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Archive 1Archive 2Archive 3Archive 4

First arrived in US

"Filipinos actually predate the coming of the first European Americans, which currently make the majority of the population of United States."

This will definitely need a citation.

They probably referring to English and Dutch settlements on the east coast like Jamestown and New Amsterdam. Filipino Sailors were in California 50 years before the English and Dutch arrived. Some uneducated person probably didn’t think Spanish or Italians are Europeans also. (rolls eyes) I'll see if I can fix it later when I have time. --DarkWingEagle 21:21, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
Source>
http://www.bibingka.com/sst/esperanza/morrobay.htm
http://us_asians.tripod.com/timeline-1600.html

Major Filipino American Celebrations

If any of your cities or towns have regular Filipino festivals or events, please add them to the Major Celebrations in the United States table provided within the article. The scope of my knowledge of major Filipino festivals in the United States are limited to my time spent in Chicago, Honolulu and New Orleans. Gerald Farinas 18:47, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

I have just added two of the Seattle festivals that I'm familiar with. --Chris 19:48, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Census information

According to the 2000 United States Census, Filipino Americans surpassed Chinese Americans to become the largest single Asian group in the country.

Actually, according to the Census information at http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_DP1&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-_lang=en&-_sse=on says Chinese Americans (including Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese Americans, and Hong Kong Chinese) are still the largest group of Asian Americans. There are 2,432,585 Chinese Americans and 1,850,314 Filipino Americans. That's a net difference of 582,371. You'll also have to factor in the large waves of Asian immigration coming from the Mainland China and Taiwan compared to the Philippines (information based on USCIS Fiscal Year 2002 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics).

I think the writer of this article used the Congressional definition of ethnicity breaking up the several different Chinese-based nationalities from the Census figures, figuring in the strong national ties that tend to separate the various Chinese identities. That is why Congress actually proclaimed the creation of Filipino Heritage Month, if I remember correctly, in recognition of becoming the majority Asian group in the United States. Not only does Congress recognize Filipino Americans as the majority Asian group, but so do other various Asian American and sociological societies. The American Sociological Association, of which I am a member, for one. --James Easton 00:47, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)
My race relations textbook from last semester said Filipino Americans "surpassed the population of Chinese constituencies in the United States in 2000." -Keevan

Sounds reasonable. But make sure one of you make a note of that on the article. Someone might find the information contradictory and confusing if they compare the article and Census site.

Please list the reference or URL about the Congress resource, thanks Petersam 00:17, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Population Figures

The State Department's estimation of the Filipino American population being around 4 Million I think is ridiculously high when you look at the U.S. Census counts. The Filipino population in 2005 according to the U.S. Census was around 2.8 million. At the same time, the Asian American population was 13.9 million. In 2007, while the U.S. Census didn't have an official count on the Filipino population, it estimated the Asian American population to be around the 15 million mark. That means that if the State Department's estimation is correct, the Filipino American population had a greater population increase than the Asian American population (including Filipinos) combined.Mrsmith93309 03:54, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Businesses

I've moved the business section here to the talk page and removed it from the main article because while these businesses are growing, they are anchored in only a couple American cities and are not widespread. They are too localized to be worth mentioning for now. Unless this section can be worded better to reflect that, it should be left here for now.

Filipino American entrepreneurs have started a number of growing businesses and retail chains geared towards the Filipino expatriate community. For example, there is Seafood City (modeled upon the Chinese American chain 99 Ranch Market and is also popular among Filipinos as well) and the fast food chain Jollibee. Another Philippines-based chain which operates in some Filipino American communities is Chow King, which serves mainly "Filipino-ized" Chinese cuisine. Although Filipinos are among the dominant groups of Asian Americans, Filipino cuisine has not become as mainsteam as the universal popularity of various Chinese cuisine and the growing popularity of Vietnamese cuisine. Incidentally, there tends to be much fewer Filipino cuisine restaurants in the United States.

Baseball

I seriously doubt that baseball was ever popular here in the Philippines *lol*. Though I am acquainted with compatriots passionate about the sport, basically baseball here is virtually unknown.

But during our old folks time baseball here is so popular, fact is it's the game we play before the advent of basketball, today baseball's making a comeback. Based on the turn out of last year edition of SEA GAMES it is one of the most watch, in fact during the finals which the Philippines eventually won, old RIZAL STADIUM has and SRO crowd.

I am for sure that there are American baseball players of Filipino decent playing professionally. The ones who play Major League Baseball are Benny Agbayani, Chris Aguila, and Bobby Chouinard. If they can form the Philippine national baseball team with these players, then they can be competative with the likes of South Africa and Austraila at the World Baseball Classic. I am sure that they can get some professional players of Filipino decent and make them play for their national baseball team just like Mike Piazza and other Italian-Americans playing for Team Italy.
Baseball used to be an integral part of Philippine society during American Commonwealth period. They often played against Japan and were good rivals in the early 1900’s before WW2 happened. Check this article out link My elderly grandmother and my older Filipino co-workers are big Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox fans. Baseball became in decline because of basketball. Filipino people should never have adopted basketball. Basketball in America is a game for uneducated thugs from the ghetto and college dropouts that like to fight. Filipinos won’t get scouted for the NBA in the US. Baseball is a realistic game for Filipinos. If the P.I. had maintained playing baseball, really good Filipino players could have easily been scouted by an MLB team and played in the US just like those from Japan, South Korea, and Latin America. Mainland China and Cambodia are slowly adopting baseball also from Japanese Businessmen, overseas Chinese, and former Cambodian refugees that returned.--Pilot expert 15:16, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

List of Filipino Americans

The list of notable Filipino Americans is getting quite large. Should the list be made into a list on a separate page?

