Finding strength through the struggle

The Filipino American Student Association at Portland State, or Kaibigan, will host the fourth annual Pilipino Cultural Night (PCN) on Saturday, May 9 in the Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom. Proceeds from the event will goes toward funding the annual Kaibigan Scholarship.

Irynne Padua, president of the Kaibigan, said the theme for this year’s event is “LAKAS: Strength Through Our Struggle.” Padua said this year’s theme would build upon the themes from previous years that dealt with understanding Filipino identity.

“In the past, we were trying to let people know who we are as an organization, and this year it’s about us taking action and gaining strength to empower our culture,” Padua said. 

Kaibigan Vice President Christian Aniciete anticipates the evening will draw a crowd of 500 people. As one of the group’s co-founders, Aniciete said through his years of involvement with the organization he has seen the membership numbers grow from a 20 students to more than 90 active members.

Aniciete considers Kaibigan an outlet for him to learn about Filipino culture.

“I immigrated over here when I was 10 and I was exposed to American culture,” he said. “Being a part of this group has been meaningful, to be able to promote our culture and advocate for the issues that are important to our community.”

According to Padua, some of those social issues pertain to Filipino is immigration rights and fighting for benefits for Filipino American veterans who have fought in WWII.

“We are also trying to raise awareness of the struggle in the Philippines concerning human rights violation,” Padua said. “The Philippines’ president is enforcing marshal laws and scare tactics against political activists in the country.”

The underlying message of the event will be reflected in the musical guest for the evening. PCN will feature Blue Scholars, a Seattle-based hip-hop duo whose music centers on the struggles between socioeconomic classes and political activism. One of the musicians is a second-generation immigrant from the Philippines.  

“With the Blue scholars, their music is all about empowerment and making a difference in our community,” Aniciete said, “something that is very universal and goes beyond ethnicity and skin colors and background. It’s a very big honor for us to be able to bring them because they’re a very major underground-hip-hop duo.”

The evening will also consist of traditional Filipino cultural dances, Filipino cuisine and spoken word performance. According to Aniciete, this year’s PCN is part of a tradition of PSU Kaibigan and other universities across the country—at the University of California, Los Angeles, the event is now in its 32nd year. 
 
“We do it in May because it’s also Asian Pacific Islander Month,” Padua said.

Patrick Villflores, a senior majoring in Community Development and one of the co-founders of Kaibigan said that PCN is well on its way to becoming a tradition at PSU.

“What I have been noticing is that we have start to gradually establish an annual tradition with Kaibigan,” Villaflores said, “I hope that Kaibigan would continue to fulfill its mission to unite and empower students of Filipino American heritage through the four aspect that we continue to pursue: cultural, political, educational and social.”

Villaflores said that as a university with the largest population of Asian American students, Portland State could help those students more by having an Asian-American Studies department.

“The only avenue for students to learn more about their heritage and history is through clubs like Kaibigan,” Villaflores said. “Pilipino history should be a part of American history curriculum.”

Aside from entertainment, the event will also raise money for the Kaibigan Scholarship Fund, a program now in its second year. The scholarship awards a student who has been involved with Kaibigan and demonstrates leadership, academic and community service.

Aniciete, along with Deidra McDowell, received last year’s awards.

“Part of leadership is about passing the torch,” said Aniciete, who is graduating next year. “A big part of my goal before the year ends is to mentor a lot of incoming students and officers to get involved, and it’s up to them to run this organization and provide more scholarships in the future.”