PinoyBuilt — Stories of Filipino America

Oas, Albay, Philippines • June 2026. Lola Rosa Camposano Baptismal Record Found on FamilySearch — A Filipino Family's 1914 Genealogy Discovery. Filipino genealogy, FamilySearch Philippines, baptismal record Albay, Oas Albay surnames, Camposano, Manlangit, Recuenco, Bicol family history, St. Michael the Archangel Parish Church Oas Albay. Genealogy • June 2026 Found on FamilySearch: Lola Rosa's 1914 Baptismal Record From Oas, Albay A Catholic register from a Bicol parish, 112 years old — and it tells four generations of a Filipino family's story. Here is everything the document reveals, and why your lola's church record matters for every Fil-Am family. Two-page spread from the 1914 baptismal register of St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Oas, Albay. Each page holds two entries. Rosa Camposano's record is the bottom-left entry on the left page. Source: FamilySearch.org. My lola's name was Rosita. Rosi...

"To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter." The quote is from Euripedes ' play Helen (which coincidentally is my daughters' maternal grandmother's name). Helen is a drama by Euripides about Helen, first produced in 412 BC for the Dionysia in a trilogy that also contained Euripides' lost Andromeda. The play has much in common with Iphigenia in Tauris, one of the playwright's later works. E uripides c. 480 – c. 406 BC) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom a significant number of plays have survived. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but, according to the Suda, it was 92 at most. Of these, 18 or 19 have survived more or less complete (there has been debate about his authorship of Rhesus, largely on stylistic grounds) and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays. More of his plays have survived int...

Albay, Bicol • July 2026. Learn Filipino: Maganda, Magayon, and the Word for Beautiful That Named a Volcano. maganda meaning, magayon bikol, bikol word for beautiful, mount mayon meaning, daragang magayon legend, gugurang bikol mythology, ma- prefix tagalog, kagandahan kagayonan, oas albay, decolonize filipino beauty, kayumanggi, learn filipino regional languages. Learn Filipino • Regional Languages • July 2026 Maganda, Magayon, and the Word for Beautiful That Named a Volcano Tagalog says maganda. Bikol says magayon. They mean the same thing — and one of them became the name of the most perfect mountain in the Philippines. Mount Mayon rises over Albay — known in Bikol as Bulkang Magayon, "the beautiful volcano." Hero image: Gemini/Imagen for PinoyBuilt. The last time I rode the train through Bicol, I was going to a funeral. It was for my great-grandmother — Lola Inay, Valeriana Presenta Perseveranda ...

92% Filipino, 8% China & Taiwan: Reading My AncestryDNA Results Through Filipino History When my AncestryDNA results came in, I wasn’t chasing a dramatic revelation or a foreign surprise. I wasn’t hoping for a plot twist that would somehow redefine who I am. What I received instead was something far more meaningful—something that confirmed not just identity, but history . 92% Filipino 48% Northern & Central Philippines 34% Luzon 10% Central & Southern Philippines 8% Eastern & Central China & Taiwan At first glance, these numbers might look like simple data points. But for anyone who understands the Philippines—its geography, its migrations, its fractures and continuities—this breakdown tells a layered story of movement, survival, and rootedness . This post isn’t about DNA as destiny. It’s about DNA as a map —one that makes sense only when read alongside history. Filipino Isn’t One Place—It’s an Archipelago ...

Vallejo, CA • August 2026. "Filipino" Wasn't Ours: How We Took the Word — and Why Some Want to Trade It for Maharlika. origin of the word filipino, indio meaning, insulares, luis rodriguez varela el conde filipino, las islas filipinas 1543 villalobos, maharlika meaning, merdeka maharddhika, william henry scott barangay, haring bayang katagalugan, andres bonifacio, los indios bravos, rename the philippines maharlika, parliamentary bill 195 eddie ilarde, decolonize the mind, filipino american history. DECOLONIZE THE MIND • AUGUST 2026 "Filipino" Wasn't Ours: How We Took the Word — and Why Some Want to Trade It for Maharlika Yesterday I published a glossary of the words the empire used on us. One word was missing. For most of three centuries, Filipino meant somebody else — and the story of how it changed hands is the best thing our ancestors ever did. The name arrived on a chart before it ...