PinoyBuilt — Stories of Filipino America

Vallejo, California • August 2026. I Almost Renamed This Site. Then I Traced Where "Pinoy" Actually Came From. pinoy meaning, pinoy vs filipino, pinoy origin 1924, why pinoy not filipino, pinay meaning, noypi meaning, binaliktad slang, filipino vs fil-am, dawn bohulano mabalon, carlos bulosan, abakada letter f, pilipino vs filipino, decolonization, filipino identity, bamboo noypi, expo 2020 dubai. DECOLONIZATION • LANGUAGE • AUGUST 2026 I Almost Renamed This Site. Then I Traced Where "Pinoy" Actually Came From. The Oxford English Dictionary puts the word in print by 1924 — and derives it not from Filipino, but from Pilipino. Four names, each one further from a Spanish king. Here is why the masthead stays. For Dawn Bohulano Mabalon (August 17, 1972 – August 10, 2018), whose scholarship carries most of the evidence in this article. Eight years today. Four names for the same people, arranged in the ...

Philippines • June 2026. Maharlika, Pacific Islander, or Asian? The Decolonization of Filipino Identity. maharlika meaning, filipino pacific islander, filipino identity, ferdinand marcos maharlika, mount pinatubo anniversary, austronesian filipino, decolonization philippines. IDENTITY • PHILIPPINES • JUNE 2026 Maharlika, Pacific Islander, or Asian? The Decolonization of Filipino Identity Thirty-five years ago today, Mount Pinatubo reshaped the islands. Today, two debates — Asian or Pacific Islander, Philippines or Maharlika — are reshaping the global Filipino identity. The truth is harder, and more beautiful, than either side admits. Thirty-five years ago today, on June 15, 1991, Mount Pinatubo released the second-largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century. The blast injected so much sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that it cooled the global climate by roughly half a degree Celsius for two years. It...

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 ...