There is another page made up for notable Filipino Americans. It lists Lea Salonga as a notable Filipino American and listed on this page as well. Does anyone have a citation that she has dual citizenship? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.2.84.199 (talk) 08:07, 7 May 2007 (UTC).

Filipino populations in the U.S.

Someone should make an article about a List of U.S. cities with large Filipino American populations since other asian american communities have their own artice with this topic such as, Chinese & Vietnamese. i mean we are the second largest asian american population. i just thought we should have one. thanks.

BANi 06:48, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

  • 3rd paragraph says there are 4.5 million Filipino-Americans. Is there a source for this? If there's 4.5 million fil-ams then we have surpassed the Chinese, and we are actually the largest asian-american population. Census Bureau records less than 2 million, which I think is too low. Can anyone cite a reference? thanks! KaElin 01:28, 15 October 2006 (UTC)
in the intro paragraph it says Fil Ams are the largest Asian American group, while the "invisible minority" section says second largest. which one? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.45.218.183 (talk) 23:52, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Which one is it??

The first paragraph states that Filipino Americans is 'the second-largest Asian American group in the US' while the 4th paragraph states that it is the 'largest Asian American group'. So which one is it? Leftist 21:31, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

It's second largest for Filipinos and maybe Koreans. Just check the US Census website for source. Chinese are always going to be in the number one spot in numbers because they're like in 1 billion plus population in their own country like India while the Philippine Islands and other neighboring countries in Asia have way much smaller number than that. --Pilot expert 14:53, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

In the beginning of the article, there is a big discrepancy. It mentions that Filipinos are the largest Asian-American group in various states and goes on to list them. It does the same for the states where they are the second-largest Asian-American group. The problem is Maine and Virginia are on both lists. So which is it??? -- Raffy85

Highest Average Pay ?

It is well known that Indian-Americans have the highest average annual income of any ethnic group (let alone amongst Asian Americans that is of course you are including Indians as Asian-Americans)??

I added a list of links to Amazon on books about Filipino Americans. Someone erroneously deleted the reading list links so I added my own list of books about Filipino Americans to read, you can add more links to books if you want. I also added a new section on “history” in the "External Link" section that show more info about Filipino history and their 400-year presence in North America. I actually put these links on this site before but someone deleted it without any explanation in the discussion pages. So I put them back up. If someone deletes these again without any clear explanation, I’ll just put them back up again. I have a saved copy of what I wrote on word format on my external harddrive. So it’s not hard to put them back up again if someone deletes it. --Pilot expert 14:48, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

American Medical Association

"For example, the American Medical Association has deemed medical and healthcare education in the Philippines to equal that of training in the United States. Only Japan shares that distinction among the Asian nations. "

Could this claim be validated by a link or citation? How many Fil-Am doctors were actually educated in the Philippines for this statement to be included here? Thank you :)

Need to edit for tone

This whole article ends up reading like a promotional brochure for some Fil-Am booster association. It continually talks about how Fil-Ams "feel" or "believe", in really broad-brush strokes that doesn't really mesh with the incredibly diversity amongst Filipinos, much less Fil-Ams.

Can we chop this thing down a bit, and either find citations for these broad-brush assertions, or remove them? --JereKrischel 20:37, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Good point. And while we're at it, we should clean up the external links. --Jtalledo (talk) 20:40, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Just horrible. There are alot of "boosting" and alot of claims that need to be cited. I'll try to overhaul this article by tommorow. For now, sleep.--Chicbicyclist 10:39, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Maybe it’s because there’s a lot of negative issues in the Philippines that Fil-Ams living in the US want to write good information about their community and how successful many Fil-Ams are in US. Filipinos have been living in North America for 400 years. This is why Wikipedia blows. Anyone can edit an article here even a high school student and not always a PH.D professor. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.129.248.35 (talk • contribs)
Actually, that's the beauty of it as well. A grade school student could conceivably write something really good. I for one know that there's probably high school students that could write better Wikipedia articles than some professors I've met. ;) --Jtalledo (talk) 15:16, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
Every country has negative issues, some issues are even far worse than those affecting Philippines, so we must not talk about wanting-to-write-good-information-to -muffle-negative-issues here. There is nothing wrong about praising the accomplishments of people as long as they have bases (this should be worked out here). I am just surprised that, compared with other Wikipedia pages about Asian-Americans that have a lot of uncited praises too, people seem to be irked by this Filipino-American page. If you clicked the link below, you would see that in general, Filipino-Americans are among those who enjoy better lives in the US.

Filipino-Americans Least Poor: US Dept. of Commerce

1990: Poverty rate of Filipino - Americans was 6.4% (Lowest among all Asians and Hispanics).

Link: http://www.census.gov/apsd/wepeople/we-3.pdf

University of Hawaii: poverty rate dropped to 1% in 2000.

Link - http://www.ntac.hawaii.edu/products/Vol2%20Cult.Briefs/ACB-Vol2-Iss3-Philippines.pdf

Citations here!

It is also noted that the majority of them are Republicans [18]

Reference 18 is extremely weak. I would remove the passage regarding Fil-Am GOPers vs Dems entirely.

DeSambiguate 00:36, 20 November 2006 (UTC)


"Filipino Americans tend to be highly educated"

http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/censr-17.pdf - Considering their large number in the US (1.9 million, second to Chinese), Filipino-Americans only have 12.7% (second lowest among Asian-Americans or AA ) rate of people not able to finish highschool, 28.6% with associate's degree (highest among AA), and 43.8% with bachelor's degree or more (24% is the national rate). This should put the Fil-Ams in the highly-educated status.

