Live & Local: Filipino-American Community of Colorado

Excerpt from interview with Domingo Belen.

STEVE: Domingo Belen is the president of the Filipino American Community of Colorado. Great to have you on KUVO.

DOMINGO: Yes, thank you very much for having me.

STEVE: Domingo’s a Jazz Odyssey listener, so he’s all in the music at KUVO.

DOMINGO: I am, I am.

STEVE: We are learning about the Filipino American community and that your organization, the FACC, has been around for like 70 years. That’s amazing.

DOMINGO: Last year was our 70^th anniversary. We had this big gala and event at the King Center. But yeah, we’ve been around for some time.

STEVE: The Filipino story, at least here in North America, is a little different. Asians, generally and Pacific Islanders, all get grouped in together or confused. And people don’t understand the Philippines is one of the largest groups of islands in the Pacific.

DOMINGO: More than 100 islands. There’s more than 200 different dialects that’s part of the Philippines. And, you know, a lot of people move back there after spending some time here. It’s just a beautiful place with great weather and some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

STEVE: People in California, the LA area, huge Filipino community there. Tagalog is one of the languages spoken in LA schools, but the story in Colorado is a little different. How did Filipinos arrive in Colorado?

DOMINGO: Basically, through the military, like my dad. But one way to get out of poverty back in the Philippines — there was a call of action to have people be the cooks or the servers of the military service. But at the same time, they’re getting more than 30 times the money that they’re ever gonna make. And also a promise of becoming a citizen by joining up with the military. So, that’s how they came out here to Colorado: Fort Carson, there’s Lowry, there’s the air force base here.

STEVE: The organization does a lot to hold to hold together the Filipino community through language, through health fairs. Your organization’s really busy in a lot of ways.

DOMINGO: It didn’t always start that way. You know, we kind of looked to each other. So, let’s think back to 1954: segregation and all these political angst and just people trying to identify with who they are. You know, just having that community back then, just having some of that familiarity of your countrymen being in this new place, the best thing they could do was form an organization together. So, 1954, some folks thought, “This is a great idea.”

STEVE: Some of the outreach includes not just scholarships and youth development but food deliveries and advocacy. People don’t understand what makes us different and how we’re a part of the American story.

DOMINGO: Yeah, you know, you look at me, and — maybe a pretty good example, like, how many people would look at me and say Filipino, you know? They’re like, “Are you Samoan? Are you Hawaiian? Are you Mexican? What is this guy?” And the good part of that is I’m somebody’s lost uncle, so I always get free food whenever I go. I get that head nod, I’ll get an extra burger or something like that.

But identity is a big thing. We wanna know who we are as a people. And through language, that’s the way we can kinda pass down some of the stories we have to the next generation. So, they’ve become, really, a popular class of ours.

So, Jonabelle Mwamba, she’s a teacher out there in Adams County, and she’s also our teacher for our education and language class. So, the run up to our Philippine Festival, she’ll have six or seven classes before our Philippine Festival with a bunch of students. And then when the Philippine Festival comes around, they get to practice their language, and they do a nice graduation. Tagalog is something that I know you mentioned, but there's Cebuano, there's Visayan. I'm actually Ilocano. All different dialects. Most of the folks at the FACC, they're from Cebu.

STEVE: We’re coming on the festival, and it's June 7 and 8.

DOMINGO: About five blocks west of Sloan's Lake. So, City of Edgewater, great place. Shoutout to the city. They've been a great partner for the Filipino American community. We're located at 1900 Harlan Street, which would be where the festival would be as well.

STEVE: And it's all kinds of culture, clothing. Talk to me about the food. What are we looking for?

DOMINGO: Yeah, so you might get the regular: adobo, rice, pancit, and I brought out some lumpia to you guys. Hopefully you guys had some samples of that. But there's a lot of desserts, too, as well. A lot of sweet tooth, you know…Babingka, bitso-bitso. These are mochi-based, coconut-based types of desserts. Which coconut trees is something that you can certainly find in the Philippines. And I think the new flavor of the past five, six years that most people are interested in is ube. I don't know if you ever —

STEVE: Ube?

DOMINGO: Yeah, it's kind of like…There is not a word to describe it, but you know it’s not vanilla, and it comes out purple. It's in a lot of the bobas and coffees and a lot of our desserts. That's something that I think the people here in Colorado are starting to learn more about is ube.

STEVE: June 7 and 8, 1900 Harlan Street. In your travels, as you represent — as you go around and you tell this story, what do people misunderstand most and really need to know about the Filipino community in Colorado?

DOMINGO: We're really family oriented. You know, we have a name for an older brother: ate or kuya. And these are terms of respect that we have for someone that's been around and who are a little bit older than us, and we have nana and tata. And so, we identify all of our family members by word that we show respect. And that's something about the Filipinos, that we are really family oriented.

I tell folks that we are a resilient community. I tell a story about, you can probably look it up on YouTube where there's a big storm. The Philippines, it's flooded. There's kids swimming around playing basketball, and the water's up to their neck and they're just smiling because they know when the water recedes, they're going to have a community that's going to help them. They'll help them rebuild and keep on going. So, they might not have much, but they have a lot to give.

And when I came out to your studios here, I was at our Filipino community center. I was like, “Man, what should I bring? What could be a good representation of us outside of our flag and food? And in the end, I thought about — it's about the people. It's about who we are as a community. That's what we can give out there and kind of show a different way that we live versus those folks who grew up in the US. So, community, family, we give until we can't give. And we're very hospitable. We're going to invite you in. We're going to find a way to make you stay. You come in for a meeting, next thing you know might be dancing for our community, and that's great. And whatever you are, colors of the rainbow, whatever nationality, you're going to find those people at the Filipino American community where you're Filipino or Filipino at heart. We're just a welcoming organization.

STEVE: Domingo Belen, president of the Filipino American community of Colorado. The Fiesta is coming up June 7 and 8 at 1900 Harlan Street in Edgewater.

DOMINGO: Yeah, thank you for having me. It's been great.