Interesting Facts About Filipino Americans

FANHS LA was brought to life to help preserve Filipino American history as well as to help fight for equality for all Filipino Americans. In fact, there are many interesting facts when it comes to the history of Filipino Americans and many aspects that should be shared. That being said we are here to share with all of you many of our historical facts that also tend to tell the story of our origin here in the United States.

Historical Filipino American Facts

 

  1. Filipino Americans make up the 2nd largest Asian American group in the United States.
  2. Filipino Americans also make up the largest group of Asian Americans in 11 out of the 50 states.
  3. California has the largest population of Filipino Americans
  4. The 1st Asian group to arrive in the U.S, landing in Morro Bay, CA in 1587, which was 3 decades before the Pilgrims!
  5. The Philippines in the first country in Asia  to have been fully colonized by the United States
  6. More than 250,000 Filipino Americans are World War II veterans. They were promised American citizenship if they fought for the U.S. & that they would be given full veteran benefits. But it never happened as the U.S. promised.
  7. President Obama finally followed through with the Veterans promise in 2009
  8. Activists are still working to allow Filipino American veterans to be recognized with the Congressional Medal. They are the only ethnic group of World War II to never receive an honor. 

These are just some of the interesting facts that are tied to Filipino American history. And while this ethnic group has fought and come a long way to be treated as American citizens there is still a lot of fighting left to do. But with activists and historical society’s fighting for the same rights & freedoms that were given to others, the future looks bright.