Pasadena, CA • January 2004. Kapamilya in Pasadena Before the Long Drive Home. family archive, fil-am, filipino, pasadena, california, vallejo, kapamilya, perseveranda, cervantes, tess, road trip, throwback, pinoybuilt.

Family Archive • January 2004

Kapamilya in Pasadena Before the Long Drive Home

One last family photo at the titas' house in Pasadena before the Perseverandas pile into the van for the long drive back to Vallejo.

Pasadena, CA — January 4, 2004. At the titas' house before the drive back to Vallejo.

Pasadena, California. January 4, 2004.

Tess, Nica, Jian, and I had spent the Christmas holidays in Arizona. We dropped off my mother-in-law and Tess's niece Reah at Tess's ate's house in Glendale, AZ — they'd be flying back to the Philippines from there.

Then we drove to the titas' house here in Pasadena for a few nights. My cousin Kristine Cervantes, her daughter, and her sister Rosanne had been on a separate trip, but they were riding back with us to Vallejo. One last family photo before we all piled in for the long drive north.

Was this a Disney trip, Kristine? Or you dropped off Julius?

Family — if you were there, or if this photo brings back a memory, drop a comment in the box below. It helps the site and it helps us keep the story straight. Salamat.

📌 Did You Know?
Filipino families in the U.S. are famous for turning holiday breaks into multi-stop, multi-family road trips — cramming cousins, titas, and lolas into one car for a drive that somehow always ends with somebody's Tupperware on your lap. The family road trip is a diaspora tradition in its own right.

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🇵🇭 Tagalog Word of the Day
Kapamilya — ka-pa-MIL-ya
Literally "one who is family." From the prefix ka- (companion, fellow) and pamilya (family). In Filipino culture, kapamilya extends beyond blood — it includes anyone you claim as your own. On a road trip from Pasadena to Vallejo, everyone in that car is kapamilya.

Source: Personal family archive — J.F.R. Perseveranda

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Founder & Editor

J.F.R. Perseveranda

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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