Filipino Festivals in Southern California

Filipino festivals (also “Philippine festivals”) in southern California are lively, dynamic events that draw multigenerational and multicultural crowds to enjoy food, partake in traditional games and crafts, buy Filipino pride gear, and watch a variety of acts that showcase the talent and creativity of Filipino Americans. Inclusive of those who identify as immigrant, U.S.-born, and transnational, Filipinos from across the region convene to express pride and promote visibility as an overlooked and marginalized ethnic group in the United States. The first public performances by Filipinos in the United States were in exhibits curated by colonial officials at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 to justify colonization of the Philippines. Presented as an uncivilized people in need of American tutelage, this stereotyping of Filipinos as primitives motivated pensionados or students from the Philippines to represent themselves; they organized Rizal Day starting in 1905, which valorized national Philippine hero José Rizal, in order to highlight their identity as modern, educated people. New immigrants, who were mostly rural, single men from the northern Philippines, arrived in the 1930s and frequented taxi dance halls in which Filipino jazz musicians and dancers flourished. Yet the established Filipino community criticized these venues as places of vice that were lacking in family and traditional cultural values. Philippine folk dances were not prevalent among Filipino Americans until after the Philippine Bayanihan Folk Dance Company appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. Due to their influence, Filipino American folk dance troupes were established across the nation, presenting Philippine cultures through stylistically diverse dances such as the Indigenous or Tribal suite, the Muslim or “Moro” suite, and the Maria Clara or Spanish-influenced suite. Folk dance performance became a hallmark of festivals such as the Philippine Folk Festival, which has been held annually in San Diego since 1979 (renamed the Philippine Cultural Arts Festival in 1996). In Los Angeles, the Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture began in 1992, attracting thousands from around the region. These large-scale public Filipino festivals in southern California offer opportunities to gain insight into the variety of ways in which Filipino Americans creatively express a range of experiences, interests, and concerns. While folk dance troupes and traditional music ensembles such as Spanish-influenced rondalla (plucked string instruments) are most visibly tied to representations of Philippine traditions, rappers, DJs, spoken word artists, hip-hop dance crews, R&B singers, and rock bands demonstrate Filipinos’ mastery of American popular forms. With origins in community celebrations since the early 1900s, Filipino festivals of the early 21st century reflect changes and continuities in California’s Filipino communities, which have adapted to internal dynamics, larger societal forces, and engagement with the homeland of the Philippines.