"40% of adult Filipino Americans are college and university graduates holding advanced degrees in the arts and sciences"

Citation same as above.

"Filipino-American high school students have one of the highest graduation rates"

Citation same as above.

"As a result of their level of education, many Filipino Americans are now in the upper middle class, and the community enjoys substantial economic well-being"

Citation same as above - Filipino-Americans are least poor, with a median family income of 65,189 (ranked third among Asian Americans, five thousand dollars short of the highest Japanese and Asian-Indians).

"Filipinos actually predate the coming of the first European immigrants, which currently make the majority of the population of United States"

http://us_asians.tripod.com/timeline-1600.html

"English language instruction is required in most schools beginning at the elementary level, and the Philippines has one of the highest rates of English-speakers in the world"

The Philippine constitution states that English is the second official language and should be used alongside Filipino as the medium of instruction in schools, in government and commerce.

Third largest English speaking country - http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-countries-by-english-speaking-population

TOEFL computer-based average score is 235 (Total mean is 215). That score is still very high considering the fact that anybody could take the TOEFL in the Philippines unlike in other countries where it is regulated. Score needed to be considered for College education in the US is 210.

http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TOEFL/pdf/Test%20and%20Score%20Data%20Summary%2004_05.pdf

http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TSE/pdf/05-06_ada_tse_bulletin.txt

Please put the citations directly in the article using the ref and references tags. --JereKrischel 07:25, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Hey, I found a page with a lot of scholarly articles. Perhaps if we look through them we could find useful books and articles on scholarly journals. (Removed reference due to spam filter)--Valistar (talk) 04:03, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Forgot to add Neal McCoy

I love this page - but you forgot another music star - country music star - Neal McCoy (an article stub in Wikipedia) - He has had a couple of number one hits on Billboard's country and western charts and just hit the top 20 last year. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.111.167.219 (talk • contribs) August 31, 2006 at 08:02.

Washington, DC, or Washington (State)?

In multiple instances in the article where Washington is cited, I'm assuming (though I could be wrong) that the author is referring to Washington, D.C. If so, these references should be edited to say "Washington, D.C." or "Metro Washington, D.C." (In fact, I suspect most Fil Ams in the D.C. area reside in Maryland or Virginia.)--DeSambiguate 20:09, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Majority of San Francisco Filipinos in Pacific Heights?????

I was reading this under settlements and little manilas...

"San Francisco also has a large Filipino American community, mostly concentrated in the Pacific Heights section as an estimated 65,000 Filipinos live in that city."

I could understand the 65,000 Filipinos... but concentrated in Pacific Heights???

Really. Where did that information come from? I lived in San Francisco and I know that much of the Filipinos in san francisco are in the districts on "Exclesior, Mission, even some in Sunset and Tenderloin... but Pacific Heights?????

In fact, much of the Filipinos in the Bay Area are outside the city limits... you're Daly City, Union City, Vallejo... even Herceles...

I really question that Pacific Height thing... Someone please verify this with me.PhilipDM 09:02, 31 August 2006 (UTC)


That is news to me... I grew up in the Mission District and lived in the Excelsior District. If there are any it's usually near the border of Daly City, CA - where there is a large number of Filipinos or the South of Market area (SoMa), and some in the Sunset and Richmond districts. Americans. I think there is a fair number in the Excelsior and Ocean View Districts. Nowadays you will find Filipino-American concentrations in the towns that PhillipDM said above- Union City where I currently reside, Vallejo and Hercules. Also San Leandro is becoming another Filipino hot spot along with Fremont and South San Francisco. 71.159.210.66 20:18, 31 August 2006 (UTC)


I have to agree with everyone here - I currently live in SF and I have never, ever, heard of Filipino-Americans being concentrated in Pacific Heights. No one I know has either. I went ahead and deleted the "concentrated in Pacific Heights" claim. That claim definitely needs a cite as it's very specific and goes against common knowledge. Jsol5 06:50, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

WW2 Vets

Made a correction to the following:

During World War II, over 200,000 Filipinos fought in defense of the United States against the Japanese in the Pacific theater of military operations, where more than half died. As a commonwealth of the United States before and during the war, Filipinos were legally American nationals. With American nationality, Filipinos were promised all the benefits afforded to those serving in the armed forces of the United States. In 1946, Congress passed the Rescission Act which stripped Filipinos of the benefits they were promised.

Filipinos were considered U.S. nationals until the passage of the 1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act, which granted independence to the Philippines within 10 years, but also changed the status of Filipinos from nationals to aliens. Citation: Leny Strobel, Coming Full Circle: The Process of Declonization among Post-1965 Filipino Americans, p. 24. I deleted the bold section of the text above to reflect this fact.

The sentence starting with "Filipinos were promised all the benefits..." needs to be corrected/tightened up due to the edits I made. There was a specific act or executive order that promised those benefits. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to look that up and find a citation, so I've left that sentence alone for now. Jsol5 07:43, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Post 9/11 and Issues

There are many statements in this section which go off the topic and try to make a political statement. BigEyedFish 23:13, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Natalie Coughlin

