Asian Women Empowerment (AWE), Asian Society, and Taking a Deep Dive celebrated the closing of Filipino-American Heritage Month in the Underwood Room on October 29. Ever since the first celebration of Filipino-American Heritage Month in 1992, this special commemoration has marked an important date of independence for the Filipino population.
The event consisted of a general orientation and an information session from two guest speakers: Mark Pulido, the first Filipino-American mayor of Cerritos, California, and Maria Graciela Alcid, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Practitioner at BB&N, shared their perspectives on the deep-rooted history and discrimination of Filipinos in America and communicated the history of development in the recognition of Filipino-American immigration.
As a Filipino-American educator and speaker advocating for Filipino-identifying populations, Alcid emphasized the importance of this event to only Filipino-identifying students and the overall student body at Phillips Academy.
“I met with five PA students who [were in the] affinity space before this…and we talked about creating connection and looking at connection as, like, a pre-colonial sort of concept of shared inner belonging. I said, ‘Look, you have shared with me about what you’re learning about Filipino American history, and now you get to do it as a part of the majority with this dedicated time and space,’” said Alcid.
Alcid continued by stressing the importance of self reflection when creating a space to engage in Filipino history amongst limited time and priorities.
“One, continue to ask questions as you learn more about your history. If you get stuck on something, how do you embrace that as a portal for deeper understanding? Whose story is not represented and why? The power of a question simply to introduce a change of thinking is really powerful… The second part is to continue to learn more…so learning more about your own personal story, your family history, how that’s connected to other histories that’s really powerful, and finding your location in all of this,” said Alcid.
Magdalena Mercado ’26, an organizer of the event, spoke on how she considered the event to be an important milestone in Filipino representation at Andover and commented on the importance of such celebration in the future as well.
“I feel like a lot of it connected to me personally…bridging Filipino communities through that and talking about what steps we could take as a Filipino community. This event just kind of being the first of many towards representation, recognition, and unity for Southeast Asians and the Filipino community in general. [These events are] not only me as a Filipino identifying student, but other Filipino identifying students at Andover and just being able to bring these sorts of events, many of first for the Filipino community,” said Mercado.
Mercado continued by noting how she felt the event was successful in appreciating and bringing together the Filipino community on campus.
“I’m happy, while it was small, it was big for the Filipino community, considering how meager the amount of Filipino students are here at Andover. The Filipino student body is very small, and I’m just happy that a group came out to support their heritage,” said Mercado.
Similarly, Christian Estrada ’27, a Filipino-American student, shared how the event gave him a sense of the Filipino community at Andover. Estrada also described how he resonated greatly with the speakers, who spoke about cultural connections within the Filipino community.
“I felt a great sense of belonging, and I felt like I could connect with this group of people very well. They spoke a lot about the connections and networks between us, as a cultural group, and that resonated with me. Although the Filipino turnup was not very large, I was able to meet other students and converse with them at a deep level… [The event] gave me a sense of the Filipino community. It was a very family-oriented event and it made me feel at home,” said Estrada.
