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 • May 2013. Hogan High School Class of 1985 mini-reunion at Sac's Hot Dogs, Vallejo CA. hogan spartans class of 1985, fil-am reunion vallejo, filipino american community vallejo, hogan high school alumni. VALLEJO • MAY 2013 Stacie Dropped By Vtown — Hogan Spartans Class of '85 Mini-Reunion at Sac's Hot Dogs When a classmate rolls through, you show up. Stacie Apperson visited Vallejo and the crew came out — Irene, Tony, and JF at Sac's, just like old times. Stacie Apperson, Tony Palisoc, and Irene Romero — Sac's Hot Dogs, Vallejo, CA. May 9, 2013. 📷 J.F.R. Perseveranda / Nikon D5100 Some reunions are planned for months. Others happen because someone texts: "I'm in Vtown." This was the second kind — and honestly, those are the best kind. When Stacie Apperson dropped through Vallejo in May 2013, there was only one right move: rally the crew, head to Sac's Hot ...

Vallejo, CA • November 2022. Rear Admiral Leonard "Butch" Dollaga — Vallejo native, Hogan High School Class of 1986, U.S. Naval Academy graduate, two-star admiral, submariner. One of the highest-ranking Filipino Americans in U.S. Navy history. Veterans Day speech in Vallejo, California. PinoyBuilt coverage. The Vallejo Kid Who Commanded Submarines: Rear Admiral Butch Dollaga Comes Home Hogan Class of '86. U.S. Naval Academy '90. Two-star admiral. Thirty-four years in the silent service. And on Veterans Day, he came back to the city that made him — two houses from where the PinoyBuilt editor grew up. By J.F.R. Perseveranda · PinoyBuilt · November 11, 2022 · Updated March 2026 [INSERT HERO IMAGE: RADM Dollaga at Vallejo Veterans Day ceremony · 1200×675 · compressed] ★★ Two-Star Rear Admiral 34 Years of Navy Service 1986 Hogan High School, Vallejo 1990 ...

Vallejo, CA • August 2026. Maligayang Bati, Tony Palisoc! From Springstowne to the Hogan Spartans, a Vallejo barkada friendship since 1980. Tony Palisoc birthday, Springstowne Junior High School, Hogan Spartans Class of 1985, Arnel Pacanza, Marcelino Lim, barkada, fil-am, vallejo. BARKADA • VALLEJO, CA • AUGUST 2026 Maligayang Bati, Tony Palisoc! From a bench outside the Springstowne library in June 1982 to Mare Island bar hops in 2026 — forty-four years of a Vallejo barkada that never let go. Left to right: Tony Palisoc, Arnel Pacanza, Marcelino Lim, and J.F. — the bench in front of the Springstowne library, last day of ninth grade, mid-June 1982. Photo taken by Joy Perseveranda-Putong. Today, August 20, is Tony Palisoc's birthday — and there is no telling the PinoyBuilt story, or my own, without him. I met Tony on the second day of seventh grade, in second-period French class at Springstowne Junior High School in V...

Chicago, IL • August 2026. August 19, 1976: The Day Joy, Lola, and I Came to America. Filipino immigration, Chicago, 1976, Northwest Orient Airlines, Warren Barr Tower, Illinois Masonic, St. Sebastian School, Lakeview, family archive, 8/19, fil-am, nursing, PinoyBuilt. Family Archive • August 2026 August 19, 1976: The Day Joy, Lola, and I Came to America Fifty years ago today, my sister Joy, our Lola Rosita, and I left the Philippines on Northwest Orient Airlines. We were not going for America. We were going for our parents. At Manila International Airport, August 19, 1976. Left to right: Joy, Edward, David, and me. Edward and David were our little Reyes cousins, six and seven years younger. On the tarmac at Manila International Airport, August 19, 1976. Joy, Lola Rosita, and I stand yards away from the mobile boarding stairs to our Northwest Orient 747. Tito Sonny took this photo — he worked for PAGASA and could get...