TOWARDS A CULTURAL COMMUNITY: 

IDENTITY, EDUCATION, AND STEWARDSHIP

IN

FILIPINO AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS

A CULTURAL PROJECT

by

THE NATIONAL FEDERATION

OF FILIPINO AMERICAN ASSOCIATIONS

(NaFFAA)

with support from

THE FORD FOUNDATION

Cultural Project Team

Remé  A. Grefalda

Lucy M. Burns

Theodore S. Gonzalves

Anna M. Alves

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.          Acknowledgements

II.         Executive Summary

·        The Need for a Cultural Community Infrastructure:  Local, Regional and National

·        A Role for the Performing Arts

·        Community-Building Across Genres and Regions

·        Scope of Study

·        Methods of Research and Information-Gathering

·        Structure of Report and Contributors

·        Study Findings

·        Challenges and Opportunities

III.       Part One:  Setting Community Contexts: Convening National Filipino American Performing Arts Artists, Cultural Workers, Educators and Community Members

IV.       Part Two:  Theoretical and Historical Contexts of Pilipino American Performing Arts

V.        Part Three:  A Profiling Study of Emerging Pilipino American Performing Arts’ Work: Case Study of California Colleges and Universities

VI.       Part Four:  A Profiling Study of Filipino American Cultural Communities in the United States and Case Studies on Cultural Stewardship

VII.      Appendices

A)    Selected Cultural Profiles of Filipino American Communities in Various U. S Cities and Case Studies of Particular Emerging Cultural Institutions

B)  NaFFAA Cultural Report Contributors

I.                   ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Cultural Project Team acknowledges Ford Founation for their support of the cultural project; Joe Montano, Mark Lorio, and Emilie Dearing for their staff assistance during the convenings, especially that in Washington, D.C.; Gina Inocencio, Project Specialist, and Franklin Odo, Director, Asian Pacific American unit of the Smithsonian Institution for hosting the Washinton, D.C. convening; Jilly Canizares-Tanedo of Fil Am ARTS, Joel Jacinto of Kayamanan ng Lahi, and Ed Ramolete of FANHS for hosting the Los Angeles meeting; all of the DC and LA convening participants; and all of the folks interviewed for this report.

Lucy Buns wishes to thank all the survey participants whose thoughtful responses illuminated her observations for this report. She also wishes to express deep gratitude to Anna Alves who she was able to think with as she was working on this report, and largely for her vision on this particular project on Pilipino American performing arts.

II.        EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
 

What is a Cultural Community?

            The National Federation of Filipino American Association’s (NaFFAA’s) fundamental purpose is to unite Filipino American organizations in order to ensure the empowerment of all Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the United States.  By promoting awareness of Filipino American contributions to social, economic, cultural and political life in the United States, in the cultural sector specifically, they hope to work toward strengthening community institutions that promote the cultural heritage of Filipinos.  One of their strategies is to focus on community development, providing assistance to Filipino American community-based organizations. 

Following along these lines, a recent report[1] from a major national foundation illuminated the longstanding field of cultural community development, an arena of social action geared toward developing infrastructures that would enable not only the continuous transmission of inherent yet constantly dynamic cultural values, but also to resist those values imposed upon them in the face of modernization, a capitalist market economy, and globalization.  In highlighting this field of work, that report emphasized three terms particularly:  1) community that is participatory and collaborative; 2) cultural as a “generous concept” that encompasses not only the variety of artistic and cultural expression forms and genres but also “elements of activism and community organizing”; and 3) development that connotes “the dynamic nature of cultural action”, especially in terms of conscious empowerment and “principles of self-development rather than development imposed from above”.   For the purposes of this study, this context serves as a good starting point to begin to piece together a portrait of a “cultural community” of Filipino Americans in the United States.

So what is a “cultural community”?  In general, the term “cultural community” can be used to describe a variety of things: a collective of folks that focus on culture and its preservation, a community based around cultural creativity and/or cultural consumption, a composite of members sharing the same culture, often centered in ethnic, national or heritage similarities, perhaps sharing the same geographical spatial boundaries, or transcending them, because of culture.  The definitions of “cultural community” are as varied as its manifestations of it in practice: cultural show production process participants, arts collectives, theater groups, heritage schools, social organizations, ethnic enclaves, museum patrons and arts connoisseurs, emergent economic development in urban cities that anchor their neighborhoods with cultural centers, and thus, revision downtown spaces as cultural destinations.   When one speaks of a “cultural community” of Filipino Americans, what does one really refer to?  How is one developed?  Or, if one has been developed, how does one build, or expand upon, an infrastructure for its continued sustainability? 

The Need for a Cultural Community Infrastructure:  Local, Regional and National

            Across the country, in pockets of communities everywhere, Filipino American individuals, collectives, and organizations create, maintain, and preserve culture.  In many ways, their resource bases are similar, cutting across generations, immigration cohorts, and both established and emergent populations.  Traditional cultural dance, theatrical, literary and visual art forms, contemporary hip hop and dance – all of these are accessible if not in physical proximity, then in remembered educations, imaginative pretendings, and mass culture and entertainments.   Entrepreneurial spurts can be located everywhere and anywhere.  Filipino producers present cultural presentations or plays on public access television in Dallas, TX, Anchorage, AK, and Washington, D.C.  University students annually produce, create, and perform lavish theatrical cultural productions on campus mainstages and dining halls alike all over California and across the nation.  Enterprising cultural activists mount websites on Pinoy culture, literary e-zines of Filipinos writing in the diaspora, and calendar list-serves announcing Filipino and Filipino American arts and cultural events across wide regions.  Youth and young adults gather for poetry slams and festivals in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York City, develop poet-collectives in Los Angeles and create innovative cultural drill teams in Seattle. 

Cultural heritage schools, sprung from the heads of resourceful parents and older adults wanting to fulfill a need for cultural heritage and education, thrive for decades in Boston, Dallas, Detroit, and Los Angeles, some purely volunteer, others with very few funds.  Performing arts collectives of Filipino folks just wanting to create a space for cultural and artistic expression coalesce into professional theaters, with Ma-Yi Theater Company in New York City having led the way from years past to now, Pintig Theatre Company in Chicago maintaining those energies with vigor, and Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco pushing a Filipino American cultural aesthetic even further into the future.  And of course, there is always the ubiquitous Philippine cultural dance troupe; yet even in this arena, the variety of reasons for creation, and the artistic expressions created, often yield stunning displays of virtuosity.

Such a vital outpouring of creative energies, seemingly disparate, certainly is a testament to the stubborn insistence of Filipinos in the United States to express as well as create alternative visions of themselves within their communities, and certainly outside of them in a larger American society.  But can such energies be tapped to develop an empowered cultural community as a collective?  And should they be?  As much as these energies shall always exist and flourish, can they be better served through sustainable infrastructures, institutionalized spaces, and secured foundations upon which to build and anchor themselves and the communities that both support and enliven them?

What does it mean to have “infrastructure”?  Oftentimes, “infrastructure” corresponds to legitimacy.  It also implies solidity, firm footing, a core centralized skeleton to hold up the body of its parts.  To have infrastructure in community development is to evince certain characteristics:  universally accepted standards in place, critical thought disseminated in journals of theory and practice, professional development and training, and resources for continued support.  To have an “infrastructure” bolsters energies from within and without.  In this case, an infrastructure for cultural communities could link, as much as possible, many of the creative energies that are thriving but also struggling, living but also dying, maintaining an intrepid course forward yet always weathering stormy seas throughout.  Resources are not distributed equitably; this is a fact.  Exposure, access, and linkages to them can be rare and fleeting.  But often, this is because those channels have not been set, those vehicles not been built, those conversations not pursued.  To begin the pursuit, that is the intent of this particular profiling study.

A Role for the Performing Arts

This profiling study was commissioned to assist the Ford Foundation’s Media, Arts and Culture Unit in exploring arts and identity, cultural stewardship, and cultural identity expression through the performing arts in communities of color in the diaspora.  Working from the premise that the performing arts, especially theater, is a valuable lens through which to explore issues of identity among historically underrepresented communities in the United States, such an investigation assists in evaluating the importance of creative imagination in the promotion of individual self-affirmation as well as community empowerment.  Expanding upon its emerging and continuing work in the Asian Pacific American arts field, this report trains its lens more sharply, focusing upon the Filipino American community. 

The Filipino American community holds a distinctive space in the American ethnic pantheon, generally lumped into the Asian American category even while evincing cultural characteristics more inclined toward Spanish-Mexican origins.  In American culture, Filipino Americans are often more closely aligned with Black and Latino cultures than their fellow Asian American groups.  Yet in their continuously flowing back-and-forth immigration dynamics, and because of their particular history of a neo-colonial relationship with the United States since the turn of the twentieth century, Filipino Americans occupy a distinctive place in U. S. society and thus, have a singular experience to impact a larger American imagination. 

Performing arts in Filipino American communities take on a variety of forms – traditional theater, guerrilla theater, educational theater, or not even theater, but performative acts in poetry, rap or turntablism, dance, music or martial arts.  Performing arts are also utilized as methods to spread cultural education or to challenge pre-conceived notions of cultural heritage, complicating static models of cultural identity.  They embrace a spectrum that includes both a traditional yet continuously dynamic cultural dance legacy from the Philippines, at first promulgated by the ever-popular Bayanihan Dance Company, the “official” dance company of the Philippines, and then, more innovatively by the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Dance Group, the Helobung Cultural Troupe and others in recent times, as well as an emerging Filipino American aesthetic tradition tied to a specific Filipino American history and experience of those born and raised in the United States, replete with American popular culture and mass media influences.  And yet despite this, in almost every Filipino American community across the nation, even in the absence of a strong presence of population numbers or performing arts institutions, venues, or energies, a traditional cultural dance troupe or group will exist or be brought to the community to perform with the intent to share and disseminate cultural heritage.  Thus, the performing arts in Filipino American communities are a space where identity, education and stewardship are constantly formulated, shared, and preserved as well as deconstructed, revised and reborn.

Community-Building Across Genres and Regions

As much as this study hopes to offer a wide-ranging cross-section of perspectives that may yield lessons across generations, communities, and nations, it also attempts to suggest places to seed linkages, foster support, and find connective resources to begin building a blueprint for an infrastructure for cultural community development.  With that in mind, the study was undertaken to also identify potential national partners to facilitate a meeting of the energies rising from the ground up and descending from the top down.    Three nationally-based Filipino cultural organizations seem most poised to assist in this facilitation:  the Asian Pacific American unit of the Smithsonian Institution based in Washington, D.C.; the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) based in Seattle, Washington; and the Association for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts and Culture (Fil Am ARTS) based in Los Angeles, California.  The presence of each of these organizations in three different arenas of culture – cultural heritage preservation (Smithsonian), historical documentation and cultural education (FANHS), and artistic production and cultural expression (Fil Am ARTS) – allows for a broad expanse of understanding in considerations of Philippine and Filipino American arts and culture.  Also, the reach and networks that each of these organizations brings to the table for continuing conversation is necessarily expansive, yet at the same time, specialized.   Support toward consolidating this consortium of cultural organizations as either a consistent advisory entity or, more beneficially, as a planning committee with operational staff that could coordinate local and regional linkages to national resources, would be ideal.

Scope of Study

The scope of this study was both general and specific.  As a profile of communities and case studies across the country, it attempts to not only bring above the radar those projects and organizations poised to burst to the surface – arts organizations and established theaters – but those entrepreneurial energies that thrive across America in spaces often overlooked and thus, remain woefully unseen.  Running the gamut from a specific cultural production at UCLA to a state-wide comparison in California of university spaces to a nationwide scan of performing arts and cultural stewardship in communities across the country, including Alaska and Hawai’i, this study hopes to map a wide-ranging landscape, revealing where, how, and why performing arts exists for Filipino American communities in the United States.  These are communities continuously impacting, and impacted by, its roots in the Philippines -- its historical development, community evolutions, generational tendencies, cultural transmissions, heritage education, and above all, as it always has been for the Filipino, identity formations across cultures, and both intra- and international boundaries. 

And yet, this report is just the beginning -- the first Polaroid shot and certainly not the whole family album.  Its findings illuminate the need for, among other things, a more focused needs-assessment of individuals, organizations, and communities involved in cultural performing arts work, other regional networks that could potentially evolve into national partnerships, and explorations into the development of a connective, organic infrastructure that encompasses the local, the national, and, eventually, the global, simultaneously.  Oftentimes, it is a simple conversation that galvanizes thought into action.  Thus, the conversations begin in this study, under the guise of the NaFFAA Cultural Project Team and their report.

Methods of Research and Information-Gathering

In 2002, NaFFAA assembled a team of consultants to comprise its Cultural Project Team: Reme Grefalda, founder of Our Own Voice e-zine and the QBd, Ink performers’ collective; Lucy Burns, a scholar specializing in Pilipino American Theater; and Theo Gonzalves, an artist-scholar specializing in Pilipino American Performing Arts.  Anna Alves, formerly a Program Associate in the Media, Arts and Culture unit of the Ford Foundation served as the active liaison and provided guidance throughout the initial stages of research-gathering and community-convening and then, after leaving the Foundation in the Fall of 2002, provided assistance in the Cultural Project’s final stages. 

The Cultural Project Team employed a number of research methods in gathering information for this study.  To set its foundations, the Team produced a large convening in Washington, D.C. in May 2002, hosted by the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American unit, to kick-start a series of conversations throughout the summer, inviting artists, community activists, and cultural workers to discuss Filipino American cultural stewardship that highlights the role of the performing arts in the life of their communities.  A follow up meeting in Los Angeles, CA, hosted by Fil Am ARTS and FANHS, expanded upon this focus by including non-mainland representatives from Alaska and Hawai’i and identifying points of entry for future development of a Filipino American performing arts infrastructure.  In August 2002, Cultural Project staff attended the Art, Media and Technology Development meetings at NaFFAA’s National  Conference in San Jose, to provide feedback on the study to its participants as they developed a collective statement from the artistic and cultural sector of their national constituencies. 

Concurrently, Grefalda (with contributions from Burns and Alves) interviewed a number of folks around the country, collecting initial questionnaires and data from each community in eleven different cities across America.  The cities were pre-selected based upon their Filipino American demographics, either evincing a majority with large established communities and cultural institutions in certain regions or sparse numbers yet entrenched cultural activities in others.  In several cases, this initial information-gathering was followed up with both telephone interviews and actual site visits.  These conversations, both large group and one-on-one, over a period of nine months, yield the findings and information included in the communities and cultural stewardship section of the report.  Also utilized were a variety of resources such as the Census Bureau, accessible, published research by some of the pre-eminent Filipino American scholars in the field, and relevant books and articles.  A bibliography of resources is included within each section.

Structure of Report and Contributors

The NaFFAA Cultural Report is structured as follows:

1.      An executive summary compiled by Anna Alves leads off the study.  Alves was a product of Pilipino Cultural Nights (PCNs) at UCLA, having participated in, created, and coordinated them as an undergraduate, and then studied them as a graduate student at UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center before heading to the Ford Foundation.

2.      Part One sets the community contexts of the conversation, detailing the major convening held in Washington, D.C. which set the foundational concepts and definitions of the topics explored throughout the study, and touching upon the ensuing follow-up meetings.

3.      Part Two is a thoughtful and incisive contextual framework written by Theo Gonzalves that discusses the state of Filipino American performing arts and poses intriguing questions to consider in any exploration of the field. 

4.      Part Three is a profiling study by Lucy Burns detailing performing arts spaces initiated and/or utilized by Pilipino American students at university campuses.  Because of the population numbers and the long-standing phenomenon of the ubiquitous Pilipino Cultural Night (PCN) in that state, California is the specific site of study. 

5.      Part Four is a profiling study by Reme Grefalda mapping the presence and utilization of performing arts and cultural work in Filipino American communities across the United States.  Grefalda’s thirty years of experience in the field and entrepreneurial successes allowed her a keen insight in illuminating spaces where cultural arts are performed, in a variety of forms, for a host of reasons, in communities across the nation.

6.      An appendix with case studies, bibliographies, and a list of the study participants finishes out the report.

Throughout the report, the reader may notice that the usage of “P” and “F” is used interchangeably.  In the early 1970s, in keeping with the identity-proclaiming impulses of the day, and as part of a movement to reconstruct a pre-colonial autonomous identity, the letter “P” was re-appropriated to replace “F” in the term (P)Filipino/a.  It was an attempt to transcend the imposition of its first colonial ruler, the Spanish, as an “F” does not exist in the languages of the pre-colonized Philippines.   However, critics of this movement maintain that Spanish imposition still exists in the name of the islands themselves, having been named for King Philip of Spain, thusly, negating the distinction.  These days, the “P” vs. “F” debate, as illuminated by Joan May Cordova, serves more as a sign of heterogeneity across various Filipino American communities in the United States and around the world.  Though NaFFAA comes down on the side of utilizing the “F” for its own purposes, in this report, authors will utilize the “P” in their own sections, depending upon their own positions within this heterogeneous context.  Thus, semantic divergences are preserved.

Study Findings

. 

·        Culture and identity created, "performed," maintained and developed in various community sites were identified throughout the country, including mainstages, arts organizations, cultural institutions, universities, community/cultural centers and heritage schools.  The variety of venues illuminated diverse approaches to, and reasons for, doing performing arts cultural work.  From this, three main, though varying, priorities of performing arts production seem to emerge from Filipino American communities in the U.S.:

1.      Professional and/or artistic innovation in the performing arts based on quality cultural aesthetics.  This priority was most evident in the large urban cities that evinced Filipino critical mass, such as New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.  Coincidentally, Filipino theatre companies exist in NYC (Ma-Yi Theater Company), Chicago (Pintig Theatre Company), and San Francisco (Bindlestiff Studio).  Performing arts in urban cities are also manifested in spoken word collectives, poetry slams, and DJ turntablism.

2.      Use of the performing arts to preserve cultural heritage and provide historical education.  This priority evinced itself in all types of communities, rural and urban, manifesting in universities, heritage schools, and dance troupes.  Most often, the performing arts is mainly manifested in folk dance groups, music, and martial arts, as well as theatrical cultural productions.

3.      Performing arts in service to community development work.  This priority was especially highlighted in community service organizations such as Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) in Los Angeles, the Pilipino Youth Association (PYA) in Seattle, and other sites that offer “successful” community centers.  The performing arts utilized at these sites usually involve folk dance workshops, literary/poetry readings and spoken word, and even a drill team.

·     Intergenerational issues and gaps exist around stewardship, leadership, and development.  “Elders" often skip the late 20s/30s generation to focus upon "youth" (K-12 ages) in terms of nurturing emerging leadership.  Some real perspective conflicts exist within this generation, yet they are the "professional" generation most poised to be able to contribute time, energy and money to sustaining cultural stewardship efforts.  It was noted that there is a “missing generation” of young adults more interested in developing a particular Filipino American culture and aesthetics, influenced by American popular culture, hip hop, Filipino American jazz, Pilipino Cultural Nights, stand-up comedy and sketches, as well as other forms of emerging, wide-ranging theater expressions. 

·        A distinction must be made between immigrant Filipino populations and the American-born Filipino Americans.  Definitions of culture, methods and forms of performing arts, and priorities of intent often are situated along both generational and U.S. citizenship/foreign-born status.  This impacts not only priorities in cultural aesthetics but also issues of community organizing, group collaborations, leadership transmission and preservation of community cultural institutions and/or centers.

·        Historical conditions that impact much of the cultural identity work in the Filipino American community are tied to continual Philippine national identity crises due to constant colonizations, and their fallout, in the Philippines (Spanish, American, Japanese colonizations) as well as the continued amnesia that American society perpetuates around the U.S./Philippine neo-colonial relationship.  The continuing implications of U.S. imperialism in that country and amongst its country-people in the diaspora cannot to be discounted. 

·        Contemporary Filipino American performing arts are grounded in a historical context tied to a past and continuing U.S./Philippine relationship.  Thus, an examination of the performing arts provides alternative ways to think about Filipino American history.  The following are especially relevant:

o       Performance calls a community into being, but does so in differing, “national” contexts.   In the Philippines, performance of seditious plays by Philippine nationalists dared to speak of the Philippine “nation” during a dangerous time of colonial censorship at the beginning of the twentieth century.  In the U.S., performance of cultural nights by college students since the early 1980s to the present day are attempts to reclaim a previously erased Filipino history that includes those experiences forged on American soil in order to insert their own cultural identity within an American multi-racial republic.  

o       The hybrid cultures of Filipino experiences continually confound the rigid, normally-accepted categories of ethnic and racial assimilation in America.  Filipino performances have opened critical spaces for us to complicate these categories even further.

o       Filipino performances allow a greater discourse about “national” identities, not only making important links to the Philippines, but also forcing a consideration of how unique Filipino American identities are being created and rooted in the United States.

o       Thinking about “performance” affords an opportunity to think about “history” and “memory”, most especially how these terms actually function in the practice of cultural production.  What is reclaimed as “history” and why?  What is remembered and not remembered in this reclaiming?

·         The university/academic institution is a significant site where Filipino American performance has developed, especially emerging generations of those American-born and raised.  This performing arts and/or cultural work by Filipino students has often impacted the priorities of student affairs divisions, diversifying the quality of campus student life.  In some cases, these efforts have even extended into the development of certain types of cultural curriculum in mainstream, Asian, and/or Asian American Studies academic centers or departments. 

·         Student cultural productions are either centerpieces of student networking conferences, such as those predominantly produced on the East Coast at the Filipino Intercollegiate Networking Dialogue (FIND) Annual Conferences, or have become long-standing cultural institutions of their own, such as Pilipino Cultural Nights (PCNs) on college and university campuses all over the state of California (at the UCLA, Berkeley, and San Francisco State campuses, PCNs have been created and produced for about thirty years).  In the planning and production process leading up to these events, students have created their own systems of peer-to-peer mentoring that often extends beyond their college experience, into continuing alumni relations or as advisors for high school youth. 

·        Increasing numbers of Filipino Americans in higher education has been largely responsible for the vibrant participation of Filipino American students in the creation of Filipino American performing arts.  Four different ways that Filipino Americans are involved in performing arts at the university include:

1.      Cultural nights that are ethnic-specific, usually either Asian American or Pilipino (PCNs)

2.      Student performing arts groups that allow for more focused concentration on developing an artistic craft and/or multi-cultural performance ensembles that work toward reflecting the racial and cultural diversity of American society in the interest of social change.

3.      Academic departments, most specifically Theater, Ethnic and Women Studies, which offer diversified curriculum in response to increased awareness of cultural and racial diversity on campuses.

4.      Open Mic and Talent Shows organized by student services organizations and campus residential support programs.  Open Mics are mostly dominated by spoken word performances in current times.

·        Filipino American students see their participation in student-centered performance projects as part of a larger community-building, often primarily tied to campus life, but often extending beyond it, as alumni who go on to create, found, or contribute to Filipino or Asian American community and/or arts organizations. 

·        The composite of Filipino American communities in many sites is dependent upon migrant settlement and economic patterns.  For example, New York City and the Washington, D.C. areas evince a great number of diplomatic and both professional and non-professional staff in international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and U.S-based Philippine Embassies as well as domestic workers in the homes of Washington’s elite; San Diego, CA and Virginia Beach, VA. evince large military-and veterans-based populations because of the prevalence of U. S. naval bases in those areas; Filipino American communities are several generations strong in such places as Seattle, WA, Chicago, IL and Stockton, CA because of early migrant worker and/or pensionado immigration (Filipinos sent to study at U.S. universities near the beginning of the 20^th century); and the post-1965 “brain drain” of medical and other professionals as well as family reunification preferences impacted Filipino American settlements all across America.

·        The formation of Filipino American cultural communities tends to follow a particular prescribed pattern, especially in those sites that have fewer numbers of Filipinos within the overall population and with a large number of immigrants:

o       First, the creation of a social club to gather Filipinos together in any one place;

o       Second, development of annual commemorative events such as Rizal Day or June 12 Celebrations to bring larger elements of a Filipino community together for celebratory purposes;

o       Third, the creation of regional associations falling along the lines of particular regions in the Philippines such as Bikol, Illocos, or Cavite, among others.  Often, these associations will commemorate a familiar town or religious festival it transplants and re-enacts on American soil.

o       Fourth, “splinter groups” of the established social clubs or regional associations may develop.

o       Fifth, creation of a Bayanihan Dance Company-inspired or ex-Bayanihan member-led dance troupe, group or organization occurs.

o       Sixth, the community attempts, or successfully collaborates upon, building and development of a Filipino American community center.

·        Several types of annual community cultural activities are undertaken  at different U. S. sites, ranging from historical commemorations to devotional traditions including:

o       Rizal Days

o       June 12 Independence Day Celebrations

o       Santacruzans

o       Ati-atihans

o       Moriones Festivals

·        The Bayanihan Dance Company, as the official repository of the institutionalized choreography of Philippine folk dances and the Philippine government-sanctioned cultural ambassador for Philippine heritage and culture around the world, has the greatest impact upon cultural dance performing arts by Filipino Americans in the United States.  From cultural transmission by parents, who learned these dances in elementary school, to that shared peer-to-peer by students during PCN production processes, to revisioned choreography taught by ex-Bayanihan members, this influence has deep effects on youth, young adults, and elders alike.

·        Language/heritage schools have evinced decades-long staying power, despite scarce resources, non-501(c )3 status, and mostly volunteer status.  This longevity is often attributed to the dedication and commitment of parent-volunteers and invested community members.  One of the most successful, Iskwelehang Pilipino in Bedford, MA, has been in existence for almost 27 years.

