Samahang Pilipino @ UCLA News

Jennifer Tolentino said she remembers a UCLAcampus with a total population of fewer than 50 Filipino Americans in the 1970s.

A lack of space for Filipino students to meet, coupled with a growing consciousness of Asian American identity, led Tolentino and three other undergraduate students – her future husband Casimiro Tolentino, Sheila Napala and Florante Ibanez – to start the first UCLA Filipino student group in 1972: Samahang Pilipino.

This year, the organization – still a UCLAstudent group, and today claiming about 120 members – turned 40. An additional 80 members also participate in the club’s annual cultural night. Decades after starting the organization, the Tolentinos maintain strong ties with Samahang Pilipino. Throughout the years, they’ve continued to tell the history of the organization to the current Samahang members.

Recently, they sat down with current president Mallory Valenzuela in a Filipino cafe in Little Armenia to recall the experience – this time in front of a video camera. The film will be screened at an anniversary event hosted by the group’s leadership and the Pilipino Alumni Association on Saturday at Covel Commons at 6:30 p.m.

In the 1970s, in addition to a small population, it was difficult to identify other Filipino students, Jennifer Tolentino said.

“We didn’t know who we were,” Jennifer Tolentino said. “We couldn’t find each other.”

Potluck meetings, and the organization’s first cultural event at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center in 1973, meant to address both the academic and ethnic identities of the students, Jennifer Tolentino said. Many students in Samahang did not know about their culture and had to conduct their own research, she added.

Valenzuela, a fourth-year Asian American studies and sociology student, said talking with the Tolentinos about their experience keeps her grounded in her work.

She added that the meeting with the founders demonstrated the deep connection members of the organization have with one another.

“It’s kind of like once you’re a part of Samahang, you’ll always be a part of Samahang,” she said.

In the organization’s 40-year history, Samahang Pilipino has addressed issues including campus climate, student retention, and high school outreach through programs like Samahang Pilipino Advancing Community Empowerment and Samahang Pilipino Education and Retention.

Through its outreach component, SPACE, students act as peer advisers and tutors to local high school and community college students, Valenzuela said.

The retention program SPEAR offers career workshops and peer advisers who help with academic planning to any UCLA student through the student retention center, said Vanessa Hermoso, fourth-year sociology student.

Former Samahang Pilipino president Randy Bautista, who served in 2004, said the retention and outreach programs were developed to address the specific academic needs of Filipino students, which other programs didn’t meet. He said he felt other programs did not understand the needs of Filipino students because of cultural differences.

Outreach to high school students was important for the Filipino community, especially following their removal from affirmative action policies at the University of California in 1986, Bautista said. A student government committee called the Student-Initiated Outreach Committee, which would lay the groundwork for the current retention program, aimed to address that issue.

Aris Tagle, president of Samahang Pilipino from 1993 to 1994, said the challenge for Filipino students today is to maintain programming under the current economic climate.

“Now it’s how do you keep these programs relevant and effective in the face of rising (registration) fees and different dynamics,” Tagle said.

This year’s anniversary also coincides with the 35-year anniversary of the Samahang Pilipino Cultural Night, which celebrates Filipino culture through student musical and dance performances.

The culture nights at UCLA have inspired cultural nights at other UC and California State University campuses, said Kevin Salinas, four-year political science student and Samahang Pilipino cultural coordinator.

Saturday’s event will honor a UCLA professor and administrator for supporting the Filipino community as well as student scholarship recipients. All four original founders of the organization plan to attend, Valenzuela said.

-not too late to buy your ticket for our anniversary tomorrow!  https://giving.ucla.edu/paa/