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Showing posts with the label chesca

San Diego State, A.B. Samahan, and Fall 2026: What Filipino-American Families Need to Know

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San Diego, California • April 2026. San Diego State, A.B. Samahan, and Fall 2026: What Filipino-American Families Need to Know. sdsu admissions 2026, ab samahan, filipino american college, san diego state university, california university admissions, fil-am students sdsu, socal, national city filipino community. EDUCATION • CALIFORNIA • APRIL 2026 San Diego State, A.B. Samahan, and Fall 2026: What Filipino-American Families Need to Know SDSU is not a backup. It is home to one of the oldest and largest Filipino-American student organizations in the country — and for many Fil-Am families, it is the right school for reasons the rankings will never capture. April 2018: Nica's senior year in high school. My kids Francesca, JianCarlo & Veronica pose in front of Hepner Hall with Diego, an SDSU student (and son of my next door neighbor in the Philippines). Every spring, Filipino-American families in Califor...
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Christmas Day 2025: Melvin & Millenials

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Maligayang Pasko Kapamilya at Kababayan! 🎄 2025 December 25: Vallejo, California. In the front are Paige Hardegen & Nica (they were classmates in Wardlaw School), Jian, Keo, & Chesca. In back are: Dominic, our host Melvin & Dino. Melvin and the next generation. Generation X (Gen X) and Millennials (Gen Y) are distinct demographic groups, with Gen X generally born 1965-1980 and Millennials 1981-1996, bridging the gap between older Boomers and younger Gen Z; Gen X are independent latchkey kids of the 80s/90s, while Millennials are digital natives known for tech-savviness, shaped by the turn of the millennium.   Thank you everyone for the delicious food/drinks, as well as the games and entertainment. Maraming salamat, kapamilya! 💛 Explore Filipino American heritage, culture, and stories! Join our Fil-Am community to connect, comment, celebrate, and share experiences. Mabuhay! 📌 Follow  PinoyBuilt Instagram 👍 Like  PinoyBuilt Facebook ✍️ Follow...
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Location: Vallejo, CA, USA
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When the kuya brought bunso for redeye to Chicago ✈️

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✈️ Travel Throwback: Chesca’s First Trip to Chicago 🇺🇸 J.F.R. Perseveranda Tuesday, July 5, 2022 July 5, 2022 — A memorable day for our family, especially for my youngest daughter, Chesca. This was her very first visit to my U.S. hometown of Chicago. Her kuya Jian brought us to SFO that night for her red-eye flight. We were both attending my niece’s high school graduation party — a long-awaited family reunion. For me, it was a return to familiar places and faces. For Chesca, it was a special second: meeting her three girl cousins close to her age for the first time in years, reconnecting with my Tita Lita and Tito Narding after so many years. It was heartwarming to watch a new generation build ties with roots they’ve only heard about in stories. Travel throwbacks like this remind us of how family — and a sense of home — can stretch across miles, memories, and generations. #PinoyBuilt #FilAmFamily #TravelThrowback #ChicagoTrip #FilAmYouth #FilipinoAmerican #PinayA...
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Fil-Am Flashback: Nica's Rockband: Jian & Chesca. Memories from Overlook

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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...
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Location: Vallejo, CA, USA
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HBD cousin Mae Aranas!

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Maligayang Bati Mae! Flashback to our meeting at the Starbucks in Niles, Illinois in July 2022. Join the #FilipinoAmerican conversation. Comment below. #PinoyPride #Filipino Click to follow this website . Like our Facebook Page Pinoy Built . Thank you. Salamat po.
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Location: Niles, IL, USA
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'Madonna of the Slums' by Vicente Manansala

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Manila, Philippines • March 2026. Madonna of the Slums: The Soul of Post-War Manila. Vicente Manansala, Transparent Cubism, Filipino modernism, post-war Manila, National Artist Philippines, Thirteen Moderns, heritage, art history, diaspora identity. Art History & Heritage • March 2026 Madonna of the Slums: The Soul of Post-War Manila Vicente Manansala's 1950 masterpiece reimagined the sacred Madonna as a Brown Filipino mother in the wreckage of post-war Manila — and in doing so, changed Philippine art forever. Seventy-five years later, it still speaks directly to us. Madonna of the Slums (1950) by Vicente Silva Manansala. Oil on Masonite, 86.5 cm × 61 cm. National Museum of Fine Arts, Manila. A cornerstone of Filipino Modernism. There is a particular kind of gravity that settles over you when you stand before a painting that refuses to look away. Vicente Manansala's Madonna of the Slums , complete...
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Bruno Mars' 'The Romantic': A Filipino Soul Renaissance Across Generations

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Los Angeles / Bay Area • March 2026. Bruno Mars The Romantic album Filipino heritage diaspora soul music. Bruno Mars Filipino, The Romantic album, filipino american music, bruno mars peter gene hernandez, manila sound, fil-am pride, filipino diaspora culture, I Just Might Billboard Hot 100. Music & Culture • March 2026 Bruno Mars' 'The Romantic': A Filipino Soul Renaissance Across Generations With The Romantic , Bruno Mars doesn't just reclaim the Billboard charts—he reconnects Filipino Americans across three generations to the soul of who we are. 🇵🇭 Did You Know? Bruno Mars' mother, Bernadette San Pedro Bayot, was born in Manila and raised in Cebu City —two of the Philippines' most storied cities—before immigrating to Hawaii in 1968 at age 11. A singer and lead hula dancer at the famed Al Harrington Show in Waikīkī, she passed away in Honolulu in 2013. Bruno has sa...
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Hiraya Manawari: The Ancient Filipino Phrase That Became a Generation's Battle Cry

