Celebrating Filipino American History Month

As a first generation Filipino American, I am grateful for being born in the United States to parents who immigrated from the Philippines in the 1950s in pursuit of a better life for themselves and their future family.

As a young child, I don’t recall feeling different or discriminated against in grade school. Perhaps it was because I was too young and naïve to understand what discrimination was or maybe it was because of the socioeconomics within the private Catholic school system I attended.


As an adult, I realized I was in some type of a bubble then, sheltered within a childhood where my classmates were all the same to me despite their color, race, or ethnicity. The similiar and shared demographics of our parents seemed to shelter us from feeling different. There was an equanimity amongst us, we were peers.

I knew from a young age, I was very fortunate and blessed to have professional hard working parents who always put education and faith first. My father was a surgeon and physician, and my mother was a registered nurse who both came independently to the US to attend medical and nursing school. They came in pursuit of the American dream and although their journeys were challenging and difficult, they worked together to come to the US start a family and live the dream.

I grew up in Michigan in the suburbs outside of Detroit until I was 16 years old. I grew up at a time and place where we freely played outside under the trees in the spring and summer with the neighborhood kids, jumped into the leaves in the fall, and made snow angels and went sledding in the winter.  I was blessed to grow up experiencing all four seasons. 

Being raised in a privileged suburban environment I had all different kinds of friends from school, and some of them were also Filipino, whose parents were also professionals like doctors, accountants or attorneys. I realized a different type of shared kinship with my fellow Filipino friends, we could relate to one another on a different level based on the shared culture our parents were teaching us about their homeland. This included their food first and foremost, which is one of the the deepest expressions of their love. Food, known as 'Kamayan' in Tagalog, is how they gather, it is how they show affection, and how they welcome people into their family.

I guess this is when I really identified with being Filipino, knowing I was not white, Armenian, Lebanese, or black like some of my other friends. Back then, in the 1970’s they referred to us as “Orientals “ in school. Now of course that word is politically incorrect and we are categorized to as Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders.

The first time I remember feeling extremely proud of my Filipino heritage was when they held an International Day festival at my Catholic elementary school. They invited families of different races and ethnicities to share their cultures with the students. I was so excited that my mom was participating and holding a class about the Filipino culture, I remember her showing us how to dance the Tinikling, which is a beautiful traditional filipino dance, using two sticks of bamboo which you step in and out of as they move the bamboo. She also made her famous lumpia for my class and everybody loved them and wouldn’t stop talking about them.

My mom's lumpia recipe is still to this day one of the very best and most delicious I have ever tasted.  I feel fortunate she passed her recipe onto me and even more so that she taught me how to make them and we sat many times rolling lumpia together.  I have now shared this tradition with my own children who crave my mom's lumpia and it is a way I share the rich heritage of my filipino culture with my family and friends.   If you would like a copy of my mom's lumpia recipe please send me an email and I will happily share it.

At about 10 years old I knew I was blessed to have parents who made the long and challenging journey to the US for a better life. I also knew I was very fortunate to grow up somewhat privileged in the US and able to attend private schools because of my fathers commitment to leave the legacy of education with his children.  I knew I was more fortunate than some of my relatives still living in the Philippines whose lives were not as easy as mine.  I would penpal with my cousin in the Philippines as a young girl and this opened my eyes to the difference between our worlds.  This is when I knew I wanted to give back to my filipino roots one day.  

As my parents aged and were approaching their 70's and never having been to the Philippines with them in my life I made the decision that this was a priority, to travel with them to their homeland and have them share it with me while they were both healthy enough to travel and enjoy the trip.  In 2009 I traveled with my husband, and my parents to the Philippines for the first time and was able to connect all of the dots to my heritage.  I saw where my dad was born and raised, I visited University of Santo Thomas (UST) where both of my parents attended undergraduate college, I met my numerous relatives I had only seen photos of or heard of through the decades.  It was a very special trip for me personally as well as professionally.

This is when I met the fair trade cooperative of women artisans who would four years later begin to hand-craft my idea for making mala bead jewelry.  Little did I know in 2009 that I would create a socially responsible business which would one day help to sustain these women artisans for over 10 years.

I combined my love for fashion, my support of global artisans and my pride of my Filipino heritage to make what I was passionate about into a socially responsible business.  I used all of my years in the retail industry, apparel design, sales and marketing, and my personal taste with inspiration from my meditation practice to concept Mala and Mantra.

Fast forward 15 years later and I am so proud to be a Filipina American who is helping to support and sustain Filipina artisans and spread their beautiful work to customers all over the world.

Today I honor my Fliipino and American heritage which combined I feel has made me the conscious creative entrepreneur I am today.  The hard work, determination, endurance, and resilience I believe stem from my filipino ancestry.  The motivation, ambition, drive, persistence, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit I feel come from how my parents raised me a first generation Filipino American.  

I am grateful to my parents, grandparents, and all of my filipino ancestors for instilling in me their values of education, faith, kindness, hospitality, hard work, determination, creativity, persistence, and dedication.  I am also grateful to my parents, titas, titos, and cousins for showing me what family is all about and being part of what I like to refer to as 'my crazy filipino family.'  I am grateful to my family, my husband and children, for embracing my Filipino American heritage as part of their own and participating in our culture.

I learned just a few days ago the reason Filipino American History Month is celebrated in October is because it commemorates the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the continental United States in October 18, 1587. They arrived as slaves aboard a Spanish galleon in Morro Bay, California.  The Filipino American National Historical Society introduced October as Filipino American History Month back in 1992.

The Filipino American community celebrates this month by organizing events to raise awareness about the role of Filipino Americans in U.S. history. Celebrations of the culture include fiestas featuring filipino art, food, dance, and more.

At Mala and Mantra we are honoring Filipino American History Month with our special 'Filipino Pride' mala bracelets we designed.  The three gemstones we used represent the colors of the Filipino flag.  Red Jasper represents the red, Sodalite represents the blue, and Yellow Jade represents the yellow.  Each gemstone also represents the filipino people with intentions which promote endurance, solidarity, personal power.

In honor of this special day and month Mala and Mantra is donating 10% of all sales of our Filipino Pride bracelets to the FIlipino American Cultural Organization (FACO) to help preserve and promote Filipino culture in America while providing important resources to Filipino Americans.

I invite you to learn more about the filipino culture this month and help us support the preservation of our culture by wearing our Filpino pride bracelet.

Salamat,

JPC