Filipino American History Month

October’s arrival ushers in Filipino American History Month, a period of storytelling, culinary delights and remembrance. The timing honors a remarkable event: on October 18, 1587, a group of ‘Luzones Indios’ from the Philippines—then a Spanish colony—landed at Morro Bay, California, as part of the Spanish Manila galleon trade. They became the first recorded Filipinos on what is now U.S. soil. Later, in the 1760s, Filipino sailors known as Manilamen jumped ship in Louisiana and established the fishing village of Saint Malo. Over centuries, waves of Filipino migrants followed: pensionados (students) studying in American universities in the early 1900s, farmworkers and cannery laborers called sakadas who harvested sugarcane in Hawai‘i and asparagus in California, and Filipino veterans who fought alongside American forces in World War II.

Despite their presence, Filipinos often faced discrimination and were excluded from citizenship laws. They formed associations such as the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) to preserve their stories. In 1992, FANHS founders Dr. Fred Cordova and Dr. Dorothy Laigo Cordova proposed dedicating October as Filipino American History Month, not to celebrate heritage in a vague sense, but to examine the complex history of Filipinos in the United States—from labor strikes on Delano’s grape farms with Larry Itliong to the activism of nurses pushing for fair wages. Their resolution drew attention to the contributions and struggles of Filipino Americans. In 2009, Congress passed a resolution formally recognizing October as Filipino American History Month, leading to broader celebrations in schools, libraries and community centers.

Today, the month is marked by educational events and exuberant gatherings. Youth group meetings feature kulintang gongs and tinikling bamboo dances, where partners deftly weave between clapping bamboo poles. Elders share memories of barrios in Hawai‘i or the red-vested pensionados’ college days. Scholars host lectures about Filipino seafarers who travelled across the Pacific centuries before the United States existed, or about the long fight for Filipino World War II veterans to receive promised benefits. Food plays a starring role: adobo chicken simmered in soy sauce and vinegar, sinigang sour soup, lumpia spring rolls and sweet halo‑halo desserts layered with crushed ice, jackfruit and purple ube.

Filipino American History Month invites both Filipinos and non-Filipinos to delve deeper into a narrative that is often overlooked. It celebrates the resilience of communities that navigated colonialism, exclusionary laws and economic hardship while building new lives. As October draws to a close and the sounds of kulintang fade, the stories remain—of bravery, creativity and solidarity. They remind us that history is not just dates and facts but lived experiences passed from generation to generation, anchoring identity and forging connections across oceans.