Filipinos of South Bay Exhibit

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About

The Filipinos of South Bay Exhibit in Chula Vista documents the Filipino diaspora across San Diego County through artifacts, photographs, and memorabilia housed inside the Chula Vista Heritage Museum at the Civic Center Branch Library, 365 F Street. The exhibition opened in October 2022 as a collaboration among PASACAT, the Filipino American National Historical Society's San Diego chapter (FANHS-SD), and the Council of Philippine American Organizations (COPAO) — the same South Bay arts network that feeds programming at On Stage Playhouse and other local cultural venues. Funded in part by the City of Chula Vista's Create Chula Vista Arts Grant, California Humanities, and the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program, the project has been extended through December 2026 after its original one-year run. Visitors encounter stories of Filipino labor organizers, beauty pageant sashes, family photographs, and community-building narratives organized around the Bayanihan Spirit of communal unity and the concept of Kapwa, or shared identity. The exhibit's coverage of bayfront and South Bay community formation parallels the geographic narratives preserved at Chula Vista Bayside Park, where many of the events and gatherings documented in the collection originally took place. Three community listening sessions conducted in 2022 gathered oral histories and personal memorabilia from a curatorial committee representing over 300 combined years of leadership, education, and artistic involvement in the San Diego Filipino community.