Editorial: Panhandle Pilipinos - Building Up Florida's Pilipino American Community

Guest Contribution by Claire Ramos

On a global scale, Pilipinos make up one of the largest percentages of the world’s population. With that knowledge, it should come as no surprise that in my experience, no matter where I’ve lived or traveled, there were always other Pilipinos to be found in the community.

In May of 2009, BakitWhy.com featured an article about Filipinotowns in America. A term referring to “a community with a large Filipino expatriate and descendant population”, these “Filipinotowns” are enclaves that can be found across America; including Florida cities such as Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa. In these cities, great ways to stay in touch with the culture are provided through Pilipino stores, restaurants, and organizations. In fact, Florida is home to over 150 Pilipino-American associations, most of which are based in Central and South Florida.

The remaining region of Florida, known as the Panhandle, doesn’t exactly have these same resources. The distribution of Pilipinos is more sparse among these cities. This area is where I reside. In small towns such as mine and the surrounding cities, Pilipino-Americans are a clear minority. Because of this, it’s a little more difficult to stay in touch with our heritage for a few reasons. One of the biggest is, that we don’t have as much at our disposal as the Florida Filipinotowns.

In my opinion, the people really at a loss because of this are the youth. More and more of our generation simply want to “fit in” with this society, and for young Pilipino-Americans, this poses an identity crisis of sorts. How do we adapt to American ideals while staying true to our roots? How do we identify with our background if we know nothing about it? Those of us in smaller towns have only our families and products of our own personal research to keep us connected to our heritage. There aren’t exactly huge organizations to offer answers to our questions or present information we wouldn’t otherwise have access to. What we lack that the larger enclaves possess is the amount of knowledge and support within our reach.

Don’t get me wrong, there are Pilipino-American groups here. And they do a lot. For example, the cultural society in my city has an annual FilAm Festival. Our group does some traditional Pilipino dances, including Tinikling, which we teach to the younger generations. We make a point to give back to the community. We even provide scholarships to outstanding Pil-Am students. We also have a few Pilipino restaurants and some stores in the area. However, what I’m trying to get across is that we’re not a major influence here. I’d like for us to be, but if young people such as myself don’t get involved, the remnants of our culture will soon disappear.

I don’t want my peers to abandon our background. I don’t want those who care about learning our history to feel disadvantaged just because they don’t know where to start. I don’t want to hear anyone being called ignorant because they proclaim pinoy/pinay pride, but don’t really know anything about the Philippines. I don’t want someone boasting that they’re Pilipino just because it seems like a cool thing to say, but rather because they really are glad to be tied to our culture. I don’t want anyone to feel like getting in touch with our past is not imperative.

I want the Pilipinos in my area to come together. I want the Panhandle on the map, as far as having an active Pilipino-American community goes. I want more of us to take ownership of this vital piece of ourselves. It may take a while, but I have to start somewhere. Why not in my own town, building up a group that’s excited about our culture? The way to achieve that is providing knowledge to the people here, similar to the way BakitWhy does for the online community. Hopefully I can generate a motivation for us to really do something. And who knows? Once we’re established, maybe we’ll be the next area hosting headline-worthy Pilipino festivals, or the home of the next rising Pilipino-American star.

My goal for BakitWhy.com, my community, and myself, is to pool our resources. I want to supply a spotlight for the great things we’ll do here. I want to expand, strengthen, and empower the local Pilipino community; especially the youth. I want to provide a degree support not yet achieved in this area. I want to help them understand our past, so they can pass on that understanding in the future. And most importantly, I not only want to sustain the feeling of pride they have as Pilipino-Americans, but to be part of the reason they know WHY they’re proud.
 

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