Filipino Americans

The graffiti-scarred east wall of the U.S. Postal Annex at 1660 Beverly Blvd. will soon become the site of a mural honoring Filipino American history. "Filipino Americans: A Glorious History, A Golden Legacy" will be painted by 22-year-old Eliseo Silva, a Filipino American art student who was recently commissioned by the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) after his design was chosen by a panel of judges representing the community.

In a smoke-stained San Francisco hotel room, Felix Starro is making fake blood. Starro is the third in a line of hucksterish Filipino faith healers. Hunched over a plastic jug in the bathroom, he brews corn syrup, water and red dye for a grim ritual known as the Holy Blessed Extraction of Negativites. As he stirs, he remembers how "long ago, Papa Felix made it the same way; because my hands were small my job was to squirt the liquid into the tiny bags and knot them up. We'd stay up all night, diligent and silent, as though our work was truly blessed and holy.

At the slightest urging, Rudy T. Reyes of Huntington Beach would open a scrapbook he carries with him most of the time to a picture of a mayor and two state legislators at a gathering with a group of Filipino Americans. Nothing dramatic about the snapshot. But Reyes, who is in the picture with his wife, says that it is an indication politicians are finally paying attention to the Filipino American community.

More a cultural hub and place of the heart for Filipino Americans than a neighborhood where most hang their hats, Historic Filipinotown -- or Hi-Fi, as locals call it -- is now home primarily to Latinos. Yet Filipinos still gather there for commemorations, camaraderie, singing and folk dancing or some down-home cooking at Bahay Kubo restaurant. Beginnings In 1920s L.A.

Violeta Marasigan, 61, a San Francisco Bay Area activist for Filipino Americans and a former political prisoner who opposed Ferdinand Marcos. Born in the Philippines, Marasigan attended college in the United States but returned to Manila in 1971, a year before Marcos declared a dictatorship. She joined the resistance movement, championing human rights and feminist causes. In 1982, Marasigan was arrested and charged with subversion. She spent a year in the infamous Camp Crame.

Five Decembers ago, about 18 parishes in the large Los Angeles Catholic archdiocese held services for Filipino Americans yearning for a semblance of the pre-Christmas Masses and festivities so traditional in the Philippines. This year, about 70 parishes scheduled at least one evening Mass during the period, enabling Catholics of Filipino heritage in many regions to attend nine straight Masses through Friday--and the numbers promise to grow in coming years.

Signs at the edge of downtown mark the cultural home of Los Angeles' largest Asian group. But little else of their presence is apparent. Historic Filipinotown won the designation three years ago after a decades-long battle, with hopes that the blue sign would lead to the rebirth of the community. But Filipinos living in scattered locales, including West Covina and Carson, have found little reason to drive into the working-class neighborhood of car repair shops and mini-marts.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Balangiga, an event that will go mostly unnoticed in California. Yet for Filipino Americans living here, it resurrects complicated feelings about the nature of ethnic identity and patriotism--made even more complicated by the events of the last few weeks. A group of Filipino Americans will mark the centenary today near a Wyoming military base that has an unexpected connection to the battle. But Hermie and Ludy Ongkeko will not be among them.

The first Filipino American bishop in the United States was ordained Tuesday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. The ordination of Oscar Azarcon Solis, 50, was attended by about 3,600 people, including about 400 priests and 40 bishops from the U.S. and the Philippines. Solis is now one of five auxiliary bishops for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which represents Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

It took screenwriters Gene Cajayon and John Manal Castro more than seven years and 21 drafts to bring their teen comedy about Filipino American culture and identity to the big screen. The result, the aptly named "The Debut," arrived in theaters on Friday. Told in the style of "American Graffiti," the film is set at a debutante party at a suburban high school gymnasium and introduces U.S.

Hey, man, all of you listen to me Here comes the real Filipino Came from the barrio -- Sapang Bato Went to L.A. and labored In order to help my mother Because life is so hard But the disposition's still bright. --- SO begins the story of Allan Pineda, a member of the hip-hop band the Black Eyed Peas, who two years ago wrote a song about his journey from a poverty-stricken district in the Philippines to Los Angeles' Atwater Village.

Six decades after their service during World War II, Filipino American veterans were honored in Los Angeles on Veterans Day with the dedication of a granite monument that tells their story. Several hundred people, including aging veterans in uniform with medals pinned to their chests, attended Saturday's unveiling ceremony at Lake Street Park and Recreation Center, west of downtown.

The People vs. Nora Cabaltera Villamayor, a small drug possession case being heard in a branch courthouse near LAX, has received little attention in the U.S. news media. But in the Philippines, the coverage has been so extensive, and at times breathless, that it rivals the U.S. fixation on Michael Jackson and Martha Stewart.

Signs at the edge of downtown mark the cultural home of Los Angeles' largest Asian group. But little else of their presence is apparent. Historic Filipinotown won the designation three years ago after a decades-long battle, with hopes that the blue sign would lead to the rebirth of the community. But Filipinos living in scattered locales, including West Covina and Carson, have found little reason to drive into the working-class neighborhood of car repair shops and mini-marts.

Southern California's Filipino community on Tuesday mourned the death of Cardinal Jaime Sin, the retired Catholic archbishop of Manila, and pledged to remember the religious leader who helped inspire his countrymen to overthrow a corrupt government. Sin, who died Tuesday at age 76 after a long kidney illness, was a driving force in the "people power" movement that pushed Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos into exile in 1986.

World War II veteran Teofilo Eborda was ecstatic in December when he stood in line at a clinic in downtown Los Angeles to file for healthcare benefits that Filipino American veterans living in this country had finally been granted. But it took him months to receive his benefits card.

The images of Ricardo Ocreto Alvarado (1914-1976), a Filipino immigrant and prolific amateur photographer, tell a familiar story. Most Americans claim some version of it, whether tracing back to the earliest British, Spanish and French settlers; to the 19th century waves of Irish, Italian, Chinese and Japanese immigrants; or to the more recent Latin American influx.

The Philippines on Monday won a fight to keep the California Public Employees' Retirement System invested in the nation's stock market after a high-profile campaign that saw hundreds of Filipino Americans turn out to lobby the giant pension fund. CalPERS' board voted to include the Philippines, India and Peru among so-called emerging-market countries in which the fund can own stocks.