Natalie Coughlin's thumbnail picture needs to be removed from this page. She only has distant Filipino ancestry just like Keanu Reeves only has distant Chinese ancestry and Kate Beckinsale only has distant Burmese ancestry. They are white, grew up around white people, they more likely hang out with white peope (from some pictures I've seen of Natalie Coughlin), and those three people I mentioned are probably dating/married to white people. So I doubt Natalie Coughlin can relate to any young Filipina girl fresh off the plane with her parents from Cavite, Batangas, Cebu, Ilocos, Visayas, Palawan, etc. I also would like to remove Jasmine Trias from this article because she told to a Filipino press during American Idol that she's Chinese, Spanish, Filipino. I tried to upload this brave WW2 Medal of Honor recipient who is Filipino American but the picture I tried to upload was too big to use. Lt. Rudolph B. Davila Or I would like to see former MLB player Benny Agbayani's picture or NFL Tennesse Titan lineman Eugene Amano's picture up there. I had a friend in high school who he and his sister and cousin are Mexican Americans. They told me that one of their distan ancestors was a Filipino man. More likely he was a Filipino sailor called "Manilaman" or "Indios Bravos" back then serving in the Manila galleon trade ships. Check it out Filipinos in Mexican History However, I consider them full Mexican Americans not Filipinos because they only have distant Filipino ancestry which makes it irrelevent now. (They look full European or Criollo) Just like white and black Americans claiming distant Native American Indian blood makes it irrelevent now. --Pilot expert 20:26, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes I totally agree with you on this. When i seen Natalie Coughlin's picture up there in the first place I was thinking "HUH?". She has mostly "white features" and yes i really don't think she can relate that much to the filipino culture. Thanks for pointing it out. Coojah 21:37, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
And Thanks, Cooja if it was you that added Benny Agbayani's photo there. --Pilot expert 08:59, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
Yes, it was me. Your very welcome. :] Coojah 06:57, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
I disagree. Being a Filipino American does not necessarily hinge upon the amount of Filipino "blood" or "looks" or if they hang out with white people. whatever. One of the major factors is self-identification. I myself do not look Filipino and I hang around with mostly white people (which is difficult for most Filipinos not to do!); heck, I belong to one of only three or four Filipino families in town.
Being a Filipino American is different from being a Filipino. Natalie Coughlin would definitely not be alone in not being able to relate a FOB; many young Filipino Americans - and many of them look "100% Filipino" (whatever that means!) - simply do not relate to Filipinos from the Inang Bansa. They don't much about culture. Natalie Coughlin is 25% Filipino just like Rob Schneider (both of their mothers are half Filipinas), who has been active in the plight of Filipino WWII vets. Despite Jasmine Trias's IMSCF syndrome, she is still a Filipino American. She even went to the Philippines and met GMA.
Take note that John F. Kennedy is widely considered Irish American despite being three generations removed from his Irish immigrant great-grandparents. The whole Kennedy clan too, but I don't think they, particularly the younger generation, would be able to relate much with a native of Dublin. Natalie Coughlin is only two generations away from her Filipina immigrant grandmother, btw. --Chris S. 05:30, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
If she grew up in the Philippines and wants to be considered Filipino despite having distant Austronesian Malay Pinoy ancestry or Hokkien Tsinoy ancestry, then maybe I can accept her like these Eurasian kids who grew up in the Philippines and got left behind by their American military fathers:
Kids that got left behind
However she grew up in the United States, she only has distant Filipino Ancestry and mostly European ancestry and features. That picture of her in Wikipedia makes her look dark looking because of the lights and bad camera but this is what she really looks like>
Natalie Coughlin and her medals
Natalie Coughlin in USA Weekend
Natalie Coughlin is second to the left next to Cubs pitcher Mark Prior
I would consider her white like Keanu Reeves and Kate Beckinsale irregardless of America’s stupid “one drop rule”. She would not look out of place in Scandanavia, Germany, and Britain. She’s not a real Filipina. She’s a typical American mutt with distant Filipino ancestry. Her Filipino ancestry is her own business. The only mixes that should be accepted are half Filipinos (ie one of their parent is Filipino) like Rob Schnieder, wrestler Batista, crazy serial killer Andrew Cunanan, or that hot Import Tuner Model babe Kallie Balinbin. Similarly, the only Filipinos that can be considered Spanish is if one of their parents is a real Spaniard from Iberia like Enrique Iglesias. Not those Filipinos, who have distant 1/16th or 1/8th Spanish ancestry, that like to claim that they are also “Spanish Filipinos” or “Mestizo Filipino”.
IMSCF Syndrome
Mestizo Myth
There are people in western Mexico that have distant Filipino ancestry and some Mexicans do look like Filipinos like Jessica Alba. But you wouldn’t call them Filipinos because Filipino Sailors haven’t been to Mexico in like over 200 years. Whatever distant Filipino ancestry they may have is negligible. As for JFK, he is an American of Irish ancestry. Even if he’s full Irish ancestry, he’s not a real Irishman I met. He was a regular American. He did not grew up in Ireland in Cork county, Limerick county, Kerry county, or Dublin. He grew up in New England, hence his New England accent. Some of the real Irish people from Ireland I’ve met have a problem with some Americans calling themselves “Irish-Americans” if their family has been living there since the 19th century. The wife of an older friend of mine visited Ireland one time, her grandparents' homeland (who immigrated here in the 19th century). With a Chicago-Great Lakes accent, she told an Irishman that she’s also “Irish”. He responded politely, “You are not Irish. You are an American.” When we have great-grandchildren, they probably won’t look like us anymore like white and black Americans claiming distant Native American Indian ancestry. The real Filipnos from the Philippines probably wouldn’t consider them Filipinos anymore since they would have distant Filipno ancestry. --Pilot expert 07:34, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

First of all, Rob Schneider is not half-Filipino, he is a quarter Filipino; Rob's mom, Pilar, was born in the Philippines to a US Army soldier and a Filipina mother. Secondly, Natalie Coughlin does not have "distant" Filipino ancestry. She is a quarter-Filipina just like Schneider. Her grandmother is Filipina, and she is very close to her; she even does the "mano po" to her Filipino great-grandparents. This makes Natalie's mother half Filipina. I refer to you a 2004 interview from Filipinas Magazine where she, along with Dorothy Delasin, was listed among the top 10 hot Filipino-American athletes:

Both my parents taught me to be hardworking,” says Coughlin, attributing some of her success to her Filipino heritage.