·        Obtaining 501(c )3 status is not a uniform strategy amongst Filipino American performing arts groups and cultural/arts organizations.  It seems to be a more appealing option for performing arts groups/theaters and community centers which require fundraising activities.  However, many of the heritage schools do not choose this option to maintain their organic, often familial structures and dynamics and function primarily through volunteers, individual donations, local benefit events, and in-kind venue and materials contributions.  Some performing arts collectives, as Bindlestiff Studio had initially been, maintain themselves primarily through gate receipts and resourceful in-kind contributions. 

Challenges and Opportunities

The following issues and questions arise from these findings.  These would benefit from more specialized and focused academic, community, policy, and information-gathering follow-up studies:

·        Can the varying arenas of Filipino American performing arts, with their attendant priorities, be supported individually toward fulfillment of their specific aspirations, yet also be mobilized to build a cross-cutting cultural community?

·        In regards to established cultural heritage institutions or methods:  What type of investment in Filipino American cultural stewardship can be cultivated for the “missing generation” of young adults in the age range between late 20s-early 40s?  How can they be motivated to “give back” to their local or national Filipino American communities, in ways that they feel their own experiences are included, valued, and supported?

·        How do past heritage activities and current identity explorations match up, especially along generational lines?  How are Filipino American heritage activities distinct from those of general Asian America or those of other ethnic groups in America?  Where can bridges be built to allow a concurrent evolution in both arenas?

·        How are history and cultural production interrelated or inherent with one another, especially in regards to cultural stewardship?  Where does the knowledge-building come from and who has ownership of its subsequent cultural expressions?

·        A long tradition of theater exists in NYC that is both Broadway and pan-Asian American-oriented.  How does this compare with how Filipino American theater is presented, or why, in other regions?  What happens outside of NYC and why?  In comparing theater models with varying presentation priorities, in particular the major existing Filipino American theaters in the U.S.-- Ma-Yi in New York City, Bindlestiff in San Francisco, and Pintig in Chicago – what do we find?  How will these variances impact attempts to organize a collective cultural community?  Can the diversity within the communities be mobilized collectively without undermining the local, specific energies of their regional existence? 

·        What resources are available to the high school, college, and university students that allow for the production of their cultural expressions, how are they supported, and how can they be linked to the off-campus communities as well as other Pilipino student communities on other campuses locally, regionally, state-wide, or even nationally?  What models of leadership and mentoring emerge from these students’ dynamics of peer-to-peer cultural transmission?

·        How does the distinction between Filipino immigrant and Filipino American born and raised segments of the community complicate the type of infrastructure that needs to be created for a national cultural community to be viable, dynamic, and productive?

·        What is the role of FANHS in varying U.S. regions, in the presence and absence of other resources?  How can it be supported more productively, as well as utilized more dynamically, to the benefit of itself as an institution and to its constituencies as working artists, community workers, and cultural activists?

·        How are Filipino American performing arts communities impacted by being represented for their visibility on East Coast (NYC & DC) and yet number-wise, are West Coast focused?  One-half of the Filipino American population of the U.S. resides on the West Coast, most notably in the state of California.  Thus, are communities being pulled by competing bi-coastal centers of sensibility?  Is there an East Coast/West Coast tug of war? If so, how are the Filipino American communities in other regions of the U.S. positioned within this dynamic?

Opportunities for linkages and further exploration include:

·        Examining inter-generational models of leadership cultivation that have committed participation of young Filipino American adults, including the boards and staffs of presenting and performing organizations such as Fil Am ARTS and Kayamanan ng Lahi in Los Angeles and Kulintang Arts in San Francisco as well as cultural institution-building entities such as the Manilatown Heritage Foundation in San Francisco, CA.

·        Exploring models of Filipino American community and civic collaborations toward creating cultural infrastructures.  Examples include:

o       the initial partnership between the FPAC organizers (now Fil Am ARTS) and the City of Los Angeles to create their Festival as part of a city-wide festival program geared toward enabling the production of cultural expressions for communities of color in that city.  The model encourages and supports the development of an organic festival structure, tailored to each community, provides training and resources for the creation and production of it, and then, after its initial first years of collaboration, it lets go of the process completely into the hands of each community;

o       the 3 Filipino Centers collaboration between the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, the San Francisco Filipino Center, and the Bayanihan Community Center to communally develop three community institutions to provide social services, arts and cultural programming, and community activities as they work collectively to redevelop the South of Market area of San Francisco near the historical International Hotel site into a vibrant Filipino American neighborhood;   

o       the consortium of local Filipino businessmen, professionals, and community leaders instrumental in financing and developing the building of the FilCom Center in Waipuhu, HI, the Bayanihan Arts Center in Tampa, FL, and the Filipino Community Center in Juneau. AK; and

o       the Filipino Folk Arts Theatre, Inc. of Dallas, TX and its successful audience development initiatives in conjunction with the diversity efforts of the city of Dallas and its usage of public access television to program Filipino content for both mainstream and Filipino American viewers.

·        Connecting the performing arts/cultural heritage field to provide knowledge-building for more accountable cultural transmission and resource-sharing.  One example is the Pilipino Artists’ Network being piloted and developed in California through Fil Am ARTS.  Its most successful node is the Dance node, being facilitated by one of its partner organizations, Kayamanan ng Lahi (KNL), which maintains an active national list-serve and discussion board of Philippine dance practitioners, and convenes bi-annual Philippine dance gatherings and workshops for the field.  Currently, KNL is also developing a Philippine Dance Resource Center and a Philippine Dance Resources Tool Kit to provide technical assistance, research, and learning exchange to the field.  Fil Am ARTS hopes to replicate similar types of models within its eight other disciplinary nodes of the PAN, which include presenters, theater, literary arts, visual arts, music, media arts, traditional arts, and arts education.

·        Connecting language/heritage schools and Filipino American cultural institutions and libraries through a national resource–sharing network.  A partnership between FANHS and Fil Am ARTS may be best positioned to coordinate the connections – FANHS has the regional and national networks and Fil Am ARTS is developing the pilot network model.  Successful models to examine for “best practices” as planning moves forward  include: Iskwelahang Pilipino, Bedford, MA; Detroit Community Center & Filipino School, Detroit, MI; Filipino Folk Arts Theatre. Inc., Dallas, TX; Filipino American Library, Los Angeles, CA; and the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, San Francisco, CA.

Recommendations

To build a firm infrastructure toward the planning and operationalization of concrete “next steps” in building a Filipino American cultural community, the following recommendations are put forth:

·        Coordinate and establish an official consortium collective of the identified national partners -- Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Unit; Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), and Fil Am ARTS.  One or two representatives from each institution or organization could serve on an Advisory Collective that would meet throughout the year for dialogue and planning.  An initial meeting of this Collective to determine structure and viability would be beneficial to coordinate in the immediate future. 

·        Re-convene the participants of both the Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles convenings held during 2002 to discuss “next steps” considered by the Advisory Collective and to share activity updates from the “wish list” generated in D.C.  The majority of these participants are members of the PAPAI list-serve.  It would be highly feasible to seed communications between the Advisory Collective and the PAPAI members during the rest of 2003 and then convene a meeting during the activities planned by FANHS in St. Louis, MO, during the next FANHS National Conference at the site of the 1904 St. Louis Exposition, set for the summer of 2004.

·        Locate a viable nationally-linked institution or organization to house, or assist in the coordination of, the national Pilipino American Performing Arts Initiatve (PAPAI) list-serve and activities.  Fil Am ARTS in Los Angeles, CA, is a possible entity, especially as it can be incorporated as part of its Pilipino Artists’ Network (PAN) activities when it expands nationally.  Currently, Fil Am ARTS is building a state-wide network within CA, may be poised to connect this to a national network in a few years’ time.  The PAN has specific Dance, Presenters’, Theater, and Arts Education nodes within its nine disciplinary node focus structure.

·        Commission a more-in-depth report to expand upon the profile this study initiates that could be shaped into both a more comprehensive field guide of Filipino American performing arts and as a useful text for Pilipino/Filipino American/Asian American/American Studies university classrooms.  The in-depth report would:

1.                  Include additional essays and perspectives from more scholars, practitioners, and executive directors of theater/dance companies, as well as heads of heritage schools.

2.                  Supplement these initial findings with an additional, detailed needs-assessment survey and report of the organizations, companies, schools and individual artists.  This needs-assessment should be conducted by region, within the regions.  Regional organizations would be identified to operationalize the needs-assessment, with the findings and feedback provided to the national entity for field-wide analysis and documentation.

The expanded report would be best served as a joint project of FANHS and Fil Am ARTS, under the guidance and perhaps coordination of the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American unit.

·        Seed regional infrastructure activities of Filipino American arts and cultural organizations by cultivating a closer working relationship between the NaFFAA and FANHS regional chapters.  Creation of a Cultural Coordinating Committee that would involve representatives from both NaFFAA and FANHS regional chapters, may provide a more structured space for arts and cultural feedback and assessment by region.  These Committees would provide regional feedback to the national Cultural Consortium Collective identified earlier.  Expand this scope to more actively include Alaska and Hawai’i as well.

·        Link knowledge, resources, and information through operating networks and with arts and/or cultural services organizations.  PAPAI is an initial attempt for the performing arts.  Other models include: the Philippine Dance Network listserve and gatherings facilitated by Kayamanan ng Lahi in Los Angeles, CA, a Southern California partner of Fil Am ARTS and the regional/national Calendar of Events that Ma-Arte Collective runs out of New York City.  A model to watch is the Pilipino Artists’ Network (PAN) being developed in California by Fil Am ARTS.  If this inter-disciplinary model proves viable in that state, it may provide some fruitful lessons for creations of such networks in other U. S. regions, and nationally.

To provide continuing programming and knowledge-building efforts for the field, the following recommendations include:

University:

• Producing and coordinating a multi-campus festival of works by and about ethnic-specific performance groups. In California, it would be a viable program to explore with Fil Am ARTS as it expands its resource and programming base for the annual Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC) in Southern California.

• Foster local artists and student relationships by expanding and supporting linkages with campus ethnic study centers’ School and Community Projects units and those Student Affairs’ Officers that serve as campus student organization advisors. 

• Develop a method of critical feedback, perhaps linking community artists, professors/lecturers, and the students.  Cultivating graduate students and academic scholars who can create flexible curriculum that includes community work/projects and having an advisor that will initiate critical thinking with the students.  Also, continue efforts to maintain linkages between academia, arts organizations and community theaters by fostering curriculum that includes attendance/participation at community cultural productions and activities, thus simultaneously providing audience development for the theater/organization as it also allows for academic credit for the student.

• In California, coordinate and produce a gathering that focuses on the PCN phenomenon that will engage scholars, artists, students to create a strong network for information and resource sharing among the students who produce this work. In addition, provide support for community artists who work with students on these projects. 

Community:

• Create and coordinate a National Festival of Filipino American Performing Arts.  Some successful regional festival models around the U.S. include Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC) produced by Fil Am ARTS in Los Angeles, Pistahan Festival in Seattle, WA, Pistahan Festival in San Francisco, CA, and Pinoyfest in Washington, D.C.   A successful national model includes the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival held in Washington, D.C.  A profiling study and evaluation of these events, and others that similarly exist, may provide a framework for a more viable consideration of this idea.

• Create a National Calendar of Filipino American Arts and Culture Events.  At present, mostly regional ones exist.  Ma-Arte Collective has initiated an attempt to produce a national calendar through the PAPAI list-serve, but this effort requires consistent support and resources from a national entity, and/or a working partnership of regional ones, to be truly comprehensive in its scope and delivery.

• Support the establishment of arts services organizations geared toward assisting Filipino American Arts and Culture, and especially in the performing arts.  These arts services organizations can provide technical assistance advice, resources, and training to individual performing artists, fledging organizations, and community-based heritage schools, regardless of non-profit status.  These arts services organizations can also provide advocacy representation within, and provide linkages to, mainstream American arts organizations such as Americans for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, National Performing Network, and the Non-Profit Finance Fund.  Currently, the most visible arts service organization geared toward Filipino American performing arts, as well as arts and culture in general, is Fil Am ARTS in Los Angeles.

• Establish mechanisms to assist the facilitation of international exchanges with the Philippines.  Currently, dance companies and arts organizations that do international Philippine presenting must deal with these issues independently.  Suggestions include:  

• Creating a Visiting Artists’ Bureau within one of the national Filipino arts and/or cultural organizations to advise on these matters.  The Bureau would oversee travel funding, visas, itineraries, workshops, and presenting.
• Connecting to already existing mainstream organizations that provide this resource, such as Arts International.

III.             PART ONE

SETTING COMMUNITY CONTEXTS:

CONVENING NATIONAL FILIPINO AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS

ARTISTS, CULTURAL WORKERS, EDUCATORS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS

On June 1 and 2, 2002, a gathering of Filipino American cultural workers and performing artists came together at the Arts and Industries Building of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.   Without much fanfare but with a great deal of purpose and goodwill, these twenty-one individuals from various cities met for a convening on Filipino American cultural stewardship that highlights the role of the performing arts in the life of the community.  The purpose of the convening was to bring together diverse folks in the Filipino American community to discuss pertinent topics and issues around cultural stewardship through artistic and cultural expression, education, and performing arts. 

With major support from the Ford Foundation and the guidance of the Foundation’s active liaison, Program Associate Anna Alves, the convening was organized by NaFFAA’s Cultural Project Team, including: former Executive Director Joe Montano Jr. and former Administrative Coordinator Mark Lorio of NaFFAA; their Cultural Project consultants, playwright Reme Grefalda and scholar Lucy Burns; and Emilie Dearing as facilitator.  The Cultural Project was in the early stages of their nationwide profiling study of performing arts culture work in the Filipino American community, part of an initial attempt to map where and how this work is being done across the mainland United States, Alaska, and Hawaii in a variety of arenas, including mainstages, universities, community and cultural centers, and heritage schools. 

Hosted by Gina Inocencio, Program Specialist of the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Program, the convening included the following participants:

Jilly Canizares-Tanedo (Fil-Am ARTS, Los Angeles, CA)

Christine Castro (Iskwelahang Pilipino, Bedford, MA)

Haldane Chase (Consultant, The Ford Foundation)

Wilma Consul (Journalist & Theater Artist, NPR News, Washington, DC)

Andy Gaston (Pintig Theatre Co., Chicago, IL)

Reme Grefalda (QBd Ink, Washington, DC)

Heidi Gutierrez (MaArte, New York, NY)

Emraida Kiram (cultural activist and Trustee of the Filipino American National Historical Society, Milwaukee, WI)

Emily Lawsin (Lecturer, American Culture and Womens’ Studies Programs, University of Michigan and Trustee of the Filipino American National Historical Society, Ann Arbor, MI)

Dr. Ernestina Mac (Detroit Community Center & Filipino School, Detroit, MI)

Dom Magwili (Actor, Director, and Playwright, Los Angeles, CA)

Allan Manalo (tongue in A mood & Bindlestiff Studio, San Francisco, CA)

Ray Obispo (Filipino American National Historical Society, Virginia Beach, VA)

Alleluia Panis (Kulintang Arts, San Francisco, CA)

Victoria Paz Cruz (Philippine Womens’ University/DIWA cultural project in the Philippines)

Zonia Velasco (Filipino Folk Arts Theatre, Inc., Dallas TX)

Don Verde (National Filipino American Youth Association and Philippine Cultural Foundation Inc., Tampa, FL)

Day One was a series of specific conversations around particular topics.  Of particular interest was all the various ways of defining "identity", "stewardship", "culture", "community" and "performing arts."  Since the working definition of "performing arts" that was utilized was a vastly expanded one -- including not only the traditional performing arts of theater, cultural dance and music, but also including poetry slams and spoken word collectives, university spaces where cultural performing arts takes place, community centers that utilize performing arts in both presentation and arts education, and heritage schools that utilize dramatic, dance, music and martial arts performing arts as part of their curriculum -- the diverse ways that these terms were defined provided for lively and insightful discussion.

The group offered the following definitions and elements for identity:

·        Expression of one’s being, as it relates to culture.

·        The sum of one’s life experiences.

·        Something one might be seeking, connected to aspirations and vision.

·        National culture, tied to a global geographical region, both homeland-based and in the diaspora.

·        Unifying commonalities that tie individuals to a larger community, yet also separates them from people that may identify otherwise.

·        Fluid and always changing, depending upon internal and external contexts:

o       Distinguish differences between a person that migrates from another place, at different points in their life as opposed to one born and raised in the U.S.

o       Different perspectives of identity depending on generation.

o       DNA or genetic make-up comprises some of one’s identity.

o       Sexual preferences and gender considerations impact one’s definition of identity.

For cultural stewardship, the group came up with the following:

·        Preservation, dissemination, and promotion of cultural heritage.

·        Sustainability of cultural activities or institutions, especially in cultivating emerging and continuing leadership.

·        Education towards a sense of cultural identity.

·        Cultural guidance and both historical and heritage documentation of culture and cultural experiences.

·        Advocacy/accountability for representing a community:

o       Responsibility not to misrepresent.

o       Responsibility to present “real” culture (the notion of “real” was debated as well, especially around issues of authenticity and/or relevance).

After that, the day was divided into five topic-centered conversations:

            1)         On Identity: Diversity in the Performing Arts

2)         Mapping of Filipino American Communities and the Performing Arts (Initial Findings of Profiling Study)

            3)         On Stewardship: 'Eskwelahang Pilipino" Language and Heritage Classes

            4)         On Community: Community/Cultural Centers and the Performing Arts

5)         On Performing the Art: Where Peace Begins -- Performance and Dialogue around Audience Engagement and Building

Day Two started off with one more topic-centered conversation entitled "On Education: Filipino American Arts and Mentorship".   This discussion covered what youth and university students are doing in terms of utilizing the university space to do cultural and historical education work as well as to create venues of cultural expression "in the moment."  Then, the group broke off into small groups to do Wish Lists of where they would like to see this work move toward, including planning networks and identifying national resources to link local and regional efforts as well as assist in locating support for them.  The small groups presented to each other and a large group sharing yielded an action plan with 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year goals for cultural community building.  They also identified volunteer coordinators amongst themselves to continue this planning.  The Wish List included the following:

Immediate:

o To create a listserve of the convening participants (which would be opened to others who may have interest in Pilipino American Performing Arts).

o To create a website introducing this newly forming coalition of individuals and organizations who are interested and have an investment in the development and flourishing of Pilipino American Performing Arts.

o To connect with others who are or might be involved in planning arts festivals or gatherings focusing on Pilipino American performing arts.

In 1 Year::

o To complete the profiling study being conducted by NaFFAA and supported by the Arts, Media, and Culture Division of the Ford Foundation.

o To have another national convening to continue, strengthen, widen, and  further the ties and the plans/wishes that were established in the initial convening in Washington DC.

o To create a national directory, including bios, resources, calendar of Pilipino American performing artists and organizations, both accessible on the web and as "brown" pages.

o To form a committee towards events focusing on performing arts for the 2004 centennial commemoration of the Pilipinos in the St. Louis World Expo.

o To identify resources for continued support for long-term projects, including identifying foundation reviewers and grant panelists.

In 5 years:

o To produce a national Pilipino American performing arts festival.

o To have funding in place for this Pilipino American performing arts network, including paid national coordinators (that will serve as a resource and possibly as a re-granting organization/network).

o To compile and disseminate curriculum from different cultural and heritage schools.

o To conduct a leadership/internship program focusing on Pilipino American arts and culture.

o To link existing national archives that contain materials on Pilipino American performing arts (ie FANHS, AATC, Uno Collection of Plays by Asian American Women, Filipino American Library in Los Angeles).

o To establish a working circuit of performing organizations and artists, including collaborative arts residency programs.

o To publish more and about performance works by Pilipino American artists (i.e. a collection of plays and performance scripts by Pilipino Americans).

o To link and collaborate with on-going projects such as FANHS’ National Pinoy Library and National Museum projects around the country.

In 10 years:

o To establish a presenting network.

o To have a Pilipino American Performance Arts Guild.

o To produce a multi-national global arts festival focusing on Pilipino performing arts.

o To establish a Pilipino American Performing Arts national office.

o To establish a P/Fame School.

At convening’s end, substantial groundwork had been laid down to begin a larger discussion of how to strategically connect individuals, organizations, and resources across the country doing performing arts culture work.  An initial identification of three national resource organizations to assist in formulating a multi-tiered action plan for future development was determined.  They are the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Program, the Filipino American National Historical Society, and the Association for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts and Culture (Fil Am ARTS).  A list-serve discussion board was created for the convening participants to continue their conversations and planning.  This list-serve, entitled the Pilipino American Performing Arts Initiative (PAPAI), was hosted by NaFFAA, the grantee convenor, and Ma'arte Collective, one of the participants (PAPAI @yahoogroups.com; Moderator: Heidi Gutierrez).  In addition, the conversations during that convening weekend yielded intriguing questions to explore further as the study progressed.  Some highlights include:

General Trends:

• In general, a different focus of performing arts is evinced by region and depending upon critical mass.  Demographics often shape creative priorities and audience cultivation.  Varying degrees of production capacity and capability – budgets, technical know-how, and resources – are apparent across the organizations and individuals gathered as well as varying degrees of making costs or profit.   Regional organizations, even those that are primarily social in nature, will often cultivate cultural programs for fundraising. 
• Venue makes a huge difference in what an organization or community considers priority in cultural work.  In larger metropolitan cities with a large Filipino population, there are more artistic professional venue options, thus more room for aesthetic, creative goals for artistic organizations and individuals; in smaller communities, in the absence of such venues, a cultural dance organization and/or community center become greater goals.  Also, utilization of institutional resources, such as schools and universities, provide venue and space for cultural production.  In California, university resources vary from almost $30,000 for a PCN at one major research university to in-kind resources such as rehearsal space and performance venue, in non-theatrical spaces, at smaller colleges elsewhere.  Yet this space within a larger institution can also be restrictive, in terms of content.  In addition, contrary to the natural assumption, establishment of Filipino community/cultural centers do not always unite the communities they are built within. 
• In smaller communities, such as that in Dallas, audience cultivation is a struggle, for its small Filipino population tends to not watch its own cultural productions, unless a mainstream audience does.  Mainstream audiences tend to believe that the main cultural offerings of the Filipino community are restricted to the Filipino cuisine adobo and the widely-known Philippine national dance tinikling (a dance done between two slender bamboo logs as they open and close to a tapping rhythm).  Larger regional and city priorities also impact cultural production and its context.  Differing notions of “cultural diversity” may be influenced by larger civic cultural tourism and economic development plans. 
• For those in performing arts collectives or theater companies/organizations, motivating factors for creating theater or performing arts is to challenge themselves, push an aesthetic envelope, mentor youth, and create new, hybrid or quality artistic expressions.  On the East Coast, because of less concentrated Filipino population numbers, a more multi-cultural and/or Asian American collaborative focus for these companies or organizations seems evident.  On the West Coast, because of Filipino critical mass, a multi-cultural sensibility can be a creative goal, but artists also explore and express a variety of strictly Filipino and Filipino American expressions.  An ironic downside to production work is the existence of unions that drive up technical fees.  In areas of Filipino critical mass, the larger communities do not necessarily contribute support to the performing artists. 

Aesthetic Sensibility:

• In California (San Francisco and Los Angeles specifically), Filipinos can be very specific about the kind of work they do because they have critical mass.  The next perceived step for these artists and organizations is institutionalization and organizational development and expansion.  As pointed out, two roles are needed for the creation of the art (and are often integrated within the same body):

1. The artist as the creator.
2. The organizer to make the art happen.

• Notion of a “young Filipino American contemporary crowd” that is ushering in a Filipino American cultural renaissance.  Also, the relationship between Philippine and Filipino American artists is very important and necessarily dynamic, not restricted to merely a cultural “messenger” type relationship.

• For those Filipino artists who came of age in the 1950s and directly after, many had no mentors, so had to explore, create, and product artistic work on their own.  Many cultivated relationships with mainstream organizations and local individual artists (Kulintang Arts), established collectives to produce and support new and original work (Bindlestiff Studio, Pintig, Ma-Yi).   For many, these were endeavors to carve out opportunities for Filipino artists to work – commissioning and creating new work, teaching each other and new generations, and presenting quality work on a professional stage. 
• Professional actors and performing artists sought out whatever professional companies that existed, such as East West Players in Los Angeles, CA  (the first Asian American theater company in the U.S, now over thirty years old) or New WORLD Theater in Amherst, MA (one of the longest-running performing arts companies focusing on work by and about people of color, going strong for more than twenty years).  Recent Filipino American performing artists – actors, dancers, comedians, and even DJ turntablists – will often perform and hone their skills on a state-wide and/or national college stage circuit.
• Some other examples of Filipino performing arts work that are focused upon quality aesthetics include:
  • QBd, Ink: Friends of the Performing Artist in Washington, D.C..  – A facilitating company centered around providing technical production assistance to theater actors that started its own theater company in the process.  Has recently started utilizing public access television so that their productions create larger outreach and thus solves its space/venue problem.  QBd often utilizes a multi-cultural cast.
  • Kulintang Arts in San Francisco, CA focuses upon nurturing and presenting “non-traditional” artists, such as those in martial arts.  Kulintang Arts was also a major initiator of the now annual Post-Modern Filipino American Performance Project.   In partnership with Bindlestiff Studio and other Bay Area Filipino artists and organizations, the Project was created in the late 1990s at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to turn the notion of “cultural celebration” on its head.  It has since then evolved into an annual event showcasing both emergent Filipino artists and a new cultural aesthetic.  

