Samahang Pilipino

Words by David Castro

An initial consultation took place on March 10, 1995, with Assistant Head Archivist Charlotte Brown to plan and envision the first step for this project. Brown would go on to train a group of five students to organize and handle material. She provided administrative guidance for formulating a processing plan, delineating donor agreement forms, and developing terms of use restrictions.

Notes detailing the initial archiving consultation with Assistant Head Archivist Charlotte Brown, UCLA Special Collections Library

Anna set up an Asian American Studies class to facilitate earned-credit for the project and supervised the students. On May 9, 1995, processing commenced!

Their spring processing resulted in 21 boxes of material—documents, flyers, programs, notes, scrapbooks, research papers, photographs, videotapes, and media—documenting the organization’s history and the Pilipino American Experience. Their supplemental finding aid is published on the Online Archive of California. 

Pages of a logbook detailing items that were processed for the initial instalment of the Samahang Pilipino Archive

What I found most revealing in the archive is a collection of scrapbooks dating from 1980 to 1984, which illustrate the earliest efforts by Samahang historians to preserve moments that capture their involvement  at UCLA. This particular scrapbook was assembled by Arlie Ricasa, the Historian for the Winter/Spring of the 1982 - 1983 academic year. What I find most inspiring is that there is a genuine attempt to chronicle the full range of activities that embody the organization’s five pillars of development: Academic, Community, Cultural, Political, Social.

What draws my attention are the depictions of Pilipino folk dances that populate many of the pages (e.g., Pandanggo sa ilaw, Sakuting, and Sinkil ). It is not all too surprising either, for Samahang has always maintained strong pride in facilitating cultural exploration through performance, with its esteemed dance trope “Saya Ng Silangan” having remained a longstanding hallmark of this pride. An image that is particularly striking to me, and which is published in “Pacific Ties,” is of alumni Ave Ramos and Joel Jacinto leading a protest outside Murphy Hall. They are voicing their opinion on the administration's plan to cut Pilipino high school students from the Early Outreach Component of UCLA’s Affirmative Action plan. One can’t help but notice Ave’s fierce look of determination, with her sleeves rolled up and grasping tightly to her roll of paper, producing a powerful image of a student of color ready to tackle any obstacle for the future of her community. The closing pages of the scrapbook vibrantly present a collage of photos, and what underpins the illustrations are the lyrics to the Samahang Pilipino theme song (written and composed by Mel Ilomin and Tony Ricasa). The opening lines pay homage to the manongs (Pilipino laborers who migrated to the U.S to work in plantations in the 1930s), and this is important, for without their sacrifices the celebration of warmth and camaraderie within these images would not have been possible. 

I was appointed “Ourstorian” for Samahang Pilipino in the spring quarter of 2017, as I was majoring in History and looking for a hands-on approach to working with historical material. I was also a transfer student who had been welcomed by Samahang with open arms, and because I was overcome with a sense of giving back to my community, I was ecstatic to practice the work of preserving history. I did not know what to expect! I had initially met Therese Dinoso, the Cultural Coordinator at the time, who initiated plans to process the archive, as boxes of unprocessed material were collecting dust in the Kerckh off office suite (sound familiar?). It was after our consultation with the University Archivist Heather Briston that I became in charge of processing material in the fall of 2017. In the same role as her predecessor, Heather guided me with processing the archive, sorting through donations from alumni, and coordinating logistics for showcasing the content. I looked to the archival documentation left by Anna for inspiration to build upon what she set forth twenty four years ago, for a lot of time I found myself taking a “learn as you go” approach as the workflow was certainly new to me. 

My work with this archiving project will conclude this fall, and after nearly two years of work, I accomplished the goal I set out of archiving Samahang’s history from 2008 to 2018. This experience has taught me about the challenges and expectations set for an archivist, but it has expanded into something greater than I could imagine. One of my biggest accomplishments is opening the breadth of the archive’s contents by encouraging members to research our history and publish their findings on the organization’s digital archive (spbruinsarchive.com). Most importantly, I found early success in encouraging the continuation of the “Ourstorian” role, for my successor AJ Tongson (2018-2019)  has had his successes in continuing the initiative of researching our cultural roots and advocating for the importance of student-led research in all academic fields. With all that we accomplished we hope to encourage the future “Ourstorians” to build upon our experiences with their own approaches, and for them to contribute to Samahang’s initiative of providing a welcoming environment for students.