Her grandmother is a constant presence at Natalie’s swimming events. Bohn

usually makes food for the whole swim team (“By far, the best lumpia (egg roll) and pancit (noodles)!” declares Coughlin), and even made American Flag

kimonos for them for the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

“My family is so close,” says Coughlin. “They support me a lot. I love

having my grandma there; she always comes to my meets, and remembers

everything!”

Bohn confirms her vital role in Natalie’s life. “When she was little she

used to stay with me, and watch me do things, like cook,” she recalls. When Natalie was a child, she would follow her around the house and ask her questions. “I’d tell her about Filipino customs and traditions like how to respect her elders. She knows when she visits my parents to say ‘Mano

po.’”

As you can see, Coughlin is still in touch with Filipina culture. It is not like she is completely cut off. I mean, the girl lives in Vallejo for Pete's sake! You are comparing apples and oranges with your comparisons with Reeves, Beckinsales, and the Mexican descendants who have Filipino ancestry. Those people are cut off from their ancestors' immigrant cultures. For Coughlin, it's still a part of her life.

Concerning what you said about JFK, you misunderstood. JFK was not Irish he was Irish American they are two different groups. Just as Filipino and Filipino American are two different groups. The Filipinos, Irish, and other immigrant groups forged a new identity here in America. They are different from "mainstream" Americans as well, but they have their own distinct identities.

Do you understand what I am getting at? Ethnicity is not limited to bloodline. It has much to do with culture, language, history, and/or even religion. --Chris S. 09:26, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Come on. Be realistic here, man. When outsiders think of Filipinos, these are the types of Filipinos that they have seen before:
Governor Cayetano
General Taguba
Filipino American Child Prodigy Harvard Law Graduate
Filipino American Child Prodigy 15 year old Cal State college graduate
Street Children in the Philippines
The lightest skinned Filipinos would be yellow skinned, Tsinoy looking Filipinos not her. That’s great that she’s proud of her Filipino roots but I consider her a white American who grew up in the United States just like white Americans claiming a quarter Native Indian ancestry are still white with Caucasoid features. I have no problems if she checkmarks herself as Caucasian white in Census papers or Olympics papers. She would not look out of place in Britain, Scandinavia, or Germany. I do have a problem with some Filipinos, claiming to have distant Spanish ancestry or the IMSCF Syndrome trying to “whiten” our people. I’ve seen this in other message forums before. Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Pre-Castro Cuba, and Puerto Rico is the only former Spanish colonies where they have a lot of white European population via the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 for Puerto Rico and Cuba.
Other Filipino Americans here in the US might accept her but if she tell those street kids in the Philippines that she is also Filipino, they’ll look at her as if she's an alien from another planet. I have another older friend whose wife has a similar background to Natalie Coughlin. His wife’s grandfather is Filipino-American who served in the US Navy in WW2 and married an Anglo-American woman. My older friend’s wife, even though she cooks some Filipino food like Lumpia, has blonde hair and blue eyes like Natalie Coughlin. I consider my older friend’s wife and their teenage kids as white. They wouldn't look out of place in Britain, Germany, or Scandinavia. In Spanish Casta system, a Mestizo marrying a European person, their children would be considered Castizo or Full European Criollo. Check out Spanish Colonial Caste system.--Pilot expert 00:33, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Filipino Bloggers

I think we should add a filipino bloggers section to profile some of the prominent filipino bloggers who reside in the united states such as Derek Punsalan (5thirtyone.com), Ralph Dagza (ralphdagza.com), Bryan Veloso (avalonstar.com), and the best Mike Abundo (mikeabundo.com)

24.247.215.198 07:48, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Mike Abundo is a troll. Internet bloggers are not known outside the digital realm. Recognizing bloggers would be really cool, but must they be added to the list? And it's Derek Punsalan, by the way.--Valistar (talk) 03:52, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Discrimination

I noticed people keep switching back and forth this line...

"Especially in the early 20th century, most Filipino Americans were barred from marrying White Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans."

Its always about adding or deleting the "African American" part.

While it could be plausible that Filipino Americans were barred from marring African Americans, I tink Its more likely that the African Americans were the ones being discriminated against from marrying Filipinos. Idk, its just my opinion.
--Coojah 06:57, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

The article should be based on cited facts not opinion. Many of the statements in this section need to be cited. BigEyedFish (talk) 03:23, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Once again, this needs a major re-write

This article is full of weasel words, unsourced statements and plent and plenty of generalities that could be said for any group in the united states. Lets look at a few:

Filipino Americans tend to be highly educated.

Neither of the referenced articles mention anything about Filipino Americans being highly educated. In fact they only talk about two "genius" cases, hardly representative of the entire ethnic group.

Filipino cultural traditions instill the values of a strong work ethic, education, and honor to the family. Consequently, many of the newer generations of Filipino Americans born in the United States, where opportunities abound, gravitate towards business and other scientific and technical professions, including architecture, business administration, economics, education, engineering, medicine and nursing. Today, it is not unusual for sons and daughters of migrant Filipinos to have aspired to become part of higher levels of mainstream America, as military officers, diplomats, real estate tycoons, and the like.

