Images of Filipinos Fill the Streets of San Francisco for Fil-Am History Month

250 banners that feature images of Filipino residents, workers, and community organizations of the Filipino Cultural Heritage District can be found in the streets of the South of Market (SoMa) in San Francisco, California in celebration of the Filipino-American History Month.  

This is a part of a campaign for SoMa Pilipinas, which highlights the different Filipinos within the cultural district. The supervisors of the San Francisco board decided on this as a unanimous resolution last May. 

This initiative, headed by Hilary Ronen creates “a process for the establishment of cultural districts in the City to acknowledge and preserve neighborhoods with unique cultural heritage.”

The cultural importance of SoMa Pilipinas

SoMa Pilipinas, a designated cultural heritage by 2016, also received a state designation last year, 2017, by the California Arts Council.

Sabrina Pacheco of Gold Metropolitan Media, the company that installed the banners, mentions that the visibility campaign “marks a step towards place-making for the Cultural Heritage District and offers a powerful way to enhance the spirit, energy, pride, and vibrancy of the community.” 

Up to this day, the district has the largest concentration of Filipino residents in San Francisco.

More than Banners in Poles to the Filipinos in SF

The campaign was an opportunity to send a humanizing message and that’s what the design team that created the artwork went for.

“The concept behind the pole banners is to show the complex vibrancy of our SoMa Pilipinas neighborhood: a beautiful spectrum of layered stories of who the people are that have defined this part of the city.” said Irene Faye Duller, co-founder of An Otherwise Co.

“To see beautiful brown faces of community warriors and service providers who share the same values as you do” are more like warm hugs to Rey Novicio, a program coordinator at Filipino Mental Health Initiative-SF. 

While social worker Juvy Barbonio of South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN) believes that Filipino women in the banners “represent Filipina empowerment — Pinay power.” 

Along Mission, Howard, Folsom, as well as 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, & 8th Street, are where these banners are spread throughout the district,  showcasing the rich culture of the community.

via Inquirer