ABOUT
About PinoyBuilt
An independent Filipino-American publication and a permanent archive of the diaspora. Founder-led. Historically grounded. Unafraid.
PinoyBuilt exists to do two things: make sure our stories don't get lost, and make sure the next generation knows what we stood for.
From the historic Navy towns of California to the frontline hospitals of Houston; from the halls of the Rizal Center in Chicago to the stretches of the Filipino-American Highway in San Diego — we document the Fil-Am journey with honesty, context, and a point of view. Our editorial voice is built on investigative spine, essayistic depth, and diaspora urgency, and it is pointed at the people who hold both countries up: the nurses, the caregivers, the seafarers, the farmworkers, the teachers, the organizers written out of the textbook.
"He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination."
— José Rizal
The Mission
PinoyBuilt was born on March 28, 2011 — from a conversation in Maui about Filipino apparel, grit, and the absence of a platform that truly centered us. Fifteen years in, the mission has deepened. PinoyBuilt is now a dual archive.
For the community
A living record of the Filipino diaspora — where our history is not a footnote in a textbook but the main text. A guide for first-, 1.5-, and second-generation Fil-Ams, for OFWs from Dubai to Toronto to Rome, and for every kababayan still watching us from the homeland.
For my family
A father's archive. I have three U.S.-born children — Veronica, Francesca, and JianCarlo — and, one day, grandchildren. They did not take the train from Marikina to Bicol as kids. They did not live through Marcos. Much of what I know about being Filipino — the language, the history, the kapwa, the reasons we fight and the reasons we endure — they will only inherit if someone writes it down. PinoyBuilt is me writing it down.
When I am gone, I want my kids and their kids to be able to open this site and learn two things: what is right — anti-authoritarianism, worker dignity, kapwa over transaction, the moral imagination of the Katipunan held against the abuses of our time — and who I was. Every article, every photo essay, every Learn Filipino entry carries a piece of both.
There is a test I apply to everything published here: would this hold up if my granddaughter read it in 2070? If a piece would never help a reader understand either what is right or who her lolo was, it does not belong on this site.
"Aling pag-ibig pa ang hihigit kaya sa pagkadalisay at pagkadakila gaya ng pag-ibig sa tinubuang lupa? Aling pag-ibig pa? Wala na nga, wala."
"What love could surpass, in purity and greatness, the love of one's native land? What other love? None — truly, none."
— Andrés Bonifacio, "Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa" (1896)
What We Publish
Everything on PinoyBuilt sits in one of five bands. The bands are permanent; the series inside them come and go as the work demands. We publish when a piece is ready and reported — not to fill a slot on a calendar.
The Archive
Our primary format, and the reason the site exists. Documentary photography of Filipino American life — weddings, reunions, protests, fiestas, and ordinary Tuesdays — published as dated, permanent entries.
- Photo essays — handaan, travel, reunions, the 707 album
- On This Day — the archive read back against the calendar
- Family and community memory, kept rather than posted
Roots
Where we come from, what was taken, and what we still carry. Decolonization is not one series here — it is the lens on everything.
- Decolonize — reclaiming language, beauty, food, history, and mind
- Kasaysayan — Philippine and Fil-Am history in our voice, not a textbook's
- Learn Filipino — word studies, regional languages, and grammar
- Hindi Nakalimutan — the farmworker legacy and the history that was erased
Community
The people and the places. Who is holding the diaspora up, and where in America we actually live.
- Kababayan Spotlight — profiles from the grassroots to the global stage
- Roots & Routes — the diaspora mapped city by city
- HBD Saludo — tributes that carry a bigger story than a birthday
- Regional pillar pages — Filipino America, place by place
Life
The practical lane. Our health, our kids' schools, our papers — what Filipino American families actually need on a Tuesday.
- Kalusugan — health through a Filipino American lens
- Admissions — campus-by-campus guides for Fil-Am families
- Know Your Rights — immigration law, labor rights, consular services
- OFW Diaries and Pinoy Money Moves — work, remittances, and rights abroad
Culture & Sport
Global Filipino excellence — on the charts, on the screen, and on the court. Heritage meeting innovation, covered as culture rather than novelty.
- Music, film, and OPM — from Manila sound to the Billboard charts
- Tennis — Alex Eala's tour arc and the athletes following her
- Art, faith, and food as identity, not decoration
Now
The current layer that runs across all five bands — news affecting Fil-Ams, OFWs, and Filipinos, from Capitol Hill to Quezon City, when the story warrants our attention rather than on a schedule.
- Politics, immigration enforcement, and civic engagement
- Breaking diaspora and homeland news with a Fil-Am stake
- Everything newest, always, on the front page
How We Work
Independence
PinoyBuilt is founder-led and independently operated. It answers to its community and to the historical record — not to editorial sponsors or political patrons. When a story calls for taking a side, we take it, and we say so plainly rather than hiding behind false balance.
