PinoyBuilt — Stories of Filipino America

Wanting to Reconnect with your Culture? This Innovative Filipino Martial Arts Program Can Fill the Void. Written by Joseph Bautista: Did you grow up as a second or third generation Filipino-American in the United States? If so, have you experienced being embarrassed for not knowing how to speak Filipino or not being familiar with Filipino culture or history? You are not alone. In the San Francisco Bay Area , a new program is coming to Daly City to help you overcome that.  Eskabo Daan Filipino Martial Arts  has developed a program to help fellow Filipino-Americans learn about Filipino culture and have fun while doing so. Classes will teach participants how to translate: Weapons fighting to empty hand fighting English to Tagalog Tagalog to Baybayin The program is designed to expose all participants to self-defense techniques, fitness, history, culture, language, writing and more through Filipino Martial Arts . Filipino Martial Arts, more popularly known...

Vallejo, California • March 2026. Mel Orpilla: Historian, Martial Artist, and Keeper of Vallejo's Filipino Memory. mel orpilla, vallejo filipino history, filipinos in vallejo, balintawak arnis, island warrior fighting sticks, manong generation, mare island naval shipyard, fil-am history, ifugao, ilocano heritage, pamana, filipino american history month. Vallejo, CA • Filipino American History Month 2026 Marks of the Ancestors: Mel Orpilla and the Filipino Story of Vallejo Historian, martial artist, and cultural keeper Mel Orpilla has spent decades ensuring that the Filipino presence in Vallejo—one of the oldest in Northern California—is documented, honored, and passed on. Mel Orpilla — historian, Balintawak Arnis master, and keeper of Vallejo's Filipino memory. 📍 Vallejo, California In the city of Vallejo, history lives in unexpected places. It lives in faded photographs tucked into family albums, in stor...

Join Yaw Yan Ardigma and Liahona Warrior Arts FMA - Filipino Martial Arts When: September 24-25, 2016 Time: 10 AM to 5 PM (each day) Where: Yaw-Yan ArDigma Sacramento Address: 10473 Folsom Blvd, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 Price: $150 for both days $90 for 1 day Contact: Rocky Twitchell rrtwitchell@me.com or 916-747-3694 

Vallejo, CA • October 2021. Imagine: Happy Birthday, John Lennon — and the Stranger at Kaiser Who Couldn't Tell What I Was. john lennon birthday, imagine, filipino american, kaiser vallejo, mistaken ethnicity, bruce lee, fil-am racism story, facebook memory, october 9. VALLEJO, CA • OCTOBER 2021 Imagine: Happy Birthday, John Lennon — and the Stranger at Kaiser Who Couldn't Tell What I Was John Lennon's birthday brings back a 2015 Kaiser lobby, a stranger who could not guess my ethnicity, and the Bruce Lee card I played to end the conversation. PinoyBuilt illustration: two phones, one outlet, and a chair that emptied fast. John Lennon has always been my favorite Beatle, ever since my childhood days in Chicago watching reruns of the Beatles cartoons after school. I've always told my kids that The Beatles are the best band in music history. I still remember washing dishes at home in Vallejo , our ra...

Vallejo, CA • January 31, 2026. The One Photo of My Son That People Keep Finding: five years after a wrestling tournament at Mission San Jose High in Fremont, a Benicia High senior season, and the Tagalog word for the kind of endurance that does not announce itself. wrestling, benicia high school, mission san jose, student-athlete, dumog, tiyaga, fil-am, filipino american, family archive, turtle island, 1/31. Vallejo, CA · January 31, 2026 The One Photo of My Son That People Keep Finding Five years on from a wrestling tournament at Mission San Jose High in Fremont — a Benicia High senior season, and the Tagalog word for the kind of endurance that never announces itself. Benicia High School wrestling at Mission San Jose High School, Fremont, California. Photo by J.F.R. Perseveranda / PinoyBuilt. I have taken thousands of photographs of my children. This is the one people keep finding. It goes up months ag...

A Dan Inosanto story as told by his daughter, Diana Lee Inosanto on the slaughter of Filipino Martial Arts Masters under the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army. HAPPY FILIPINO AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH 🤗🇵🇭🇺🇸 #filipinoamericanhistorymonth Looking for some #adobo chicken, #pancit #lumpia #mabuhay #FilipinoHeritageMonth pic.twitter.com/nZv8AygbWx — Diana Lee Inosanto (@TheRealDLI) October 16, 2021 When your MA heritage takes you to a galaxy far, far away! Grateful to my Dad #DanInosanto . During my childhood years,he taught me Filipino MA (ironically once with a toy #Lightsaber ) foreshadowing my battle sequence with a beloved character as #Ahsoka #StarWars #TheMandalorian pic.twitter.com/HJevD6e3mU — Diana Lee Inosanto (@TheRealDLI) December 3, 2020

Filipino Martial Arts - Marcaida Kali When: October 1-2, 2016 Time: 8 AM to 5 PM Where: Los Angeles, CA Cost $200.00 per person for two days Register at  www.413group.net . $25.00 T-Shirt made exclusively for this event by Bayani Art Watch "Kali Without Words | Filipino Martial Arts" This is Kali. An art expressed without words and manifested with brutality in moments we hope to never encounter. This is my interpretation of what I captured. It was a moment when Fred Mastro jumped in to replace one of his students during Doug's demonstration of Kali principles. He jumped in with respect and humility as Doug does with him during his demonstrations. This exchange happened without words. Even as Doug eloquently spoke, he did so without words because his audience spoke a different language. The vast majority of learning happened with what we saw more than what we heard. In my interpretation of this moment, I chose to remove the words and instead add musi...

They Sent Farmers, They Got Warriors. I keep hearing about Stockton California as it relates to Filipino Martial Arts . This video offers a lot of information as to why it is significant...but it is only the tip of the iceberg. The story continues.

Hollywood, CA • March 2026. One Battle After Another Oscar sweep Paul Thomas Anderson Best Picture Filipino American diaspora pakikibaka Oscars 2026 Autumn Durald Arkapaw Fil-Am Hollywood activism AAPI representation. FILM & CULTURE • MARCH 2026 One Battle After Another: Why PTA's Oscar Sweep Mirrors the Fil-Am Struggle Paul Thomas Anderson's six-Oscar sweep at the 98th Academy Awards is more than a Hollywood milestone — it's a reflection of the multi-generational resilience and hidden labor that defines the Filipino-American experience. When Paul Thomas Anderson stepped to the podium at the 98th Academy Awards to accept his first-ever Best Picture and Best Director awards, he did so for a film whose DNA is sewn from the same cloth as the Filipino-American story — quiet persistence, invisible labor, and a refusal to quit across generations. One Battle After Another didn't just win Hollywood's b...