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Vallejo, CA • March 2026. Hiraya Manawari: The Ancient Filipino Phrase That Became a Generation's Battle Cry. hiraya manawari meaning, ancient tagalog phrase, filipino manifestation, reach your dreams filipino, baybayin tattoo hiraya, decolonize filipino identity, pre-colonial philippines language, hiraya manawari tv show abs-cbn, filipino words of power, fil-am cultural reclamation. DECOLONIZE • MARCH 2026 Hiraya Manawari: The Ancient Filipino Phrase That Became a Generation's Battle Cry How an archaic Tagalog phrase meaning "may the visions of your heart come to pass" survived colonialism, powered a beloved 90s TV show, and is now reclaiming Filipino identity — one tattoo, one graduation caption, and one whispered prayer at a time. There are words in every language that carry more weight than their syllables suggest. In English, we have "freedom." In Japanese, ikigai . In ...
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The Memory Heist: How DreamWorks' 'Forgotten Island' Turns Filipino Mythology Into a Diaspora Reckoning

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Hiddenbrooke, CA • March 2026. The Memory Heist: How DreamWorks' 'Forgotten Island' Turns Filipino Mythology Into a Diaspora Reckoning. forgotten island dreamworks, filipino mythology animation, H.E.R. liza soberano, lea salonga manananggal, nakali island, filipino american diaspora, pinoy pride, fil-am identity, filipino folklore, dreamworks animation 2026, joel crawford januel mercado, filipino culture film. FILM & IDENTITY • MARCH 2026 The Memory Heist: How DreamWorks' 'Forgotten Island' Turns Filipino Mythology Into a Diaspora Reckoning The first major animated film rooted in Philippine folklore asks the question every immigrant carries: What do you lose when you leave? A PinoyBuilt analysis of the most important Filipino cultural moment in animation history. DreamWorks Animation's Forgotten Island features a voice cast led by H.E.R., Liza Soberano, and Lea Salonga in a story root...
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Two Empires, One Final: What a Filipino Sees That Spain and Argentina Can't

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Global • July 2026. Two Empires, One Final: What a Filipino Sees That Spain and Argentina Can't. spain argentina world cup 2026, blanqueamiento, decolonize the mind, filipino american, football racism, spanish colonization philippines, enzo fernandez chant, vinicius junior, lahi, diaspora identity. WORLD CUP • DECOLONIZE THE MIND • JULY 2026 Two Empires, One Final: What a Filipino Sees That Spain and Argentina Can't Spain beat Argentina 1-0 to win the 2026 World Cup. But when the two teams that met in the final are a country that ruled the Philippines for 333 years and a country that erased its own Black and Indigenous people, the trophy is the least interesting thing on the field. On Sunday, July 19, 2026, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Spain beat Argentina 1-0 to win the FIFA World Cup. For ninety-eight minutes, nobody scored. Then, thirty-nine seconds into the second half of extra time, substitute...
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Learn Tagalog: "Hindi Kita Malilimutan" — Basil Valdez and the Power of Never Forgetting

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Manila, Philippines • March 2026. Learn Tagalog: Hindi Kita Malilimutan — Basil Valdez and the Power of Never Forgetting. basil valdez, hindi kita malilimutan, learn tagalog, opm, filipino values, fil-am, tagalog lessons, filipino music, diaspora, remembrance, pinoy pride, language learning. LEARN FILIPINO • MARCH 2026 Learn Tagalog: "Hindi Kita Malilimutan" — Basil Valdez and the Power of Never Forgetting Master 50 Tagalog words, Filipino grammar, and the cultural depth of remembrance through the song that became the emotional anthem of the Filipino diaspora. PinoyBuilt "Learn Filipino" series — exploring the Tagalog language through OPM classics that shaped the Filipino soul. There are songs that belong to a moment, and then there are songs that belong to a people. Basil Valdez's " Hindi Kita Malilimutan " — I Will Not Forget You — is the latter. Written by a Jesuit teenager named Manoling Francisco wh...
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Mindanao Earthquake 2026: 7.8 Magnitude Kills 32, Tsunami Hits General Santos City

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Mindanao, Philippines • June 2026. Magnitude 7.8 earthquake kills dozens in General Santos City and Sarangani. Mindanao earthquake, tsunami, General Santos City, Cotabato Trench, Filipino diaspora relief, Fil-Am. Mindanao • June 2026 Mindanao Earthquake 2026: 7.8 Magnitude Kills 32, Tsunami Hits General Santos City The most powerful quake to hit the Philippines since 1990 struck southern Mindanao on June 8, killing at least 32, triggering a tsunami, and plunging Fil-Am families into a desperate silence — no power, no signal, no word from home. General Santos City — population 700,000 — sustained catastrophic structural damage when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck 13 km southwest of the city on the morning of June 8, 2026. | Hero image: Gemini/Imagen for PinoyBuilt It was a Monday morning, the first day of a new school year for more than three million children across Mindanao. Parents had packed bags and sent ...
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