Filipino American Cultural Renaissance

This twenty-eighth day of Filipino American History Month brings information on the Filipino American Cultural Renaissance.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, a great many developments occurred for and by the Filipino American community, spurred by advanced research and creativity and the formation of a more distinct identity.

In the 1990s, a San Diego study found that Filipino girls had the highest rate of suicide and unwanted pregnancy among Asian ethnic groups. During the same time, Filipinos were found to have the highest rate of HIV/AIDS among Asian Americans.

In education, Filipinos eventually were found to have the lowest admission rate of any ethnic group in the UC system, and few Filipino American professors had tenure nationwide. Filipino undergraduates at colleges and universities nationwide rallied for the hiring and tenure of Filipino American professors, Filipino American Studies courses, higher admissions and retention for Filipino college students, and ethnic studies courses.

In the community, youth activists created summer camps and programs to develop Filipino American youth leadership in Sacramento and at Stanford University. Pilipino Youth Coalitions were created in Northern California cities. National Filipino American organizations such as the Filipino Civil Rights Advocates (FilCRA), the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NAFFAA), and the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN) were established.

With respect to politics, Daly City, Milpitas, Stockton, Vallejo, Union City, and Carson elected Filipino American city officials.

In fashion, clothing companies Downright Pinoy, Pinay, and Tribal Pinoy were established in Los Angeles around this time.

As far as arts, the San Francisco Bay Areas’ Represent and Los Angeles’ Our Path to Follow poetry and spoken word events bring Filipino American poets and performance artists to wide audiences. The Rock Steady Crew, composed of DJs Qbert, Apollo, and Mixmaster Mike, won the DMC World Championship three years in a row. Their crew, the Invisibl Skratch Picklz, continued to dominate and influence turntable jazz and hip=hop culture in general. In Los Angeles, the Beat Junkies formed.

The digital media revolution and the Internet allowed Filipino Americans to produce, publish, and disseminate their own books, magazines, zines, CDs, and independent films and documentaries, and to create their own independent record companies, film production companies, and music festivals.

All of this resulted in a unique and celebratory time of Filipino American history.