Delano Manongs Park

L.E.A.D Filipino Board Members Dr. Jen Briscoe and Alexandria Chu stand with FilAm community leaders Camille Llanes-Fontanilla and Manong Ben Menor and San Jose Council District 5 Councilmember Magdalena Carrasco.

DELANO MANONGS PARK UPDATES

August 11, 2022: Upon submitting a formal meeting request to the City of San Jose’s PRNS Director and Co-Director, we received an update that the two easements have been removed from the contract. This is good news! At this time, the Park will be open later this year/early 2023. We will keep our community updated!

June 2, 2022: We received word from the City of San Jose’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services (PRNS) Department that the grand opening of Delano Manongs Park is postponed till further notice. From what we know, the delays are attributed to particular regulatory and contractual technicalities between the Park’s developer and the City of San Jose. We understand that this isn’t the news you wanted to hear – nor is it what we wanted to deliver to our larger community. Until we have an opening date identified, our DMP Committee has decided to suspend our meetings out of observance for busy summer schedules and promoting more family and personal time for our volunteers! Please check back soon for more updates.

BACKGROUND

On April 13, 2021 the San Jose Mayor and City Council approved the community recommendation to name a new park in Eastside San Jose, “Delano Manongs Park.”

As the first park in San Jose named in honor of FilAm history, having community participation in the continued artistic and cultural development of the park is essential. Due to this, we will be supporting the coming together of community-driven Delano Manongs Park Committee.

In an open community poll, L.E.A.D Filipino organizer and lifelong San Jose resident, Daniel Lazo, submitted the name “Delano Manongs Park” as an entry for the naming of a new park on Capitol Avenue in San Jose. Across a six month timespan and two public opinion surveys, “Delano Manongs Park” gathered the most votes both times.

DELANO MANONGS PARK COMMITTEE

The community-led and volunteer-driven Delano Manongs Park (DMP) Committee first met in April 2021, shortly after the historic naming of the Delano Manongs Park in San Jose. Since then, we have continued to virtually meet bi-weekly on Thursdays from 6-7:15PM. Please contact us for more information if you would like to get involved.

Bringing together multigenerational leaders from youth, families, and seniors that all seek to honor and preserve the legacy of the Delano Manongs, the DMP Committee meets bi-weekly to plan and organize around the continued development of the park. Together, the DMP Committee has accomplished the following:

Created the interpretive signage viewable at Delano Manongs Park
Secured $20K in public grants to support continuous cultural and arts programming at the Park
Hosted dozens of community events to promote awareness about the Delano Manongs and the Park

Our Delano Manongs Park (DMP) Committee is currently focusing on three main priorities:

Planning for the grand opening of Delano Manongs Park, projected for 2023.
Partnering with the City of San Jose’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services (PRNS) Department to develop the park’s signage
Leading grassroots fundraising efforts for a plaque that honors and shares the legacy of the Manongs.

The DMP Committee is an informal gathering that calls for community members that have interests or desires to co-create and contribute to San Jose’s cultural arts environment through the prism of FilAm history and storytelling. We are organized into three subcommittees that lead on discrete areas of work: