PinoyBuilt — Stories of Filipino America

Wanting to Reconnect with your Culture? This Innovative Filipino Martial Arts Program Can Fill the Void. Written by Joseph Bautista: Did you grow up as a second or third generation Filipino-American in the United States? If so, have you experienced being embarrassed for not knowing how to speak Filipino or not being familiar with Filipino culture or history? You are not alone. In the San Francisco Bay Area , a new program is coming to Daly City to help you overcome that.  Eskabo Daan Filipino Martial Arts  has developed a program to help fellow Filipino-Americans learn about Filipino culture and have fun while doing so. Classes will teach participants how to translate: Weapons fighting to empty hand fighting English to Tagalog Tagalog to Baybayin The program is designed to expose all participants to self-defense techniques, fitness, history, culture, language, writing and more through Filipino Martial Arts . Filipino Martial Arts, more popularly known...

Woody Sims Kajukenbo. Vallejo, CA I worked on a mockup of a website for Woody Sims Kajukenbo all day yesterday. Current site -  WJSimsKajukenbo.com Proposed site -  Kaju.sfbay.us When I was in junior high school in Springstowne with Tony P, Arnel, Marcelino and Rudy, Woody Sims was one of the baddest dudes in Vallejo.  All I knew was that he took kajukenbo and was one of the top fighters in the area. For the uninitiated, kajukenbo came from Hawaii and was one of the first mixed martial arts, if not the first, in the United States.  Founded in 1947 in the Palama Settlement of Oahu, Hawaii,  Kajukenbo 's name came from the five founders/masters and their martial arts: Ka - karate (Peter Young Yil Choo) Ju - jujutsu  (Frank F. Ordonez) Ju - judo (Joseph Holck) Ken - kenpo ( Adriano Directo Emperado ) Bo - western & eastern boxing (Clarence Chang) Woody Sims was maybe three years ahead of me in school. Arnel took kajukenbo with Em...

Vallejo, CA • January 31, 2026. The One Photo of My Son That People Keep Finding: five years after a wrestling tournament at Mission San Jose High in Fremont, a Benicia High senior season, and the Tagalog word for the kind of endurance that does not announce itself. wrestling, benicia high school, mission san jose, student-athlete, dumog, tiyaga, fil-am, filipino american, family archive, turtle island, 1/31. Vallejo, CA · January 31, 2026 The One Photo of My Son That People Keep Finding Five years on from a wrestling tournament at Mission San Jose High in Fremont — a Benicia High senior season, and the Tagalog word for the kind of endurance that never announces itself. Benicia High School wrestling at Mission San Jose High School, Fremont, California. Photo by J.F.R. Perseveranda / PinoyBuilt. I have taken thousands of photographs of my children. This is the one people keep finding. It goes up months ag...

Balitang America Filipino Canadian mixed martial arts champion Ryan “The Lion” Diaz achieved his dream when he began construction on his multimillion-dollar Vancouver school in early 2020. But when the pandemic hit, he rolled with the punches by upgrading his facility and programs with COVID-19 safety measures. Rowena Papasin reports.

Follow @JFPerseveranda . June 26, 2020 at 01:45PM So my favorite story of Jim is from when we were big bad 9th graders at Springstowne Jr. High. Being big and skilled in martial arts, Jim was always down for 'action.' He was like Bolo in Enter The Dragon. First period in Mrs. Applegate's math class, "Troy" asked for answers on the math test. If you remember Troy, he was one of the best athletes in our class. I'm like, WTH we sit right in front of the teacher. NO. (Plus I don't cheat). Fast forward to after school and I'm walking back to my locker after PE. Troy comes at me and throws his elbow into me. I bounce into a fighting stance, do my best Bruce Lee impersonation, and motion to Troy with my fingers ala Bruce Lee. "Oh you know martial arts. I don't want to get suspended." I'm like,"YESS!" "Subdue the enemy without fighting." Sun Tzu. But then Jim goes,"Let's take it outside in front of the library...

Mark Munoz: My Favorite UFC Fights The Filipino Wrecking Machine [post_ads] M ark Muñoz was born on United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka, a United States Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan, to Filipino parents. At the age of two, Muñoz and his family relocated to Vallejo, California . Muñoz began wrestling at the age of 13 and also played football, but had to give up the latter sport when he was a sophomore in high school due to an injury. Because of his size and raw talent, Muñoz began wrestling with the varsity team at Vallejo High School . At Vallejo, Muñoz went on to be a two-time State Champion, an Asics First Team All-American, a 1995 National High School Champion , and the 1996 NHSCA National High School Champion. Muñoz was also on the honor roll for all four years and a member of the National Honors Society. That same year, Muñoz won a silver medal for the USA Junior National Team and finished fifth in his weight class at the FILA Junior World Wrestling Championship. Muño...