Education and Cultural Stewardship:

• Performing arts makes learners actors in their learning process.  Performing history teaches it as well.  Cultural identity is often “found” through involvement with cultural folk dance. 
• Arts organizations have provided cultural education in the form of classes and workshops in music and dance at local high schools and various community sites via after-school and weekend programs.
• The performing arts and campus student activism are closely tied together in many Filipino university organizations. 
• Heritage schools see themselves as “preservers of culture and tradition”.  In creating the heritage schools, the founders wanted to develop structured classes and situations to expose students to Filipino culture and to each other.  Exposure to heritage leads to development of a positive Filipino cultural identity.  Many graduates of these schools become active in forming Filipino organizations in college.  Several examples of long-time Filipino heritage schools exist nationally, including:
  • Iskwelahang Pilipino, Bedford, MA:  Twenty-five years of “making do” with its resources at hand.  Founded and operated by Filipino parents.  Has its own student-run orchestra.
  • Philippine Cultural Center Foundation, Milwaukee, WI:  Deals often with students “looking for their roots”.   Since Filipino critical mass is not evident in that region, the organization often brings guest cultural performing artists from out-of-town and out-of-state.  Works closely with its FAHNS chapter.
  • Philippine American Community Center, Detroit, MI:  Twenty years to build the Center and houses the Filipino School, which is sixteen years old. 
  • Filipino American Library, several decades old, which houses a Pilipino Cultural School..
  • Filipino Youth Center (PYC) in Seattle, WA was found by Fred and Dorothy Cordova in 1957, forming a cultural school that offered Filipino American history and Philippine folk dance.  A drill team was created in 1959 that produced precision marching and percussion, but also integrated elements of eskrima, kulintang, rhythmic chants, and tribal dialects. 
• Multi-cultural influences evince themselves at some sites.  In Maryland, a heritage school is comprised of mostly non-Filipino students and that are primarily African American.    Such composites are also seen in Seattle, WA and in San Francisco, CA.  Dallas develops classes for non-Filipinos and other Asians.  Many of these non-Filipino students are enrolled mostly to be with, and to learn to understand better, their Filipino friends.

Building Community:

• In terms of building community centers “for youth,” it was noted that elders must allow those youth to have real investment in the building.   Community centers must start with the programming (and not just the building), develop its audiences, and constantly assess participant needs.
• Oftentimes, a young adult generation does not feel a sense of ownership of its cultural/community institutions.  Generational gaps also fall along Filipino-immigrant and American-born and/or –raised lines.  Some strategies shared toward addressing these gaps include:
  • Starting youth associations within the larger organizations or institutions.
  • Focusing on seeding and nurturing inter-generational relationships.
  • Allow inter-generational feedback for programming.
  • Valuing all volunteers, especially those youth and young adults that may be most active.
  • Encouraging the older generation to cultivate and create a sense of ownership for an inter-generational collective.
• Some “good health” characteristics of leadership in “model” communities include:
  • Leaders that trust new ideas and emerging leaders yet are also trustworthy themselves as current leaders.
  • Resiliency so that the organization or institution is both firmly established yet constantly evolving.
  • Leaders who don’t get hung up on “turf” issues.
  • The ability to work through obstacles that could compromise the organizational mission.
  • Active youth involvement.
  • Cooperative collaboration and resource-sharing.

• Some emerging models of resource-sharing include:
  • Kayamanan ng Lahi in Los Angeles, CA as a national resource for Philippine folk dance in the U.S.  They hold bi-annual national gatherings and workshops for folk dance practitioners and students, administer a national list-serve, and are creating a Philippine Dance Resource Kit for dissemination to the field.
  • Fil Am ARTS in Los Angeles, CA as a festival model.  The Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC) is administered annually.  Initially a product of a city partnership, FPAC has evolved into a self-sustaining, multi-faceted and multi-generational event.
  • In addition, Fil Am ARTS is also developing the Pilipino Artists Network (PAN), a cross-disciplinary, organic attempt (focused on how artists dialogue with each other within a discipline), that endeavors to connect individual artists and organizations across California.  PAN is a network for advocacy and resource-sharing, working towards building a viable arts infrastructure for Filipino communities in the state.  If successful, the PAN model may prove useful for other U.S. regional efforts and/or a national endeavor.

Leadership Transitions:

·        The main questions include: 

• How do we transition from one generation to another?
• How do we accommodate evolving visions?  Whereas the originators might be interested in traditional folk dance from a country or continent of origin, today’s generation may be interested in contemporary dance and hip hop.  How are all of these interests and elements accommodated?  Organizations must be very careful about this.

• Some observations and strategies suggested include:
  • Oftentimes, leadership within an organization, especially if it is small and grass-roots, is a one-person operation.  Thus, capacity issues may impact leadership transmission. 
  • In many cases, potential emergent leaders much learn not to be scared of being the leader.  Thus, organizations and institutions must be cognizant of cultivating an expansion of responsibilities for others to lead.
  • The leadership style of a person often dictates how and if transition is possible.
  • Encourage ownership of a venue and foster trust by assigning and delegating increasing responsibilities to a larger number of other members, getting inclusive input from them in decision-making.
  • As an organization cultivates artists, generations may phase in and out over a number of years, leaving leadership to deal with a constantly new batch of members.  Institutionalization to maintain leadership that has occurred over several decades should be examined.
  • Mentorship is ongoing; a daily relationship.  It is about teaching leadership, responsibility, and requires caretaking of community and self.
  • Instill a “spirit of philanthropy” to younger generation.  Explore effective ways to get an emergent generation to invest in their Filipino communities.

A smaller, follow-up meeting, co-hosted by Jilly Canizares-Tanedo of Fil-Am ARTS, Joel Jacinto of Kayamanan ng Lahi, and Ed Ramolete of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), took place during the FANHS Bi-Annual National Conference (July 24-28, 2002) in Los Angeles on Friday, July 26, 2002.  This meeting had the following specific goals:  1) present expanded regional information for the profiling study from Alaska, Hawaii, and the Southeast; 2) gather national resource folks with selected DC participants and cross-disciplinary guests for strategic planning of “next steps” from the DC convening and profiling study findings; and 3) prepare for the presentation of the profiling study findings at the NaFFAA National Conference during August 2002.  A separate panel presentation of updated findings of the nationwide profiling study was given by Reme Grefalda and included papers by Lucy Burns and Theo Gonzalves providing historical and theoretical contexts.  That panel took place on Thursday, July 25, 2002.

A brief formal presentation of NaFFAA’s Cultural Project took place during NaFFAA’s 4th National Empowerment Conference held from August 28 to September 1, 2002 in San Jose and San Francisco, CA.  Also at that time, the Pilipino Artists’ Network (PAN), a project of Fil-Am ARTS of Los Angeles, CA, was presented to the delegates.  The Network is a project currently underway that connects individual artists and arts organizations in California across nine disciplinary nodes of artistic, cultural, and educational expression.  The PAN and Fil-Am ARTS received support from  the California Arts Council (CAC) and the Ford Foundation to supplement these efforts in the hopes that it may provide a working model for similar attempts nationwide.  Both the NaFFAA Cultural Project and the Fil-Am ARTS’ Network are part of emergent efforts to build cultural community development into the strengthening and empowerment of Filipino American communities across the United States.

IV.       PART TWO

THEORETICAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXTS

OF

FILIPINO AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS
“Theaters of Operation:  Theorizing Filipino American

Performance, National Identity and Community”

Theodore S. Gonzalves, Ph.D.

Department of American Studies

University of Hawai‘i at Manoa

A Paper Prepared for the Ford Foundation and

the National Federation of Filipino American Associations

It is the choreography that we perform: the dancer does not endeavor to create either in himself or in the audience the feelings the choreography might evoke; he just performs the steps the most truthful way he knows how.  Just so, our task is to execute the actions called for by the author.  How, you ask, can we do so without belief?  If we do not believe them, how can we perform them?

— David Mamet, True and False

For the thousands of young Filipino Americans who have taken to the stage or for those who felt more comfortable in the wings, participating in performing arts genres like the “Pilipino Cultural Night” (PCN) has been some of the only history lessons available about the Philippine revolution of 1896, the literary politics of Carlos Bulosan, the struggle of Ilokano farmworkers in Hawai’i, or the back-breaking labor in Salinas, Delano, Spokane, or Chicago.  At the end of the twentieth century, performing a play or choreographing dances offers not only the possibility of entertainment, but also the chance to tell stories about the past, to sustain a critique of U.S. American assimilation, or to call a community into being.

A discussion of contemporary Filipino American performing arts must be framed by historical events at the beginning and end of the twentieth century.  A discussion like this also means that we pay attention to events on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, to include both the Philippines and the United States.  Using performance or the performing arts as our frame of reference and our object of study provides alternative ways to think about Filipino American history.  If we look to the past as not completely finished, we can examine how performances offer ways to think about incomplete and sometimes contradictory accounts of the past.

According to Philippine cultural historian Doreen Fernandez, the “seditious plays” of the turn of the century marked a key moment in Philippine drama history.  By December 21, 1898, President McKinley had proclaimed the policy of “benevolent assimilation” of the Philippines by the United States.  The ground forces were not soon returning home.  And in a matter of weeks, the Philippine-American War would break out on February 4, 1899.  Armed open combat would be replaced by guerrilla warfare; a protracted struggle in the hills and throughout villages would continue for years.  However, McKinley’s successor, Theodore Roosevelt, officially ended the war on July 4, 1902.  Here, Fernandez notes, is where anti-American dramatists really began their work.  Between 1902 and 1906, “seditious plays” became a form of guerrilla warfare, “directly contrary to Act No. 292, the Sedition Act, passed on 4 November 1901, which made advocacy of Philippine independence a crime, since such advocacy fanned the embers of resistance to American rule.”[i]  Even with the war “officially” over, several artists made sure that the revolution would continue in any way possible.  Several government publications cited the “smoldering embers” of the “insurrection” which burned throughout the archipelago.  Even with Roosevelt’s official declaration of the war’s conclusion, armed forces were still dispatched to put down what resistance remained.  For the dramatists, many of them hailing from elite ilustrado backgrounds, the revolution would press on by other means, as audiences and playwrights would risk arrest and imprisonment with their work on the plays.

Many of the plays featured characters serving as cultural codes for the Filipino audiences.  The American colonial officials sat clueless in the audience as deep local references were being made from the stage.  Use of sets, colors and other theatrical devices conveyed the subversive meanings.  On the evening of May 8, 1903, Juan Matapang Cruz’ Hindi Aco Patay [I Am Not Dead], played to a large audience at the Teatro Nueva Luna in Mabalon.  Toward the play’s conclusion, the revolutionary nationalist flag of the Katipunan (the leading anti-imperialist group first organized against the Spanish, then the Americans) rose in the background.  A red sun illuminated it from behind.  Upon seeing this, a drunken American soldier “threw an empty beer bottle at it, then climbed the stage with some others and tore the scenery apart.”  The play would later be banned, the props from the stage confiscated, and the playwright arrested and sentenced for two years under the Seditious Act.  Several other playwrights, actors, and collaborators would be jailed or fined under the same act.[ii]

Almost ninety years later, R.J. Payomo plays the lead character in Santa Clara University’s Pilipino Cultural Night (PCN) Kalayaan [“Freedom”].  The production, mounted by the Filipino campus student organization known as “Barkada” (“Friends”) is a musical featuring an original, live score, and a cast of nearly two hundred.  Payomo plays the part of Roger Ragadio, a resident of a small town in the Philippines.  He represents the political consciousness of his barrio as he tracks the political career of General Tiberius Torres, an allegory of the late Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos.  The Torres character was credited for overseeing the economic prosperity for his barangay (local political unit) for nearly twenty years.  When the boom turned to bust — unemployment, homelessness, and the threat of ethnic violence on the rise — Torres was blamed.  Sensing the fracturing of his political support in the barangay, Torres institutes martial law. 

The story centers on how ordinary citizens like Ragadio are radicalized by the events.  This was a controversial topic for the students to stage , especially since many of the parents and older relatives in the audience took fierce stands on either side of the actual non-fictional struggle during the Marcos years.  Yet the students did not shy away from drawing such close parallels to the historical figures.  An indignant, left-of-center senator critical of Torres is shot (supposedly by the general’s forces); the senator’s virtuous, suffering widow (named “Dory”) is heralded as one of the few national figures who possesses the moral authority to lead the masses out from under Torres’ rule; and the general’s wife’s shoe collection is parodied.  Yet the main story takes place at its most local level, where a family and the town’s youth debate how politics will turn in their lives.

In the long arc of the twentieth century separating these two productions — between the seditious plays and the PCNs — we see a century of performance taking shape in Filipino communities “at home,” and, more significantly, “abroad.”  But even these distinctions between where “home” is and is not do not capture the powerful lessons that examining performance has for a century of U.S.-Philippine and Filipino American history.[iii]

How does performance call a community into being?  The seditious plays dangerously speak the name of the “nation” at a time when its utterance was banned.  To pry open a small yet public space for its presence was an achievement.  But it also came with a price.  While many intellectuals, performers, and political radicals who dared to speak such names were jailed, the cultural movement utilizing subversive theater was dispersed.  This example demonstrates the possibility of articulating where “cultural production” may have to play a crucial role in not letting the struggles of the past — even if it was in the immediate past — escape under colonial ban. 

For our Santa Claran students, calling a nation into being is quite a different project altogether.  At the end of the twentieth century, they are coming of age in the U.S. as the second or third generation born after World War II.  Many are the children of those coming to the U.S. after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act.[iv]  Like the seditious playwrights and performers of the turn of the century, they narrate the events of political history.  Unlike the seditious playwrights, though, they speak their collective name in a wholly different context.  Whereas the seditionists attempt to sustain the political consciousness of a theater-going public consigned to the colonial rule of another nation, the Santa Clarans of California’s post-industrial imperium perform for a fast-growing ethnic minority in a multiracial republic where the state’s various sectors (local, regional, federal) have had several generations of containing racial and ethnic conflict.  In national terms, the Filipino population numbers about two million.  In a country of more than two hundred and sixty million, this is hardly a significant figure.  Yet ethnicity and racial relations have their most profound impact at local levels.  And in the state of California, where the largest Filipino communities reside, whites continue to slip into a minority as Asian and Latina/o migration continues.[v] 

In some locales, Filipinos consist of forty percent of the population.  And as another wave of post-war prosperity is being built on technical, and service-related, rather than industrial labor, we find Filipino communities venturing out beyond the Manilatowns of San Francisco, Stockton, Salinas, and Los Angeles and into the suburbs of Daly City, Hercules, Union City, and Cerritos.  Families send their children to take advantage of the state’s wide range of college and university choices: two-year community colleges, the four-year California State University, the University of California, and private universities and colleges like the University of San Francisco, Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and St. Mary’s College.  Where they have gone — and they have been attending in larger numbers since the 1980s — they have performed.  And in this respect, their productions have spread further and wider than any of the seditionists could have imagined.  But imagination is what these performances are all about. 

In the relative absence of historical materials collected in archives or libraries, or in the dearth of faculty and staff to serve as role-models and mentors, young Filipinos find each other on stages, teaching themselves parts of their parents’ recent past, and sometimes, as much of Philippine history as possible.  And while the seditionists’ aims included the continuation of guerrilla warfare against an occupying force, the Santa Clarans of the present have different ambitions altogether.  Both groups harness the discourse of nationalism.  Yet the latter takes it up socially as a constructive act of fellowship among other “found Filipinos” and not necessarily as a counter-hegemonic strategy within California’s postmodern shifting racial terrain.  Performances call communities into being, sometimes even before many are ready to be called.  Communities are also called when the dominant power tells you there’s no reason for your fight, or when young folks choose to remember painful histories their parents would rather forget. 

Second, Filipino performances have opened critical spaces for us to complicate categories that have attempted to explain social realities like “race” and “assimilation.”  By the time the Filipino entered the U.S.’ political imaginary at the turn of the century, Americans had already confronted and defined a racial order which distributed power to white settler populations on the West Coast while marking the conquered, laboring bodies of Latina/os, Native Americans, African Americans, and Chinese.  Tomas Almaguer’s fascinating study of the nineteenth century Californian history reminds us how racial formation was indelibly accounted for in W. B. DuBois’ prophetic observation of the durability of the “color line.”  Displacing the ranchero elite, while subordinating and disciplining the labor of white workers and Mexicans, was what defined the work of Anglo-American racial hegemony.[vi] 

But securing hegemony on the West Coast also meant Anglo settlers had to come to terms with the ability to define concepts like “assimilability” and “inclusion.”  The history of Chinese labor is instructive here.  Initially recruited for grueling mining work all along Sutter, Placer, and Sacramento counties in the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese populations proved to be an increasingly intractable and undisciplined labor pool.  By the late nineteenth century, white workers and trenchant racist political elites effectively excluded Chinese immigration to the U.S.  While economic logic demanded their presence as cheap labor, the cultural logic of racism refused the same.[vii] 

The Filipino enters the American imaginary as a curiosity at the turn of the century.  Ordinary Americans could only initially rely on editorial cartoons, which traded on the icon of an “Africanized” “savage.”[viii]  The debate in the U.S. Congress would continue to waffle over the status of this potential new possession.  Were they civilized?  Many believed so because of Western Christianity’s long-held sway over the country.  Or were they unassimilable?[ix]  This initial confusion, even ambivalence, would anticipate the kind of experiences Filipino Americans would have with racial categories, classification, and identification over the twentieth century.[x] 

More so than any other writer of his generation, Carlos Bulosan would testify to the Filipino community’s isolation and racial discrimination.  Why would this be the case, he would ask, when so much of Western culture had been inculcated in the Philippine experience?  It was Bulosan’s cohort of cheap labor landing on the shores of Hawaii [the proper diacritical mark has the okina going the other way...]  and the Western United States that modeled themselves after President Lincoln, sported the styles of Hollywood movie stars, and dreamed in the grammar of American democracy.  Dancing to Mexican syncopated rhythms was just another adaptation from the Spanish-influenced musics of Philippine rondallas.[xi]  The performances we’re beginning to document include ones where Filipinos craft their own forms such as Rizal Day celebrations or more mainstream or cross-cultural work as with Mardi Gras float entries.  The careers of musicians like Rudy Tenio, Flip Nunez, Bobby Enriquez, and Sugarpie Desanto — musicians who performed in the U. S. a generation before the beginnings of a Filipino American movement in the 1970s — show how Filipinos shared, borrowed and participated in the American blues and jazz traditions, getting respect from audiences and fellow musicians alike.  If there is a persistent theme in the study of Filipinos in American society, it is the inability of so many scholars to historicize how the hybrid cultures of Filipino experiences confound the rigid, normally-accepted categories of ethnic and racial assimilation.

How may Filipino performances allow us to talk about “national” identities?[xii] The cultural life of Filipino America is filled with a vibrant array of interpreters and creative folks.  These public cultures include but are not limited to the following: the promotion of literary societies, student newspapers and broadsides, community bulletins, the popular Front commitments of writers like Bulosan, and the second generation acts of recovery by the “Flip” writers and poets of San Francisco’s Kearny Street Workshop, the mural work of artists Jim Dong, Faustino Caigoy, Johanna Poethig, Vic Clemente, Presco Tabios, SPIE, Randolf Dimalanta, Neil Salinas, Eliseo Silva; the community theater renaissance of Ma-yi (New York), Pintig (Chicago), QBD & Teatro Tanghalan (Washington, DC), Teatro ng Tanan, Tongue in a Mood (San Francisco), and KilUSAn (Seattle).  The postwar period bears witness to a broad and remarkable growth of cultural forms.[xiii]  So much of the above work demonstrates not only what the dominant culture has paid little attention to -- that is, the importance of making links to the Philippines — but also forces us to consider how unique Filipino American identities are being created and rooted in the United States.

From this variety of cultural expression we can witness an impressive commitment to develop the “grammar of nationalism and ethnicity.”[xiv]  In other words, nationalism and ethnicity are not simply static things.  They are also ways of talking about certain groups of people, oftentimes under historical conditions not of their making.  These flexible, yet always contested grammars at times seek out cross-cultural affiliation and fellowship — especially demonstrated in the musics of Latin rock groups like Dakila, salsa artists like Joe Bataan, and the late Boying Geronimo.  We should also take care to mention the musical communities of listeners and patrons like the zootsuiters of Seattle, Los Angeles, Stockton, and San Francisco who both drew and gave inspiration to the musicians. 

In other instances, they helped to create what would become known as “Asian America,” as in the literary collaborations of Oscar Peñaranda, Sam Tagatac, and Serafin Syquia with the Chinese and Japanese American editors of the landmark literary anthology Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers.  Filipino participation in pan-ethnic projects include Jessica Hagedorn’s editing of the Asian American literary anthology, Charlie Chan is Dead, Eileen Tabios’ unique collection of poetry-in-progress essays titled Black Lightning, and a host of other anthologies such as Breaking Silences, The Open Boat, Time to Greez!, and Third World Women.[xv]  Cultural works take seriously the fiction of a “community” whose heterogeneity, scattered, geographical, staggered migration, and multi-generational, and disparate class locations tug in several directions.  Performance and other cultural work by Filipino Americans is deeply concerned with questions of national identification — of belonging to and challenging the exclusivity of various forms of “nationalisms.”  Contrary to the notion that what such developments help to balkanize a preciously unified America, all of the artists named here help to bend and confound what a nation really is.  That shouldn’t frighten us.  As scholars and interpreters of Filipino American experiences, we should be on the lookout for lessons from the performing arts that refuse to reduce these experiences to tourist slogans or multicultural marketing campaigns.

How can thinking about “performance” also afford us an opportunity to think about “history” and “memory”?  Students and scholars of Filipino American experiences are quick to lament the fact that official accounts of American history have neglected the Filipino, despite the long and shared histories of this ethnic minority since the turn of the century.  Out of the recognition of a lack of resources, texts, faculty, and institutional commitments to an ethnic patrimony, the lamentation calls into question a number of historiographical metaphors — “invisibility,” “forgetfulness,” “distortion,” and so forth.  A simple recitation of titles reflects a consensus.  Consider the following: journalist and community historian Fred Cordova titled his 1983 photographic essay and social history, Filipinos: Forgotten Asian Americans.  Taking his cue from Cordova, narrative historian Ronald Takaki titles the chapter devoted to Filipinos in his 1989 Asian American history, “Dollar a Day, Dime a Dance: The Forgotten Filipinos.”  Cultural historian and critic Oscar V. Campomanes guest edited a 1995 special issue on “U.S. Filipino Literature and Culture” for the U.C. Berkeley-based Critical Mass, penning an essay titled, “The New Empire’s Forgetful and Forgotten Citizens: Unrepresentability and Unassimilability in Filipino-American Postcolonialities.”  And who is to say that these recent works didn’t take their cues from an earlier generation of U.S.-Philippine history scholars?  Consider Peter Stanley’s 1972 chapter titled, “The Forgotten Philippines, 1790-1946,” or Philip B. Whitney’s bibliographic essay published in the same year titled, “Forgotten Minority Filipinos in the United States.”[xvi] 

Three years later, with the 1975 publication of Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers, main editors Frank Chin, Jeffrey Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada and Shawn Wong turned to fellow writers and community activists Oscar Peñaranda, Serafin Syquia and Sam Tagatac to write what would become “An Introduction to Filipino-American Literature.”  They wrote:

“We will make the strongest case for the urgency and necessity of the following works, a case that not other Asian American can have: that is, the total absence of published Filipino-American writers in the United States today.  We were asked to write a literary background of Filipino-American works, to make sure that the publishers would say, ‘Yes, let’s help them, it’s unjust, they need to be exposed.’ Here is our stand.  We cannot write any literary background because there isn’t any.  No history.  No published literature.  No nothing.  Just ‘Flips’ all over the place.  The only published writing we can speak of that is worthy of note are those writings of Filipinos in the Philippines about the Philippines.”[xvii]

The San Francisco-based editors of Liwanag, another influential volume of literary and graphic arts published in the same year agreed:

“Few publications projecting exclusively the Pilipino perspective in the American milieu have addressed themselves well to the task of revealing cogent, definitive and salient literary and graphic works indicative of this community’s experience.  Of these, none have escaped the restrictive bounds of immediate locality in the processes of accumulation, publication and dispensation of literary and graphic works.  Within the area of Asian-American publications, the input by Pilipinos has illustrated clearly to us that, in terms of representativeness, this aspect has been inadequate.  The scope of such earlier compilations has thus been relatively narrow; though the materials be of high quality, a select few artist[s] have gained access to a proportionately small audience.”[xviii]

The problem that Peñaranda, Syquia and Tagatac write of is the same for the historian of Filipino American experiences.  “Just ‘Flips’ all over the place” meant that in the post-1965 era in which they wrote, the Filipino community had been growing and changing, especially at the conclusion of the Second World War.  Despite their marked growth in population, the changing sex ratios, educational level, and expanding occupational opportunities, Filipinos in the United States saw little change in terms of how the histories of recent struggles were being authored.  The often rehearsed lamentation charges dominant American culture with having “forgotten” about the Filipino.  The section title page immediately following their introductory essay speaks volumes to where their sentiments are grounded.  It reads: “Asian-American Writers: We Are Not New Here.”  (55) 

Like so many other works in the early stages of Asian American and Filipino American studies, the premise of correcting the historiographical invisibility and erasure from the written record was treated as a premium in scholarly and critical work.  The republication of “lost” literary works such as Louis Chu’s Eat a Bowl of Tea (1961), Carlos Bulosan’s America is in the Heart (1946), and Wakako Yamauchi’s play, “And the Soul Shall Dance” (1976) was part of a broader effort by a radicalized generation of youth to constitute an Asian American culture out of shared experiences of American racism in the twentieth century.  Previously isolated and individuated histories of the internment, Red-baiting of multiracial unions, anti-miscegenation, linguistic and cultural exclusion were treated by this cohort coming of age in America’s post-war period with the same seriousness as the contemporary debates over U.S. aggression in southeast Asia, as well as local campaigns for community control over health, housing and public safety in the urban cores. 