Accuracy over volume
No unverified name, statistic, date, or claim gets published. Where a figure is used, its source and year travel with it. If verifying something would delay a piece, the piece waits. Publishing less is always better than publishing wrong — an error in an archive does not expire, it compounds.
Corrections
Errors are corrected on the page itself, visibly, rather than quietly deleted. If you find one — a misspelled name, a wrong date, a number that does not hold up — write to info@pinoybuilt.com and it will be fixed and noted.
Consent and privacy
Real people appear in this archive because they agreed to. Family members who declined to be written about are not written about, and that decision is permanent. Captions and photo credits are held to the same standard as body copy. Truth is necessary here, but it is not sufficient — the question is also whether someone agreed to be in the archive this way.
Language
Tagalog, Bisaya, Ilocano, and Bikol words are not italicized on this site and are not treated as foreign. We assume a culturally fluent reader and translate only when the translation teaches something. We name places as the people who live in them do.
The Builder: From Marikina to the 707
J.F.R. Perseveranda
Founder · Publisher · Editor-in-Chief
My journey began in Marikina — in SSS Village, reading about the Katipunan, idolizing Rizal and Bonifacio the way other kids idolized basketball players. I left the Philippines at age nine, in 1976, carrying a political inheritance I did not yet have words for: a refusal to look away from authoritarianism, and a conviction that the Philippines — and the Fil-Am diaspora — owes the masses who hold it up far more than it has ever given them.
That formation happened in Marikina, before America. It is worth saying plainly, because the assumption usually runs the other way: the anti-colonial reading came off my family's shelves as a boy, not out of a college seminar later.
I have three U.S.-born children — Veronica, Francesca, and JianCarlo. They will never know Marikina or Marcos the way I did. I bought this domain in 2011 so they — and their children, and yours — could still learn where we came from, what we stood for, and why it mattered.
A proud Hogan Spartan from East Vallejo, Class of 1985, and a two-time Monticello Empire League tennis champion. I was an early admit to UC Davis in December 1984 and danced Bangko with Mga Kapatid at the Pilipino Cultural Night there. I spent fourteen years in IT infrastructure at PG&E, from 1997 to 2011. I shoot with a Sony a7III and keep a family photo archive that reaches back to the 1970s. I run PinoyBuilt as a digital archive, a cultural compass, and a father's record in the making.
Who We Serve
PinoyBuilt serves three public audiences, in this order of priority:
First, 1.5, and second generation — from Daly City to Jersey City.
Nurses, caregivers, seafarers, teachers — Dubai to Hong Kong to Rome.
The kababayan at home, still watching what the diaspora does with itself.
And a fourth audience who cannot read it yet: the grandchildren. Whether you are one of my three kids or someone else's grandchild fifty years from now, this archive is being built with you in mind.
Filipino America, Place by Place
Our regional pillar pages are standing guides, not news posts — each one maintained as the definitive PinoyBuilt entry on that community.
Filipino Americans by the Numbers
| Top states by Filipino population | Residents |
|---|---|
| California | 1.7M |
| Hawaii | 270K |
| Texas | 232K |
| Washington | 195K |
| Nevada | 163K |
| Illinois | 145K |
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey · Pew Research Center · Neilsberg (2023–2025 estimates). Fuller breakdowns, including county- and city-level figures, live on the USA pillar page and each regional guide.
California alone accounts for roughly 38% of all Filipino Americans in the United States — more than the next five states combined. Daly City, long known as the Pinoy Capital of the U.S., remains one of the densest Filipino communities in the nation by share of population.
The 707 — Vallejo and Solano County
Filipino immigration to Vallejo dates to the early 1900s, driven by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard — one of the oldest and largest naval installations on the West Coast. Generations of Filipino sailors, laborers, and their families put down roots here, making Solano County the most historically concentrated Filipino American county in the United States: roughly 12% Filipino, with Vallejo itself near 20% — one in five residents. That is where this site is written from, and it is one story among many rather than the whole map. Read the full Vallejo pillar page →
Join Us
Become a contributor
PinoyBuilt publishes first-person essays, community histories, photo essays, and diaspora perspectives from Filipino Americans nationwide and around the world. Whether you are first, 1.5, or second generation — whether you are in Vallejo or Virginia or Dubai — your story belongs in this archive.
Share your story Meet the contributorsJoin the conversation
Every post here has a comment section, and that is where the community comes alive. Share your memory, your reaction, your family's version of the story. Your voice makes this archive richer for everyone who comes after.
Browse the latest See recent commentsContact the editor
For press inquiries, partnerships, corrections, or general questions — reach PinoyBuilt directly at info@pinoybuilt.com.
Contact page"The Filipino is worth dying for."
— Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. (1932–1983), assassinated at Manila International Airport, August 21, 1983
PinoyBuilt exists to remind us that our stories matter — even when we were not favored, expected, or counted. This archive is built for the community I serve, and for Veronica, Francesca, and JianCarlo, and every Fil-Am kid who will inherit the Filipino story long after us.
Tayo ang nagsusulat ng ating sariling kasaysayan.
