State allocates $1-million to Filipino American research center

The Filipino American author Carlos Bulosan.

ASAM NEWS

California announced during this year’s Filipino American History Month that $1 million in state funding will go to a research center for Filipino studies, reports the USA Inquirer.

Founded in late 2018, the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies is located on the University of California, Davis campus. Center director and chair of Asian American studies Robyn Rodriguez said it is the first center of its kind at a major research university.

According to the USA Inquirer, the allocated money will allow the center to launch an annual national conference on Filipino studies, conduct a major survey on Filipino American health and wellbeing, continue research on Filipino migrant workers and expand the digital archive and oral history projects.

“The Filipino American community is one of the oldest immigrant groups in California, but our community’s place in California history and U.S. history more broadly — from leading the farmworker movement to fighting during World War II — is not widely known or taught,” Rodriguez said.

The USA Inquirer reports that the 3.5 million Filipino Americans in the country represent one of the nation’s largest Asian American groups. 1.5 million of that population resides in California, but a statement on the Bulosan Center’s UC Davis page said that Filipino Americans fail to be adequately represented as students and faculty within the University of California system.

“If knowledge is power then the Filipino community is severely disempowered,” the statement adds. “The Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies Initiative aims to change that.”

Since its founding, the center has raised $30,000 in private donations from across the state and nation, according to the USA Inquirer. This year’s million-dollar allocation was championed by Rob Bonta, the only Filipino American in California’s Assembly.

The funding will enable the center to hire staff, support graduate students, launch a major national survey on Filipino American health and well-being, continue research on Filipino migrant workers, expand the digital archive and oral history projects, and start an annual national conference on Filipino studies.
Rodriguez told NBC News last September that the Bulosan Center is named for Carlos Bulosan, a prominent figure in the labor movement who was committed to raising awareness of those marginalized within the Filipino American community. 

Bulosan's most famous novel, "America Is In the Heart" is required reading in most Asian American study departments in the US. Rodriguez added that she hopes to eventually get Bulosan's semi-autobiographical book formally adopted by California as recommended literature.

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Symposium launches drive for Carlos Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies

WITH FILIPINO AMERICAN History Month just days away, a fundraising drive to create the country's first Center for Filipino Studies is being launched today (Sept. 29).
Though Filipinos have had a presence in the state since 1587 when the first Asian, an "indio" of Luzon, stepped onto California shores as a crew member of a Spanish galleon and have grown to become the largest Asian group in the state, little is known or taught, studied or research about their history, contributions, issues and their ongoing evolution through immigration.

The Carlos Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies Initiative (BCFSI) aims to continue Bulosan’s legacy by advancing research, education, and advocacy for historical and contemporary issues faced by Filipinos in the United States, the Philippines, and abroad. 

Under the direction of Dr. Robyn Rodriguez (Professor and Chair of the UC Davis Department of Asian American Studies) the BCFSI seeks to establish both a physical and digital institution at the UC Davis campus. The Center’s focus will stretch across multiple disciplines and fields, such as public policy, sociology, cultural studies, history, public & economic health.
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Other ethnic groups have created study centers in other parts of the country, but a center for Filipino studies has been lacking. There is a Philippine Studies Center at the University of Hawaii, but its focus on the Philippines.

The Carlos Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies and LEAD Filipino are co-leading an inaugural Filipino Policy Symposium on Saturday, September 29 from11:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. at  Wellman Hall on the campus of the University of California, Davis.

"Our goals for the Symposium are to build coalitions with Filipino organizations across the region, advance and develop a 2019 Policy Agenda pushing for progressive policies that will better our community's well being, and organize the first-ever Filipino Legislative Advocacy Day in Sacramento in 2019," states the symposium's website.

With California's General Election coming up on Nov. 6, the symposium will emphasize the importance of civic engagement and participation with an eye to making an impact on the 2020 Presidential race and Census.

After the symposium, a benefit dinner with entertainment will be held starting at 6:30 p.m. featuring DJs, hip-hop and spoken word. The dinner is sold out but tickets for the sympsium are still available: $20 for the public and $5 for students.

Rodriguez added that the center was named after Carlos Bulosan, the famed Filipino American author, because of his work as one of the most prominent figures in the labor movement and because of his commitment to lifting up the experiences, stories and issues of the most marginalized of the Filipino community.

She hopes sometime in the next year to get the state of California, which just passed a bill requring ethnic studies in its public schools, to formally adopt Bulosan's semi-autobiographical novel "America Is in the Heart" as recommended literature through the California Department of Education.

“What was quite disturbing was the fact that Carlos Bulosan, who really has become really central to Filipino American studies at the college level is nowhere to be found when it comes to the recommended literature list for K-12 education in our state,” she said. “It’s not even that he’s missing, but there is actually very little in terms of Filipino Americans so we’re hoping to change that.”

If you wish to donate to the Carlos Bulosan Filipino Studies Center, click here.
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