More importantly, they signaled that a new version of history would be written — one that linked the fortunes and misfortunes of racialized communities not only temporally across the twentieth century, but geo-politically across the “Third World.”  The emerging cultural nationalist framework upon which artists, critics, and scholars fashioned during this period argued that history-writing was itself a contested terrain — that writing a community into being meant fashioning not simply a new art, but a new “culture.”  Again, the editors of Liwanag:

 “The problems of transition for the Pilipino immigrant and the Pilipino-American have been and are of such general import to us that it is even within the areas of art that the outraged voice is heard.  This anthology will voice the sentiment that immigrants or the children do not have to assimilate completely American mainstream values in order to survive or to keep his own integrity.  Rather, it is by being whole, by retaining consciously that which is Pilipino, that they are enabled to see and understand more clearly the two cultures; that one culture does not necessarily erase the other.  But on the contrary, it is by acknowledging heritage that the Pilipino-American can achieve the insight necessary to function progressively with Pilipino and American values in this society.”[xix]

I find the above comments useful for a number of reasons.  First, it situates when one of the traditions of Filipino American studies surfaces and, more significantly, where and how.  It is that generation coming of age during the late 1960s and early 1970s — filled with liberal expectations bolstered by an expanding economy and emboldened with progressive university training — that looked beyond the lamentation of their community’s (and parent’s) defeats.  They would make use of the tools of the day — which included the organizational knowledge of having participated in domestic mass-based struggles over civil rights a decade before, with a range of Third Worldist concepts and models including Maoist aesthetics and Leninist organizing strategies — in defining a historically-specific goals for their generation.  They would also turn to the labor of culture by taking seriously how acts like writing and reciting poetry could forge what Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci would refer to as the “national-popular”:

“One must speak of a struggle for a new culture, that is, for a new moral life that cannot but be intimately connected to a new intuition of life, until it becomes a new way of feeling and seeing reality and, therefore, a world intimately ingrained in ‘possible artists’ and ‘possible works of art’ ... A new social group that enters history with a hegemonic attitude, with a self-confidence which it initially did not have, cannot but stir up from deep within itself personalities who would not previously have found sufficient strength to express themselves fully in a particular direction.”[xx]

In terms of writing history, however, few if any full-length historical works would emerge from that generation.  Originally published in the 1930s, Bruno Lasker’s Filipino Immigration to the United States would still serve as a foundational text for any Filipino American historiography.  Most works, in fact, aimed not for radical measures, but for a reformed historiography: “It is by enabling definitive contributions by Pilipino artists within the framework of the metamorphosis of art as a whole in America that we hope to make accessible the unique experiences of Pilipino-American artists to the general public and to facilitate the explication of such affinities which have become of interest in the school systems of this country [emphasis added] (9).”  “[The Filipino-American writer] must accept the fact that his uniqueness is that he has a different ‘soul’ from his brother writers in the Philippines.  He must accept the fact that the inherent contributors to his literature can range from the Last Poets to Rod McKuen; from the civil-rights issue in America to his own local community problems (51-2).”  The tendency in such acts of recovery leaves open the possibility of uncritically writing from a “liberal” approach to history — that is, to make note of the lamentation and addressing it with the corrective of addition.  Historian Gary Y. Okihiro tackles this problem:

“The ‘contributions’ approach misses the true significance of Asians in American history and culture.  When compared with the centrality of the ‘founding fathers’ — the framers of the constitution, the shapers of American letters and culture, the movers and shakers in the world of industry and government — Asian contributions to the United States seem trivial, and rightfully so.  The majority (defined here as those who rule) designed and built the republic for themselves, while the minority (defined here as those who are separated from power) were consigned to the periphery, where they could exert little influence over the core, or the dominant paradigm.  In addition, the measure of worth or significance of a particular group often hinges on how contributions affirm or reinforce the established order, the status quo, the very system that dominates, oppresses, and exploits minorities, who are then asked to ‘contribute’ to society.”[xxi]

Okihiro is, of course, addressing those in the dominant American culture who would push for a more inclusive and multicultural approach to narrating American history.  He demystifies the fetish of “multiculturalism” that maintains the invisibility of whiteness while promising an egalitarian multi-ethnic “order.”  The problem is still one of the exercise of power — who allows whom to speak? What kinds of narratives will be approved? And under what kinds of conditions?  In seizing his commentary, I train Okihiro’s critique of the ‘contributions’ approach on the authors of this emerging historiography of Filipino American experiences.  Is “recovery” of those “forgotten” enough?  To what are “we” contributing when we choose not to forget? 

We can find some of the answers to these questions in our community’s performances.  I have in mind, as an example, the 1998 Filipino Festival held in Monterey, California.  Located nearby are military installations such as the Defense Language Institute, the Naval Postgraduate School, the Monterey Presidio, and, until recently, Fort Ord.  Many Filipino families settled on the peninsula as a result of family members’ service in the armed forces.  Other families migrated southward from larger urban and suburban locales after 1965 to settle in towns like Marina, Pacific Grove, Seaside, and further into the Salinas valley..  Indeed, Filipinos had long been a part of the pre-War communities of Watsonville and the central valley, where workers followed the crops.

The highly attended festival featured two days of cultural performances, mostly from community organizations and younger artists.  On display was a range of musical and dance talent — from the hip hop R&B-inflected song stylings of Es’cence of Watsonville and Santa Clara, Reminisce of San Jose, and Epic Voices of Concord, to hip hop dance troupes like the Groove Addicts and the KaBoom Squad of Seaside and Marina, to the folk and traditional dance presentations of the Maharlika Cultural Troupe of Martinez, and the Magkaisa Filipino Student Organization of Fresno State University.  There didn’t seem to be any thematic or chronological organization in the presentation of the acts.  Instead, the audience was treated to an assortment of talents reminiscent of a vaudevillian review.  For example, a pre-Spanish-themed Muslim dance would clear the way for a martial arts exhibition. 

While festivals in the Philippines commemorate religious observations of harvest and so forth, Filipino community festivals in the U.S. are more emphatically secular in orientation.  Many events coincide with the observance of the June 12th declaration of Philippine independence from Spain.[xxii]  The event took place near Monterey’s legendary Fisherman’s Wharf, at the Custom House Plaza, an open-air area where a modest stage focused the main attraction.  With seating arranged for hundreds all about the stage (no special passes or tickets were needed; the event was free and open to the public), an array of businesses and vendors lined the outer ring of the plaza.  Selling everything from food items (desserts, entrees, drinks, etc.), handmade crafts (jewelry, pottery, housewares), to books, CDs, and videos — the festival also doubled as a large outdoor Filipino market.  Public service booths were also available; passersby could also receive information on heart disease, HIV/AIDS prevention, discounts on periodicals catering to Filipino audiences, and so forth.

An interesting note to this event is found in the hefty program providing a forum for businesses and politicians catering to Filipino markets and constituents.  Two pages are devoted to the two-day event at the plaza; a few more pages provide biographies of some of the featured artists.  The rest of the program carried advertisements from insurance brokers, dentists, civic organizations (such as the local Lions Club chapter), automobile dealerships, travel agents, restaurants, internet service providers and technicians, and corporations (such as China Airlines and Pacific Bell).  These advertisements help to confirm the claims of recent sociological studies demonstrating the growth of a post-1965 Filipino American middle class.  With higher income and educational levels, the children of this post-1965 generation know little of the experiences of pre-World War II Filipino communities consigned to service-related, agricultural or menial labor.[xxiii]   

So it is not surprising that the organizers of the two-day affair would omit that crucial post-War experience in their own abbreviated narration of Filipino American history, titled “Bayani: Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Roles.”  This “outline of Pilipino history” is actually an excerpt of a larger project to be published under the auspices of “Project UGAT” [United for Governance, Articulation, & Travel].  I am always fascinated with attempts to narrate popular histories, like the Ayala Museum’s dioramas, or the miniaturized version of the Philippines located at Nayong Pilipino in Manila.  We could think of other places like this, such as the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawai‘i, the state’s #1 paid tourist attraction.  But the master of the form is the Disney corporation: Disneyland, where mythical, multiethnic groups share shrunken realities under the guise of memorable phrases like, “it’s a small world after all.” 

“Bayani” offers an ambitious rendering of Filipino history, beginning with the 1521 European invasions.  This first era is dubbed “Encounters: Contending with territorial intrusion, 1521-1650.”  Subsequent periods follow the often rehearsed liberal and Marxist historiographies highlighting Catholic and Spanish hegemony, which in turn, spurs on the nascent nationalism of the late nineteenth century.  The martyrdom of its elite mestizo young men (the ilustrados) is again heralded in this history.  But it is twentieth century which is extremely contentious.  In the section titled, “Americanization: Stepping into modernity 1900-1946,” the text reads: “Benevolent American colonization translated into a commonwealth status and, eventually independence.  Contemporary observers are still arguing the whole effect of American influence over the Pilipinas which resulted in the ‘braindrain’ and the shaky station of Pilipinas in the global economic family of nations.” 

The next section’s narration, “Globalization: Entering the Tigers’ Lair, 1947 to the present,” proves of be of little help; most of it repeats the previous section: “Consistent, constructive American colonization translated into a commonwealth status for the Pilipinas, and eventually political independence.  Contemporary observers are still arguing the whole effect of American influence over the Pilipinas which resulted in [the] Pilipino ‘brain drain’ and overseas workers overflow.  What will stabilize the shifty station of Pilipinas in the global economic family[?]”  The writers here demonstrate that narrating the present century can be a vexing problem.  So many questions are left open: What, exactly, is the ‘tigers’ lair’?  Is this a metaphor for east Asia’s booming economies and the expression of the fear that the Philippines has been left behind?  How was American colonization “consistent,” “constructive,” or “benevolent”?  Were the writers attempting to be ironic?  Is not the doubled reference to the ‘brain drain’ a self-serving, if not inaccurate, reference?

The narration ends curiously with another set of questions — “Epilogue: Filipino American Outlook, 2000 and onward.”  “As one of the most significant racial-ethnic communities, Filipino Americans face a major challenge to become a vital element in the future of the United States of America and the globe.  Will the positive and enormous potentialities demonstrated in the Revolution redound to something of worth for the family of nations in the globe?  Are Pilipinos cultural capons so that they do not count for glory in the year 2000 except as feed for a gluttonous global frenzied socio-economic monster to which Pilipinos and Filipino Americans can be mere reactionaries?”

Filipino American communities rely on shaky yet shared histories of their public cultures.  And histories continue to be shaped by those with the means — the emerging middle classes, whose livelihoods depend on loyal clienteles.  We watch our young ones dance, while some elders remind us how interpretations of history can sound alienating and pretentious.  I think about those young performers, possibly hundreds, who took the stage that day along the wharf.  I wonder if they will ever read how elders in their communities have written or forgotten about or distorted Filipino American history.  I marvel at the things these young performers don’t know about the long histories between the Philippines, the United States and everywhere else people have called home. 

Maybe those of us who work in these kinds of contexts — whether in front of a class or a more formal audience — can take cues from older uses of the term “performance” to make some better sense.  I’m thinking about uses in contemporary legal thought, where performance is understood as “the fulfillment or accomplishment of a promise, contract, or other obligation according to its terms, relieving such person of all further obligation or liability thereunder.”  And perhaps this is why performance takes on the kind of urgency that it does in so many cultural forms developed by Filipino Americans over the twentieth century — that in the various acts of embodying those discounted by history, that the promise of the revolutionary impulse to call a community into being may be fulfilled.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

[1]     The text of the relevant section reads: “Until is has been officially proclaimed that a state of war or insurrection against the authority of the United States no longer exists in the Philippine Islands, it shall be unlawful for any person to advance orally or by writing or printing or like methods, the independence of the Philippine Islands or their separation from the United States whether by peaceable or forcible means, or to print, publish or circulate any handbill, newspaper or publication, advocating such independence or separation.” Public Laws Annotated quoted in Doreen G. Fernandez, Palabas: Essays on Philippine Theater History (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), p. 82.

2     See Fernandez, 98-99.

3     See the provocative essays which take up these issues of locality, living “abroad,” and producing art in Dana Frii-Hansen, Alice G. Guillermo, and Jeff Baysa, At Home and Abroad: 20 Contemporary Filipino Artists (San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 1998).

4     For a discussion of the passage of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, see David M. Reimers, Still the Golden Door (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992, second edition).

5     See Hamamoto and Torres’ New American Destinies: A Reader in Contemporary Asian and Latino Immigration (New York: Routledge, 1996).

6     See Rosaura Sanchez’s Telling Identities: The California Testimonios (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995); Tomas Almaguer’s Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994); and W.E.B. DuBois’ Souls of Black Folk: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism, eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Terri Hume Oliver (New York: Norton, 1999).

7     See Bob Lee, “The Hidden World of Asian Immigrant Radicalism,” in The Immigrant Left in the United States, eds. Paul Buhle and Dan Georgakas (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996); and Lucie Cheng and Edna Bonacich, eds., Labor Immigration Under Capitalism: Asian Workers in the United States Before World War II (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).  This is also Lisa Lowe’s point in her introductory chapter to Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics (Durham: Duke University Press, 1996).

8     See the excellent documentary Savage Acts: Wars, Fairs and Empire, 1898-1904, Pennee Bender, et al eds., American Social History Project, 1995.  Also, see Philip Choy’s The Coming Man: 19^th Century Perceptions of the Chinese (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Company, 1994).

9     See Daniel B. Schirmer and Stephen R. Shalom, eds., The Philippines Reader: A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship and Resistance (Boston: South End Press, 1987).

10    See oral histories by Yen Espiritu, ed., Filipino American Lives (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995), and Joann Faung Lee, Asian Americans: Oral Histories of First to Fourth Generation Americans from China, the Philippines, Japan, India the Pacific Islands, Vietnam and Cambodia (New York: New Press, 1992).

11    An ensemble of stringed instruments from the Philippines.

12    See Carlos Bulosan’s America is In the Heart: A Personal History (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1946); Manual Buaken’s I Have Lived with the American People (Caldwell: Caxton, 1948); Craig Scharlin’s Philip Vera Cruz: A Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and the Farmworkers Movement, eds. Glenn Omatsu and Augusto Espiritu (Los Angeles: UCLA Labor Center, Institute of Industrial Relations & UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1994); and Bruno Lasker’s Filipino Immigration to the Continental United States and to Hawaii (New York: Arno Press, 1931).

13    See E. San Juan, Jr.’s From People to Nation: Essays on Cultural Politics (Manila: Asian Social Institute, 1990), and see Antonio Gramsci’s notion of the national-popular in Selections from Cultural Writings, ed. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991, reprint). 

14    Articles documenting Asian American cultural performances and other such work during the 1970s and 1980s may be found in community-based periodicals like Bridge, East West, Aion, and Gidra. 

15    From Benedict Anderson’s The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World (New York: Verso, 1998). 

16    See Frank Chin, et al, eds., Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers (New York: Anchor, 1975); Jessica Hagedorn, ed., Charlie Chan is Dead: An Anthology of Asian American Fiction (New York: Penguin, 1993); Eileen Tabios, ed., Black Lightning: Poetry-in-Progress (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998); Joseph Bruchac, ed., Breaking Silence: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Poets (Greenfield Center: Greenfield Review Press, 1983); Garrett Hongo, ed., The Open Boat: Poems from Asian America (New York: Anchor Books Doubleday, 1993); Janice Mirikitani, et al, eds., Time to Greez! Incantations from the Third World (San Francisco: Glide Publications, 1975); and Third World Women (San Francisco: Third World Communications, 1972). 

17    Fred Cordova, Filipinos: Forgotten Asian Americans (Kendall Hunt, 1983); Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore (Little, Brown, 1989); Oscar V. Campomanes, “The New Empire’s Forgetful and Forgotten Citizens: Unrepresentability and Unassimilability in Filipino-American Postcolonialities” Critical Mass 2.2 (Spring 1995): 145-200; Peter Stanley, “The Forgotten Philippines, 1790-1946” in American-East Asian Relations: A Survey, ed. E. May and J. Thompson, Jr. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972): 291-316; Philip B. Whitney, “Forgotten Minority: Filipinos in the United States,” Bulletin of Bibliography and Magazine Notes 29.3 (July-September 1972): 73-83.

18    See Oscar Peñaranda, Serafin Syquia, and Sam Tagatac, “An Introduction to Filipino-American Literature,” in Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers, eds. Frank Chin, et al (New York: Anchor, 1975), p. 37.

19    Ibid., 3.  From the closing pages of Voices: A Filipino American Oral History: “For most of us who grew up in the 50’s and 60’s, American history never mentioned Filipino Americans.  History we were taught remained distant from our own experience.  Some of us later managed to acquire q fragmented picture of Filipino American history through research which provided us with statistics, chronologies, and political analyses of the period.  But it was oral history — the process of recording personal recollections on tape to retrieve historical information — which added new dimensions to our understanding of Filipino American history.  History came alive with emotions, visions, humor, and struggles shared by those who had actually lived through history.  While each interview was not a definitive historical statement, each conveyed a personal response to the social dynamics of the times, and related experiences which had paved the way for our own.  We realized the importance of the interview process: our dialog with the older generation forged a link between our experience and theirs.  We began to claim their history as ours, and with pride” (n.p.).  Alex Canillo, et al, eds., Voices: A Filipino American Oral History (Stockton: Filipino Oral History Project, 1984).

20    Emily Cachapero, et al, eds., Liwanag 1 (San Francisco: Liwanag Publications, 1975), p. 9.

21    Gramsci, 98.

22    Gary Y. Okihiro, Antonio Rios-Bustamante, Nell Irvin Painter, eds., Teaching Asian American History (Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1997): p. 3.

23    See Sharon Delmendo, “The Star Entangled Banner: Commemorating 100 Years of Philippine (In)Dependence and Philippine-American Relations,” Journal of Asian American Studies 1.3 (October 1998): 211-244. 

24    See Paul Ong, Edna Bonacich and Lucie Cheng, eds., The New Asian Immigration in Los Angeles and Global Restructuring (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994).

V.        Part Three

A profiling study of

Emerging Pilipino American Performing Arts’ Work:

Case Study of California Colleges and Universities

Performing Pilipino American in the Academy: Arts, Identity and the University

Lucy Burns

American Studies Program, Department of English

University of Massachusetts at Amherst

I.                   Introduction: Arts, Identity and the University

This section introduces the ideas that propelled this particular study: that the University/Academic institution is a site where Pilipino American performance has developed.

II.                Pilipino Americans in higher education

This section argues that the increasing numbers of Pilipino Americans in higher education has been largely responsible for the vibrant participation of Pilipino American students in the creation Pilipino American performing arts.

III.             Pilipino American Performing Arts in the University

This section maps out 4 different ways in which Pilipino Americans are involved in the performing arts.

A.   Cultural Nights

B.     Student performing arts groups

C.     Academic Departments: Theater, Ethnic and Women Studies,

D.     Open Mic, Talent Shows

IV.              University and the Community/University and the Community

This section conveys that Pilipino American students see their participation in student-centered performance projects as part of community building.

V.                 Conclusion

This section offers some observation about student performance projects and the formation of Pilipino American subjectivity and community at institutions of higher learning.

Performing Pilipino American in the Academy: Arts, Identity and the University

Lucy Burns

American Studies Program, Department of English

University of Massachusetts at Amherst

I.                    Introduction

This study profiles Pilipino Americans and performance in the university and begins with a premise that the academy of higher learning is an enabling environment for student-initiated and student-produced performance projects that explore issues of identity for diasporic students of color. Today, the university not only serves as a training ground for students who are interested in pursuing a career in the performing arts, but it is also a site where students of color engage in ideas of identity and community formation creatively through performance projects. At the university, students of color have created a space to discuss, debate, and exchange ideas about their observations on subject and community formation.

This premise recognizes the long history of exclusion of students of color from academic institutions in the United States, and, once there, their struggle for their rightful place in these institutions of higher learning. It was nearly forty years ago that the academic world was called to task for its exclusionary practices that made universities unavailable to and exclusive of communities of color. In the last four decades, institutions of higher learning have been working towards a more diverse student body, particularly in terms of race and class. Racial and cultural diversity remain to be contentious issues, with policies of inclusion and equality in U.S. universities constantly being drafted, revised, debated, abolished, and replaced.[2]

From Black colleges of the South to the twenty University of California campuses in California, universities and colleges have nurtured student-performances projects, from those working towards professional productions to small performance acts that explore college life produced in residence halls. Student-centered performances range from dance and music concerts, to open mics and talent shows. These performances are produced by theater departments, by student organizations, and by student services centers such as the LGBT Student Resource Center, Multicultural Student Services, and the Asian Pacific American Student Resource Center.

Universities and colleges have played a role in training artists of color. Theater historian James Vlatch writes that African American theater in Black colleges, active since the 1800s, was focused on producing classical European dramatic plays until the 1960s. The main focus in such productions was training for African American students to perform and work on all productions. It was not until the 1960s, when the Black Power movement was quickly and strongly on the rise, was there a shift into producing works by African American playwrights. These Black colleges sought out plays by African Americans, through playwriting contests. Elizabeth C. Fine writes about the African American step shows, performed by fraternities and sororities that are produced primarily to raise scholarship funds for African American college students. Maria Teresa Marrero attributes the rise of Latina playwrights in the 1980s to the training provided in MFA programs of colleges and universities.[3]

While the universities and colleges have been sites for training and exploration of performance for students of color, it would be misleading not to mention that university and college settings remain as sites of contention for these same students. The very rise of the student performance projects discussed in this report, including ethnic cultural celebrations and ethnic specific student performance groups, are evidence of the racial and cultural exclusivity of institutions of higher learning. Students who participate in these performance projects understand their participation in politicized terms. For Pilipino American students, working on these projects means an engagement in the politics of preservation and visibility (“to promote the rich culture of Pilipinos and Pilipino Americans”), the politics of community building (“to create a space for Pilipino students in the university”), and the politics of representation (“to recruit and increase retention of Pilipino American students”).
II. Pilipino Americans in higher education

The vibrant and forceful student activism of the late 1960s and early 1970s exposed some critical flaws in institutions of higher education, particularly in their treatment of racial and cultural diversity, making public the exclusionary practices of the U.S. education system. A collaborative effort between students, some faculty and staff, and community members, with the students of color at the front and center, worked and struggled to make visible and end these practices.

The results of such efforts include the establishment of programs and departments such as Ethnic Studies, African American/Black Studies, Chicano and Latino Studies, Native American Studies, and Asian American Studies nationwide, in public and private institutions. Established departments of traditional field of knowledge such as English (many changed to Literature), Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science (some changed to Politics), American Studies (some changed to American Cultures, American Ethnic Studies, Comparative American Cultures), History, and Theater or Drama, Dance and Music (some changed to Performance Studies) began to respond by revisiting their curriculum design, the courses taught, and individual course design. The demand for a curriculum that reflected the diversity of the student population as well as the U.S. and the world also included the diversification of faculty and staff. Each campus, nationwide, designed their own systems of addressing exclusionary practices. Affirmative Action policies were also instituted. The project of a more diverse curriculum, faculty and staff and the demand for a continuing vigilance of exclusionary practices in higher education continues today.

Issues of recruitment, retention, and overall quality of campus life were other factors that were attached to the demands of a racially diverse campus. The increase of enrollment amongst students of color gave rise to the ethnic-specific groups in the Student Services program. These student groups such as MEChA, Black Student Association, Asian American Student Association, Native American Student Association, Pilipino/Pilipino American Student Association, and many others grew in numbers throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These student groups often led the demands for campus diversity and began to program events that addressed the cultural void on their campus.

The enrollment of Pilipino American students at California campuses has been on the increase since these diversification efforts in the early 1970s. In the mid- to late 1990s, the ever-changing and contentious relationship to race in higher education led to decisions such as ending Affirmative Action policy in the UC system. UC campuses such as the University of California at Berkeley and University of California at Los Angeles who have a higher than other UCs enrollment of Asian American students saw a decline in admission of Pilipino/Pilipino Americans. The collapsing of Pilipino/Pilipino Americans under the category of Asian Americans yielded a result of less number of students accepted at these particular universities. Jonathan Okamura and Amefil Agbayani argue, in an article entitled “Pamantasan: Filipino American Higher Education,” that the categorization of Pilipinos under Asian American has hurt their chances in higher education: “Although Filipinos are categorized as Asian American, their experiences and achievement in higher education are not comparable to other Asian American groups, particularly Chinese and Japanese Americans. As a result Filipino Americans have been victimized by the model minority stereotype of Asian Americans that essentializes the latter as academically gifted, overrepresented in higher education, having relatively high occupational and income status, and able to succeed through their own individual and family efforts and sacrifices.” (188-89)[4] In the following years, there were also less applications and thus, lower enrollments of Pilipino/Pilipino American students at these institutions. One outcome of this occurrence is the increased enrollments of Pilipino/Pilipino American students at other UCs campuses such as UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz.[5]  Also, there are considerably more Pilipino Americans in California State University schools such as San Diego State and San Jose State University.[6] Reasons for this are often attributed to the fact that these areas are largely populated by Pilipinos.

