Featuring the most noteworthy people impacting, inspiring, and empowering the Filipino-American and Global Filipino community.
The Philippines’ Catriona Gray was crowned Miss Universe 2018 at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand on Monday, December 17. The fans went wild as 2017 Miss Universe Demi Leigh Nel Peters from South Africa awarded the Miss Universe Phoenix Mikimoto crown to the 24-year-old Filipino-Australian who was up against 93 countries. Miss Venezuela Sthefany…
Former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and senatorial candidate Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on Monday, December 10, visited Filipino-Americans in Las Vegas, Nevada to promote his personal advocacy to campaign against the proliferation of illegal drugs as well as talk about his senatorial bid. “I am roaming around, propagating my personal advocacy which is the…
THE Recording Academy announced the nominations for the 61st Grammy Awards and 21-year-old R&B singer Gabi Wilson — known by her stage name H.E.R. — received five nominations, including Album of the Year. Wilson — who is half-Filipina, half-African American — was also nominated for Best New Artist, Best R&B Performance (for the song “Best…
“I think that LA can kind of be like a bubble sometimes. We don’t really realize how the world is,” said Caroline Raquel, a Filipina-American junior at the University of Pennsylvania. “Luckily, LA is really diverse and I’m very lucky to have grown up in LA, but I think keeping an awareness is something that…
AARP celebrated its 2018 Asian American & Pacific Islander Hero Award winner Jon Melegrito of Kensington, Maryland for his volunteer work with the Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project (FilVetREP) on Wednesday, December 5 in Washington, DC. Melegrito is the son of a Filipino World War II Veteran. From civil rights to the anti-apartheid movement,…
OVERSEAS Filipinos and organizations were recognized by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in a ceremony on Wednesday, December 5 at Malacañang Palace. Called the Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas (PAFIOO), 25 outstanding Filipino individuals and organizations from abroad were honored. Six families were also given the Model OFW Family of the Year Award…
LOS Angeles Filipino-American organizations and community leaders are seeking to rename a portion of a main Historic Filipinotown street to honor the Filipino labor leader Larry Itliong who led the famous Delano Grape Strike in 1965. A proposal to rename part of Temple Street that traverses Historic Filipinotown to Larry Itliong Avenue has already been…
Filipino-American actor Darren Criss on Thursday, December 6 received his first Golden Globe nomination for his role as Andrew Cunanan in the limited series, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.” Criss played Cunanan in the show, a half-Filipino murderer notorious for killing five men, including famous Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace in 1997….
KELSEY Merritt made history on November 8 when she became the first Filipina woman to walk in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, an annual spectacular event that highlights some of the best and well-known fashion models in the industry including stalwarts such as Adriana Lima, Gigi Hadid, and Kendall Jenner among others. And finally this…
Filipino-American Democrat TJ Cox has defeated three-term Republican incumbent David Valadao to represent California’s 21st Congressional District, giving Democrats its 40th House seat gain this election cycle. Three weeks following the November 6 midterm elections, the 21st district remained one of the last undecided races in the country, with votes coming in favor for Cox…
The pioneer in pediatrics honored on what would’ve been her 107th birthday It may not be the Nobel Peace Prize, but a Google Doodle made in your likeness is quite possibly one of the highest honors bestowed in the digital age. On Tuesday, Nov. 27, Google dedicated its Doodle — a temporary alteration of the…
Filipina-American Melissa Ramoso on Wednesday, November 21, declared victory on winning a seat as the only woman on the Artesia City Council. Since election day, Ramoso has held onto her position as one of the top three vote-getters in the Artesia City Council elections where she was the only woman on the November 6th ballot….
