“Still, there are some areas where Filipinos don’t celebrate it or are not even aware of it.”
COLORADO SPRINGS — Large communities of Filipino Americans in the United States have different levels of celebration to mark Filipino American History Month in October.
But there are also some areas in Uncle Sam’s “Land of Milk and Honey” where Filipino Americans, like in the Greater Baltimore area in Maryland, don’t celebrate it.
“Most of them are not even aware of it,” according to retired PNP Chief Superintendent Cris Maralit of Batangas, who now enjoys his retirement years in Baltimore winning trophies hitting balls with his irons in the greens.
But in California, home to 1.7 million Filipino Americans which is about 38 percent of the total Filipino American population in the United States, Filipinos attend cultural events which showcaseFilipino art, music and dance where they learn about the lives of prominent Filipinos.
The highest concentrations of Filipino communities are in California — particularly in Los Angeles and San Francisco — followed by Hawaii (367,600) and Texas (234,100).
Other states where there are large Filipino communities, according to the US 2020 Census, the latest available, are Washington (194,682), Nevada (181,595), Florida (178,026), Illinopis (167,748), New York (164,383), and New Jersey (151,167)
“In California, Filipino Anmericans try traditional Filipino cuisine, show oral histories, support Filipino American artists and businesses,” according to Ilocos Norte-born Mamerto Cabie, a Constabulary officer of the Presidential Security Guards during the first Marcos administration.
“They also participate in educational workshops with focus on Filipino heritage and experiences in the United States,” added Cabie, who now resides with his family in Oakland, California.
In Hawaii, where there are 367,525 with Filipino ancestry, some mark the event with religious activities — the mode depending on the denomination — while others apparently are not even aware of the celebration.
Those in the know have pyrotechnics displays, but migrants from the different towns, particularly those from northern Philippines, have distinctly unique celebrations, usually done in cozy rooms of hotels.
“Filipinos in Hawaii also stage ‘Kimona Ball’ where participants wear their best Filipiniana colors and threads,” according to Editha Benavidez, a widow and certified caregiver who has been in the Sandwich Islands for the past 20 years.
In other venues, there is nightlong dancing, tables for Filipino cuisine, which include adobo and pinakbet, and have muses crowned — the queen accumulating the highest amount of collected dollars from family and friends.
Very much like situations in many Philippine towns where the Hawaii residents have their roots and participate in money contests during Balikbayan Nights during annual town fiestas celebrated in summer.
What is the Filipino American History month all about that this should be celebrated by Filipinos now residing here where they have retired or still hack out hack out a living?
Obviously not many have the mind on the relevance of the month, or don’t even realize why Filipinos here should have a month devoted to acknowledging the importance of this history month.
In Colorado Springs, the leadership of the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce in Southern Colorado has proposed to the city council that it proclaim the month of October as Filipino American History Month.
But why October? What is significant about the month?
Research shows the first recorded arrival of Filipinos in the United States was on Oct. 18, 1587, when they landed in Morro Bay, California, on a Spanish trade ship, the mariners part of a crew that arrived to explore the land and contact the indigenous people of California.
In 1763 the first Filipino American residents arrived in Louisiana’s bayou county. They were sailors who escaped from duty aboard Spanish galleons and were forced to serve in press gangs.
The Filipino American National Historical Society introduced Filipino American History Month in 2009 when the US Congress officially recognized October as Filipino American History Month in the United States to recognize the enormous contributions of Filipino Americans to the USA.
Filipino American sources say the Filipino American community is the third largest Asian and Pacific Islander group in the United States and the largest of the Asian communities in the City of Colorado Springs.
In Colorado Springs alone, Filipinos and Filipino Americans have a long-standing history of service in and brotherhood with the US Armed Forces, with officials noting Americans fighting alongside Filipinos against Japanese Imperial Forces and marching next to each other in the infamous 100-km Bataan Death March from Mount Samat in Bataan to Capas, Tarlac via Pampanga in April 1942.