III. Pilipino American Performing Arts in the University

There are many different opportunities for Pilipino Americans to engage in performance in universities and colleges. This section takes a brief look at four different ways Pilipino American students explore performance: through ethnic cultural nights/celebrations; through academic courses in Ethnic Studies, Women’s Studies, and Theater; through student performing arts groups; and through open mics and talent shows. This section briefly discusses what these performance projects are, how the students are involved, the production process, who the primary audience is, and what the students make out of their participation in these projects.

A.                 Cultural Nights

The majority of Pilipino American students involved in the performing arts participates in the annual tradition of a phenomenon now called Pilipino Cultural Night or Pilipino Cultural Celebration (will be abbreviated to PCN/PCC from here on). It is an evening of cultural presentation focusing on Pilipino traditional dances, music, costumes, and theater. This emergent tradition is practiced in universities and colleges as well as community colleges, in public as well private institutions, and in some cases, has even reached down to the high school level. Although this evening of showcasing what the students understand and interpret as Pilipino and Pilipino American culture began its practice in California schools, and is still predominantly practiced in universities and colleges on the West Coast, it is spreading widely in the Midwest, Southwest and the East Coast colleges and universities. Campuses that do not have a critical number of Pilipino Americans, such as the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, produce their version of ethnic cultural celebration, such as the Asian Night, Indian Night and others. In such campuses, Pilipino American students who are interested in exploring performance and ethnic identity and who are interested in “sharing their culture” to others participate in pan-Asian cultural activities such as the Asian Night, or in multicultural celebrations which brings together different ethnic cultural communities to celebrate different cultural backgrounds.

Pilipino Cultural Night/Pilipino Cultural Celebration

Every spring, the Pilipino cultural nights can now be expected to happen in many California universities and colleges. Thousands of students across the state, the majority Pilipino Americans, take the stage, on and off, to present contemporary interpretations of Pilipino American experience. This practice is reaching over thirty years in institutions such as the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of California at Berkeley. The University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of California Santa Cruz celebrated their 11^th Pilipino Cultural Night/Celebration in 2002. In 2001, San Diego State’s Pilipino American student organization, Andres Bonifacio Samahan celebrated their 30^th year anniversary. (See addendum 1).

Pilipino Cultural Night productions, as mentioned above, are an evening of theatrical performance, of folk and classical Pilipino dances, of contemporary dance (hip hop, jazz), of Pilipino ballads (kundiman) and contemporary U.S. popular music. A narrative focused on historicizing the Pilipino American experience structures the song and dance numbers. Theo Gonzalves, who writes about the contemporary practice of Pilipino Cultural Nights, describes the storyline that has become formulaic: 

Often, characters in a skit or play are presented at the beginning of the show in need of historical help: they do not know their history. In a familiar turn of the ‘quest’ motif, the character meet guides—elders, spirits, parent-figures-who ‘transport’ them to the Philippines. During their journey, the characters come in contact with a host of sounds and visions in the form of the dance suites. By the end of the evening, the characters reach an epiphanic state of cultural awareness and pride, which they take back to the U.S. (“The Show Must Go On: Production Notes on the Pilipino Cultural Night. In Hitting Critical Mass: A Journal of Asian American Cultural Criticism, 2.2, Spring 1995.

The exciting challenge for cultural night organizers, particularly the writers, is the creative task of a new story that will fit into the formula. Just as in the tradition of American melodramas, there are archetypal characters whose journey is set and there are specific elements that make up a melodrama, the Pilipino cultural night has specific elements within which the students work. As artists or artists-in-training, the students have the task of coming up with a new and fresh narrative that must engage with questions of past and contemporary Pilipino American experiences and must incorporate music, dance sequences, and costumes. Theo Gonzalves in “The Show Must Go On” and in an unpublished chapter of his dissertation When the Lights Go Down: Performing the Filipina/o Diaspora, 1934-1998, further explores the PCN as a phenomenon to understand contemporary community formations, specifically Pilipino American youth. Anna Alves, in her master’s thesis on UCLA’s Pilipino Cultural Nights entitled “In Search of ‘Meaning’: Collective Memory and Identity in Pilipino Cultural Night at UCLA,” does a detailed study of this cultural phenomenon at UCLA, one of the pioneers of the PCN genre. Kimi Mojica, a recent graduate of UCSC wrote her senior thesis, entitled “Pinay Know Yourself: Developing and Engaging a Feminist Pinay Identity,” on UCSC’s PCC and the formation of a feminist consciousness within that arena. Other scholarly look at this performance tradition include Barbara Gaerlan’s “In the Court of the Sultan: Orientalism, Nationalism, and Modernity in the Philippine and Filipino American Dance,” an article which examines the relationship of the diaspora to the traditions of the nation.[7] A historical study of PCN would shed light on the makings of tradition in the diaspora.

This yearly event is conceived, produced, and performed by students, predominantly Pilipino Americans. The producing organization is the Pilipino American student organization on-campus (such as the Pilipino American Student Association at UCSC, the Kapatirang Pilipino at UCSB, and the Andres Bonifacio Samahan at San Diego State), and it is typically the largest event organized by the organization.

Many of the students who participate in PCN/PCC see this event as an opportunity to show pride in what they see as the uniqueness of their Pilipino cultural heritage. This event shares with the larger campus community what the students interpret as the richness of Pilipino culture through the dances, the music, and the costumes. For some of the students, the PCN/PCC is a way to learn about Pilipino culture through participation in the production. Some of them may not have danced the dances before, nor sang Tagalog[8] songs. Others may have grown up learning and performing these dances and songs at family gatherings and local Pilipino community events.

Students who participate in the production of PCN/PCC see it as a way to celebrate their Pilipino cultural heritage, to seek out and participate in the building of Pilipino American community, and to assert the presence of Pilipinos on the campus (and by extension the United States). The majority of the student participants are not trained formally in dance, music, or theater, or in production such as stage managing, publicity, and fundraising. Those who have training, some who may even be majoring in theater or dance, often times take on leadership roles.

Those who are majoring in performing arts who participate in PCN/PCC, like Victoria Mejia at UCSB, see their participation in PCN/PCC as a way to express the specificity of Pilipino performance traditions. Mejia, who is in the process of declaring theater as her major at UCSB, perceives PCN a space to explore performance non-competitively. Others emphasize the connections made through these projects, how working on such projects creates community. Christine Corpuz, a 2002 graduate of UCSB’s Theater Department and co-chair of UCSB’s Kapatirang Pilipino, writes in her letter in the PCN program of 2002: “Kapatirang Pilipino (Pilipino Brotherhood and Sisterhood) was created with this in mind: to build a safe place for its members to grow and relate to one another through the creation and establishment of true friendships. PCN is just the largest opportunity for us to do so. No, we’re not professional singers, dancers, or actors. We’re simply Filipino-American students who have joined together in representing our culture and ourselves to the community” (2).

Working on this project is intense and requires much dedication brings the students together. Many of the students speak of their participation in PCN/PCC as an unforgettable experience of being around other Pilipino American students during their formative college years. This notion was addressed in the 2002 UC Santa Barbara PCN. The story centered on the theme of community belonging and building. Four Pilipino students return as alumni, twenty years after they finished at UCSB. These four students met while participating in a PCN production. Each of them had a different relationship to the production and to being Pilipino. Working on the PCN that year formed a bond between them. The story celebrates the experience of working on a project that made them take an internal journey about being a Pilipino. Participating in the Pilipino Cultural Night completed that journey for them, which they realize is one that they share with other Pilipino Americans.

Many of the PCN/PCC vision statements state the desire to share Pilipino culture with the community at large. The students are assertive and proud to announce their Pilipino identity through the production. They see the PCN/PCC as a demonstration to the larger campus community of a dynamic culture, one that is not lost nor silenced by its small number. These productions also assert the continuing connection of Pilipino Americans to Pilipino culture.

Process and Production:

Pilipino Cultural Nights are major productions, with a budget that can be as high as $20,000. It is an endeavor taken seriously by the organizers, the participants, and their dedicated audience of fellow students, family, and friends. The producers of these events are students, who raise the funds, construct the show, cast and direct the pieces, and publicize the event year after year. The university or college Pilipino/Pilipino American Association is the primary producer. The cultural night is usually the largest event of the Association.

With a budget up to $20,000, participants as many as 300 students, a year-long planning and production process, and a multidisciplinary production, these productions are clearly a very serious endeavor. Along with the starting funds granted to student organizations, the organization raises funds in various ways including producing other events that would produce income for the end of the year PCN/PCC, writing grants to the university arts council, and selling ads to locally owned, private business. Sometimes, business that circulates nation-wide may also be approached. (See addendum #2). Ads are also sold to families and friends of participating students, most especially graduating students. (See addendum #3). Leadership skills that are developed in working on such projects include what are perceived to be “practical” skills such as grantwriting, fundraising, working on publicity, and coordinating events.

For a 3 to 5-hour evening show, the preparation begins in the summer, nearly a year before the event. The coordinators for the different aspects of the production are selected (through a number of ways—volunteer, voting, mentorship) at the end of the school year. In the summer, the coordinators begin planning. The scriptwriters get to work on the script, the dance coordinators and music coordinators begin to plan for their repertoire and for auditions in the fall, and the planning committee begins to oversee production needs such as space acquisition, publicity, and budget. Fundraising activities throughout the year are planned as well, in order to meet the budget requirements of the PCN/PCC. Throughout the fall, production planning continues, with auditions and casting held, and the scripts go through revisions. Although the actual space for the performance may not be available, rehearsals begin in the winter quarter or early spring semester. The time it requires to produce an evening or two of performances is quite demanding.  Some students often end up with incompletes, drop courses, or do not end up going to classes. This is an issue that Pilipino student organizations are attempting to address through activities such as study sessions, study-buddy programs, and mentorship programs. Mentorship programs such as the Kuya/Ate program show the commitment of these organizations to increasing and to the retention of Pilipino Americans in college.[9]

For each component of the evening event, the coordinators hold an open audition, inviting the organization’s members and others in the campus community. Although not always explicitly articulated, the roles are designed for, by, and about Pilipino Americans. The PCN/PCC is produced to provide an opportunity for Pilipino American students and other students to explore performance. Non-Pilipino Americans are also cast in the performances and have been part of the dance teams as well the choir. Leadership roles of coordinating are often assigned to Pilipino Americans and to senior students. There several ways in which one arrives at being a coordinator. One of which is a process of mentorship (working as a co-coordinator the year before). Although there is a priority to give these leadership positions to upper-division Pilipino American students, it is also possible that Pilipino American students in their beginning years in college, and even non-Pilipinos may be assigned such positions. In last year’s Pilipino Cultural Celebration at UCSC, the choreographers for the hip hop dance team Haluan were non-Pilipinos; the team was lead by a Chinese American and Caucasian American student. The presence of non-Pilipinos in these performances is not unnoticed. It is hardly the case however that Pilipino American students would perform in other ethnic cultural celebrations, with the exception of Asian nights, when they may be asked to perform a traditional dance of the Philippines or model traditional Pilipino costumes. (See section on Asian Nights.)

Worthy of mention here is the elaborate program notes that accompany the evening performance. The program includes statements from the PCN coordinator and artistic coordinators, an outline of evening performance, and a brief description of the dances that explains the meaning of the dance, where and when it is performed. It also includes photos of rehearsals, dedications from friends and family, and ads from local private businesses. These program notes can serve as documentation to the intent of these performances, the process of the production, and what this project means to the participants.[10]

Mentorship:

Professor Rick Trimillos, an ethnomusicologist, at the University of Hawai’i shared his experience with PCN student performers/organizers while he was a visiting professor at UCLA. One day he heard some students practicing music outside his office. They were working through a section on which they were stuck. When he asked if they need or would like help, they politely declined. Professor Trimillos’s experience might be isolated, yet it is also quite telling of the kind of mentorship that happens within PCN. It seems that the students mentor each other. Those who have done the production before and/or those who maybe have had training in dance or music take on the role of teaching the others. Coordinators and repeat participants of PCN have a commitment to facilitating leadership in younger students. Victoria Mejia of UCSB shares that the older members of the choir group made a point to connect with first year students who were just joining the Kapatirang Pilipino. These choir members began to seek out other potential singers as the fall quarter was just starting. These coordinators have a sense of responsibility for recruiting, but also a deep commitment to seeing the tradition of PCN continue on, to be experienced by future Pilipino American college students.

Artists such as Dom Magwili (Los Angeles) and Saachiko, Alleluia Panis (San Francisco), and members of PASACAT Dance Troupe (San Diego) have worked with PCNs in various capacities. Students have invited them to function as “dramaturges,” to assist in giving a structure to the overall performance. They have also been invited to teach the traditional dance pieces. Gaerlan writes that PCN at UCLA has consulted with former Bayanihan dancers, who now live in the United States, to teach them the traditional dances. [11]   They have been asked to assist as directors of the show. The work with professional, community-based artists has not been sustained nor has it been consistent. Dom Magwili has been worked with UCLA PCN for twenty years. Because of budget constraints, San Diego State was not able to work with PASACAT in the 2002 PCN. [12]

Relationship to local/non-university, off-campus community:

On some campuses, like UCSC, the cultural night is one of several activities geared towards the retention of Pilipino American students as well as other underrepresented minorities on campus. In the 2002 PCC program notes, the coordinators write: “It is important that we continue on this production to provide the support, space, and opportunity for Pilipino American students, as well as those of different backgrounds to express themselves artistically in the many aspects we provide. Since its initial establishment, the Pilipino Cultural Celebration of FSA [Pilipino Student Association] will always serves [sic] its purpose and goal of retaining the students of the underrepresented minorities here in UC Santa Cruz.” (1)

The student organizations that produce the ethnic cultural night event such as the Pilipino Cultural Night/Celebration and the Asian Night are active all year long. They are engaged in building their student organizations through mentorship activities. They are often working closely with student services on campus concerned with the issue of retention and graduation. They plan activities in collaboration with other student groups that focus on enhancing student lives on campus as well as to build overall student community. These organizations are also often involved in community projects such as working with high school students or with local social service organizations. UCSC’s Filipino Student Association (FSA) conducts a yearly spring event that focuses on Pilipino/Pilipino American high school students to introduce them to college life (Kuya/Ate program). This event is also designed to connect Pilipino/Pilipino American high school students with college students, possibly to inspire them to attend college and to foster a mentor relationship. Organizers of this event promote mentorship as a critical factor for retention and success in college. Such programs also create a space for leadership training amongst students who are interested in such issues. It also makes them feel as if they are giving back to their community. The critical question that remains is: how does this community building and relations continue once the students have finished college? (See section on Alumni).

Besides the different activities and programs that link the members of the student organizations to the community, other events connect the students to the larger off-campus community. Sometimes, the different performing groups within Pilipino/Pilipino American student organizations get invited to local events such as local ethnic cultural celebrations, fundraising events for organizations with whom the students have a personal connection or a social service organization with which they are working. Haluan, the hip hop dance troupe of the FSA/Pilipino Cultural Celebration, have been invited to perform in San Francisco arts events. The traditional dance troupe of the Andres Bonifacio Samahan, San Diego State’s Pilipino American student organization, has been invited to perform at San Diego’s Pilipino community events.

Asian Night

While the PCN/PCC is gaining momentum not just in the West Coast colleges but also nationally, the college student’s celebration of Pilipino culture are also a part of pan-Asian nights held in colleges across the country. Pilipino American student organizations that produce the PCN/PCC also participate in events focusing on American multiculturalism and Asian American culture. For campuses that do not have a critical number of Pilipino American students or a Pilipino American student organization that can produce an event such as the PCN/PCC, the Asian cultural nights provide an opportunity for Pilipino American students to share what they believe as the best of Pilipino culture. At Asian Nights, Pilipino culture is seen in the context of a pan-Asian culture.

Asian cultural nights are quite similar with the PCN: they seek to celebrate culture. Asian nights are designed to feature what the students perceive as the richness of Asian culture. Like the PCN/PCC, the students perform dances, folk and classical, from various regions of Asia. There is also a fashion show, which includes costumes from different Asian countries, conceived to be traditional, as well as contemporary western clothing. Unlike the PCN/PCC that has a theater component that moves the narrative along and places the dances, songs, and costumes in a narrative context, the pieces of Asian cultural night are usually moved along by a pair of emcees for the evening. There is no overt narrative that connects the pieces with one another. The overarching connection is that these are cultural performances from Asia. Not explicitly seen in these productions is what brings these distinct and separate cultures together in the Unites States. The focus is to feature the rich cultural performances and costumes of Asia, and less on the experiences of Asians in the U.S. and what is Asian American.

The Asian Nights are also student-produced. They are often scheduled in the spring and are also one of the largest events produced by the Asian American students association. The funds to produce this event are raised through the campus cultural council, student council, as well as events such as Casino nights (at UMass Amherst) where the proceeds go to the production of the Asian Night. Many of the Asian nights include food in their evening presentation. The event, similar to PCN/PCC, draws hundreds of audience attendees. In an area where there is not a large population of Asian Americans, the Asian Night becomes a space for community members and students to come together. Local businesses sponsor the production. Local restaurants donate food for the evening. Like PCN/PCC, parents come and watch the show, and some help in the production by providing costumes and cooking food to sell for the evening.

At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, because of its location in the Five Colleges area, the Asian Night serves as way to gather the Asian/Asian American students in the Five Colleges. In addition, students, particularly Asian Americans from smaller colleges and universities in western Massachusetts (such as Williams College), come as audience members and to connect with other Asian Americans in the valley. The Asian American Student Association that produces the yearly event has at times invited other Asian American student groups from the four other colleges to perform in their Asian Night. These student productions ideally bring students together.

B. Academic Departments: Theater, Ethnic Studies, Women’s Studies

Academic departments such as Theater, Ethnic Studies, and Women’s Studies have played a role in the development of Pilipino American performance. The increased awareness of cultural and racial diversity on campuses has made a significant impact on the curriculum. As mentioned in the introductory section of this report, student activism is critical in the changing curriculum in U.S. universities. The humanities job market demonstrates this attention to diversity. The increasing amount of Pilipino American faculty in these departments, as well as in others in the humanities and social science divisions, is one contributing factor to the growth and nurturance of Pilipino American performance at the university. A diversified curriculum, not only in content but also in ways of exploring knowledge, has supported creative projects in college courses.

The theater department in the California universities and colleges from which the information for this study was gathered remains largely a department that does not boast a high number of students of color. In the universities and colleges from which this information was collected, Pilipino American students who were majoring in the performing arts numbered one or two for each university or college. There are a number of reasons why Pilipino American students may not major in the performing arts that will not be discussed here. Theater departments, in the institutions in focus and across the country, have also been responding to the demand for diversity. Through special topics courses such as “Theater of Diversity” and “Theater for Social Change,” theater departments have been attracting a more diverse population of students. These courses range from a survey of Black Theater in the U.S. to Chicano Theater, Asian American Theater or Native American Theater. At UCSC and San Diego State, such courses take a multiracial approach, designed thematically to explore dramatic literature and theatrical projects by and about people of color in the United States.

At UC Santa Barbara, in a course by lecturer Ambi Harsha on Asian American Theater, the students read and stage plays by Asian American playwrights. Such a  course situates the exploration of Pilipino American subject and community formation within a multi-racial U.S. In an Asian American course, a play by a Pilipino American is read along side other Asian American dramatists, and perhaps also against them. It is important to note here that a course on Asian American Theater is rare. There are only a few universities and colleges across the U.S. that offer such a course. It was not until two years ago that the first tenure track position in Asian American Theater was created at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This position is a joint position between the Department of Theater and the newly forming Asian American Studies at the UIUC. In 2001, San Diego State University advertised an opening of a tenure-track position for Theater of Diversity. The chair of the search committee, Professor Randy Reinholz, explained that the department was interested in someone who can approach diversity from a multi-racial perspective. UCLA recently conducted a search for a tenure track position in Asian American Studies, with specialization on Pilipino American Studies and performance. Others who have taught a course on Asian American Theater include: Professor Roberta Uno at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who published the first anthology of plays by Asian American women, Unbroken Thread; Professor Stephen Sumida at the University of Washington; Velina Houston at the University of Southern California; Professor Josephine Lee at the University of Minnesota; Professor Karen Shimakawa at the University of California at Davis; and Assistant Professor Sudipto Chatterjee at Tufts University.

Courses in other departments such as Ethnic Studies, American Studies, and Women Studies have facilitated student-interest and student-projects that encourage a performance aspect. These courses often explore the interconnectedness of historical, social, political and larger cultural context of race relations in the U.S.[13] These courses focus on gender, race, class, sexuality and other analytical categories to understand and to think through Pilipino American experience and subject formation. These courses are critical influences on the performance projects students produce as a class project or through the various other projects in which students engage (such as cultural events, ethnic specific or genre specific performance groups). These courses provide a critical framework and vocabulary for analyzing the contemporary and historical conditions of Pilipinos in the U.S. Educators assign projects that leave open possibilities for creative analysis and exploration, linked to the topics of the class. Attending a performance may also be included as a class assignment.

Mentorship:

Professors or lecturers who teach courses are often sought out by Pilipino American students to mentor them through their years in college, and sometimes beyond. Often, these courses open up an emotional tie to the materials that students may be encountering for the first time. They may be reading materials that they claim speak to their personal experiences as Pilipino Americans. Often, in these classes, the students desire a more community-like setting, where they could share their personal experiences as a way to connect to the ideas they are reading. Thus, professors and lecturers are sought out to create a community-like setting in the classroom.

Often, the professors or lecturers who teach courses in Ethnic Studies or ethnic theater are asked to be advisors to the Pilipino American student groups on campus. Though they serve as faculty advisors, who are necessary so that the students can get credits towards their graduation for their production work, hardly ever are they asked for comment or feedback on the actual production, content or presentation.

Instructor Don Williams at UCSC and Ambi Harsha at UCSB initiated student performance ensembles. Don Williams started off directing pieces, often by African American playwrights, for the UCSC Theater Department. In mid-1990s, Stevenson College, one of the ten colleges at the UCSC, designed a multicultural initiative out which a course designed by Williams, the Rainbow Theater, was and is still funded. Ninety students were enrolled in the fall of 2002, and its popularity continues to grow. At UCSB, the Multicultural Theater Drama Company grew out of Harsha’s Asian American Theater course. He co-created this ensemble, now being advised by a former student and current UCSB employee, and former student in his Asian American Theater course, Krishna Narayanamurti[14].

Audience:

The performances organized out of these class projects are for the most part performed as a final class project. They are performed in the classroom, with low production requirements. These performances range from a reading from a play, with minimal staging and props, and free of charge, to a formal staging of work/s, with cover charge. They are often presented at a university venue such as an auditorium, a recital hall, and even the mainstage theater.

For theater courses such as Harsha’s Asian American Theater course or Williams’s Rainbow Theater, the presentation is formal, with weeks of rehearsals and fully staged and directed pieces. The shows are advertised on campus, as well as off-campus. The advertisements take the form of flyers, distributed widely on campus, and perhaps to the targeted primary audience of the play. If the playwright and the play is Pilipino American, most likely a heavy outreach to the Pilipino American students on campus. The outreach may involve a personal invitation from the producer, through email to the Pilipino American students; or it could be a letter sent to the Pilipino American Association addressed to the members in behalf of the Chair. Sometimes, a member of the artistic team may even attend a meeting of the student organization. A co-sponsorship maybe sought out with the student group. Other forms of advertisement are ads in campus and local newspapers.

Educational activities may be part of the outreach. The playwright may be invited on campus and asked to conduct a playwriting workshop, to visit a class, give a public lecture, or to participate in a post-show discussion or a talk back during the run of the show. A workshop may also be conducted, such as an introductory workshop in theater and performance. These activities are often open to everyone in the campus and local community.

The dominant audience for these class projects is students. They may be other performance arts majors or students in performing arts courses. They may be members of student organizations or fellow residents in the residential halls. Sometimes, relatives come to support the student performances.

Critical to note here is the status of those who teach the Asian American Theater courses. They are predominantly temporary laborers, hired lecturers with limited contracts. These courses often arise out of student demands. As an immediate response, the administration may approve to hire a temporary lecturer to teach a course but there may not be a long-term plan to hire someone whose scholarly work focuses on Asian American Studies and performance.

B.                Student performing arts groups

The student-initiated and student-centered performance group is another model under which Pilipino American performance in universities and colleges are being explored. The performance genre can vary from dance, music, theater, and poetry to inter- and multi-disciplinary focused forms. Within each genre, the style may be as specific as jazz dance, spoken word, or acapella. These groups are opportunities for students to further enhance their artistic skills, whether is be dancing, singing, or poetry writing. Most often, the members of these groups have had prior artistic training, often long term. The members may or may not be pursuing the arts in their educational or professional career. These groups give an opportunity for students to not only continue performing but to work their artistic growth.

Pilipino American students who join these groups emphasize their interest in developing their craft. Their participation in these groups that are oriented towards an art form. Performance is a way to expand their opportunity to perform, to work on their craft, to be in an environment with others who are also trained in the art form. Participation in the performing arts oriented groups is of interest to students who wish to be amongst peers, whose training in the art form provides them a similar vocabulary. Diana Alcausin is a Pilipino American student who attends San Diego State University. She says that her passion for dance is what urged her to join the Dance Team at San Diego State. She is the first Filipina to join the college dance team, which consists of multi-racial members. Pursuing a career in dance, she joined a team that competes in dance competitions regionally.

