New landmark to rise in Los Angeles' HiFi (Historic Filipinoown)

Renderings by Eliseo Silva

Tourists will soon be able to find Los Angeles' Historic Filipinotown when a new gateway arch arises -- just follow the stars.

The "stars" are giant parols atop a new structure that will be build across Beverley Blvd., the eastern entry into the area popularly known as "HiFi" that was the historic and cultural center of the Filipino American community during the mid-1900s. The renderings of the project were unveiled June 12, Philippine Independence Day.

“Once completed later this year, Historic Filipinotown will have a permanent reminder that showcases the beauty and storied history of the Filipino community," said L.A. City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell. 

The Historic Filipinotown Eastern Gateway Project, a long-awaited milestone in the Filipino American community, will serve as a welcome to this officially designated neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles region is home to over half a million Filipinos, the largest concentration of Filipinos outside the Philippines.

“The key to building and enhancing the beautiful neighborhood we all know as Historic Filipinotown has always been community," said Commissioner Jessica Caloza. "As a first-generation Filipina American, I am proud to see us celebrate and recognize our diversity and continue building it into the fabric of our city.”

"I’m proud to have partnered with Commissioner Jessica Caloza, Bureau of Engineering, one of the great Filipino artists of our time Eliseo Art Silva, and community members who have contributed their efforts, creativity, and ideas toward this soon-to-be point of pride for the neighborhood,” added O'Farrell.

The Filipino American mural by artist Eliseo Silva is already a tourist attraction in HiFi.

The name of the structure -- an artwork, really -- is fitting: ‘Talang Gabay: Our Guiding Star’ and designed by artist Eliseo Silva. The design elements include: the Parol, the Gumamela flower, and the Sarimanok, all symbols with deep roots in the Filipino culture.

Instagrammers will be happy to note that the gateway will be near the giant Filipino American mural at Unidad Park, also painted by Silva.

“This magnificent new gateway will welcome everyone to Historic Filipinotown," said Silva. "It’s a fitting tribute to the many courageous men and women on the frontlines - brave warriors such as our numerous Filipino healthcare workers. The Gateway not only signals that Filipino Americans have finally arrived, -- it also symbolizes the valor of the frontliners in our city.”

WEEKEND READING: Historic Filipnotown, Tech opportunities for Filipinas, Hitler's 'bible' root of anti-immigration racism

How Historic Filipinotown became 'HiFi'

Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles has a cool new  nickname, reports Frank Shyong in the Los Angeles Times.

You've heard of SoHo in New York and SoMa in San Francisco. Now we have HiFi in Los Angeles.

Historic Filipinotown was named the fifth coolest neighborhood in the world by Time Out magazine. And lately the neighborhood has started to go by a new name: HiFi.

Place names often set our expectations about neighborhoods, especially ethnic neighborhoods. We hear Koreatown, Thai Town, and Little Armenia and we expect a neighborhood in which a majority of residents are people of that background, engaged daily in the cultural practices of their homelands, voluntarily clustering in that neighborhood because of the comforts of community.

Names, especially new ones like HiFi, can also signal change. And Historic Filipinotown is changing.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

GINA ROSALES

How One Ex-Google Employee Is Creating More Opportunities For Filipino Women

If you are seeking a conference in your field or industry, there are a thousand and one to choose from. There are conferences for virtually every subject area you can imagine. 

Gina Rosales is a Filipino and Japanese American, and former Google employee who realized that as a budding female entrepreneur of color, there needed to be more conferences that made her feel supported and encouraged and that provided women of color the career guidance that is necessary to create a thriving business. 

With this idea in mind, Gina launched the Entrepinays Summit, which is “a weekend gathering of pinay entrepreneurs filled with panels, interactive workshops, mentoring, and meaningful connections.” Gina sat down with Forbes to discuss her career trajectory, why she started the Entrepinays Summit and how entrepreneurship can be fostered through sisterhood.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

US CUSTOMS & BORDER PROTECTION

Immigrant children sit inside cages in the Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas, after being taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Opinion: The immigration crisis and the racism driving it have roots in Hitler’s ‘bible’

Britain, Poland, Italy, the United States. Around the world, countries once proud of welcoming immigrants seem determined to find ever more devious ways to keep them out. 

Are these signs of a newly ascendant nationalism? Or the last gasps of existential fear?The worldwide immigration crisis — and the racism apparently driving it — can trace its roots in part to a century-old book, Madison Grant’s “The Passing of the Great Race,” according to Clyde W. Ford's oped in the Los Angeles Times.

In publishing a centenary edition of the 1916 work, white nationalist Ostara Press praised the book as a “call to American whites to counter the dangers both from non-white and non-north Western European immigration.” Grant proposed a “Nordic race,” loosely centered in Scandinavia, as principally responsible for human social and cultural development. He feared immigration and intermarriage would dilute this race, dooming it to extinction.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE