4 Ways to Start Learning about your Filipino Heritage

Circa 1997: Obong, Dalaguete, Cebu, Philippines
Left to right: Kuya Jayrold, Kuya Mikee, Me, Tita Lucy, Ate Sheena

Are you Filipino but don’t know much about your cultural heritage? Jose Rizal once advised that if you don’t know where you come from, then you can’t know where you are going. As the eldest daughter in my Filipino American family, I always knew my mother’s migration story. However, I didn’t know other important things like that Bisaya meant an ethnic group—not just a region of the Philippines, or how the terms Pinay and Pinoy were created in the United States in the 1920’s to describe Filipino Americans, but was later adopted by the Philippines to reference Filipinos in general.

Learning more about our culture and history has helped me become more self-aware, more confident in my identity as Filipino American, and more connected to my family. It has given me a greater sense of belonging, and has given me a clearer sense of direction.

In the spirit of FAHM, here are 4 questions to start your journey in learning more about where you come from:

1. Start withYour Family’s Migration Story

If you have never dug into your family’s migration story, this is the best starting point. What region of the Philippines is your family from? My mother immigrated here in the early 1990’s from a barangay in Cebu. She speaks Cebuano, which is a Bisayan language. I often wondered why my mother didn’t sound quite like some of the other Filipinos in our community. But when I started learning about the formation of the country, which consists of 130+ different ethnic groups, I realized she had a different accent because she came from a different region.

2. Find your Local Filipino Community

I live in Missoula, Montana, a midsized city of 100,000 people in a rural and homogenous part of the United States. Even here there isa Filipino community. I’ve even heard that in towns north of me by the Canadian border, in towns as small as a couple hundred, there are Filipino communities. Often, these small communities utilize agencies to help fill gaps in healthcare and education, which is how many of the Filipinos living in small Montanan towns move here.

When I moved to Missoula, I wasn’t sure where to start finding community. I’d run into Filipinos here and there at the university, but it wasn’t until I had lived here for 7 years, that I finally started looking for the core community I suspected lived here. I finally found them when a Filipino grocery store opened, and an AAPI Women+ Facebook group formed. Are there any Filipino grocery stores, retail stores, artists/creators in your community?

3. Join a Filipino American Group Online

When I first started trying to reconnect with my Filipino heritage, I joined online groups and attended online conferences. This gives you the ability to connect with large Filipino American communities like in LA, the Bay Area, and Seattle. The larger communities certainly have a different culture about them then the small communities like the ones in Montana. I’ve noticed this is not just that the communities are larger in numbers, but that they also boast multiple generations of Filipino Americans. As second generation, I found more connection to the lived experiences of 1.5 and other second generation Filipino Americans. Two online communities that I found connection in include:

Filipina Authors Book Club
Facebook group, reads a new book every month and virtual meetups with authors.

The Filipino American Woman Project
Podcast, also has a discord community where you can chat with hosts and previous interviewees.

Have you found an online Filipino American community that resonates with you?

4. Learn about History, especially Filipino American History

I am certainly no expert, but it is important to know the context that you live in. Do you know what the term diaspora means? It means, the dispersion of any people from their homeland. If you identify as Filipino American, that means you are a part of the Filipino diaspora.

Do you know that Filipinos were as essential part in forming some of the first unions in the United States? Look up the Manong Generation—the first major wave of Filipino immigrants who came to California, Hawaii, and Alaska to work as farmworkers and in canneries. Subjected to harsh working conditions—low wages and racial violence—Filipinos fought alongside Mexicans to form some of the first agricultural unions.

Learning how diasporic communities formed, and how they have evolved into their contemporary versions helps create context for your own lived experiences locally, nationally, and wherever there are Filipinos abroad.

We are super lucky to have an organization called Filipino American National Historical Society (FAHNS), that continues to make Filipino American History accessible.

This year’s Filipino American History Month theme is, Celebrating Our History and Legacies:

50 years of Filipino American Studies 

40 years of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS)

30 years of Filipino American History Month

HAPPY FILIPINO AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH!