Last Sunday, August 24, Positively Filipino hosted the second "Building Communities: A Tribute to our Manongs and Manangs" event at the San Francisco Public Library. Here is an excerpt from PF Publisher Mona Lisa Yuchengco's welcome address:

For the past 12 years, Positively Filipino has been publishing weekly, to inform the Filipino diasporic community with accurate information, about our culture and heritage, our heroes and sheroes, and issues that affect us not only in our adopted countries, but also in our Motherland.

The name Positively Filipino evokes pride in being a Filipino, wherever we may be. The name Positively Filipino is also a rejection and a reversal of the racism that Filipinos faced in the 1930s where a hotel in Stockton posted a warning sign that read, “Positively No Filipinos Allowed.” It’s been almost 100 years since then, and we have come a long way. Yet, no one doubts that we are still fighting for the recognition of our contributions to this country.

The ten outstanding individuals we are honoring today are all of immigrant background, who left the Philippines in search of a better life in America. All of them achieved success and recognition in their own right despite the difficulties and prejudices they faced.

This year has brought so many disruptions to our political system and challenges to our longstanding values of empathy and respect for diversity. Immigration, the very system that brought many of us to these shores, is undergoing radical changes. While all nations have the right to control their borders, the right of individuals to due process, be they native-born or immigrant, is the hallmark of a democratic society.

Unfortunately, the rules-based system we have lived in is being seriously tested by new and arbitrary policies. It doesn’t matter anymore that your grandparents or parents toiled the farms in Hawaii and California. Or if you and your family members have served in the military and died for this country. Or if you risked your life to care for others during the pandemic. With or without legal status, US citizen or not, anyone can be suspected of violating immigration laws and can be detained even “based on physical features,” according to a current border enforcement chief.

Beneath dark political clouds, it becomes even more important to honor our manongs and manangs for their contributions to this country and our community. Let it be known that they have given this country their knowledge and skills to help run farms, businesses, classrooms, hospitals, care homes, services, and government offices. We thank this country for giving them—and us—the opportunity to do so, but gratitude should flow both ways.

Let us, our community, be the first to thank our elders, among them these ten honorees, on whose shoulders we stand, for paving the way for all of us. We must continue to tell our stories as integral parts of this American life.

Our Stories This Week

Honor the Past, Uplift the Present, Inspire the Future by Lorna Lardizabal Dietz

“Community Building: A Tribute to Our Manongs and Manangs 2025” honored the legacies of our Filipino American pioneers.

[Video] Building Communities: A Tribute to Our Manongs and Manangs 2025 by Ken Guanga

Positively Filipino continues to honor Filipino Americans who have given us pride.

Cutting Asparagus in Gonzales, California — Spring 1965 by Alex S. Fabros, Jr.

Farmworker-Soldier-Historian Alex Fabros, Jr. shares the second part of his Filipino American memoir.

Filipino Language and Its Discontents by Julienne Loreto

It’s Buwan ng Wika (Language Month) but shouldn’t it be Buwan ng mga Wika (Month of Languages) instead?

Have Books, Will Travel by Claire Mercado-Obias

A vacation reading list for those who can’t travel but need an escape.

FilAms Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 70 by Mona Lisa Yuchengco

Role models and achievers, some of whom you may not even know are Filipino.

{Read It Again]

When Lolo’s Debating Team Vanquished America by Liana Romulo

The Last Night of I-Hotel by Veronica Versoza

[Video of the Week]

Alexandra Eala on Tennis in the Philippines

In The Know

Alexandra Eala becomes first Filipino to win Grand Slam Match
https://asamnews.com/2025/08/26/tennis-us-open-grand-slam/

Filipino fire survivors feel seen in first town hall
https://asamnews.com/2025/08/21/lahaina-filipino-town-hall-is-first-in-recent-history/

The Asian Breast Center is Closing—Here's Why It Matters
https://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/newsfeatures-peopleparties/the-asian-breast-center-is-closingheres-why-it-matters-a8121-20250823-dyn

The only unhappy Aquino in America
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/specials/content/194/the-only-unhappy-aquino-in-america/

FPJ right hand recalls how Da King turned down a blank check
https://www.pep.ph/news/local/188209/fpj-right-hand-susan-tagle-blank-check

Many stories have been written, narrated, and documented about the "manongs," the first-generation Filipino migrants in the US who were recruited from the Philippines to work the farmlands of Hawaii and California. Not much have been written, however, of the "bridge generation," the children of the manongs/manangs who, because of legal and societal issues (including the law that prohibited minorities from marrying whites), are comparatively small in number but who nonetheless occupy a significant and consequential niche in Filipino American history.

This year, we are starting our celebration of Filipino American History Month tomorrow with a webinar that will feature three prominent members of the Bridge Generation taking us back in time on how it was to grow up in the era before civil rights, diversity and a new generation of Filipino immigrants.

We hope you join us in honoring these Fil-Am community trailblazers.