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It’s Filipino American History Month, a state and national observance initiated in 1992 by Fred and Dorothy Cordova of Seattle.

Other ethnic and racial minorities have pursued similar initiatives and, through community advocacy, have obtained national and/or state proclamations of a month to honor their particular history or heritage.

These official pronouncements provide long overdue recognition and appreciation of the histories, contributions and achievements of people of color and immigrant groups in American society. 

Some, such as Japanese Americans and Chinese Americans, do not necessarily need the same kind of official acknowledgment because of their relatively high political and economic status in the U.S.

As co-founders of the Filipino American National Historical Society, the Cordovas had the organization’s board of trustees pass a resolution in 1992 declaring October as Filipino American History Month.

They chose the month for this commemoration because Oct. 18, 1587, was the first recorded landing of Filipinos in what would become the United States. Eight “Luzones Indios,” or natives from Luzon island in the Philippines, as they were described in the captain’s log, were aboard a Spanish galleon that landed at Morro Bay near San Luis Obispo, California. 

They were not referred to as Filipinos because at that time the term referred to Spaniards born in the Philippines, a Spanish colony until 1898, as was California until 1821.

The first Filipino plantation laborers in Hawaii were Ilokanos from northern Luzon. They arrived in Honolulu on Dec. 20, 1906, and were assigned to Olaa Plantation on Hawaii island. 

Filipinos now comprise the second-largest group after whites in the islands. But a relative lack of knowledge and recognition of their history, accomplishments and contributions leads them to find ways to emphasize those things and gain acknowledgment for their contemporary roles in society.

Following the lead of the Filipino American National Historical Society and its chapters across the country, including Honolulu, Filipino community and student organizations began observing October as Filipino American History Month. In 2008, the Hawaii Legislature passed a bill, introduced by members of the Filipino Caucus, proclaiming it so. 

Congress followed suit the next year, and in 2015 then-President Barack Obama held the first Filipino American History Month celebration at the White House.

I am going to honor FAHM by highlighting some films, books and other notable events about the community.

“AMEFIL (Amy),” a 30-minute documentary on the life and social justice contributions of minority and immigrant rights advocate Dr. Amy Agbayani, will have its premiere Sunday at the Consolidated Theatres Kahala in Honolulu and is being shown at .

The film’s trailer notes that Agbayani’s “advocacy for diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom and broader community serves as a lesson in persistence for the next generation of activists who hope to fight systemic racism and discrimination.”

Agbayani also will be the second recipient of the annual “Woman Impact Award” of the East-West Center on Friday.

Agbayani arrived in Hawaii from the Philippines as an East-West Center scholarship student in 1964 and earned a doctorate in political science from the University of Hawaii Manoa for her dissertation on the civil rights movement. She once told me that she hadn’t met an African American until she came to the islands.

The FilAm Film Festival is being held once again this month at Leeward Community College in celebration of FAHM. Sponsored by the LCC Pamantasan Committee and Language Arts Division, two Philippine films with English subtitles have already been shown, but two more are scheduled — “Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo” on Wednesday and “Kun Maupay Man it Panahon” on Oct. 25.

Also at Leeward Community College, was convened last weekend with the theme of “The Journey and Legacy of Filipino Americans in Hawaii.”

“Araw Ng Saliksik (Research Day): Health Research Report Back to the Filipino Community” was held on Saturday at the Oahu Veterans Center in Honolulu. Dr. May Rose Dela Cruz of the UH Manoa Office of Public Health Studies and other scholars presented the results of their “health research for and by Filipinos” on Covid-19, substance abuse, reproductive health, breast cancer and HIV.  

Since October commemorates Filipino American history rather than cultural heritage, I will mention two forthcoming books that highlight significant Filipino historical events in Hawaii. 

An edited book on will be published next year to mark the centennial of the killing of 16 Filipino striking workers and four police officers in that Kauai plantation town in a short burst of gunfire. The publication indirectly affirms that labor organizing is one of the major historical contributions of Filipinos to Hawaii society.

Another book coming out next year, “Ota Camp; Filipinos in Hawaii Fight Eviction,” concerns the struggle of residents in that plantation-like village in Waipahu in the early 1970s. The author, Dr. Melinda Tria Kerkvliet, discusses how, rather than comply with eviction notices they had been given, the Ota Camp residents resisted by organizing themselves into the Makibaka (struggle) Association. 

After sustained community activism and successful appeals to the City and County of Honolulu, the Makibaka villagers were later moved as a community to the West Loch area where they continue to reside as homeowners. The Ota Camp struggle demonstrates a productive example of how disadvantaged communities can be provided with housing through government intervention.

It is notable that there is no officially designated Chinese American or Japanese American History Month in Hawaii or the U.S. One reason might be because the histories of these groups are already well researched and documented in numerous books, films and museums. And many academic scholars continue that research and documentation.

Other groups need to do more self-promotion. As a result of community advocacy for national recognition, America commemorates and celebrates Black History Month; Hispanic American Heritage Month; Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Native American Heritage Month.

Similarly in Hawaii, Filipino American History Month with its diversity of cultural, academic and artistic events is intended to address the somewhat inadequate acknowledgment of what they have achieved and contributed to island society. It also brings the community together as a means for their empowerment and not simply celebration.