Performing arts oriented groups also provide a site for developing leadership amongst Pilipino American students. Alcausin serves as the dance team historian, documenting their performances through video and photography. She brings her experience and expertise in dance to the Pilipino American student organization at SDSU, Samahan, by serving as their Dance Coordinator. Her participation in these two different organizations, though allowing her to continue pursuing her interest in dance in both groups, accesses different skills in leadership, performance, and community relations. In my discussion with Alcausin, she makes a distinction between how dance is negotiated in the Dance Team and in Samahan. Alcausin, in speaking of dance in Samahan, ties this art form to culture and to Pilipino American identity. Dance, in terms in the dance team, seems to be an end in itself; it is purely the art form. Clearly the dances that Alcausin is thinking of in connection with Samahan are the traditional regional Pilipino dances, which the San Diego Dance Teams do not perform.

Campus multicultural performance ensembles are another space in which Pilipino American students explore performance. These multicultural ensembles give the students the opportunity to work with materials by and about artists of color, varying from published plays to music compositions. The multicultural performance ensembles serve as a training ground for students, and as a project that brings together students who seeks to work with a culturally and racially diverse organization. Three groups, the Multicultural Theater Drama Company based at the University of California Santa Barbara, Rainbow Theater at the University of California Santa Cruz, and Teatro Alto at San Diego State work similarly as theater ensembles. These groups began as student projects facilitated by lecturers at the universities (Ambi Harsha at the UCSB, Don Williams at UCSC and Margaret Larlham at SDSU). These in-class projects grew into student groups that are supported by and operate under the student services at the universities. Rainbow Theater is also a course in which students get credits (see section on Academic Departments). These ensembles stage plays and performance pieces by and about people of color. Besides published plays, these groups also produce adaptations (of essays, interviews, and others), translations, as well as pieces written by the current and past members of the ensembles. Some of these pieces may be bilingual.

Members of these multicultural ensembles believe in theater’s potential to reflect the cultural and racial diversity of this society. A Pilipina American student from UC Santa Cruz who is also majoring in the theater department shares that being a member of a multicultural ensemble has allowed her to be a lead character, to have a substantial role in a play as an actor. It also reminds her that she does not have to “whitewash” herself as an actor. Olivia Espinosa, an ensemble member of Teatro Alto who recently graduated from college says that being a part of Teatro Alto has brought her closer to her Hispanic heritage, enhancing her understanding and command of the Spanish language. Thus she will continue to work with Teatro Alto. These ensembles also provide the opportunity for students to explore new roles in theater as well as experiment through different roles such as directing, design, and choreography. In response to the question of how being a member of a multicultural performance ensemble differ from their experiences in projects in the theater department, the students allude to a feeling of a community within the group rather than one of competition. There is a sense of theater and performance as something beyond and larger than itself, often connected to a vision of social change.

Some student performing arts oriented groups are formed specifically with an interest toward addressing political and social concerns immediate to the students and to the community. Through performance, students critique what they see as society’s (U.S. and global) major problems such as racism, sexism, homophobia, unjust war, and unfair economic conditions. These groups draw from contemporary popular culture and emerging performance practices such as spoken word, beat boxing, rap, and choreopoem, claiming its roots as urban, youth, and rising from resistance. juice at the University of Santa Cruz is a spoken word, multi-genre performance group who identifies as a multicultural “guerilla theater collective.” The troupe consists of members who are predominantly students and alumni of UC Santa Cruz, although some members are non-student and some are students at the nearby community college, Cabrillo College. In their performances, juice explores elements of spoken word, sometimes accompanied by music, framed in a theatrical structure. Pilipino American students who are members of the juice collective see it as a space to explore Pilipino American identity in the context of cultural diversity, U.S. racial formation, and Pilipino American subjectivity emerging from a diverse U.S. racial and cultural community.

The members of juice employ spoken word and guerrilla theater techniques to present pieces concerning contemporary issues such as Bush’s War on Terrorism, the on-going struggles of people of color against racism, and societal violence. The materials presented by juice begin from the personal experiences and observations of the troupe’s members. In a performance in spring 2001, the theme of the evening was addictions. Each vignette explored addiction as interpreted in the personal, social, and political lives of the students. In a student newspaper interview, a juice performer shares one of the collective’s intents: “We create the characters and situations based on the experiences and problems that we’ve gone through. We throw out lines to spark thought, not to tell people what to do” (quoted from Deborah Lao’s “The juice is Loose: Guerilla theater, Social Change, and Beatboxing,” Multicultural Page, City on the Hill Press, May 23, 2002. Santa Cruz, CA. (See addendum 3). In a piece performed at an anti-war gathering at UC Santa Cruz in spring 2002, juice presented brief vignettes including a satire of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s support of George Bush and his contemporary imperialist campaign. The use of caricature and satire, drawn from a rich and long history amongst political theatre troupes such the San Francisco Mime Troupe and El Teatro Campesino, is an effective performance strategy especially for an outdoor performance. (See addendum 4)

The collective is as much interested in the process as they are with the product. The roles of each member are not determined nor set. No one member acts as the director, the stage manager, the actor, or as the sound designer. As a collective, the performances are designed according to what the members are interested in exploring and presenting. The collective uses improvisation in the process as well as in the performance. They also create pieces that reflect their interest in collective creation, so that their audience can share and understand their hierarchical process.

Performance Venues, Production, Audience

Performance venues for student-initiated and student-centered performing arts groups are predominantly at their university, varying from a small student auditorium, a college lounge, the student center, or sometimes, even the mainstage. Besides their own production, these groups perform in various events including multicultural celebrations, campus rallies, and conferences. They are also invited to perform in community events such as multicultural fairs and fundraising events for local businesses and cultural organizations. In addition, Teatro Alto has been invited to perform at the Centro Cultural Tijuana in Baja California, Mexico and members of the juice collective have performed in small theaters in the Bay Area. Other performance opportunities include outreach to nearby and regional high schools, which are particularly meaningful to members because they feel that their performances give younger people, potential college students, chances to see multicultural theater in addition to Shakespeare and other canonical works.

These groups operate with a modest budget, for production costs that include rehearsal spaces, costumes, equipment rentals, performance spaces, and stage crews. Sometimes, students are able to acquire rehearsal rooms without costs. Sources of funding for these groups come from various places. Major sources that support the groups’ production are the student services and multicultural offices. Other ways in which these organizations build their production budget is through fundraising as well ticket sales. Small grants are also available through different resources at the university such as the arts council. One of the most valuable skills that students acquire in being a part of these student-initiated groups is grantwriting. Some local businesses also provide sponsorship to specific productions.

Student-initiated performing arts groups and multicultural performance ensembles seek to reach a wide range of audience in all of their performances. For the multicultural groups, there is a great effort in inviting students of color to the performances. These groups also reach out to their local communities, although their predominant audience is their peers—college students. There are times that these student groups and faculty work together and professors require their classes to attend student performances. Audience may also consist of local and regional high school students as well as members of local social or cultural organizations.

C.                Open mics, talent shows

Other events providing space to explore performance that Pilipino American students are participating in include open mics and talent shows, organized by student services organizations such as the Asian Pacific American student centers and campus residential support programs.[15] Organized jointly by staff and students, these events are advertised widely and seek out participation from all students.

In campuses across the U.S., including University of Hawai’i at Manoa, open mic events have become very popular. Although it is open to different kinds of performances, open mics now are being dominated by spoken word performances. Many students have taken interest in this contemporary performed poetry (versus read). It is also often associated with political poetry, a medium to express critique of the difference axes of oppression. It is often tied to another contemporary youth-identified, counter-hegemonic performance genre, hip-hop. Sometimes, these spoken word events are also organized as slams, a competition with a mix of judges including the audience. Audience participation takes on different forms. These events require a different etiquette from both the performers and the audience. The audiences are allowed to cheer on or challenge the performer vocally. Some performers also employ call and response, seeking for a more active spectator.

Talent shows are also popular at college campuses. These shows are often open to all kinds of performance, from acapella groups, and spoken word to break-dancing and stand up comedy. Talent shows are competitions, with judges and prizes involved. The participants vary in talents. Some are well-trained performers while some are amateurs.

Open mics and talents shows are geared towards the campus community and are predominantly attended by students as the main participants and audience. These shows vary in production values and venues. They can be as technical heavy as a full-length theater production. Most often, they are held at dining halls or auditoria, with minimal lighting and sound on stage. Given this low production requirement, the budget for these productions are not as high as other student-performance events such as the cultural nights or theater productions.

II.                              University Community/University and the Community

Pilipino American students see their participation in student-centered performance projects as part of community building. Students produce these performance projects but such projects also produce community. Working on a specific performance project produce community amongst those who participate in such productions. The 2002 PCN production of Kapatirang Pilipino at UC Santa Barbara, entitled  “Pieces of the Puzzle” explores exactly the kind of bond that is created in a project like PCN. These productions demand commitment, continuity, and concentration. These productions, whether it is a skit on inter-generational conflict for the PCN production or a Tinikling dance number presented at a multicultural campus event, put the performers in a vulnerable place. Performing, for everyone who has had extensive training and for those who are beginners, is a challenging task that requires trust amongst all the participants.

In these student performance projects pieces, more specifically projects such as the ethnic cultural nights or the ethnic-specific performance groups or other performance projects that explore cultural identity, issues of displacement and dislocation as well as nostalgia emerge for the students. The production can become the site to process the emotions that emerge for the participants. They rely on each other for emotional support during the course of the production.

For these student productions, a supportive setting is what is often fostered. The goal of student who take on a leadership role in these productions is to create a neutral space for creativity, not to encourage competition for a more superior product. This does not mean that no competition or tension exist; it only means that such sites are ideally set up to be a supportive environment that does not foster competition as a way to heighten performance or produce a better product.

While the participants and producers of cultural nights, its audience, are predominantly undergraduate students, graduate students and staff also participate in these projects. Some of the graduate students who have worked in cultural nights may have been active in organizing such events while they were undergraduates. Other graduate students may participate as way to seek out an Asian American community. Staff, who work in student services organization, not only assist in the production but sometimes also perform in these performance projects.

The Pilipino American students who participate in these performance projects understand the specificity of the university as a unique place to build as a community space. In invoking the university as community, the students act as citizens who are committed to creating a better living condition, not just for them but for all. The students invest in these performance projects because they are believe that it would make their experience at the university richer. Through these projects, they seek to make connections with others.

A clear separation exists between the university community and the “outside” or the “community at large.” There is a distinction between “the real world” and the university, and often the “real world” is privileged to be the site where “real life” happens. This distinction of the “real world” and the desire to be connected to the “real thing” is explored with lament in some of the narratives of these student performance projects. The very narrative formula of the PCN, as described by Gonzalves, and quoted earlier, expresses perspective continuously. The “finding of the self” is never depicted as happening in the classroom, at the university, or just in the books being read. The discovery and the “answer” to the question of identity happens outside of the university’s standard academic structures.

Student-produced performance projects for the most part remain within the university. They are not designed to be performed in a larger community setting, although as mentioned in the section of this report on Pilipino American Performing Arts at the University, some groups have performed in venues outside of the university. Some groups also conduct workshops in the community, particularly with high school students. Student organizations that produce these projects include programs that also connect the students with the outside community (such as the Kuya/Ate program). There is a general awareness, amongst the students, of the politics between the university and the local, or host, community.

Alumni

Alumni participation is critical in some of these student-performance projects. They provide a link to past productions, giving a sense of history to these student-centered performance projects.  Alumni participation varies from production support to financial support.

 At UC Santa Barbara, Lynette Nievares has assisted in the production of the PCN since she graduated in 1996. In her college years at UCSB, she was an active member of various student organizations and took on various leadership roles in these organizations. She participated in PCN in different capacities in all the years she was an undergraduate. Nievares assists in the technical aspects of the PCN production, specifically as a lighting technician and lighting designer. She also serves as an unofficial advisor to the Kapatirang Pilipino. Nievares is not involved with any other Pilipino organizations, besides her involvement with the KP at UCSB.

UCSC and FSA/PCC alumna Melinda Corazon Foley stay in touch and remain active in supporting the organizations they were involved with while they were in college. Foley, an emerging spoken word artist and playwright, keeps in contact with the UCSC Filipino Student Association and tries to attend the yearly PCN productions. She attributes her artistic development with her work with PCN/FSA and Rainbow Theater. She writes: “I can only say that both of these groups were essential to my development and birth as a writer and performing artist. Had it not been for either of them, I do not know where I would be. Furthermore, I’ve seen several other artists arise from similar development opportunities afforded them by PCC events in their colleges or universities across the country, and by groups similar to Rainbow Theater.” (Survey) Foley works with PCN and the Rainbow Theater in several capacities. In the winter of 2002, Rainbow Theater produced Foley’s play, coconut masquerade. Foley is actively involved with community organizations, specifically performing arts organization in San Francisco. Her play coconut masquerade has been produced at Bindlestiff Studio, a performance venue dedicated to producing, presenting and developing the works of Pilipino Americans.

Another UCSC and FSA/PCC alum, Kimi Mojica remain in contact with the organization. Mojica, who wrote her senior thesis on feminism and Pilipina American identity, explored through her participation in PCC, held a staff position as a student organization coordinator one year after her graduation. She assisted in the 2002 production through documentation. Like Foley, Mojica is also active with community-based organizations, in cultural organizations.

One of the most important roles that alumni play in these student-projects is the emotional support they lend to the student participants. Students appreciate the presence of the alumna. Nievares shares: “As an alumnus, I’ve continued to volunteer my time post-graduation. I’ve had good years and bad with working with the various people involved in organizing such an event. The underlying theme despite the various years that this event and group have been in existence is the appreciation of the alumni. This is evident with the thank yous at the end of the show.” (Survey)

Do students who participate in the student-centered performance projects become actively involved in Pilipino community organizations after their college/university years? This question deserves a much more detailed study that is out of the scope of this report. The three examples cited above shows there is a link between the students who were active leaders in these organizations and their connection with Pilipino community organizations after graduation. Members of the experimental performance troupe Tongue in a Mood, housed at Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco, claim their roots in PCN. Though they were at different universities, the different artists that make up this performance group were active in Pilipino student organizations and participated in various student-centered performance groups on campus. One of their very first and most popular pieces was a satire of the PCN phenomenon called PCN Salute.[16]

Other alumni of universities that go on to found their own no-profit organizations include Joel Jacinto, the artistic director and co-founder of Kayamanan ng Lahi. Jacinto, who is an alumnus of UCLA where he was an active participant of the PCN, founded Kayamanan ng Lahi, a cultural dance and heritage organization in Los Angeles. He and his organization remain instrumental resources for continuing generations of college students and PCNs, at UCLA and beyond.[17]

The student organizations that produce these student-centered performance works encourage an awareness of the community outside of the university. This encouragement is goes beyond just a mere statement and is reflected in their programming. To what extent this awareness lasts beyond their college/university years cannot be determined by the focus of this report. What seems to be emerging as a pattern is that those who are now involved in emerging Pilipino cultural institutions, like Bindlestiff Studio in the Bay Area and Kayamanan ng Lahi in Los Angeles, were active in student-centered performance projects while they were in college.

Conclusion

Martin Manalansan, in his writings about the gay Filipino diaspora, points to the importance of rituals to immigrant or exilic community: “Rituals provide [for immigrant or exilic group] the terrain which the consciousness of communal boundaries is heightened, thereby confirming and strengthening individual location and positional as well as social identity.” These student-centered performance projects such as the PCN are rituals that have become a tradition in West Coast colleges and universities, and are quickly finding its versions across the continent and in Hawai’i. The national college student association, FIND, has begun to incorporate theater/performance pieces in their yearly conference. Student-centered performance projects create a sense of community for the participants. Participation in these projects allow the students to explore their responses to their college experiences, their maturity as citizens who take and give back to their community. These projects allow them to explore a process of creation and organizing, with less emphasis on a perfect product.

Ethnic specific student performance groups and ethnic cultural night productions emerged out of a larger consciousness of multicultural and diverse U.S. society, a consciousness heightened on US colleges and universities. These projects also demonstrate the insistence on a distinct space to explore specific cultural identity. Pilipino American students who participate in PCN look to this young tradition to learn about the uniqueness of Pilipino culture and Pilipino American experience. While some non-Pilipino American students may be involved in PCNs, Pilipino American students do not commonly join projects by other ethnic-specific groups or a performance group with a multiracial focus. In the case of juice, a multiracial guerrilla theater troupe at UCSC, the Pilipino American students who are members of this group still make a distinction between what they explore and perform in PCN and in juice.

Students understand their participation in ethnic-specific performing arts project as a political act, politics based on identity. They see these projects as a practice that resists and critiques the dominant cultural hegemony. Ethnic cultural nights such as the Pilipino Cultural Night/Celebration are celebrations and an assertion of American cultural diversity. The students who participate in these projects still articulate a critique of the “mainstream American culture” as homogeneous and exclusive.

Within these projects, there is a struggle between political content and celebration of culture. For the most part, these projects are a celebration of American multiculturalism and cultural diversity. Hardly are these projects a critique of American imperialism or global capitalism. These projects remain focused on identity politics and exploration of cultural identity within an American social context. The student participants struggle with how to produce a strong politicized cultural event, and still insist in a show that celebrates the richness of one's cultural heritage. This challenge is explored in UC Berkeley’s PCN 2000, which was a stark critique of cultural commodification exemplified by the often non-thoughtful and ubiquitous usage of traditional cultural dance within the genre,[18] and in and UC Santa Cruz’s PCN 2002 (Revolution), which similarly explored the commodification and exploitation of culture and how those in the diaspora or the metropole are implicated in this process. UCSC’s guerrilla theater troupe, juice, is another example of a student-centered performance group that is grappling with and critiquing how cultural performance can perform the very same epistemological violence it seeks to critique. Their work, as described earlier in this report, follows the tradition of agitprop theater, employing theater as a tool for raising social and political consciousness.

Student-centered performance projects are sites of training for the students in various ways including performance, leadership, producing, and organizing. The students learn about their culture through performance. They access their leadership and organizing skills through these projects that require serious time commitment. These projects also require “practical” skills such as fundraising through grant writing and selling ads, as well as handling a budget.

There is a connection between the classroom and these student groups. Not only are the performance materials informed by what the students learn in the classroom, projects initiated in the classroom have also led to formation of student performance groups. Additionally, performance projects in the classroom also lead to students participating in performance groups as well.

Students of color in California universities continue to assert their interest in exploring and preserving their cultural heritage. Ethnic specific performance projects in universities serve as sites on which community is build as well as a training ground for emerging artists. A serious look at ways in which such projects could be supported is recommended. Several ways in which these projects could be supported include the creation of initiatives which would (1) support artists to work with the students on these projects, and which would (2) support a gathering that would bring together these performance projects, scholars in the field and community based performance producers. The content of this report is merely a scratch on the surface of the thriving student-centered performance projects in U.S. colleges and universities.

Works Cited and Consulted

Corpuz, Christine. Untitled letter. Pieces of the Puzzle: Kapatirang Pilipino’s 11^th Annual

Pilipino Cultural Night. Program Notes. Santa Barbara, CA. April 27, 2002.

Fine, Elizabeth. “Stepping, Saluting, Cracking, and Freaking: The Cultural Politics of

African-American Step Shows.” Plays, People, Movements: A Sourcebook of African-American Performance. Ed Annemarie Bean. NY: Routledge, 2000.

Gaerlan, Barbara. “In the Court of the Sultan: Orientalism, Nationalism, and Modernity in

the Philippine and Filipino American Dance.” Journal of Asian American Studies 2.3 251-87.

Gonzalves, Theo. “’The Show Must Go On’: Production Notes on the Pilipino Cultural

Night.” Hitting Critical Mass: A Journal of Asian American Cultural Criticism 2.2

Spring 1995. 1-9.

Harsha, Ambi. Correspondence via electronic mail. January 31, 2002.

Kim, Nancy. Personal Interview. January 18, 2003. Santa Cruz, CA.

Lao, Deborah. “The juice is Loose: Guerilla theater, Social Change, and Beatboxing.”

Multicultural Page, City on the Hill Press. May 23, 2002. Santa Cruz, CA.

Manalansan, Martin. “Diasporic Deviants/Divas: How Filipino Gay Transmigrants ‘Play

with the World.’” Diasporas. Eds Cindy Patton and Benigno Sánchez-Eppler.

Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2000.

Marrero, María Teresa. “Latina Playwrights, Directors, and Entrepreneurs: An

Historical Perspective.” Latinas on Stage. Eds Alicia Arrizón and Lillian

Manzor. Berkeley, CA: Third Woman P, 2000.

Office of Budget and Planning. Enrollment Profile. University of California Santa Barbara.

Office of Budget and Planning. Enrollment Profile. University of California Santa Cruz.

Office of Budget and Planning. Enrollment Profile. California State University of San

Diego.

Office of Budget and Planning. Enrollment Profile. University of California Santa Barbara.

“San Jose State University Enrollment History, Spring 1997-Spring  2001.” San Jose

State University Factsheet.

Okamura, Jonathan and Amefil R. Agbayani. “Pamantasan Filipino American Higher

Education.” Filipino Americans: Transformation and Identity. Ed Maria P.P. Root.

Thousand Oaks: SAGE P. 183-97.

Revolution: Balik sa Kinabukasan. Filipino Students Association. Universityof California

at Santa Cruz. April 19-20, 2002. Santa Cruz, CA.

Trimilos, Ricardo. Personal Interview. Honolulu, Hawai’i. June 13, 2002.

Vlatch, James. “Theatre in Historically Black Colleges: A Survey of 100 Years.” Plays,

People, Movements: A Sourcebook of African-American Performance. Ed Annemarie Bean. NY: Routledge, 2000.

Williams, Donald. Personal Interview. Santa Cruz, California. March 3, 2002.

Survey participants:

Alcausin, Diana

Espinosa, Olivia

Foley, Melinda Corazon

Lopez, Xotchil

Mejia, Victoria

Mojica, Kimi

Narayanamurti, Krishna

Nievares, Lynette

Velez, Marie-Reine

I wish to thank all the survey participants whose thoughtful responses illuminated my observations for this report. I also wish to express deep gratitude to Anna Alves who I was able to think with as I was working on this report, and largely for her vision on this particular project on Pilipino American performing arts.

VI.       PART FOUR

A PROFILING STUDY OF

FILIPINO CULTURAL COMMUNITIES

IN THE UNITED STATES

AND

CASE STUDIES ON CULTURAL STEWARDSHIP

INTRODUCTION TO NATIONAL PROFILING STUDY

This section of the study focuses on the evolution of Filipino communities and their cultural traditions, specifically the latter's sustained foothold in various cities in the United States. The study also introduces the emergence of Filipino cultural institutions—in the performing arts, in heritage / language schools, and in the existence of venues that are the natural outgrowth and by-product of community cultural activism.

To understand what, among its cultural traditions, the Filipino immigrant chose to preserve and sustain in the United States during the many waves of Filipino migration, a brief background touches on Philippine colonial history and the home country's cultural evolution. One must take into account the basis for the continuing attraction, the "dysfunctional" aspect in the Filipinos' love/hate relationship with America; and the reasons Americans have not overtly acknowledged their "little brown brothers" after the United States' expansionist foray at the turn of the 20^th century. One must try to understand that unlike the Spanish colonization of countries in Latin America, Spain's 300-year colonial legacy in the Philippines did not include leaving behind a common language to link the disparate islands which it named after King Felipe as Islas de Filipinas.

Three and a half centuries of Christianization of native island morés as well as acculturation in the dominant Western culture account for the Filipino's collective cultural amnesia. This sense of memory-vacuum is made stark by the absence of a common language.  To this day, attempts are ongoing in the Philippines to study and assimilate indigenous cultures that still thrive despite being overshadowed by the dominant Christian and Western culture. In the United States, complex reasons still do not explain why second and third generations of American children of Filipino descent are more intuitive about their parents' "missing" roots of native culture while these same parents are indifferent about their adult offspring's attempts at decolonization awareness.

This profile of Filipino cultural activism in the United States and of each community's effort to preserve old country traditions in order to "pass on" to future generations is at best an attempt at scratching the surface. It is an invitational initiative for others to probe further within their own migratory experience to document the cultural patterns evolving in their own communities. More complex studies of Filipino immigrant communities, such as those initially compiled by the late Prof. Steffi San Buenaventura, are valuable to document a people's cultural survival despite dislocation trauma and hardship, threat of assimilation and diffusion of time-worn traditions and family values, and the harsh realities of diasporic exile. Filipino immigrants to the U.S. regardless of either their willing migration or their imposed exile (for political or economic reasons) attest to the variety of mindsets of the "bearers" of culture. But "culture" evolves and is not fossilized. What pillars support to preserve the cultural uniqueness of a people are the values and traditions handed down and claimed by future generations.

Remé A. Grefalda

December, 2002

CULTURAL ROOTS

Crystallization of the Exilic Cultural Mindset

Filipino native consciousness in the Philippines in the 1960s—as opposed to Americanism in the Filipino psyche— spread widely, seeping into fine arts, music, drama, literature, textile and fashion design, pop entertainment, and artifact collection. Folk culture once shunned as "provincial" and relegated to the strata of antiquated traditions rose to being "fashionably acceptable." It was chic acceptability, a patronizing trend by high society for what was "native." Likewise, "folk" and "native" studies invaded the halls of academe. This acceptability of what was Filipino brought out a sense of patriotic fervor in the late 1960s that evolved into a street pedagogical movement among students, serving as a wake-up call to the state of the nation, deploring the country's dependence on American cultural and economic icons.

