Organizers of inaugural Filipino Festival hope Sunday’s event is just the start of a long-awaited cultural celebration
While the rich cultural history of Filipinos in the Coachella Valley can be traced back to farmworkers’ unions in the 1960s, it’s not well-known to many locals.
This weekend, locals have a new event to explore with the inaugural Coachella Valley Filipino Festival.
On Sunday, the entire Coachella Valley is invited to the Palm Springs Cultural Center to experience the food, music, and culture of the rich Filipino community here in the valley.
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“It’s a celebration so that everyone can enjoy the most beautiful parts of Filipino culture,” said Michael Milan, chair of the planning committee.
Some of the organizations participating include the National Alliance of Filipino Americans, the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association, and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, among others.
Milan said the idea for the festival has been brewing for about two years. He and Lauren Wolfer, program director at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, were inspired by similar events in San Diego and Los Angeles.
“We’ve been to and enjoyed local community celebrations, but we had a vision for something much larger in scale,” she said.
Milan said that even though the Filipino community’s roots in the Coachella Valley go back a century, “We didn’t feel like there was a level of visibility that reflected that.”
The rich cultural history of Filipinos in the valley can be traced back to farmworkers’ unions in the 1960s.
One of the most important strikes in American history, the Delano Grape Strike in September 1965, was largely influenced by an earlier successful strike by Filipino farmworkers in the Coachella Valley in May 1965.
More than 1,000 Filipino farmworkers, led by Larry Itliong, head of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, first went on strike in Delano. When grape growers tried to hire Mexican farmworkers to break the strike, Itliong united with Cesar Chavez, the head of another union, to create the United Farm Workers (UFW), eventually winning a victory after five years.
Milan said the Filipino community has been in the valley for generations and this festival will recognize and celebrate that.
To acknowledge that history, there will be booths at the festival with more education about Filipino farmworkers thanks to a partnership with the Filipino American National Historical Society Orange County/Inland Empire chapter.
Milan hopes the community will attend the free event and celebrate by spending all day at the Cultural Center.
“There’s plenty of shade, food, a bar, and entertainment,” he said.
Attendees can look forward to Filipino cuisine like adobo and lumpia, a cultural marketplace selling Filipino crafts and art, themed cocktails, martial arts demonstrations, dance lessons, and live performances.
“We have more than 30 food and retail vendors and entertainers coming in from all parts of the region,” he said.
Milan said he’s most excited about the guest performance by Junior New System and the headline performance by Ruby Ibarra.
Once he got the word out about the festival, the local Filipino jumped in to help.
“We were able to reach deep and far and wide beyond what we were even expecting,” he said. Wolfer said the local Filipino coffee shop, Varraco Coffee Roasters in Palm Deser, heard about the festival and offered up the use of their 1965 Jeepney.
The former U.S. military vehicles were repurposed into a popular mode of public transportation in the Philippines that has come to represent so much more.
“Filipino people identify with the sensibility and aesthetic of Jeepneys,” Milan said of the vehicle, which is often painted with bright colors. “It speaks to the vibrant culture, colorful personalities, and resourcefulness of the people all in one iconic image.”
Milan and Wolfer hope this inaugural festival will return and even inspire others to organize events throughout the year and the valley.
“Some of the businesses and organizations we’re working with said we should dream even bigger,” said Milan. “They see this festival becoming a well-established event that happens on an annual basis.”
The biggest goal of the festival is to connect the younger Filipino generation with their heritage and culture.
“We’ve received some beautiful messages,” Milan said. “Someone messaged me out of the blue to say they wish their grandparents were still here so that they could see the Filipino community come together like this.”
If you go: The event runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Palm Springs Cultural Center on Sunday. Find out more online.
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