FOR over a decade now, renowned designer Zaldy Goco has straddled the twin genres of fashion and costume design to create unforgettable, timeless, and beautifully crafted clothing. A decade earlier, he was moving seamlessly between music and fashion, creating a tapestry that could very well be a major accent to his finale dress. That is…
YOU can tell a lot about a chef not only through the dishes they prepare, but also through the experiences they accumulated. For instance, Chef Jessie Sincioco was the first ever Filipina pastry chef. She was handpicked to cook for His Holiness Pope Francis during the Pontiff’s visit to the Philippines in 2015, and lately…
Dispelling the AAPI electorate’s stereotypes and how to further mobilize AAPI voters in the future IT’S 2018, and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters will not be silenced. As previously reported by the Asian Journal, the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund reported the initial results from a post-election survey of AAPI voters that measured the changes…
A Filipino-American high schooler in Carson, California was recently recognized for earning a top score on the ACT college entrance exam. Gerrick T. Cardenas, a senior at Bishop Montgomery High School, earned the highest possible ACT composite score of 36. On average, only around one-tenth of 1 percent of students who take the ACT earn…
IT’S no secret that Filipino-American chefs have made their marks on restaurants across Southern California. The latest discovery (for me) is The Restaurant at the Montage Beverly Hills, where Fil-Am Monica Olaes has been chef de cuisine since the summer. As an avid traveler, it may be easy to gloss over a hotel restaurant in…
A LEI or a flower garland is more than something you wear around your neck, as it is a message of welcome, congratulations, love, sympathy and many more. Used around the world, the earliest record of flower garlands being sold in Egypt was shortly before the birth of Christ. However, the proliferation of leis…
On promoting the Philippines as the “Napa Valley of cacao” FILIPINOS love chocolate. And sure, that affinity includes the Hershey’s, M&M’s, and Toblerone bars that fill up balikbayan boxes sent by loved ones abroad, but there’s also the traditional tablea chocolate disks whisked in boiling water to make hot tsokolate, or mixed in with glutinous…
LOS ANGELES — With October as Filipino-American History Month, Fil-Am communities across the United States have marked the past four weeks with various celebrations. Considered the home of the largest concentration of Filipinos outside of the Philippines, the greater LA area hosted several events this month, from a festival highlighting Filipino food to a speaker…
When Ricky Nierva was a young boy, he loved to draw. Inspired by the cartoons he would rush home to watch as a kid, he would draw pictures on his bedpost, around his room and the walls of his home. His mother, instead of forbidding him to draw altogether, came home one day with stacks…
This October, honoring Fil-Am ‘Turning Points’ and the successes they empowered IN the United States, October is Filipino-American History Month, and it is just what the title denotes: looking back at the historical achievements and milestones of the Filipino-American experience as it relates to American history. This year marks the ninth Filipino-American History Month since…
The journalist and activist explores the meaning of home, internal identity struggles and the power of speaking up in new memoir “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen” Two things happened to Jose Antonio Vargas after Donald J. Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States of America. First, he found himself without…
It’s a great time to be a Filipino-American (or Canadian) actor on network television these days. There’s Nico Santos who plays the role of Mateo Liwanag on Superstore; Conrad Ricamora is Oliver on How to Get Away with Murder; Manny Jacinto plays Jason Mendoza on The Good Place and Vince Rodriguez III on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend….
The singer-songwriter shares how he creates, transcends music into having a life of its own Filipinos have a soft spot for nostalgia and music — for reminiscing on happy times through the words and melodies of legendary Filipino musicians who contributed to the still present and popular genre of “Original Pop Music,” or OPM. It’s…
For years, the United Nations awards people from around the globe with the title “champion of the earth.” The said title is considered the institution’s highest environmental honor as it recognizes people both from the public and private sector who played a significant role in promoting ways to help the environment. This time, one Filipina…
New York based actor Carlo Cruz was still based in Manila late 2012 when he auditioned for Heneral Luna. He didn’t get a call back. He moved to New York to further hone his craft. Three years later, he got a call from the producers and they offered a role for Goyo. “No questions asked,…
FILIPINO-American footballer Kaycee Clark was proclaimed the winner of the 20th season of reality TV show “Big Brother.” Winning via a 5-4 vote, Clark closely beat out fellow finalist/houseguest Tyler Crispen to win the $500,000 prize on Thursday, September 27. Clark shared that she would use the money she won to help out her family….
Cal State LA student Janiella Cuala plans to develop a mentoring program in Guam for students interested in a STEM career When she was growing up in Guam, Janielle Cuala’s favorite subject was science. But her family didn’t consider that an appropriate field for a woman, so she set out to earn a degree in…
FORMER Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach makes history again as the first Filipino to be immortalized as a wax figure at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong. Wurtzbach, who recently went through the MTHK sitting where they took up detailed measurements of the beauty queen and photos of her from every angle to capture the perfect reference,…
