On Saturday, June 20th, Jacksonville, FL pulsated with Pilipino talent at the Filipino Pride Day (FPD) celebrated at the Jacksonville Landing along the St. John's River in downtown. This supposed location of the first landing of Europeans on the continent served as the space for the largest and first-ever Northern Florida Pilipino festival (not provincial or faith-based). Tampa has been for 14 years hosting the impressive PhilFest event, but remains inaccessible for many Filipinos who live far away from Tampa. So, for Pilipinos and friends of Filipinos in Jacksonville (and also parts north of Jacksonville, such as Georgia), FPD played an important role in forming community and creating cultural spaces for a historic Pilipino demographic in Jacksonville that may very well be the largest in the state.
The news article on the left provides more detail about the event, where performers, organizers, and participants endured 100+ degree sticky Florida weather. It was a historic moment for the Pilipino community, and many of my close friends and family helped out and participated. There is talk that it will become an annual thing. Let's hope so.
FPD is only in its embryonic stage, so I cannot wait for it to grow, mature, and serve as a productive and constructive venue for the Pilipino community in North Florida. All Pilipino festivals develop through a process of drama, all subscribe to elements of cultural essentialism (often offensive/silly to actual indigenous or Muslim people in the archipelago), and all will not please every single community leader or participant. But it cannot be denied that these spaces provide crucial centers for developing a sense of pride, dignity, and community for a people (especially young people) who have been denied it. This is so important in a place like Jacksonville, where Pilipinos are extremely scattered geographically, generationally, labor-wise, and socio-economically.
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By vballgirl1820 on July 13, 2009 - 4:16pm
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Comments
i dont think creme de la creme is reigning champs from def talent jam but idk.
i kno that they are reigning champs from phil fest for 2 year
I just got that info about creme bein DTJ champs from a friend. you prolly know the info better than me. I would like to know the more accurate record?
well i know that they got 1st place in phil fest in both 2008 and 2009. i dont really know anything else sorry.
has Polynesian dancing evolved and become a part of the Pilipino Culture? I tend to see a lot of this as well as Tahitian a part of Pilipino Fiestas as of late.
Well Polynesian dancing probably is more of a Fil Am thing. Call it an island-culture complex transferred to the dissonant identity formation in the States or what have you, but you're right, there is always Polynesian dance at Fil Am fiestas.
It also has to do with the thick Filipino representation in Hawai'i, where Filipinos first made contact with the U.S. in large, systematic numbers. Then we got migration of Filipino Hawaiians to CA and everywhere else in the States. So the Hawai'i (and Guam) connection has much to do with it, i think. (and of course, we got those Filipinos who like to think of themselves as Hawaiian, for self-exotic effect).