OK, so what makes this unique about Filipino americans, and what justifies it being placed in this article? Do other minority or ethnic groups not "gravitate towards business and other scientific and technical professions"? I already deleted a sentence that stated that Fil-Ams "tended to go to highly regarded universities" or some nonsense.

Heres another gem: Filipino Americans are also known to be business-owners. Many are in the restaurant business, while others in the medical, dental, and optical fields have their own offices. They are also known as retailers and store owners

Once again, this is a meaningless generality that could be said for any group. The next section after that one is better and uses more concrete facts.

Many Filipino Americans are homeowners.

Well, how many? What percentage? Why don't we compare it to home ownership in other Asian-American groups? Besides, it seems like much of the point of this article is to place Filipino Americans in a more favorable light than Asian Americans of other nationalities, as if it were some kind of race or publicity contest.

Filipinos utilize their knowledge of English, close kinship with the United States, and education to work towards a better life in the United States and the attainment of the American Dream.

While reading that statement did make me have some warm and gooey feelings (choke), I am not sure it belongs in this article.

Extremely hospitable in nature, Filipino Americans are fond of celebrating with familes, extended families and friends.

How nice!


Anyway, the entire article sounds like a Fil-Am booster brochure (as someone pointed out below), with aims at placing Filipino Americans in a better light than other Asian American groups. Sorry If I sound too cynical. I have no affiliation to any Asian American group but reading this article sure made me think that some big-time Filipino apologists wrote this. I may remove some of these unsourced sunshine-pumping statements and a few more. Please let me know what you think.--Daveblack 03:43, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

I actually agree with you.-202.81.167.39 10:23, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Original research tag

I added the {{original research}} tag to the "21st Century Trends" section - it seems to take existing facts and synthesize them to make a point, particularly the "invisible minority" sub section. --Jtalledo (talk) 13:08, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi I'm Back Again

After suggesting adding Neal McCoy - I've got another one who was one of the vocalists for the pop/folk/rock band of hte 60's... The Association.... Native Hawaiian of Filipino descent - Larry Ramos. They had several big hits scattered throughout the mid to late 60s including "Cherish," and "Windy." You can find him sharing lead vocals on "Windy" on some vintage footage on YouTube.

75.36.157.185 07:45, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Religion citations needed

In New York, the first-ever Church for Filipinos, San Lorenzo Ruiz Church, is hosted by the city. It is named after the first patron saint of the Philippines, San Lorenzo Ruiz. This is officially designated as the Church for Filipinos in July 2005, the first in the United States, and the second in the world, after a church in Rome.

I was looking across the net to verify this information but none was found. Especially the second sentance. Where was that data taken from? I will continue lookingfor a cross referance but so far I have not stumbled across it. Will the author please cite?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reports that Tagalog is the fourth most-spoken language among members worldwide, and other Filipino languages are among the ten most-spoken in the Church, with so many of those members in American congregations that they hold separate services in Tagalog.

Where was this inforamation gathered from? Again, I cannot find a cross referance for this. Will whoever included this please cite their source please?

Thanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.121.241.15 (talk) 20:15, 1 May 2007 (UTC).

Back for more

Neal McCoy's last top five Country & Western hit from 2005, "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On" had a music video with the main character played by comedian, Rob Schneider... A rare pairing of two separate Filipino-American entertainers and it is probably the only time this has ever happened in a music video.

There could more information on Zane Bezesky

I apologize for seeming random, I just wanted to reference that one of the most youngest skilled tumblers in the world is Zane Bezesky, who has trained with internationally famed Troy Maillis in Flordia, U.S.A [www.jonesbahamas.com/txt.php?a=13785] is half-Filipino on his mother's side, she being full born to two Filipino parents, in the Philippines. For those interested in this reference:

I referenced a visual, & audio clip below.

All Star tumbling tumbling video,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRCEvJQ0hgk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.38.211.144 (talk) 02:32, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

I am sorry if this sounds offensive to some people. However, I have noticed that in prevelant popular media the filipino which is potrayed tend to be femenin homosexuals[1], for example in family guy. Although they make a notable and intregal part of our community, would this be a misrepresentation of our community as a whole?

Philippine Culture and Colonial Mentality

Quote - "Culturally, the Philippines is the most Westernized country in Asia, a legacy of over three centuries of Spanish and American colonial rule."

The Philippines may look like the most Westernized country in Asia from the outside only because they are trying to make the country look westernized and that they the country to be very well considered westernized. But that is only a glossing over the country's culture, and deep down, they are no different from the rest of the Asians, including the original Filipino culture, which is the pre-colonial culture. Plus Philippines seems to be the most westernized Asian country also because of a high degree of colonial mentality. Indonesia was a Dutch colony longer than the Philippines being a Spanish, and then an American, colony. And yet the Indonesians have still preserved and restored much of their original culture and heritage (btw, the Indonesians, Filipinos, Malaysians, Bruneians and to a certain extent the Singaporeans supposedly share the same culture and ethnic heritage). The colonial mentality syndrome has impacted the Philippines and the Filipinos in many negative ways, including on the economy, politics, etc.

If modernization and westernization are two inseparable terms, then what I can say is that the Philippines has not modernized in the proper way. Instead of modernizing, let's say, in technology, they just so-called "modernized/westernized" their culture, which has just made things worse on their conditions. This has just made them even more of the basket-case of Asia. This has just exacerbated their cultural rape from the Spaniards and Americans (yes, they were raped in numerous aspects, and both physical and cultural are no exceptions). Also, I heard a saying somewhere about Singapore, where Singapore considers itself to be "modernized", but not "westernized" (pretty much like what Japan seems to be).

