 Toombs County Magazine
direction than his degree in Economics had provided.
Dominique worked closely with two of the top
photographers in the Philippines, Jun de Leon and
Wig Tysmans. “That’s how I also got introduced into
the network of models, talents, creatives and industry
suppliers. It was a kind of industrial complex, and I jumped
head-on into that realm. We were participating in all the
major fashion shows and media events, and the new brand
we were promoting became the biggest hit in ladies' fashion
footwear. We enjoyed great success such that anybody
who’s anybody wore the shoe brand.”
In working as the brand’s promoter, Dominique
Dominique discovered his interest
in photography by watching other
photographers work on his jobsite.
"The photographers, Wig Tysmans in
particular, noticed my extraordinary
interest. He said, 'You should get a
camera.'"