During the Marcos era in the Philippines (1964-1985) and before the imposition of martial law in 1972, a visible movement towards a preference for things Filipino spread throughout the major metropolitan cities in the Philippines. The prescient initiative by previous administrations establishing "Pilipino" as the official language to be taught in schools catapulted "native" cultural awareness away from the traditional "English only" edict once strictly enforced in private schools and colleges. English remains the written language of communication; but in the 21^st century, what was once a language purist's nightmare is today's undisputed street lexicon: Taglish—adaptive in its colloquialism, its creative grammatical combination, and its constant evolution.

Years of colonial mentality (under Spain, as well as under the United States) were being chipped away by a generation of Filipinos energized by this new nationalism in the fields of arts and culture. The 1960s saw the birth of two enduring cultural institutions in the Philippines, The Bayanihan Dance Company and the Philippine Educational Theatre Association (PETA).  The 1960s' cultural renaissance in Filipino awareness also paved the way for the emergence of writers and playwrights who wrote in the vernacular: Rolando Tinio, Paul Dumol, Tony Perez, Lino Brocka, Mario O'Hara, Ishmael Bernal, etc.

Prior to this Pilipino-centric movement, literature and theatre arts existed but the medium was in English. Notable playwrights (Nick Joaquin, Wilfredo Ma. Guerrero and Alberto Florentino Jr.) wrote their pieces in English. The most frequently staged play, Portrait of an Artist as Filipino by Nick Joaquin, was written for English-speaking audiences. Any art form in the native tongue was considered pedestrian and "for the masses" (pang masa).

The Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, founded in 1950, included—ten years after its founding—a category of works written in Pilipino!  In its 50^th year anniversary, the Palanca Awards has expanded its criteria to include new categories written in various Philippine languages.

It is against this background of a people's identity immersed in colonial ambiguity and discovering its nationalistic fervor that martial law was imposed on September 21, 1972.  Martial law was a sweeping action to suspend the democratic transfer of power and to stem the tide of rebellion led by student groups, who openly took to the streets in mass demonstrations against the Marcos government. The years under martial law (1972-1986) fulminated the growth of Filipino nationalism to its present height of consciousness. The Cultural Center of the Philippines—then just an infrastructural monument to a First Lady's dream— is today considered on par with cultural edifices in Europe and the United States for its sustained program for the arts and for cultural performances.

In 2002, Filipino consciousness, in the study of history from the Filipino perspective, is probed even deeper. Revisionist history is being written to counteract history as seen from the conqueror's perspective. There is a growing interest in indigenous cultures still prevalent in the northern and southern parts of the Philippines. There is also in the minds of a large segment of Filipinos a valid questioning as to why the official language has its roots in Tagalog when two-thirds of the country speak Bisaya.

Cultural movements begun in the homeland may find its way to the diaspora. However, in the United States, the preservation of cultural traditions by Americans of Filipino descent is still steeped in nostalgia for the country left behind.  While a number of communities endorse the study and preservation of Filipino American history (as differentiated from Philippine History), a majority of Filipinos are still living their lives with one foot in America and the other set firmly in a homeland they left more than half a century ago. In the past 25 years, it is still this exilic mindset that dominates the "passing on" of the proverbial baton in many Filipino communities around the United States.

It is often said that being Filipino resides in the heart. It explains why a Filipino, newly-arrived in a foreign land, can continue experiencing the home s/he left behind. Familial traditions ingrained in the Filipino pave the way for a sustained community. Some of these include: extreme hospitality, graciousness to strangers, financial obligation towards one's parents and siblings, and a respect for authority and older people. The exiled or migratory Filipino carries an expression once rooted in dependence and trust in "Bathala" (God). The expression, Bahala Na! has evolved into a sense of bravado, a come-what-may attitude risking whatever outcome. The Filipinos' legendary resilience is evident in the way they adapt to circumstances in the face of hardship, and paradoxically, this same resilience exudes a joy for living by which Filipino domestic workers are known in the global diaspora.

The cultural mindset of migrating Filipinos during the 1960s reflects a nationalistic consciousness compared to Filipinos who arrived in the U.S at the turn of the 20^th century as members of a United States commonwealth and as post World War II immigrants. Even with this emerging nationalistic consciousness, Filipino families in the United States display the undercurrent struggle of putting aside their cultural values in favor of "instant" assimilation of American life.

However, since 1997, during the centennial celebration of the 1897 Katipunan revolution and the Philippines’ declaration of independence from Spain, many Filipino communities in the United States, especially those who do not make up a great number within their larger community populations, have had a clearer grasp of their cultural roots and have coalesced these into their annual June 12 Independence Day celebrations. There is a sense of uniformity in these community cultural events and a focus on historical reenactments and commemorative recognition of the contributions by the country's national heroes and heroines. Among their youth, an earnest curiosity exists to learn more about the history of the home country and their parents' language. This "wanting to learn" is arrived at in the belief that a rediscovery of their parents' culture will differentiate them as an ethnic group with a defined heritage and satisfy their search for a richer cultural identity.

Another mainstay "cultural" event is the commemoration of the martyrdom of the Philippine national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal. During the early 1920s, the Filipino Knights of Rizal, the Legionarios del Trabajo and the Gran Oriente Filipino were organizations replicated in large cities in the West Coast and in the East Coast. The Gran Oriente and the Legionarios del Trabajo were organizations initiated as the social and civic arm of labor unions. Though they barely touched on Rizal's life per se, these commemorative events were major proceedings for them. With few exceptions, the Rizal Day events were purely social dinner/dance events to bring members of the organizations together.  

In contrast, during the early 1990s, several plays on Rizal commemorated the centennial anniversary of his execution by Spain. No longer were Rizal Day celebrations restricted to social events. Instead, theatrical productions commemorated events in his life and projected his vision for a free and independent Philippines. In Washington, D.C., in particular, the play 30 December 1896 juxtaposed Rizal's legacy of education and love of country with how present-day Filipinos are living out this legacy. The narrative roused second-generation young adults to question why these retrospective issues were never part of their growing up "Filipino."

Finally, it would be a mistake to omit the role of religious festivities and devotional folk traditions from the study of Filipino cultural perspective. These religious traditions have sustained Filipino immigrant communities. Religious observances have been woven into the fabric of Filipino life to form their cultural traditions, and have proven to be a cohesive factor in unifying communities when other events could not. (See Section III, Coalescing a Cultural Identity, "Communal preservation of religious traditions).

I. WAVES OF MIGRATION

The earliest community of Filipinos in the Americas is said to have been formed when members of the crews of the Mexico-China galleon trade jumped ship and scattered deep into the bayous of Louisiana in the late 16^th century.  Other documentation suggests that indios (as they were called by the Spanish) may have been brought to the New Country to cultivate rice.

In Mexico, a community in Salina Cruz can trace their lineage to one Filipino who is said to have arrived as a fugitive in 1854 (Philippine News, June 2002).

In the late 19^th century, American expansionist aspirations led the United States to set its sights in the area of economic trade in Asia, specifically China.  In the Philippine Islands, a Spanish colony, rebels were fighting to wrest control of the country from 300 years of Spanish domination. In the guise of assisting the revolutionaries, the U.S. assisted the exiled leaders of the revolution and agreed to provide armed assistance to overthrow the Spanish government.

The Spanish government, rather than surrender officially its defeat to the Filipino Revolutionary government, accepted $20 million dollars from the United States for the transfer of the islands to American rule. This transfer without the knowledge of the Filipinos was signed and sealed in the Treaty of Paris (December 1898).  Stunned by the betrayal of the United States, Filipinos resumed their war against yet another Western dominating power and fought to regain ownership of their homeland. The United States spent its first 15 years in the islands quashing what is termed an "insurrection" as Filipinos engaged in protracted guerilla warfare against the American military presence. This was America's first war in Asia, from 1899 to 1915.

As part of its subjugation and assimilation program in the islands, the American military closed down theatrical productions, traveling theatre troupes, and slapstick vaudeville shows in the belief that theatre was being used as a means to communicate sedition and crimes against the United States. 

With the arrival of teachers on the U.S.S. Thomas, the Thomasites, as they were called, introduced the American educational system and English became the medium of instruction. Once a country with ties to European trade and culture via Mother Spain, the Philippines, under the United States, adapted well to American culture. With America's "pacification" program using English as an educational tool, the new language was easily ingrained in Filipino cultural expression. The mentored, in a revenging twist, entered into the mentor's lexicon and deftly transformed the language into its highest form of expression. Poetry and fiction written in English by Filipino authors have transformed the language into an exquisite literary form of expression.

If the Filipino's confidence in assimilating American culture was evident, this sense of confidence was interpreted by Americans as arrogance, i.e., a colonial step-child claiming a birthright that was not his to claim.  Information is sparse on the psychological acceptance by ordinary Americans of their "little brown brothers". What the American media continued to portray to its readers about the Filipino was the profile of an exotic, albeit barbaric, foreigner.

Filipinos at the turn of the 20^th century were considered American nationals[19] who were not entitled to citizenship, but deserved, as members of the commonwealth, the benefits of a people whose country was considered a United States "possession." With the passing of the Tydings-McDuffie Law in 1934 which officially recognized the Philippines' claim to independence, the Filipino's status changed from "national" to that of "alien."[20] 

This important fact regarding the status of Filipinos in America—as "country cousins" so to speak—in the years of the Commonwealth is not often articulated to students of U.S.- Philippine history. The Filipinos' status as American nationals differentiated them from other Asian groups that comprised the agricultural labor force in the early 1920s and 1930s.   With the advent of the Tydings-McDuffie Law, Filipinos were relegated to "alien" status and their migration numbers limited to fifty per year.

Neither the American press nor the government made an attempt to show the progressive literacy rate nor the cultural assimilation by Filipinos of the "mother country's" culture. During the 1904 First World's Fair, or Louisiana Purchase Exposition, in St. Louis, Missouri, the American public was treated to its first sight of Filipinos as a tribal dog-eating people with men wearing G-string and women bare from the waist up.

As a commonwealth of the United States at the outbreak of World War II, the Philippines fought on the Allied side. Because it was an American colony, it was subjected to Japanese military takeover until liberated in 1944 with the return of the U.S. army. In 1946, the Philippines regained its independence and established itself as a republic modeled after the democratic institutions of the United States.

1.      Migration to the U.S. in the Early 1900s

The first official Filipino migrants to the United States were American nationals. They were students, sons of Filipino scions, subsidized by the American colonial government, and called pensionados, i.e., awarded a pension in an effort to promote American education in political leadership. They were followed by waves of Filipino unskilled workers who were American nationals to ease out Japanese and Chinese labor. The Filipinos were recruited to work in the sugarcane farms in Hawai'i, in various agricultural industries in the West Coast, and in the growing fishing industry in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.[21] 

In the early 1920s, anti-miscegenation laws that first classified Filipinos as Mongolians and later under the classification "Malay" forbade marriage between Filipino men and Caucasian women. In 1884, California's civil code included Mongolians in the prohibition. Only in 1948 were anti-miscegenation laws considered unconstitutional.  The threat of groups of "bachelor men"—as Filipinos were viewed—to the morals of the community became one of many justifications for open hostility in West Coast communities towards Filipinos. 

Only after World War II when Filipino veterans arrived in the U.S. with their Filipino brides, did communities of Filipino families in the West Coast and in the Pacific Northwest flourish. Dr. Fred Cordova, leading proponent of Filipino American history and founder of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), disputes the myth that Filipino American families did not exist prior to World War II. He deftly points to "second-generation grandparents, if not great-grandparents" in the Pacific Northwest region.[22]

2. Filipino Personnel in the U. S. Navy

One very visible profile of Filipino presence in the U.S. after 1946 and all through the1950s and 1960s were the sailors from the ships of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. "[J]oining the Army or Navy or Coast Guard was an attraction in order to become American citizens during the post-war years."[23]  Filipinos in naval port cities such as Norfolk, Virginia and San Diego, California and in Maryland have long established their families and built communities in those areas.  In Governor's Island in New York, Filipinos in the Coast Guard and their families unobtrusively formed communities and informal social organizations of mutual aid.  In Portland, Oregon, Filipino "mess boys", stewards and cooks in the Navy account for the families that retired in the area, and who had a stake in building the community social and cultural life.

3. "Exchange Programs":

The Exodus of Philippine Medical Professionals

In the early 1960s, under the so-called "Exchange Visitors Program" (Mutual and Cultural Exchange Act, PL 87-256), Filipino nurses, physicians and other medical professionals comprised the so-called “brain drain” in the Philippines.  Exchange visitors arriving in the U.S. were barred from changing their visa status to permanent immigrant. The Exchange Program allowed a 2-year stay, with a visa extension of two additional years maximum. Because of the shortage of doctors and nurses in most U.S. hospitals, nurses in particular would be petitioned by the hospital for permanent residency. For many nurses and physicians whose exchange program contracts ended, exiting to Canada became a solution to continue earning in dollars. Canada offered them jobs and immigrant status.  From the 1960s to the early '80s, leading hospitals in most U.S. cities— particularly in the Mid West and in the East Coast—were staffed with Filipino physicians, medical technologists, and nurses.

As a gesture of goodwill, many of these exchange visitors took on the roles of cultural ambassadors for their country of origin.  Filipino nurses and doctors would put up impromptu "cultural evenings" dressed in their native costumes, displaying small Filipino crafts and artifacts, a sumptuous offering of Philippine cuisine and on a few occasions, a Filipino folk dance presentation would highlight these cultural festivities to the delight of their hosts.

4. The 1965 Amendment to the INS Law

    and the Reunification of Families

Filipino immigrants swelled in numbers after the passage of The INS Act of October 3, 1965 (PL 89-236). This Act was an amendment to the former Immigration and Naturalization Laws of 1924 and 1952. The amendment allowed up to 20,000 new immigrants from a single country on a yearly basis. The new Law highlighted a reunification of families in its call for a "preference" system.  This landmark passage by the U.S. Congress to amend the restrictive INS laws of earlier years made a significant cultural impact on all immigrant communities. First, it encouraged the reunification of families.  Second, the new law gave rise to ethnic communities all over the United States. And lastly, it provided a measure of security to these communities and an impetus to build on their traditions and to preserve their cultural heritage for generations to come.

By 1970, ethnic communities in the U.S. more than tripled the ranks of new American citizens in the United States. Filipino communities in the West Coast tripled in numbers. With the passing of the 1982 Amnesty Act legalizing the stay of undocumented aliens, Filipinos added numbers to their ethnic profile. In the 2000 U.S. Census, Filipinos were the second largest ethnic group in the United States, after the Latinos.

                 5. Recruitment by International Organizations 

An important aspect that will point to the diverse profiles of future migrations among Filipinos can be traced to a unique phenomenon that existed in the East Coast. The headquarters of three international organizations are located in New York and in Washington D.C.: the United Nations, The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Also noteworthy is the presence of the diplomatic ambassadorial residences in Washington D.C. and their respective embassies and consular offices.

Because of their proficiency in written and conversational English and equipped with a college degree, Filipinos easily enter the job market, performing a variety of roles, i.e., administrative assistants, typists, accountants, secretaries, clerks, receptionists, and a variety of office level jobs.  However, the transient status of the above occupations that depend on visa extensions and legal contractual status does not encourage the formation of cultural groups. Transient Filipinos, however, participate in the cultural community via church groups and attend religious activities in their parishes.

6. The Filipino Domestic Worker Migration

The diplomatic community and the professional and nonprofessional staff in international organizations may have spawned the domestic worker migration. In 2000, nannies and housekeepers—in Washington D.C. alone—are the caretakers for families of high-powered members of Washington's elite. While many have shied away from joining organizations, or are prevented by their employers, the latter fearing that group-mentality might enjoin these workers to seek out "greener pastures," quite a number of domestic workers have organized mutual-aid and social clubs as a testimony to the clout of their numbers.

Domestic workers exemplify the exilic cultural mindset of the future. Their numbers have dictated the creation of new Filipino-owned service industries in the U.S, i.e., companies that assist in money forwarding, agencies that provide medical insurance, recruiters for employers and companies that insure overseas hand delivery of packages sent home.

During June celebrations sponsored by the Filipino community, domestic workers attend these events en masse. Their participation can be counted on for traditional religious events. Cultural events that smack of high society, i.e., stage plays and cultural presentations, do not appeal to members of this group. Manila pop culture has found an active consumerism among domestic workers abroad. Pop entertainment artists from Manila are assured packed houses during their American tour and they count on high volume ticket sales from this community.

Although they are proficient in conversational English as a requirement to be employed, domestic workers have not assimilated into mainstream when compared to previous migrations. They continue to be steeped in their own native languages: Bisaya, Ilokano and Tagalog. They choose a ghetto-ized cultural maintenance of their lifestyle, rarely diverting from their social circles and are wary of being patronized by organizations in the larger community when invited to participate in local cultural activities.

It will prove challenging for cultural activists in the future to harness and assimilate this energetic Filipino segment if only to invite their contribution to heritage and cultural issues of the Filipino community at large.

II.  THE FORMATION OF COMMUNITY

Social Clubs

Because of the Filipino's extreme sense of hospitality and propensity to enlarge the extended family concept, ordinary meals can be transformed to informal gatherings. Food on the table is not limited to main course, appetizer and dessert. Food on the table for Filipinos is central to the ritual of hospitality: the sharing of abundance, reminiscent of Mediterranean cultures. Baptismal celebrations are not limited to immediate families; such an event includes friends of friends and neighbors. A child's baptismal party as well as the ensuing birthdays are a common venue, not so much for the children, but for the adult community to come together in a social setting.  The running joke often heard is that "eternity" can be defined as Filipinos saying goodbye.

It then becomes a natural segue for Filipinos to institutionalize their gatherings by initially forming a club for socializing purposes.  Most common organizational start-ups might result from 3 or 4 families celebrating the New Year in a rented space. From this setting of pooling their resources to celebrate in a rented space, the annual get-togethers expand to include selling tickets to offset the cost of the evening.

Rallying under the "Nostalgia" Flag

A club's innocuous beginning may have its roots in annual commemorative events such as Rizal Day in December (commemorating the national hero's death) or in mid-June (his date of birth). A dinner dance is mobilized into socializing with a sense of remembrance of an event simultaneously celebrated "back home."

"Back home" is a tenet and the reason for a Filipino community's cohesiveness.  It is a sense of filial connection. "Back home" is remembrance of family and the land, the neighborhood where one spent a childhood of happier times. "Back home" is what generations hear about and sometimes actually visit. "Back home" is the main reason why one learns folk dancing on a weekend and one becomes attuned to the sound of guitars, drums and exotic instruments—when one would really prefer an afternoon spent with friends who don't have to absorb their heritage in this fashion.

Religious traditional celebrations are remembered by families and replicated abroad. Through the years, the devotional intent gives way to the socializing aspect of the celebration.

Regional Organizations

Regional associations emerge within the community for various reasons, but mainly because a large number of families or individuals hail from one particular region in the Philippines.  Speaking the same language also unites individuals and families into a regional mold. While social clubs encourage socializing during special events, belonging to a group defined by regional ties strengthens familial connections in a foreign land as well as one's sense of belonging. One is able to trade on memories of old neighborhoods, familiar town landmarks, common schools attended, friends of friends, common town or regional celebrations and rituals. In short, a tighter sense of familial connecting.

In a quiet neighborhood in Seattle, one can witness a Caviteno religious water festival, karakol, celebrated in Salinas, Cavite; it is a Marian devotion reenacted in the church parish grounds annually by the Salinian community. The celebration is in the form of a procession. Here is a regional group hailing from a small town, finding a way to commemorate a town festival, thus introducing to the community a cultural religious practice from a particular region. 

In major cities in the U.S., regional clubs proliferate. One will find The Bicolandia Association, the Bulakenyo Association, the Marinduquenos, the Pangasinan Association, Ang Bisaya, and The Ilonggo Association. But these associations are dwarfed by the presence of the Ilokanos U.S.A. or BIMAK Worldwide (acronym for the tribes of Benguet, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Apayao, Abra and Kalinga), who make up the largest regional representation outside of the Philippines.  It is not unusual to find over 200 Filipino organizations in one city with a majority of these being regional associations.

“Spin-off" Syndrome

In Filipino communities, it is common for a new organization to form as a spin-off of a more established group. So-called “splinter groups” exist because of dissent on some aspect of policy or operations or personality conflicts in the leadership tier. This tendency to divide into a separate group carries the stigma of "disunity" among Filipinos. 

In pursuing its own plans for a new organization, the new group may be reinventing the wheel, so to speak, but if it has a substantial following that increases every year, it doesn’t matter whether the newly formed group duplicates another organization. People are responding to a new leadership call.

The willingness of a new set of leaders to head the new club with all its attendant expectations and problems speak well of emerging leaders willing to take on the responsibility to lead the community in a variety of projects. 

Characteristics of an Evolving Community

A community must evolve or risk growing stagnant. Leaders pave the way for a community to evolve. There are leaders who are reticent about calling attention to the problems of community and will rein in members who divert from the agreed to agenda. A vibrant community reflects vibrant leadership. Leaders forget that communities are ever evolving, thanks to the generations that follow for whom the community has its reason for being. 

Energetic and creative leadership are not always found in cosmopolitan large cities as one would expect.  Some are hidden in the smallest and out-of-the-way communities. 

Community Centers—

Albatross or Fulfillment of a Dream?

The dream of organizations in many Filipino communities is to own a community center. Ownership of space and the construction of an edifice are goals set by most organizations as a way of unifying the community and making the Filipino visible. The edifice is envisioned as a solution to the problem of space where community can meet; it is planned as a home for youth-directed activities. Ambitious and altruistic goals prevail over sound business acumen and/or the use of feasibility studies on the success and failure rates of other existing community spaces.

Each community center reinvents the wheel on management and future cost of maintaining a building. Proprietary reasons by the founders prevent the space from being successfully managed and maintained by a separate business entity. Scrupulous nickel-and-dime attitudes result in long-term volunteerism, instead of professional management and developmental maintenance. 

"Whose club is it anyway?"

The prevailing authoritarian and proprietary leadership style closes doors to a younger generation's cultural preferences and management style. Ownership of the concept of a community center is less in the hands of a generation that will inherit such an edifice; instead ownership remains in the hands of more traditional first-generation planners.  Programs are geared towards pleasing a particular age group, and a particular income level. In most communities, the "dream fulfilled" becomes ironically, the reason why community is less unified; or the dream is left to die a natural death. Inflexible rental fees also turn away performing arts groups who need working space on a regular monthly if not weekly basis.

Filipino community centers are misnomers. Few are civic- or community-directed centers with programs to serve a multi-generational community. In effect, these community spaces are clubhouses "for members only." They are for exclusive rather than inclusive use. Because the space is "owned" by an organization, it is subject to "turf" quarrel and is often the object of dispute in the election of officers.

"To donate or not to donate"

Edifices rise without thought to programs to justify their existence. The lack of long-term programs does not require seeking other more stable funding such as grants or endowments. The lack of know-how in pursuing other more stable source of funding throws back the onus of fundraising appeals to members of the community who see this as an annual drain on their charity giving. Amounts from fundraising events go to costly annual maintenance. Space once envisioned by its founders as home to a functional library and/or as meeting rooms for community organizations, has instead become space rented out for social affairs, i.e., bar mitzvahs, weddings parties, anniversary and birthday celebrations etc. These rental fees now become means to fund the maintenance of the space, but in the long run, the space no longer serves the immediate community activities for which it was originally intended. 

"Why we need and don't need a center!"

A few inspirational exceptions to the general trend exist:

In Detroit, Michigan, language and heritage programs facilitated by professional instructors (as opposed to volunteers) have been running continuously for more than 15 years without being housed in a permanent space. When the community center (Philippine American Community Center of Michigan) was finally built in the late 1990s by the school's founding members, it was a matter of putting in place an existing and sustained program into a viable space designed to house classrooms, rehearsal space and meeting rooms.  The center is still in its "growing-pains" stage and has yet to prove its sustainability. The organization's leaders are open to programs that will benefit all segments of the community. Because of its reasonable and discounted rental rates for Filipino members, the center may have fewer problems attracting community users.

In the New England area, a Filipino school exists and has completed its 26^th year of weekend school sessions sans community center. The school has sustained itself without resorting to a need for a permanent space or being housed by a Filipino community center. The founder believes that the management of a building and its maintenance would preoccupy and divert the energy of the school's administrators who are mostly parents involved in their children's special schooling. The school, Iskwelahang Pilipino, utilizes existing rental spaces in the larger community and is presently holding classes during under-utilized weekends of a community/school cafeteria. Because rental fees were substantially increased at a previous location, the founders of the school transferred classes to the cafeteria space with no major hurdle for students and parents. This may not be the most professional way of managing a school but for 25 years and still running, the system has proven itself as serviceable to members of this community.

In Juneau, Alaska, the Filipino Community Center is located at the heart of downtown Juneau, and opens seven days a week during the summer. The board of directors and officers of the Filipino Community Inc., the sole organization meeting the needs of its Filipino residents, manages the community center. On Friday nights, the center offers free dinners to walk-ins. It is a weekly event attended by families grateful for a respite from the daily dinner preparation. On a regular basis during summer months, a visiting nurse arrives at the center as a service to senior citizens. Twice a week, a professional bingo evening is open to the general public. These bingo nights supplement the center's maintenance and development fund. The County provides matching funds for the center's long-term programming, which is mainly for the space to exist to serve the social and civic needs of community.

In the former plantation town of Waipahu, Hawaii, the Filcom Center inaugurated in 2002 stands as a culmination of collaborative efforts spearheaded by local Filipino businessmen, professionals and community leaders towards building a community center. Such a goal was envisioned by community leaders since the early 1950s but never actualized beyond fundraising plans. An ambitious series of programs is in the planning stage to benefit all segments of the larger community. The center is under the management of a professional executive director. A space-leasing program in the 3-story building is in place to attract small business entities. What will differentiate this particular center to sustain itself for the long haul is yet to be seen.

