Filipino American Library Branches Out
June 1, 2008
LOS ANGELES — Since the Filipino American Library opened in 1985, it has brought the community from far and wide for a dose of Filipino culture. But the library, billed as the country’s first facility devoted to Filipino and Filipino American books, has a new approach. Instead of bringing readers in, the library is reaching out.
A series of children’s reading events are scheduled for May 31 and June 7 about 20 miles away from Historic Filipinotown. The activities in Carson and Artesia are attempts to unite a dispersed community in a city already characterized by sprawl.
Celeste Diaz, children’s librarian at the Filipino American Library, plans on incorporating Filipino folktales with art and computer activities geared for children ages 5 to 10.
Young participants at the Carson Regional Library will also make a recording through the computer program GarageBand. At the Artesia Library, Diaz will read Willie Wins, a story about a boy who discovers he is half-Filipino and half-Irish.
They are modest events, but, for a community that is so spread out, finding cultural activities for young children is a rare treat for many parents.
“It is challenging,” said Aquilina Soriano-Versoza, a Filipino American mother of two. “There aren’t a lot of Filipino materials, especially for very young children.”
So Soriano-Versoza, a third-generation Filipino American, decided to write and draw her own children’s books using basic Tagalog vocabulary. She uses them mainly to teach her daughters, but she wants to eventually make them available for other families in the community.
In March, Soriano-Versoza brought her children to the Filipino American Library to participate in the first in a series of story time events. It certainly got her daughter, Lauryn, culturally aware.
“She started writing her own stories about a princess from the island of the Philippines,” Soriano-Versoza said about her daughter. “She would say, ‘Hey, she’s Filipino just like me.’”
Some Filipino American parents who want to incorporate Filipino culture into their children’s lives find the task challenging, because they were never exposed to it growing up. Many second- or third-generation Filipino Americans who are teaching their children Filipino history might be learning it for the first time themselves.
For Jennifer Aquino, exposing daughter Sydney to Filipino culture is important but also a huge challenge since she doesn’t speak Tagalog well and didn’t learn Filipino tales growing up. She said that without the Filipino American Library her parents’ home would be the only other source of Filipino culture available for her daughter.
“We take her to the library all the time,” Aquino said. “I want to expose her as much as possible.”
Aquino, like the majority of Filipino Americans in Southern California, doesn’t live near Historic Filipinotown. So adding to the challenge of finding cultural events is finding those that are nearby.
The library, along with other Filipino organizations and businesses, aims to make Historic Filipinotown a central gathering place the same way Little Tokyo and San Gabriel Valley are for the Japanese and Chinese communities. The satellite events, like the ones in Carson and Artesia, are for those who can’t make the trek to Filipinotown. More are in store at other Los Angeles County libraries in the future.
The children’s events will be on May 31 at the Carson Regional Library and June 7 at the Artesia Library from 2 to 4 p.m. For more information:
(213) 382-0488 or filipinoamericanlibrary.org.
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