Festival Marks the Philippines’ Independence

With a Philippine flag hanging by his side, Sonny Filoteo clutched his wife Soledad’s hand and began singing the first lines of the Star-Spangled Banner during opening ceremonies of the 12th annual Fiesta Filipinas.

Like many of the more than 2,000 people who came to Plaza Park in Oxnard for the event commemorating the Philippines’ independence from Spain in 1898, Filoteo was a study in contradictions.

On the one hand, he loves the United States and the life he has made for himself and his family in Oxnard. He said he is a patriot who believes in the red, white and blue.

On the other hand, there is no place like home, he said. For him, that will always be Cavite City in the Philippines.

“I’m very proud to be from the Philippines,” he said. “It has it’s problems, but it’s a beautiful island.”

Many in Ventura County’s Filipino community came out for the event, which featured music, food, traditional dancing and a collection of community booths.

Festival organizers said the event serves as a way to bring together the Filipino community. It also is a reminder to younger Filipinos of the importance of the country’s June 12, 1898, victory for independence.

“We want to make sure our children carry on the traditions,” said Tony Grey, executive director of the Filipino American Council of Ventura County, which sponsored the event. “We have a lot of pride in our country and in our culture.”

Filoteo’s 19-year-old daughter Winoneh agreed. “If you don’t learn about your history and your culture, you will lose your identity,” said the graduate of St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura.

More than 16,000 Filipinos live in Ventura County, Grey said. The majority live in Oxnard.

Grey, 64, was born in Manila, and like Filoteo, served in the U.S. Navy when he left the Philippines. For Saturday’s event, Grey wore a traditional white dress shirt popular in his native country as well as a hollowed-out gourd for a hat.

He wasn’t the only one in costume.

Dozens of children from an Oxnard-based Filipino cultural arts group danced in traditional multicolored dresses. A group of young musicians strummed songs on a type of acoustic guitar popular in the Philippines. Nearby, a line formed six-people-deep for a taste of traditional Philippine food such as damsit, a reed-thin white noodle, and lumpia, the Filipino version of egg rolls.

Mango Pirates, a West Los Angeles alternative rock group featuring Filipino musicians, played a noon set and passed out CDs.

The event was also a good place for some political networking, said Don Carino, an Oxnard resident and vice president of the Filipino-American Chamber of Commerce of Ventura County.

Carino said the goal for the next decade is to make the Filipino community more politically active.

“We never had a political base in the past to build from,” Carino said. “We are now just starting to build one. For some reason, Filipinos in Ventura County have always been apolitical. We’re trying to change that.”