In Tampa, Florida, the Bayanihan Arts Center is the result of an amazing feat of intense fundraising drives resulting in a handsome edifice, still unclear about its projected cultural program. In Virginia Beach, Virginia, where a large concentration of Filipinos in the East Coast resides, a community / cultural center is embroiled in community politics and turf-dispute, the normal "growing pains" of an organization's sense of achievement. In time and with an evolving "give-and-take" among the leaders, this community will enjoy the fruits of coming together in a home-space.  In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, monies are in escrow under a foundation created for the sole purpose of building a center. In the interim, the community rents space for its activities in a former school.  

In Los Angeles, SIPA has served as the “community center” space for Los Angeles Filipinos for decades now, offering venues for production, education, and culture work, especially when community and cultural activist Royal Morales was still alive, and are now planning a capital campaign to build and expand its current environs.  Through its activities, SIPA has also evolved into a central cultural space – and thus cultural center – for the Southland Filipino community.  In San Francisco, the Three Filipino Center Collaborative in the South of Market area of San Francisco have created a consortium to economically and socially redevelop the neighborhood in that part of town as a revisioned Filipino American community, embracing its legacy of senior, youth, and young adult community activism, rebuilding on and around the site of the demolished International Hotel, an historical symbol of community organizing and social justice efforts.  The collaborative, as well as Bindlestiff Studio, the Filipino American theater also in the neighborhood, is working toward a wide-ranging cultural renaissance for all Bay Area Filipinos that will include performing arts theaters, a cultural center, a heritage site, social services, and low-income housing. 

Accounting for "the missing generation"

In older communities, Filipino community centers are far from being models of sustained programs for the benefit of the community. At best, these centers are clubhouses, closed to community per se and open only to the organization that owns and manages the building.

Those who plan for future community centers seldom include the "missing generation." These are young professional adults who see no reason to stake a claim on the idea of an edifice. Thus, they feel no sense of ownership for their elders' vision of a center, nor a long-term need to continue its existence.  For this second-generation come-of-age group, community centers are their parents' albatross, at best an anachronistic vestige of a time when ownership of an edifice symbolized an ethnic community's dream of "having arrived."

III.               COALESCING A CULTURAL IDENTITY

Communal preservation of religious traditions

Filipino cultural celebrations abroad evolved into their current form based on religious festivities celebrated "back home."  These former traditions thrive as cultural moorings to anchor Filipino communities in the United States. 

Santacruzan celebrates the legend of the finding of the holy cross by the Emperor Constantine, son of Queen Helena. Santacruzan processions have sprouted in large and small communities in various states and have been included during June 12 Independence Day celebrations as part of the annual ethnic parade in cities like New York, L.A., San Francisco, Chicago and Washington DC. 

The colorful ati-atihan drum-chant procession in honor of the Infant Jesus has been reenacted in Colorado communities as well as in Juneau, Alaska—in both locations, the ati-atihan is included annually as part of the American July Fourth parade or the Philippine Independence Day Celebration.

The Moriones Festival in the Philippine province of Marinduque is a religious reenactment during the Christian Lenten Season observance in a number of communities . It depicts the crucifixion scene when Roman soldiers gambled at the foot of the cross, culminating in the toss of dice over the robe of Christ. The Moriones is similar to the Oberammergau Passion Play in Europe where the citizenry participates in the reenactment of Christ's passion and death. 

Devotional Traditions

Filipino communities now ensconced in a secular environment commemorate traditional religious festivals. These practices have evolved from the original devotional intent into cultural mementos of religious observances practiced in the old country. An organization that sponsors the reenactment of the religious practice purchases the necessary masks and costumes for the participants. Rehearsals take place to replicate the tradition. This becomes the organization's contribution to the annual community event. From town procession to a reenacted version abroad, the religious observance evolves as a cultural contribution to a larger community event, the June 12 Independence Day Parade.

In the years of Filipino labor recruitment, folk religiosity pervaded the Filipino mutual-aid associations in the West Coast. This religious trend was intended to counteract the perceived "loose morals" and lack of spiritual traditions among Filipino men. There was a genuine effort to displace the taxi-dance hall and gambling proclivities of the "bachelor men." From this environment came the movement towards folk spirituality.

The Influence of the Bayanihan Dance Company

The Bayanihan Dance Company is the repository of the institutionalized choreography of Philippine folk dances, and is officially declared by the Philippine Congress as The Philippine National Folk Dance Company.

Bayanihan was conceived by Helena Z Benitez as a national dance company and founded in the late 1950s. The company is based at the Philippine Women's University. It puts out a call for participants and provides standardized training for dancers similar to any national ballet organization.

At the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, Bayanihan made its international debut and introduced Philippine culture to the world, impressing its audiences so much that Ed Sullivan, the famous American impresario and host of the national iconic television show, The Ed Sullivan Show, brought Bayanihan onto his show several times to showcase them to American audiences. The standardized stylistic format created by the artistic team of Dr. Lucrecia Kasilag (music) and choreographer, Lucrecia Urtula (dance) placed Filipino cultural icons, traditions and folklore literally on the shoulders of its dance artists. Bayanihan stylized rituals and rural activities (harvesting, rice planting, and games) into theatrical choreographed presentations. Fledgling dance groups in Filipino communities worldwide have, through the decades, uniformly held Filipino cultural events in the Bayanihan style.

The emergence of cultural performing groups

In the early 1970s, Filipino cultural shows in the U. S. would not gain acceptance from a theatre-going Filipino audience unless the show's ticket proceeds were intended for charitable causes in the Philippines. These could be support for an orphanage in a region, or a dilapidated church or school requiring major repairs in a remote barrio. Monies raised were sent to these charitable causes regardless of whether they were credibly accounted for. Cultural shows were then curtailed to a one-night performance or at most, a weekend run of two performances. Months and days spent on rehearsals culminated in, what might be called, a "performance" attended by an audience who were really seeing a technical/dress rehearsal night.

In the mid-1990s, in Washington DC, a new theatre group in the community called for audiences to attend theatre for its own sake. The group sold out tickets for a show without the attendant guilt-inducing charity from one's pocket. On that auspicious beginning, QBd Ink's highly original stage productions, mounted usually in university theatre space, ran beyond the weekend run, with a few shows turning in as many as 17 performances in various university venues.  In the late 1990s, across the country in San Francisco, Bindlestiff Studio’s guest Filipino American performing artists, who continually sold-out every performance for the theater, were invited to take over the previously white-run black-box theater and began programming innovative, experimental, and multi-disciplinary work for and by Filipino Americans, including pop music, comedy sketches, puppetry, and plays written by young, emerging playwrights.  Yet despite the existence of these theatre groups, folk dance continues to get the lion’s share of recognition, support, and attendance within Filipino American communities.

Folk dance is the cultural expression that has its roots in physical education classes during elementary schooling in the Philippines, where boys and girls learned how to "sway balance." In metropolitan cities in the United States where Filipinos reside, it is not uncommon to witness weekend sessions of families gathering in the basement of a home to bring their children or teens to rehearse and practice Philippine folk dances.

The formation of a dance group is a common "cultural" project encouraged by Filipino social clubs and regional associations. The synthesis of native instrumentals and movement—music and dance—has always been the standard initial expression of Filipino culture. Combined with an array of native costumes to highlight regional differences, folk dancing has been taught to most second-generation Filipinos as an expression of what the culture is about.  What began as a cultural arm of community organizations spins off as an independent dance group. Or in some circumstances, an organization will support the formation of a formal dance group under the organization's wing.

Choreographers as Cultural Tsars

In the United States, Filipino cultural dance groups are formed with members interested in becoming weekend dance artists. They train under a "choreographer" who may have been at one time a Physical Education instructor, adept at teaching movement and basic steps in ballet. This instructor is familiar with Bayanihan-style choreography. Frequently, choreographers are former members of the Bayanihan Dance Company who now reside in the United States.

In Edgewater, Colorado, Ms. Dolly Banzon has been the lead choreographer in the Filipino community for more than a decade. She brings to audiences dance presentations on behalf of the Filipino American Community of Colorado and for the Philippine American Society of Colorado. She heads no formal dance group but is a consultant choreographer to organizations interested in cultural presentations for their annual fundraising events. Her choreographic style is distinctly Bayanihan.  

In the same Colorado community, Malou Mateo, choreographer, composer and musical artist, presents Philippine cultural dances as narrative theatre, imbuing legends and rituals with original choreography away from the usual Bayanihan style. What she introduces to second-generation Filipino audiences is visual storytelling of Filipino traditions, legends and myths that highlight aspects of their heritage.

In Detroit, choreographer and artistic director Jojo Montano has wowed audiences with cultural presentations in the classic Bayanihan style; but he has also successfully experimented in combining rock music with Philippine folk dance to the delight of second generation Filipino Americans.  His dancers and singers are recruited from the community youth groups. The bi-annual extravaganza theatre production, "Music and Motion" has sustained a following in the community and has been the major fundraising event since 1996 for the Philippine American Community Center of Michigan that supports the Filipino School.

In Tampa, Florida, Jose Omelia, former member of the Bayanihan Dance Company and executive director of the Bayanihan Arts Center (no connection to the dance company), has been responsible for producing cultural shows and has trained a cadre of dancers in Philippine folk dances. From Anchorage, Alaska, New York City, L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Oregon and to the littlest town in America where a Filipino community thrives, cultural dance groups, interpreting the choreographer's intent, have spread the culture of the Philippines to non-Filipino audiences in their outreach to mainstream audiences.

Sustaining the Independent Performing Arts Groups

The support of community organizations is crucial to the survival of an independent performing arts group. But too often, organization leaders fail to see the value of permanently setting aside funds to support a cultural group. They exploit the volunteer efforts of their local cultural artists.

Community organizations are known to ignore local cultural groups in favor of "importing" one from the Philippines—airfare and housing provided. Organizers of events take homegrown talent for granted, insisting that the "exposure" (gratis et amore) of the local artist as the front act of an imported performer will advance the local artist's career. As one local talent laments, "One can die from exposure!"

The cultural life of the community thrives on the commitment and continuing presence of choreographers and artistic directors. In many major cosmopolitan cities, tension grows between the community and the independent performing arts group. The former may be unwilling to recognize the emerging professional direction that the group is taking and continues to see the latter on an amateur level of free performances.

Serious commitment and dedicated theatre reside in independent performing arts companies such as The Alleluia Panis Dance Company of San Francisco, The Filipino Folk Arts Theatre, Inc. of Dallas, Kayamanan Ng Lahi of Los Angeles, and The Philippine Dance Company of New York, to name a few.

Few theatre companies have survived after initial performances. The most successful and sustained professional theatre group is the Ma-yi Theatre Company in New York City, which was founded in 1989 and has won an Obie Award for its work that focuses on developing new plays and performance work expressing Asian American experiences.  Pintig Theatre Company of Chicago and Qbd Ink of Washington DC are more recent entries into the field and have managed to survive as community theatre groups by being flexible and entrepreneurial in their efforts. In San Francisco, Bindlestiff Studio and one of its resident groups, Tongue in A Mood, survived the vicissitudes of running a company in their own black-box theater and are currently undergoing a transition to a non-profit organization while relocating their programming in the face of San Francisco Redevelopment plans to demolish their current space.[24]

Encumbrances and Savvy Use of the Non-profit Status

For independent performing arts groups and cultural organizations, the non-profit, 501c(3) status is either a plus or, as in most cases, a quagmire of undecipherable paperwork better ignored. The non-profit status allows an organization a discounted rental for venues. The 501c (3) attracts donors and sponsors donations. But as a tool for financial support, few organizations know how to maneuver through proposals and application for grants. Therefore, few benefit from matching funds from county or city support. In addition, the legal liabilities, public accountabilities, and administrative capacities required by non-profit status often become overwhelming and an added burden to a group unused to, or unprepared for, the transition.

An example of a successful non-profit would be Fil Am ARTS (wide variety of funding sources, continuing relationships with the city and county, a major player in state-wide arts & culture issues; KNL in Los Angeles (national network of resources, high profile with funding sources, highly collaborative with other Fil Am arts orgs), and Kulintang Arts in SF (mentors other emerging groups and artists such as those at Bindlestiff Studio, sits on boards and panels to advocate and have voice across arts sectors).

IV.              DISSEMINATING HERITAGE TO THE NEXT GENERATION

In the context of this study, "cultural stewardship" is concerned with how a cultural institution evolves and is sustained by community. Families now make up a majority of Filipino communities nationwide. Gone are the days when communities of bachelor men or migrations of transient career singles made up the profile of Filipinos in metropolitan cities. Families now form most Filipino social and cultural organizations. They determine the needs of generations relative to what the culture is about and how heritage imbues a healthy regard for one's ethnic identity in the larger community.

In many parts of America, second and third generation Filipinos born in the United States generally know little or next to nothing about Philippine history or geography. But with little exception, Filipino children are exposed to their heritage and the language in their homes. Parents eager to bring up their children as “good Filipino Americans” seek out language and heritage classes in their immediate community. In these structured weekend schools, children learn conversational Tagalog and folk dances. At home, they are raised on Philippine cuisine, and strict parenting. English is spoken by both parents and encouraged in their offspring. Filipino children are also raised on Filipino social traditions and an emphasis on the extended family tradition where all Filipino adults are addressed as either "Aunt" or "Uncle."  A few dedicated parents have successfully raised their children to be bi-lingual in English and Pilipino. Or if a grandparent is present, the child learns to listen to Tagalog, Ilokano or Bisaya but is not encouraged to speak the language.

The need for weekend language/heritage schools grew from what was once parents' lack of awareness that heritage issues are linked with their children's sense of identity. For migrating families, being in America means one has arrived and one is encouraged to assimilate. In short—“Be American; speak English”. In the last two decades, the paradigm has shifted with more parents now eager to expose their children to their language and their heritage.  So what roles do performing artists and administrators of heritage schools play relative to "cultural stewardship"? 

Weekend classes on Language and Heritage have evolved into cultural institutions with the responsibility of preserving and "passing on" culture.  Boston’s Iskwelahang Pilipino, Dallas’ Filipino Folk Arts Theater, Inc.’s (FFATI) Language classes, and Detroit’s Philippine American Community Center’s weekend heritage classes are some examples.

But among these cultural institutions, the language/heritage schools exemplified by the initial three above have been running for more than a decade, two successfully supported by matching funds from the larger community. They are the sustained year-round institutions dedicated to the single task of education. Compare these with initiatives, such as Anchorage's Munting Iskwelahan (Little School) that closed after a year; or sporadic start-ups in other cities that have come and gone. The lack of funding, but especially the lack of commitment by those involved, are in the long run psychic cultural losses to the community.

The role of public access television programs that cater to large ethnic audiences is another emerging cultural institution in some communities. In Anchorage, Alaska, Fil-Am Show Time has been filling the vacuum for more than a decade. In Arlington, Virginia, Lambat Presents contributes to dissemination of Philippine culture through a weekly cultural show aired on Arlington Community Television. Both of these “institutions” disseminate a type of Filipino culture.

Language Schools

Cris Castro founded Iskwelahang Pilipino (IP) in 1976 in Bedford, Massachusetts, a suburb in the Boston area. The school has structured classes in language and culture, music, arts and craft. This structured environment provides a sustained weekend program for its students.  The key to IP's success, when compared to other attempts at establishing a program for second generation Filipinos, is in the commitment of parents and the school's cadre of volunteers—a commitment in time, direction and funding—to meet the needs of its students.

Building a positive identity was not a consciously defined goal, but could be observed as developing among IP students—they showed pride in their heritage. Those who completed IP sessions sought out Filipino student associations in college, or initiated one. IP graduates would invite the rondalla (IP native string orchestra) to perform in the college they were attending and to meet other Filipino students there.  From simply preserving heritage and creating a space to learn their parents' language, second- and third-generation Americans of Filipino descent in the Boston area carried into their young adult life a positive cultural identity. This positive identity, instilled in IP students, has become the school's top priority and long-term goal.

In Dallas, Texas, the Filipino Folk Arts Theater, Inc. (FFATI) under the artistic direction of Zonia Velasco has used theater and dance to attract second generation Filipinos to participate in FFATI's heritage programs. FFATI sees its role as a preserver of culture and tradition. Additionally, FFATI has a program to train its teachers “to make sure," states Velasco, "that we are instilling pride in our identity as Filipinos.” The program relies on the assistance of the Dallas independent school district to help with the language courses and heritage classes. Teachers devise their own lesson plans based on the children’s age groups.

Collaborative efforts with other community entities such as after-church programs assure the continuance of the FFATI heritage program. To encourage student attendance and to impose less on parents, the after-church program provides scholarship to financially needy families as well as transportation service for students to attend the program.

In the case of the Philippine American Community Center of Michigan’s (PACCM) school program in Detroit, creative inducements are offered to the parents, i.e., Sunday heritage classes become a Sunday outing for the family within the community center. Parents can learn ballroom dancing and attend computer classes while their children attend language classes.  Contributions of potluck dishes to set up snacks and late lunches for both parents and students are provided by the community center.

The presence of Filipino educators in Ann Arbor and Detroit has spurred the PACCM teaching program, now in its 16th year.  Classes on language range from elementary grades, middle school and high school levels. Students who wish to pursue collegiate courses on Pilipino can enroll at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor under the tutelage of Professor Adelwisa Weiss.

Learning History and Traditions via Heritage Schools

A number of metropolitan sites provide matching-fund assistance to language or cultural heritage schools run by non-profit organizations. As in most non-profit funding policy, the organization puts up the initial funds and/or the city offers funding to be matched by the non-profit organization. Supplementary funds are raised through donations, sponsorships, and annual fundraising events. However, many Filipino organizations who decide on such programs are unaware of county or city support available to them or they lack the long-term commitment from volunteers who initially set up the classes. The use of weekend time to conduct these language and heritage schools become a drain on individuals who must commit to at least 40 weekends a year to insure that the school program runs uninterrupted.

Boston's IP includes in its school program the additional music class to entice students and parents to learn a rondalla instrument under a regular music program headed by a commuting New York Musical Artist, Prof. Michael Dadap. Dadap has, in the first three years of IP's program, provided motivation for students and parents alike to sustain a serious stringed orchestra that now produces an annual CD of its own music. The orchestra, on invitation, travels to perform in locations beyond the New England area.

FFATI of Dallas includes the teaching of martial arts techniques in its program, as well as folk dancing. The focus of its program is on learning the language through history, culture and heritage. FFATI attracts Filipino students of all ages and non-Filipinos interested in dance and martial arts.

In Seattle, the cultural school founded by Fred and Dorothy Cordova in 1957 has evolved from basic Filipino folk dancing. By the early 60s, the Cordovas added a drill team to its program. Students of various ages not only learned precision marching and percussive instruments but also the martial arts form of escrima, the use of kulintang instruments, chants and Philippine tribal languages. The thrust of the cultural school's educational program, however, is on Filipino American History as opposed to Philippine History.

In Los Angeles, the Filipino American Library (FAL) has evolved from an extensive personal archives collection of a revered Pilipina pioneer, Helen Brown, to an expanding library of resources and materials, working toward a national scope.  Formerly the Pilipino American Reading Room and Library (PARRAL), it is run by the non-profit PANAMA Foundation and has historically been housed at the Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA).  Its Pilipino School has recently been transferred to Fil Am ARTS, which is attempting to assist its capacity-building while supporting the development of a more comprehensive language and cultural education curriculum.

Philippine Studies in Universities

Asian Studies programs on the West Coast have included Philippine Studies but only after university students collided with school administration and demanded that the volume of enrollment by American students of Filipino descent merited more than just a generic Asian Studies program. From this historical confrontation, not only is a course on Philippine Studies annually included under its Asian Studies Department on some campuses, but Asian American Studies Centers and Departments have been founded throughout the years that are finally creating Filipino American Studies faculty positions. Philippine culture may also emerge in courses through inter-disciplinary departments like Southeast Asian Studies or World Arts and Culture, or Asian Pacific Studies.  At the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Philippine Studies is an integral element of its academic offerings in Asian Studies and its Director, Dr. Ricardo Trimillos, is Filipino American.[25]

Nationwide, there have been few universities that have opened their programs to focus solely on Philippine Studies. One of these, St. Norbert College in Depew, Wisconsin, is currently the only mainland USA campus that offers a minor in Philippine Studies.  In terms of offering Philippine language courses, several campuses that evince large Filipino student enrollments, and even some campuses that do not, mostly provide Tagalog classes.  For example, the University of Michigan offers a Philippine Language course, NYU now offers Tagalog, and UCLA and Berkeley have been offering Tagalog for at least a decade.  At the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, because of the diverse composite of Filipinos residing in that region, language courses in Illocana and Bisayan are offered, in addition to Tagalog.

VI.       UNITY MOVEMENTS AMONG COMMUNITY GROUPS

Annual June 12 Celebrations

Before June 12 became the official Independence Day celebration, July Fourth was reason enough to recall the Independence Day celebrations "back home." July 4, 1946 marked the date when the Philippines gained its independence from the United States, removing the former from its colonial status, but not the Filipinos' dependence on Uncle Sam's largesse and the enduring influence of Hollywood.  June 12, 1898 marked the Filipinos' independence from Spain. In Cavite, a victorious Emilio Aguinaldo, first president of the fledgling republic, unfurled the official flag of Filipinas. From that historical date, all subsequent Independence Day celebrations in the Philippines and in cities abroad, where Filipinos reside, were marked for celebration on June 12.

Community festival trends

Festivals to call the Filipinos together are no longer relegated to celebrations in June. In Seattle, in the summer months of July and August, Pistahan is a major festival that takes place by the waterfront and is recognized by the City. It is hosted by the Filipino Community as the City's summer festival.  In the Washington DC area, Pinoyfest: Celebrating the heritage of Americans of Filipino Descent is an annual October festival held at the crossroads city of Rosslyn, nestled between the District of Columbia and Rosslyn, Virginia.  Every two years in Portland Oregon, a Philippine Cotillion is sponsored by segments of the Filipino community there. It is an event where families introduce their come-of-age daughters to society, the European concept of a debut. The affair is attended by over 5,000 guests and is held at the Portland Convention Center.  The Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC), produced by Fil Am ARTS in Los Angeles, CA, is a multi-disciplinary, multi-generational event that is the culmination of a full summer events and activities and attracts over 20,000 in attendance yearly.

Epilogue

PASSING ON THE BATON

There is a disparaging mantle over young adults of the second and third generations that perhaps being a "hyphenated" Filipino makes one less of a purveyor of one's heritage and culture. Can those who are raised Filipino but who have never seen the homeland be truly Filipino to qualify as a culture bearer?

Then there are those of us who cannot quite own up to this problem of identity. We are not quite the fence-sitters, but our ambiguity passes on a cultural attitude when we straddle our lives with one foot in the homeland and the other firmly in a new country. Why are we torn between a sense of nostalgia for the old country and "feeling home" in the culture that we currently imbibe?  Is our culture, as each of us perceives it, our refuge? Do the traditions call us home? Is disunity among us akin to family quarrels that simply bind us closer when "quarrel" is forgotten and only "family" remains?

Ironically, being an American of Filipino descent imbues one with more awareness, a deeper curiosity about one's roots. But the questions persist: Is one fit to represent the culture? Does one have the right to be a spokesperson for a culture that is only half of one's persona?  Are we as performing artists cultivating a theatre that is relevant to our lives? How much of the ancestral past can we embody in our artistic works and what good is projecting historical truths to an audience if all we demand from them is to pay attention to the authenticity of our work? Authenticity merely documents; it rarely creates space for epiphanies.  Heritage becomes precious and alive if we draw meaning from dramatizations, inviting reverence back in our lives. Cultural presentations in music and dance become moments of awe when choreography diverts from predictable formats and introduces iconic ways of looking at our world.

Here in the diaspora, we create our identity as Filipinos regardless of whether we are accepted or discriminated against or simply ignored. In our constant search for what will set us apart from the crowd, we find ourselves burrowing deeper into our psyche and coming up undeniably Filipino. Is this experience "culturally" expressed as part of our evolving identity? This experience of search, conflict and struggle make up the "stuff" that artists and writers thrive on. But are we as community encouraging the reading of literature—of our own diasporic literature? Literature is the most portable item we own to share our identity with others. We as community have yet to discover literature's unique power to project our image to strangers and to make us known to ourselves.

We are all bearers of this Filipino culture. Like it or not, we pass this culture on by osmosis, by stance, and by attitude.  As performing artists, we share snippets of our heritage with a captive audience. We are in the enviable position of being able to impart a sense of learning while being visually entertaining.

The Christian Jews who believed they were the sole bearers of the message of Christ were to later learn that the task of preserving and spreading the faith would fall on the Christian converts in the Gentile world—to those beyond Palestine. In the same fashion, Filipino culture is not solely embodied or entrenched in the homeland, but will evolve, surpass, thrive and be passed on to generations from communities in the diaspora.

Remé A. Grefalda

December 30, 2002

VII.           APPENDICES

A)        Cultural Profiles of Filipino American Communities in Selected U. S Cities and Case Studies of Emerging Cultural Institutions

B)        NaFFAA Cultural Report Contributors

A)                CULTURAL PROFILES OF FILIPINO COMMUNITIES IN SELECTED U.S. CITIES and CASE STUDIES OF EMERGING CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

A.        Tracking Filipino population growth      

1990 Census and 2000 Census