From August 11-13, 2022 our team traveled to Seattle, Washington to present at the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) Biennial Conference at Seattle University.
The conference brought together 42 FANHS Chapters from across the United States, 500+ attendees, and featured 180+ workshops, roundtables, and plenary sessions all dedicated to the past, present and future stories of FilAm communities.
During the 2022 FANHS Conference we co-presented with FANHS-SCV Chapter on “Delano Manongs Park: Naming a Landmark for the FilAm Community”
Our Lola Scholarship Director, Daniel Lazo, co-presented with Ann Reginio, President of the FANHS-SCV Chapter and BNK Filipino School Founder and Manong Robert Ragsac with SJ Pinoytown, to share with a national audience the story of the historic naming of Delano Manongs Park in San Jose.
Daniel, a lifelong San Jose resident, Filipino Youth Coalition alumni, Akbayan SJSU past president, and LEAD Filipino organizer submitted the name “Delano Manongs Park” during the City of San Jose’s public park naming process in 2020. Fast forward to February 2021 and we find ourselves organizing 30+ community testimonies at the City of San Jose’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services (PRNS) Commission to advocate for the naming of a new park in San Jose to be named Delano Manongs Park.
Our workshop on “Delano Manongs Park: Naming a Landmark for the FilAm Community” retold the personal connection, history, and process by which to name public landmarks, monuments, and physical structures in municipalities. Highly instructive, our workshop laid out the public process and steps that others might consider as they advocate for naming buildings and structures within their own communities. Through our session, we aimed to spread knowledge, inform our national community, and amplify the future opening of Delano Manongs Park.
Thank you to everyone that attended our session. Meeting folks from across the country was an invaluable and memorable experience.
Sulong!