I know all this because I am a Filipino (more specifically, a native Filipino Malay with some Chinese blood). And because of being Filipino, I even know about controversy behind the country's name. Besides being the so-called "most westernized country in Asia," the Philippines coincidently also is the only country in Asia still having a colonial name. For us to still be known as the Philippines is the equivalent of Indonesia still being known as Dutch East Indies, or for Sri Lanka to be still known as Ceylon (which was a corrupted name). The name was in honor of King Philip of Spain, who is long gone, and for the country to be still named in honor of the colonizer's leader suggests that the country is inferior and lacks sovereignty and nationalism. Also, the term Filipino was originally used to refer to the Spaniards who were born in the Philippines (or what some of you might know of as the Criollos). The country's name was supposed to be changed decades ago, and the main consideration for the new name was Maharlikha. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.183.39.152 (talk) 03:18, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

  • Interesting Views, Me too as a Filipino, and Australian, Understand where your coming from. Firstly I disagree with your view of The Name of the Philippines, Just because a Country is named after the Colonies original given name, doesnt mean the country is "inferior and lacks sovereignty and nationalism", and finally, the name Maharlikha was talked about a lot by the President of that time, Though, After some deep digging in information (THANK GOD), They discovered that the Word Maharlikha also means "Large Erection" in some other languages. Seriously, What is wrong with the name "Philippines" ? I just think your views are fairly out of wack, Really, Sorry. The Philippines Is Considered the Most Westernised in Asia due to the 2 Western Cultures that controlled the country (a lot of influence), and at the same time added a bit of their culture to the Country (western Culture). For starters where the largest Christian Country in Asia, is that rooted in Asia?, We have very STRONG american routes and influences (i dont know if thats good or bad) Though. Dont get me wrong, The Philippines in no way is Fully Westernised, The Traditional culture is still intact and their are still many people who not western in everything (even though Globalisation is fairly western-oriented), Their are still traditional Religions, Traditional Languages and even our own Traditional Script (Baybayin) etc. Though when it comes to Western Culture, The Philippines has had probally the most western influence out of all of the Countries of Asia, Though of course we cannot confirm that and its a matter of opinion. anyway, Mabuhay Ang Pilipinas. Be Proud. Cheers! tomauer 11:46, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, which is it? Do Filipinos still live in their little world where there is a non-existant opressor after them? Do they still suffer from that idenity crisis of being a Pacific Islander or Asian? Do Filipinos notice their hypocracy and contradictions of complaining about their culture, country and people being raped and opressed and then bragging about being mixed from those same said opressors? Do Filipinos still believe they're Black? Do Filipinos now that the Blacks, Spainards and Chinese were the not the only ethnic groups among their country. Should we ignore the Arabs, Japanese and other Asians and ethnic groups?

Back to the Pacific Islander part, I think Filipinos should be removed from the Asian American section and moved to the Pacific Islander AMERICANS. Since MANY claim to be Pacific Islanders and have nothing to with Asia and claim supremacy because of their diversity, it would be fitting for this group. Then we could stop hearing the screams and protest about how Filipinos are not Asians, they are something superior to that inferior race.

BTW, the crappy article needs some serious editting. A lot of this garbage can be applied to other Asian Americans. Remember, Filipinos are NOT ASIAN. There for, they don't belong or should mentioned any where along Asian Americans. —Preceding unsigned comment added by KevinZenielPerez1990 (talk • contribs) 00:05, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Asian? Yes. Pacific Islander?

Back to the Pacific Islander part, I think Filipinos should be removed from the Asian American section and moved to the Pacific Islander AMERICANS. Since MANY claim to be Pacific Islanders and have nothing to with Asia and claim supremacy because of their diversity, it would be fitting for this group. Then we could stop hearing the screams and protest about how Filipinos are not Asians, they are something superior to that inferior race.

BTW, the crappy article needs some serious editting. A lot of this garbage can be applied to other Asian Americans. Remember, Filipinos are NOT ASIAN. There for, they don't belong or should mentioned any where along Asian Americans. —Preceding unsigned comment added by KevinZenielPerez1990 (talk • contribs) 00:05, 6 September 2007 (UTC)


Let's just make it clear, the Filipinos who want to identify with the label of Pacific Islanders over Asian are Filipino-Americans. As state before, the Philippines is apart of Asia. The U.S. acknowledges the Philippines are included under the Asian label. I think the issue stems from the cultural gap between Filipinos and Filipino-Americans, there are Fil-Ams who are known to degrade Filipinos. Anyone who thinks Filipinos are not considered Asian based on culture and physical features is simply not well informed of South East Asia. Skillz (talk • contribs) —Preceding unsigned comment added by SkillzDatKillz (talk • contribs) 02:59, 31 March 2008 (UTC)


I don't get why so many Fil-Ams want to be Pacific Islanders, if both the U.S. and the Philippines consider the Philippines as a part of Asia. I also don't buy the Austronesian excuse because that can be found in other Asian countries as well. You don't hear Malaysians, Singaporeans, Indonesians, Cambodians, Laosians, Thais, Vietnamese, etc all complaining that they fall under the Asian label, why are there Fil-Ams seem to have this? Is this related to a "cool" factor, just like how Fil-Ams think they are "cooler" than Filipinos who arrive in the U.S. from the Philippines?

With that said, there are Fil-Ams who have no problem with the term Asian. So unless, there's a large number of Fil-Ams from across the U.S. who do not want the Asian label, I don't think it's right to remove them from the Asia-Americans section. 

