Filipino American History Month is a celebration of Filipino culture and history and marks the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the U.S.
Garden at the Flea has been celebrating Filipino American History Month (FAHM) through its annual market called FAHM Jam which is the largest Filipino American History Month celebration in the Bay Area, according to Garden at the Flea’s website.
On Friday, people from all over the Bay Area gathered to celebrate Filipino-American culture, eat food from local chefs and small businesses, purchase local hand-made goods, thrift and watch live performances.
Attendees flooded the gates at the beginning of the event and rushed to grab a bite from their favorite local Filipino food truck.
Many were awaiting the performances of notable artists including the headliner, Jeremy Passion.
Vendors at Garden at the Flea sold a variety of goods such as pre-owned clothing to storybooks for children about Filipino culture.
Pia Barton, CEO and founder of Malaya Botanicals from Alameda said that the event felt like a “reunion” for people in the community sharing familiar experiences of being a Filipino-American in the Bay Area.
“I moved to Alameda four years ago from San Francisco and my group didn't have community,” Barton said. “So I decided to bring some of my community in San Francisco to Alameda.”
Malaya Botanicals is a CBD health and wellness company and Barton aims to educate small farmers in Mendocino County on the regulated cannabis industry.
Some of the food trucks at the market went beyond just Filipino food including taquería food trucks, Vietnamese street food, Mexican-Hawaiian, and Filipino fusion.
Meg Coronel-Ambolo, founder of Chorva Co. based in Los Angeles, said she and her family drove from Los Angeles to San Jose to attend FAHM Jam and share their products with the Bay Area.
“We started Chorva Co. because we just have so much pride for our culture,” Coronel-Ambolo said. “We were born and raised in the Philippines and we didn't see that many apparels that had Filipino sayings.”
Chorva Co.’s stand saw hundreds of customers and was one of the most popular vendors during the event.
The small business features clothing with Filipino sayings like “mabuhay” which means “long live!”, stickers, and other types of merchandise.
Jeremy Passion, FAHM Jam 2024’s headliner, is a Filipino-American singer and songwriter from San Francisco accredited for pioneering the acoustic R&B trend and known for his 2011 single “Lemonade” which went viral on the internet, according to The Hollywood Partnership.
He sang many of his popular originals and brought up one of his long-time friends from San Francisco to sing a duet, Passion shouting out the community in San Jose.
Jaimee Rose Andaya, a local from De Anza College, said how much the event had an affect on her emotionally and helped her feel connected to her culture.
“The second I got here, I was super happy because I got to see a lot of familiar faces, cool stuff that I know that I want more people to be able to get to see,” Andaya said. “I also got to eat good food so that really brought my mood up and then I got to see Jeremy Passion.”
Judy Dela Cruz, another local student from De Anza College, shared that she knew of a few of the local performers.
“One of the DJs, I think her name was DJ Bite Size, just DJ'd at my debut, which is the Filipino 18th birthday,” Dela Cruz said. “Everyone else that performed today was so great, so amazing.”
Andaya said events like this are extremely important to Filipinos in the area because of the lack of representation.
“I'm just so glad that they're having Filipino recognition around our area,” Andaya said. “For me, we all grew up in high schools where we barely even had that much recognition when it came to Filipino culture. So, having this around and having all of these events, we're so grateful to have this kind of community.”
While attendees made their way home after a long day of celebrating, some people stuck around singing popular songs like “Love” by Keyshia Cole and continued to socialize with the community.
“I have a 30-year-old son and I feel like even though I'm very involved in the community and I've raised him to be knowledgeable about the history and our culture, it's still not enough,” Barton said. “It really takes a village to preserve our culture and history.”
