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| A Filipino American choir performed at last year's city hall gala in San Francisco. |
PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE DAY on June 12 has taken on worldwide status with the millions of Filipino workers throughout the world.
In few places such as San Francisco, it is gaining a foothold as an annual event as part of the city which seeks any reason to have a party. It will be a two-week celebration in San Francisco. It'll start on June 12 with the transformation of City Hall into an ornate beau arts ballroom for a formal dinner and dance and culminate in a free outdoor concert featuring American Idol finalist Jessica Sanchez.
In few places such as San Francisco, it is gaining a foothold as an annual event as part of the city which seeks any reason to have a party. It will be a two-week celebration in San Francisco. It'll start on June 12 with the transformation of City Hall into an ornate beau arts ballroom for a formal dinner and dance and culminate in a free outdoor concert featuring American Idol finalist Jessica Sanchez.
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| Jessica Sanchez |
The celebration of the 117th anniversary of Philippine Independence should turn posh Union Square into a mini-Manila, or at least, a larger version of the Serramonte Shopping Center in next door Daly City. It will bring in not only the city's Filipino Americans but the larger community around the Bay Area.
KalayaanSF, named after the Filipino word for “independence”, is a series of events held in San Francisco during the month of June to commemorate and celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Philippine Independence, which occurred in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898.
Organized on an annual basis by the Filipino-American community in the Bay Area with the support of the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, the celebration showcases Philippine culture and heritage, drawing attention to the contributions Filipinos and Filipino-Americans have made to their communities.
Cities throughout the world where large concentrations of Filipinos reside - from Honolulu to Seattle to New York City to London, San Diego, L.A., Chicago, Stockton, Daly City, Sydney, Brisbane, Copenhagen, Riyadh, Rome, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul - all part of the Philippines diaspora, will mark the day with parades, dinners, concerts and talent shows, the guitars will come out to strum the old ballads, loudpeakers will blare with hip-hop, speakers will wax eloquently (and probably to long) and the long bamboo poles will find a stage to dance the tinikiling, lith women will don the butterfly sleeves for the zarzuela, brave men will suck in their stomachs and bare their chests to dance the exotic mountain dances and Muslim princesses will step nimbly through the rapidly clacking bamboo poles, health care professionals, nannies, maids,
teachers, chefs, bankers, and the thousands of crew members on countless ocean liners and merchant marine cargo ships, high tech workers or newly minted billionaires in Silicon Valley, they are recent immigrants speaking in their dialect or 6th and 7th generation Americans with blond hair with that wonderful inherited lightly tanned complexion, have done what Filipinos have always done - adapt, survive and perhaps prosper in whatever surroundings they are in, an innate ability that is a blessing and sometimes a curse.
The wonderful halo-halo-like melange of Chinese, Malay, Indian, Polynesian, Negrito, Spanish, American and Japanese and (most recently) Vietnamese that we call Filipino are all tied together by the Internet and social media, unearthing long-buried memories of volcanoes and jungles, white sand beaches and beeping jeepneys, the sweetest mangoes and fresh fish roasted over an open fire, the love, laughter and the poverty of relatives left behind.
KalayaanSF, named after the Filipino word for “independence”, is a series of events held in San Francisco during the month of June to commemorate and celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Philippine Independence, which occurred in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898.
Organized on an annual basis by the Filipino-American community in the Bay Area with the support of the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, the celebration showcases Philippine culture and heritage, drawing attention to the contributions Filipinos and Filipino-Americans have made to their communities.
This is not to be confused with Philippine-American Friendship Day when the U.S. granted independence to their Pacific colony on July 4.
Cities throughout the world where large concentrations of Filipinos reside - from Honolulu to Seattle to New York City to London, San Diego, L.A., Chicago, Stockton, Daly City, Sydney, Brisbane, Copenhagen, Riyadh, Rome, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul - all part of the Philippines diaspora, will mark the day with parades, dinners, concerts and talent shows, the guitars will come out to strum the old ballads, loudpeakers will blare with hip-hop, speakers will wax eloquently (and probably to long) and the long bamboo poles will find a stage to dance the tinikiling, lith women will don the butterfly sleeves for the zarzuela, brave men will suck in their stomachs and bare their chests to dance the exotic mountain dances and Muslim princesses will step nimbly through the rapidly clacking bamboo poles, health care professionals, nannies, maids, RELATED: Speaker series eyes SF's future for Filipinos
teachers, chefs, bankers, and the thousands of crew members on countless ocean liners and merchant marine cargo ships, high tech workers or newly minted billionaires in Silicon Valley, they are recent immigrants speaking in their dialect or 6th and 7th generation Americans with blond hair with that wonderful inherited lightly tanned complexion, have done what Filipinos have always done - adapt, survive and perhaps prosper in whatever surroundings they are in, an innate ability that is a blessing and sometimes a curse.
The wonderful halo-halo-like melange of Chinese, Malay, Indian, Polynesian, Negrito, Spanish, American and Japanese and (most recently) Vietnamese that we call Filipino are all tied together by the Internet and social media, unearthing long-buried memories of volcanoes and jungles, white sand beaches and beeping jeepneys, the sweetest mangoes and fresh fish roasted over an open fire, the love, laughter and the poverty of relatives left behind.
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Image by Jason Baguia
Heroes of the Philippine Independence |
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