Engalla was born in Manila, Philippines on September 5, 1973. He was raised in Antipolo, Rizal until he was 7 years old. In 1981, he and his parents, Wilfredo and Trinidad Engalla, along with his 3 sisters, Aina, Patricia and Carla migrated to San Lorenzo, California. Over the next several years Engalla’s family relocated a few a times throughout the Bay Area. They finally settled into the hills of Hayward, California where Engalla attended school and played basketball, a sport his father taught him to play.
All throughout Engalla’s childhood his father always demonstrated an interest in electronics. His father was renowned as the video camera guy, lugging all this heavy equipment to all of Engalla’s basketball games and family events making sure to capture every single moment on film, whether it was on a video camera or his canon film SLR with detachable lenses! It was very common to see pictures of Engalla’s father standing behind the crowd with a large video camera over shoulder as he was filming. A CPA by trade, Engalla’s father, purchased their first computer, a Sanyo MBC-550, in 1986. Engalla still remembers his awe as his father opened the gigantic box and began assembling the bubble wrapped components. It was during that time that Engalla’s father first started to learn how to program. Engalla’s father was also a gamer and distinctly remembers his father’s obsession with mastering Pacman on the Atari 2600. Each night after work his father would spend endless hours learning the game pattern until ultimately winning the game.
In the beginning of the year 1991, Engalla’s father, Wilfredo, after being misdiagnosed for nearly 5 years, took x-rays that finally revealed adenocarcinoma of the lung, a type of lung cancer. Unfortunately by then, his father’s condition had progressed to a point that it was inoperable. Later that year, at the beginning of Engalla’s senior year in High School, his father fell victim to the disease and passed away.
Engalla, following his father’s footsteps, discovered his passion and interest for technology in 1997 when he learned how to build and network computers out of their home in Hayward, California. Using spare parts, floppy disk installers, and late nights of trial and error, he was able to emulate an office environment which allowed 5 computers to share files and resources. This proved to be the beginning of a life long interest in all things technology-based…