-  PINOYfilam PINOYfilam Pride]] contribs) 12:03, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Why are Fil-Ams identifying themselves as "Pacific Islanders"? That is geographically, technically, and scientifically incorrect! And there are a lot of Filipinos who look very oriental as well, they surely won't pass as "Pacific Islanders"! And FYI, the PC term that most scholars use nowadays is Asian Pacific American. (Another reference removed due to Wikipedia Spam filter not allowing it)--Valistar (talk) 03:52, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

List of Asian Americans and other lists nominated for deletion

List of Asian Americans and a whole bunch of other lists have been nominated for deletion. If you have an opinion, please vote at the AfD.

Please see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Log/2007 September 12 for all the lists that have been nominated for deletion. Hong Qi Gong (Talk - Contribs) 18:21, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:ErnieReyes.jpg

Image:ErnieReyes.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 06:51, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Please Clarify

Someone please clarify the following

"Sociologists introduced the phrase "Second Class Veterans" to describe the plight of these Filipino Americans."

I would like to see more citation for this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.130.185.42 (talk) 02:55, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Filipino American communities

True, the five largest cities for Filipino Americans to live in are Honolulu, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco, what about smaller towns in the U.S. like Delano near Bakersfield, California? An estimated 25,000 Filipino Americans reside in the Delano area since the first wave of Filipinos settled there in the 1920's as contract farm laborers. Other large Filipino American populations are in the California desert: the Coachella and Imperial Valleys facing the U.S.-Mexican border developed by earlier Filipino immigration. The Las Vegas area has also a reputation for a fast-growing and well-established Filipino community in recent years. + 71.102.53.48 (talk) 07:10, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Immigration section disputed

I've tagged this section {{disputed-section}}.

The second paragraph of this section leads off with "Filipinos have one of the longest waiting periods among immigrant groups" (tagged {{cn}}), and goes on to paint a picture of Filipinos as a group being discriminated against by the INS (or whatever that agency is now called under the DHS), citing this 2006 Manila Times article as a supporting source. This piqued my interest enough that I googled around looking for more info on country-by-country immigration quotas. To my suprise, I stumbled over the WP Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 article, the lead sentence of which says: "Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act, INS Act of 1965, Pub.L. 89-236) abolished the national-origin quotas that had been in place in the United States since the Immigration Act of 1924." That article cites this supporting source which reads, in part: "Abolished the national origins quota system (see the Immigration Act of 1924 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952), eliminating national origin, race, or ancestry as a basis for immigration to the United States." -- Boracay Bill (talk) 01:54, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes, the rule about abolishing the national and origin quotas is there, but that does not mean that Filipinos still do not suffer the long-wait for the green-cards and US visas. These Filipinos are actually properly petitioned and have sufficient documentation, but the backlog for them date way back to 1986, in which is VERY evident to the immigration schedule that that USCIS releases. You might want to research that as well. Hence that is why the article is under "Issues", an issue that's very pivotal to the 4 million Filipinos in the United States trying to reunify with their families. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kagoikunai (talk • contribs) 04:58, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

My concern is that I see an implication in the second paragraph of this section ("Currently, Filipinos suffer from long-waiting periods of visa issuance. ...") that this situation is somehow particular to Filipinos. However, my understanding is that this is a general situation which affects persons from other countries as well and in the same way that it affects Filipinos. If my understanding is incorrect, sources supporting the assertion that this situation is special to Filipinos need to be cited. If my understanding is correct, I don't see the point in including the information in the article in a way which implies that it is special to Filipinos. -- Boracay Bill (talk) 05:36, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Hence this whole article is about Filipino Americans, and of course the need to point out the issue that is quite pivotal to many Filipinos need to be illustrated in the article. Yes, many Filipino Americans are aware that we are not exclusive to this chronic problem, but the statement in this article is just a general statement about what Filipinos are going through, no implication of special treatment or mention. So must we dispute the immigration issues that Mexicans and other Hispanics are going through, which are also stated in their respective articles, since it's not just them that are affected, rather a wide variety of demographic? talk —Preceding comment was added at 06:30, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

The tag is gone again, but there have been changes to the article text which clarify the issue sufficiently that I'll not pursue this dispute. Some of the changes are mine, and some come from others (others started the changes and I piled on). The text as it currently stands could probably use some tweaking — in particular, I recall stumbling across something yesterday listing numeric regional immigration quotas (e.g., Europe vs. Asia vs. Africa, etc.) If I recall that correctly,it might bear mention here, but I haven't been able to locate it again with a quick search and can't dedicate any more time to looking for it. -- Boracay Bill (talk) 08:37, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

San Francisco Giants

Why you ask? The Giants just called up Geno Espineli, a full-blooded Filipino-American from Houston, TX up to the Majors. In the San Francisco Chronicle article dated 7/21/2008 - he believed he was the first full-blooded Fil-Am pitcher in the majors... Maybe someone could help him. Espineli doesn't throw very hard (about 85-86 mph top speed), but relies on a deceptive motion and a devastating changeup.

14:57, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Could someone provide a source regarding/confirming the voting trends in this article? I come from a Filipino-American family, and my mother, like myself, is a proud Democrat. Hachiko (talk) 08:02, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

I haven't researched this at all, but while I was fixing up some refs & cites just now, I noticed this Asia Times article. Note that this is not the proper place for a general discussion of voting trends in the Fil-Am community unless the objective of the discussion is to improve this article. This is certainly not the place for a Proud Dem vs Proud Rep discussion. -- Boracay Bill (talk) 22:46, 29 August 2008 (UTC)


The ridiculous term Asian Pacific American

Saying Asian Pacific American is like calling whites European Atlantic Americans. Ridiculous.

Just say whites, blacks and yellows (now usually browns are added for Hispanics). People understand that better. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.146.210.168 (talk) 10:02, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

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