Filipino American History--Our Legacy is Not for Sale!

pI am proud to be Filipino, Filipino-American.spannbsp; /spanI am proud of our legacy in America.spannbsp; /spanI love the laughter and resilience of my people.spannbsp; /spanI love the sound of their laughter, their thick voices of different tongues.spannbsp; /spanI love my people 365 days a year.spannbsp; /spanI love the Filipino youth who stand up for their community.spannbsp; /spanI love our generosity.spannbsp; /spanI love how gracious we are while at the same time possess the fiercest fire when defending our community.spannbsp; /spanThe sun rises and sets in SOMA.spannbsp; /spanHipsters, techies and speculators move in and look at us as if to ask: What are you doing here?spannbsp; /spanThey look at us like the furniture that came with the place while they covet our closets, our living rooms, our kitchensmdash;built with decades of fragrance and spices and flavors and lives.spannbsp; /spanOur homes contract and expand, resisting constriction, giving birth to our children who walk the streets of SOMA, their voices accented with our histories, our stories, our struggles, that are still being fought in the city./p pnbsp;/p pWhat are we doing here?spannbsp; /spanWell, we didnrsquo;t just get here with the arrival of the tech industry and requisite mini-cupcake shops.spannbsp; /spanOur people have been in this country since the 1500rsquo;s when Filipinos landed in Morro Bay as part of the Manila Galleon Trade.spannbsp; /spanWe arrived in October 18supth/sup, 1587.spannbsp; /spanThe trade started in 1565 and ended in 1815.spannbsp; /spanThatrsquo;s 250 yearsmdash;with hundreds of Filipinos coming each time.spannbsp; /spanThe Mayflower, in contrast, came oncemdash;with 101 people.spannbsp; /spanTo put this in a somewhat scholarly perspective, Filipinos likely arrived in this country before the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, greatmdash;not so greatmdash;grandparents of your garden-variety techie or hipster did.spannbsp; /spanIf therersquo;s any conjecture, said techie or hipster (or otherwise) can check that digital ethnic studies sanctum called ancestry.com/p pnbsp;/p pOur people have been a part of labor struggles, the fight for civil rights, the fight for ethnic studies and the fight for housingmdash;as evidenced by the fight for the International Hotel in what was then Manilatown in the 1960rsquo;s and 70rsquo;smdash;a fight and forcible eviction of Filipino and Chinese elders whose repercussions persist to this day.spannbsp; /spanOur legacy lives and carries on despite attempts to erase our community by real estate speculators whose sense of community are things they have branded ldquo;Community benefitsrdquo; packages that seem more PR then anything else.spannbsp; /spanDevelopments such 5m by Forest City threatens the Filipino community.spannbsp; /spanThe developer offered a laundry list of ldquo;community benefits but their ultimate goal is to make as much money as they possibly can, more money than they can possibly spend.spannbsp; /span/p pnbsp;/p pMarket rate housing developers have zero concern for our community.spannbsp; /spanOur peoplersquo;s kindness is taken for granted, taken for weakness.spannbsp; /spanOur working class people are humble.spannbsp; /spanMuch of what is missing in our city can be found in the Filipino communitymdash;a sense of sharing, a sense of respect, a sense of honoring what came before.spannbsp; /spanRecently, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution calling or the establishment of a Filipino cultural district in SOMA called Soma Pilipinas.spannbsp; /spanThe Filipino community has come togethermdash;seniors, youth, cultural workers, artistsmdash;community members who honor our community and who are creating Filipino American history daily, working tirelessly to insure our youth, families and elders spaces where we can thrive and live in dignity.spannbsp; The community has convened meetings create the vision of SOMA Pilipinas--what will it look like?nbsp; What will it offer the community?nbsp; Community organizations such as SOMCAN (South of Market Community Action Network), Veterans Equity Center, Kearny Street Workshop, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, among others have been involved in the process that seeks to engage and truly reflect the voice of the community that they serve. /spanThe seeds of this communitymdash;in the words of Manilatown poet Al Roblesmdash;were planted long ago./p pnbsp;/p pThe Filipino community truly practices a sharing community.spannbsp; /spanThe city can learn, needs to learn from its example.spannbsp; /spanPerhaps this learning, this recognizing of example is the only thing that can save it from its fatal errors.spannbsp; /spanIt can learn from the struggle of Steve Arevalo, elder Filipino-American who has served SOMA for decades working with youth and families.spannbsp; /spanHe is fighting to keep the historic Gran Oriente Filipino Hotel in South Park in SOMA from being sold.spannbsp; /spanSteve Arevalo, whose grandfather lived at the Gran Oriente, the first building owned by a Filipino organization in North America.spannbsp; /spanSteve Arevalo, who remembers the struggles of the early Filipino immigrants, who laid the foundation of our community, living with the yoke of white supremacy.spannbsp; /spanGran Oriente Filipino, a place where our community looked out for one another and provided support through the Gran Oriente lodge.spannbsp; /spanThat history is being forgotten by the descendants of the old timers who started Gran Oriente Filipno, who want to sell the legacy of our community, our skin, our identity to finally achieve acceptance in the shroud of the white supremacy notion of profit over everything.spannbsp; /spanThatrsquo;s what the fight for the International Hotel was aboutmdash;not forgetting our elders, our history, our people.spannbsp; /spanI love my people.spannbsp; /spanI love our strength.spannbsp; /spanI love that we wonrsquo;t forget our history, even though a few of us, from time to time, need to be reminded.spannbsp; /spanI am proud of my community for fighting to keep its legacy alive.spannbsp; /spanIn the words of Steve Arevalo,spannbsp; /spanldquo;Our legacy is not for salerdquo;./p pnbsp;/p pnbsp;/p pcopy; 2016 Tony Robles/p