Vallejo, California • May 2008. Nica's First Communion: Veronica Perseveranda at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, Vallejo — May 3, 2008. Filipino-American, Catholic, family archive, Vallejo parish, Fil-Am faith.

BACK-POSTED • MAY 3, 2008 ARCHIVE IN PROGRESS

FIRST COMMUNION • VALLEJO • MAY 2008

Nica & Dominic's First Communion: St. Catherine of Siena, Vallejo — May 3, 2008

Seven years old. White dress. Our parish church. Veronica's First Communion, filed for keeps.

Cousins Veronica & Dominic Perseveranda pose with extended family at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, Vallejo, CA. May 3, 2008. Nica & Dom's First Communion. Photo: J.F.R. Perseveranda

Veronica and Dominic Perseveranda stand at the front of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church on a Saturday morning in May after receiving the Eucharist for the first time.

I took more than two hundred fifty photographs that day. This is where they live now.

📌 Did You Know?
Filipino Americans are among the largest Catholic immigrant communities in the United States. In Vallejo, Filipino families have filled the pews at parishes like St. Catherine of Siena for generations — from the Navy families who settled Solano County in the mid-20th century to the second- and third-generation Fil-Am children receiving their sacraments today. Faith carried across the Pacific is still being passed forward.

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🇵🇭 Tagalog Word of the Day
Komunyon — koh-moo-NYOHN

Holy Communion. From the Spanish comunión. Unang Komunyon — First Communion — marks the first time a Catholic child receives the Eucharist. In Filipino families, it is a milestone wrapped in white lace, ninongs, ninangs, and a faith tradition carried across oceans and passed to every generation born on this side of them.

May 3, 2008 — St. Catherine of Siena, Vallejo

St. Catherine of Siena is our parish church — the Perseveranda family's anchor in Vallejo's Catholic community.

First Communion is one of those mornings that doesn't announce itself as important until it's over. The white dress. The veil. The way a seven-year-old holds her hands together before the altar. I kept shooting.

📂 Archive In Progress Two hundred–plus photographs exist from this morning. This post was filed to preserve the date. Photos and expanded narrative are coming — one session at a time.

Sources

• PinoyBuilt Personal Archive — J.F.R. Perseveranda Photography Collection, May 3, 2008
• Diocese of Santa Rosa — parish community, Solano County

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FOUNDER & EDITOR
J.F. (Jonjo) left the Philippines at age nine, spending a lifetime bridging the gap between his Marikina roots and his Chicago/Vallejo upbringing. A proud Hogan Spartan from East Vallejo and resident of LA/SF, he founded PinoyBuilt not just as a digital archive, but as a cultural compass for his three children to navigate their heritage, language, and identity with Pinoy Pride.

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