FilAmFest: Filipino American Arts & Culture Festival returns on Saturday, October 27th, 2018 from 10am to 6pm San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts at 2425 Dusk Drive, San Diego, CA 92139! E njoy live cultural and contemporary entertainment, hands-on workshops from educators and experts, delicious Filipino cuisines and cooking demonstrations, martial arts exhibitions, and fun for all ages! Video Created By: Andrew Salvatin Song: Over 7000 Planets - Kulintronica Follow @Pinoybuilt [post_ads]

Memories from our Overlook house Thanks to Facebook for the memory. But I had restricted the YouTube subsequently after sharing it on FB. I just made my YouTube video public again. 2008 July2. Vallejo, CA. Their mommy shot the video. Since we had our first kid, Nica, I always encouraged her to shoot photos/videos while I was still at work. (We didn't have to pay for Costco photo processing anymore. LOL). Per the filename 20080702161804, it was 4:18 PM so I was still at work in Fairfield. I love how Jian leaves the Rockband session by running away when he sees the food his mommy had cooked, and says, " Ooh lumpia !" LOL! We never worried about Jian and Chesca eating -- only their Ate Nica.  When Nica was a small toddler, she had always shown natural musical gifts. Nica even made up her own songs. I got her first toy keyboard (a red one) when she was two years old I believe. I encouraged her to perform, and always had her sing karaoke at our parties. She ha...

Believe it or not, Rudy had a late growth spurt and is now taller than me! 😜 🤣 Flashback to Vallejo Pista Sa Nayon 2023 . We hadn't planned the meeting. Rudy said he had planned on bringing his son to the event, and Alex Jose had texted him the day before to let him know our old friend, Admiral Butch Dollaga, was the featured speaker. I also had planned on attending Pista Sa Nayon to check out the Filipino Martial Arts Tournament. My sister had also texted me that Admiral Butch would be at Mare Island. So it was an impromptu Hogan High School reunion . I've just confirmed that the mobile version of the site and the desktop version show different comments.  That's because the the two sites technically have different URL's. Therefore, you will not see desktop comments if you're browsing the site with your smartphone and vice versa. The workaround is to view the desktop site on your smartphone. You can also go to https://disqus.com/home/forum/pinoybuilt-com/ to view...

California • April 2026. UC Berkeley Received 133,211 Applications for Fall 2026 — What Filipino-American Students Need to Know. uc berkeley admissions 2026, filipino american college, uc berkeley fall 2026, california university admissions, fil-am students UC, golden bear, bay area, alameda. EDUCATION • CALIFORNIA • APRIL 2026 UC Berkeley Received 133,211 Applications for Fall 2026 — What Filipino-American Students Need to Know Berkeley is not a "reach" — it is a fortress. But for Filipino-American students, the story of Cal starts in 1969, with a strike that changed American higher education forever. Every year, tens of thousands of Filipino-American families across California open their laptops, navigate to the UC application portal, and check the box next to "UC Berkeley" with a mixture of hope, dread, and the quiet understanding that Cal is different from the rest of the system. It is t...

Hollywood, CA • March 2026. One Battle After Another Oscar sweep Paul Thomas Anderson Best Picture Filipino American diaspora pakikibaka Oscars 2026 Autumn Durald Arkapaw Fil-Am Hollywood activism AAPI representation. FILM & CULTURE • MARCH 2026 One Battle After Another: Why PTA's Oscar Sweep Mirrors the Fil-Am Struggle Paul Thomas Anderson's six-Oscar sweep at the 98th Academy Awards is more than a Hollywood milestone — it's a reflection of the multi-generational resilience and hidden labor that defines the Filipino-American experience. When Paul Thomas Anderson stepped to the podium at the 98th Academy Awards to accept his first-ever Best Picture and Best Director awards, he did so for a film whose DNA is sewn from the same cloth as the Filipino-American story — quiet persistence, invisible labor, and a refusal to quit across generations. One Battle After Another didn't just win Hollywood's b...