San Diego Filipino American community continues to thrive

SAN DIEGO, CA — It’s one of the largest and most thriving Filipinos American communities in the US, and now they’re aiming for big goals.

This organization is 200,000 members strong, and while many are considered second generation, and a few the descendants of military, the Filipino pride and spirit of San Diego continues to flourish.

“We are finding our own. We definitely have a lot of pride in ourselves. We have a lot of activities that we do as a community, but now we’re finding our voice in particular with Chris Cate and Audie being so vocal and visible in the community, and a lot of other national organizations doing the same,” said Marty Lorenzo.

San Diego has been home to several long time Filipino institutions.

Aside from the 47-year old PASACAT, Balboa Park’s house of the Philippines and the Filipino American highway, all are continuing to grow — recently opening a year-round Filipino American school, and community members often find themselves giving back.

Recently, the community held a State of Filipino American Community Forum, where 500 gathered to hear from local leaders, hoping to organize the community towards larger goals, rom the grass roots to the elected levels.

“We want to revolve around promoting the language and the culture of the Philippines. And the reason why that’s a common bond for everyone here,” said Audie De Castro, honorary Consul General. “It’s not controversial, it’s important and we maintain our identity. The second thing we want to do is promote Bayanihan. We want to work together towards a common goal, so we’re starting to change the mindset of a large part of our community — and really just think about the bigger picture how we can progress.”

“It’s really embracing your culture,” said SD Councilman Chris Cate. “Understanding more where you came from what’s the Philippines like, visiting the Philippines if you haven’t gone or haven’t gone in a long time, and really just promoting and embracing that culture and celebrating that type of diversity we have here in San Diego.”

As they break ground on more projects, Honorary Consul General Audie De Castro is also working on another initiative: a database of all the Filipinos in the county.

“With a database we’re able to send information to our community with just one click of a button, and we intend to grow that data base… so we have everyone’s information for private and to promote the community when there’s events like this,” said De Castro.

Eventually, they hope to empower more Filipinos — aside from getting more Filipinos to vote, several work for elected officials, and while Councilman Chris Cate is still the only FilAm on the current city council, he’s hoping to be joined by more.