Apl.de.ap. - Filipino Forever

Filipinos love to sing. Just look at how popular karaokes are among Filipinos. Clubs all over Asia feature Filipino entertainers. At least since the Philippines became a US colony, Filipinos were in US Navy bands, marching bands, cruise ships and other entertaining outfits. Filipino Americans are now getting recognized for their musical talent. Joe Bataan was the first recording artist to create an authentic Latin soul music. In 6 of their 7 seasons, American Idol had at least one Fil-Am contestant. Jasmine Trias, who placed third on Season 3 has released an album, a single for McDonalds, appeared in TV commercials, reality shows, and headlined musical tours in the Philippines.

Some other FilAms who have received awards and/or name-recognition are Billy Hinsche (from Dino, Desi and Billy, now with Ricci, Desi and Billy), Lea Salonga (the original Miss Saigon), Chad Hugo (half of the Neptunes). Despite all these, Fil-Am talent and Filipino music are still below the radar screen of the mainstream American populace, unlike Latin music as promoted by singers like Jennifer Lopez, Julio Iglesias and his son Enrique. The irony of it is, that Enrique Iglesias' mother is a Filipina.

But wait. one Fil-Am is trying to change all this.

Allan Pineda, better known as Apl.de.ap. was born in Sapang Bato, Angeles City, Pampanga on Nov. 24, 1974 of a Filipino mother and an African American father. His father, a US airman stationed at Clark Air Base abandoned his family either shortly before or soon after his birth. By all accounts, he lived a hard life with his mother and younger siblings (4 brothers, 2 sisters).

At age 11, the Pearl S. Buck Foundation initially brought him to the US to treat nystagmus (involuntary eye movements). At 14, his dollar-a-day sponsor, Joe Ben Hudges eventually adopted him and brought him to Los Angeles. He became friends with will.i.am and formed a break dancing crew called Tribal Nation which later became ATBan Klann (A Tribe Beyond a Nation) with the addition of more members. Their first album Grass Roots (Ruthless Records) was never released. They changed their name to Black Eyed Peas. Since then, they've released 5 albums, have had 3 No. 1 singles and have won 3 Grammy awards.

The Apl Song, which is in Black Eyed Peas' 2003 breakout album Elephunk, has a chorus written in Tagalog. It tells the story about his poor family in Pampanga. I get teary-eyed everytime I listen to it. Especially when it ends with a reference to his brother's suicide.

In the Pea's next album, Apl.de.ap. went further in promoting his Filipino heritage through Bebot, an all Filipino song. Through his recording company, Jeepney Records, he plans to collaborate with other Filipino artists and to look for other talents. His solo album which is scheduled for release includes a song called "Island" which is about the beauty and the hardships of the country.

At a recent birthday fundraiser, Apl said "It is very important to me to give back the same opportunity that was given to me." He plans to hold a benefit annually to benefit the Pearl S. Buck Foundation and other Filipino charities. The Black Eyed Peas' Peapod Foundation funded the Peapod Music and Arts Academy at the Watts/Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club in Los Angeles, which will serve youths in foster care and other at-risk teens. They plan to build other centers in LA, the Philippines, Brazil and hopefully other parts of the world.

Apl.de.ap. truly deserves the Special Citation given him during the 2008 MYX Music Awards for his "outstanding contribution to the music industry and to his homeland, the Philippines". In his acceptance speech, Apl said. "I will be Filipino today, I will be Filipino tomorrow and I will be Filipino in the future."

Lest anybody questions his authenticity, be it known that he also likes balut.

Great Filipinos in US History

When did the first Filipinos come to the US? 1587, Morro Bay, CA. 1587!That's a long time ago. A long time for these Luzon Indians to make their mark in history. It was only in 1763 though that the first permanent Filipino settlement was established in New Orleans. In 1781,a Filipino was chosen to be among the first settlers of Los Angeles. It was his misfortune that his daughter was stricken with smallpox and he was delayed in getting to Los Angeles. In the early 1900's, Filipino laborers migrated here to work in CA, Hawaii and Washington. These immigrants suffered from discrimination.They couldn't own property, operate a business, hold public office nor become American citizens. They were not even allowed to live in an American residential neighborhood. A law was even passed in California prohibiting marriage between white persons and Filipinos. But they did marry and that might have provoked some of the anti-Filipino riots of 1929. It was only in 1948 that CA ended it's racially based prohibition of marriage and only in 1967 that interracial marriage became legalized nationwide. Despite all these, the Filipino spirit remained undaunted and personalities started to shine. Pancho Villa became the World Flyweight Champion Boxer in 1924. The humble yo-yo became a national craze after Pedro Flores opened the first yo-yo factory in 1928 and started the yo-yo contest.In 1948, Victoria Manalo Davis became the first woman to win 2 Olympic gold medals in diving. Bobby Balcena became the first Filipino major league baseball player, a member of the 1955 PCL champion Seattle Rainiers who briefly played for the Cincinatti Red Lights. In 1962, Roman Gabriel of the Los Angeles Rams not only became the first Asian-American quarterback but also the first large quarterback in the NFL.
In 1965, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act. Skilled Filipino laborers came in droves and started to shine in their fields of endeavor. So I was right after all. There's now so many Filipino-American luminaries, the only reason I did not know of them was because I just was not looking.
I don't read Filipino newspapers aside from those occasional freebies I pick up at the Fil-Am stores. I don't watch Filipino TV channels. Just don't have the time. I do go to inq.7 and abs-cbn for news from the Philippines. How come I've never heard of apl.de.ap. before? I don't intentionally block out anything hip hop from my internal hard drive. It's just something generational, I think. I now know a lot about this young man and have yet to find another celebrity I can admire more. Next time. Apl.de.ap.

Link:
More on Great Filipinos in US History

The Invisible (?) Filipino-American

I am Filipino. I am American. No, I am Filipino-American. And there are lots of people like me around. As of 2007, there are around 4million of us, about 1.5% of the entire US population. We're everywhere - trouble is, how come we all seem to be just blending with the crowd, not really standing out, having truly mastered the art of assimilation. Are we really the Invisible Minority? Maybe that's why some people here have no idea what we are about. I know there are books about notable Filipino-Americans. But, how many do I know of?
Just recently, I discovered that Michelle Malkin , the conservative commentator has Filipino parents. When I mentioned it to my husband (who is at least a 4th generation Scot-Irish American), he said he knew it all along. "What did you think she was?" I don't know. That was embarassing, to say the least.
Now, I can see that Michelle Malkin really looks like a Filipino. But, when I used to see her, I never paused to wonder what her ethnic background was. She was just another Asian American figure.
I knew Maj. Gen Antonio Taguba is Fil-Am. But I never knew Benny Agbayani (former NY METS) is. I should have known just by his surname. One problem in recognizing us lies with our name. I know more Fil-Ams with Spanish or Chinese names than truly Filipino names. Unlike Ramielle Malubay (American idol contestant), others cannot be readily identified by name- like Veronica de la Cruz (CNN) and Billy Crawford (singer).
I now found my mission: to find all those notable Fil-Ams out there who are in the news and expose them to the world (at least the blogging world). I will be educating myself and hopefully other readers. Maybe we're not invisible. Maybe it was just me that was not looking.

Link:
More on the Invisible Filipino American