By: Andres Luis Makilan, Staff Editor
Pictured on the right, is a group photo of our very own Filipino-American Alliance club standing on a flight of stairs emblazoned with pieces of a mural that when looked at at the right angle, creates a picture inspired by Filipino culture. That photo was taken during their field trip to the SOMA (South of Market) district of SF, a few weeks ago.
That is one of many murals located in the SOMA district that is directly inspired from Filipino culture and history. For others, it’s just another cool and colorful mural to look at, something that they find interesting but not something that they would identify with. For the members of the FAA though, it means a lot more than that.
For Sophia Batnag (10), experiencing the SOMA district made her realize that “there’s a lot of Filipino artists and other creators there, and it was just very eye opening to see how big of a community there was.”
The Filipino-American Alliance, otherwise known as the FAA, is a club founded here at Mills High School. The club has multiple purposes: to help, to celebrate, to socialize, but most of all, to educate. When asked about FAA, Co-President Bianca Santos (12) said that, “This year, we want to focus more on education and reclaiming the culture that we have in the Bay Area.” This vision proved successful, as when asked about the club, members Kaitlyn Le (10) and Alexia Socito (11) said that the club is a “learning community” and a “club that teaches others about Filipino culture”.
As mentioned earlier in the article, the FAA went on a field trip to the SOMA district of San Francisco a few weeks ago.But what is the SOMA district, exactly? And why is it so deeply intertwined with the Filipino-Americans that reside in it?
When asked about the SOMA district, General Boardsman Justin Santos (10) said that “the SOMA district is a neighborhood in San Francisco, and it’s a predominantly Filipino neighborhood, because there’s a bunch of Filipino-American history that’s going on in San Francisco.” The history that he is referring to is the displacement of nearly 4,000 elders, retirees, Filipinos and other working-class people, caused by the city’s efforts to redevelop the district and build new facilities to attract businesses and tourists, according to the SOMA PILIPINAS website. As a result, residents organized against urban renewal and formed the Tenants and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO), which fought to have replacement of low-income senior housing built to offset the destruction of existing housing. Filipino community organizers also pushed for the naming of streets in the area after Philippine National Heroes, such as Jose Rizal, Apolinario Mabini, Lapu-Lapu, Andres Bonifacio, and Tandang Sora.
In the following years, many Filipinos would paint murals that paid homage to their heritage, along with the hardships and struggles they had to endure coming to the U.S.
“We even saw a mural that I never knew existed…it was super colorful and a great staple of Filipino culture in San Francisco,” said Socito.
But also in the following years, the Filipino American National Historical Society would propose the first annual Filipino-American History Month to commence in October of 1992. October was chosen to commemorate the arrival of the first Filipinos who landed in what is now Morro Bay, California on October 18, 1587, according to a 2012 article by PBS SoCal.
One thing that is important to remember about Filipino-American History Month is that it is not Filipino-American “Heritage” Month. “We’re not talking about just Filipinos in general. We’re talking specifically about the struggles and our successes of being Filipino-American.” Justin said. “Filipino-American History Month is just where we get to highlight some of these successes and failures and how our community has grown over time.”
For Bianca, Filipino-American History Month means more than that. “For me, it means learning more in the sense that you could learn more about your family. I mean, my parents are immigrants, most of my family are immigrants,” Bianca shared. “And so history, yes, means learning about the broad history, but it also means learning more personal history, like, what’s going on in your family and how your family has gotten to where they are.”
The Filipino-American Alliance can be found in Room 304, where they hold meetings every second and fourth Thursday of the month. The club highly encourages anyone to join and become a part of their community: “It’s a Filipino-American Alliance. We are open to everyone, whether you have friends, whether you have distant family, or whether you just want to learn more.”
