Filipino Heritage month
Joekerr
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 09:03:00 11/05/2009
CALIFORNIA, United States—If you google "Chinese American History
Month" or "Japanese American History Month," the search engine will
direct you to "Asian Pacific American Heritage Month," enacted into
law on October 28, 1992 to honor the achievements of Asian/Pacific
Americans and their contributions to the US.
All 30 or so Asian ethnic groups in the US were lumped together as
“Asian Pacific Americans” and given one month (May) to celebrate their
collective and individual cultures, histories, and heritage in the
United States. The month of May was chosen because the first Japanese
immigrants arrived in the United States on May 7, 1843 and the
transcontinental railroad, which employed hundreds of Chinese
immigrant laborers, was completed on May 10, 1869 (Golden Spike Day).
It actually started out as “Asian Pacific American Heritage Week” when
President Jimmy Carter signed the Joint Resolution on October 2, 1978
but it became a month-long celebration in 1992 when President George
H.W. Bush signed the law permanently designating May of each year as
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
But Filipino Americans were never satisfied with being lumped together
with other “Asian Pacific Americans” in celebrating May because for
one, May’s only significant event for Filipinos was when the US Navy
destroyed the Spanish armada in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, which
victory paved the way for the US colonization of the Philippines.
As a publicly elected official in San Francisco for 18 years, I
regularly attended the annual kick-off celebration of Asian Pacific
American Heritage Month in San Francisco’s City Hall. It would always
be awkward for me when Japanese Americans would recount the day in May
of 1843 when the first Japanese arrived in the US and Chinese
Americans would celebrate the day in May of 1869 when the Chinese-
built transcontinental railroad was completed and I could not
celebrate that day in May of 1898 when Dewey destroyed the Spanish
Fleet which later resulted in the US suppression of our Philippine
independence. (“Hurray, we’ve been invaded and colonized!”)
For years since its founding in Seattle, Washington in 1982, it was
always the goal of the Filipino American National History Society
(FANHS) for Filipino Americans to be given our very own month to
celebrate our history and culture in the United States.
At its biennial national conference in 1988, FANHS members unanimously
passed a resolution “to establish Filipino American History Month to
be observed annually and nationally throughout the United States and
its Territories during the Month of October commencing in the Year
1992 to mark the 405th Anniversary of the Presence of Filipinos in the
Continental United States.”
The resolution also believed that such a month-long celebration would
be “a significant time to study the advancement of Filipino Americans
in the history of the United States, as a favorable time of
celebration, remembrance, reflection, and motivation, and as a
relevant time to renew more efforts toward research, examination, and
promulgation of Filipino American history and culture in order to
provide an opportunity for all Americans to learn and appreciate more
about Filipino Americans and their historic contributions to our
nation, these United States of America.”
Just as Japanese Americans could celebrate the day the first Japanese
immigrants landed in California in May of 1843, Filipino Americans
could now also proudly commemorate the day the first Filipinos (“Luzon
Indios”) landed in California on October 18, 1587, more than 33 years
before the first English immigrants landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620.
Beginning in 1989, Filipino Americans began celebrating October as
Filipino American History Month with celebrations and festivities
throughout the US. Various states, aside from California and Hawaii,
would routinely pass resolutions as Michigan Governor Jennifer Granhom
did when she proclaimed “October 2006, as Filipino American Heritage
Month in Michigan, and I encourage all citizens to recognize, applaud,
and participate in this celebration of the many contributions made by
Filipino Americans that enhance the quality of life in Michigan.”
But the celebration in various states somehow just wasn’t enough. As
the Wikipedia entry on this subject noted, “October as Filipino
American History Month has not yet attained the prestige of other
similar minority celebrations, such as the Black History Month in
February, Women's History Month in March, and the Asian Pacific
American Heritage Month in May. This is evidenced by the fact that no
United States Congress has ever resolved to recognize Filipino
American History Month.”
That Wikipedia entry now needs to be updated. On November 3, 2009,
Representative Stephen Lynch (D-Massachusetts) stood up on the House
floor to announce that on October 29, 2009, the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee had unanimously approved House Resolution
780 celebrating October as Filipino American History Month. It was
originally sponsored by Rep. Bob Filner (D-California) with over 50
members of the House signing on as co-sponsors. Rep. Lynch also
announced that the US Senate had unanimously passed a similarly worded
resolution (S. 298) on October 1, 2009. He asked for the unanimous
consent of the House to make the bill into law.
Before the vote could take place, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R- North
Carolina) stood up and deplored the lack of substantive resolutions
being passed by the House but joined Rep. Lynch in asking for the
unanimous consent of the House for HR 780.
When the call was made for the vote, it was passed unanimously.
October is now Filipino American History Month in the United States!
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