It’s always been Ave Jacinto’s dream of sharing Filipino culture through dance and performing arts.
She remembers the times when she was a UCLA student in the early and mid-1980’s. She would share her vision with husband, Joel Jacinto, now the Director at Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA).
"At UCLA, we were involved in Samahang Pilipino," said Ave. "We were the dance coordinators during our whole time there. We always did PCN (Philippine Cultural Night). When we graduated, we wanted to continue to share our culture and tradition in dance and music."
In 1990, Ave realized her dream.
She along with husband Joel and another couple started the Kayamanan Ng Lahi, a non-profit folk art organization that is committed to presenting, promoting and preserving the richness and diversity of Philippine culture through dance and music.
Every weekend the group organizes workshops at SIPA in Historic Filipinotown.
She said that it’s important to share Philippine history through dance especially to Filipino Americans.
"There’s this basic need of knowing where you come from," said Ave. "You want to learn about it and search for it."
"There’s such a resurgence amongst Filipinos especially the younger generation," added Ave. "They are learning so much about the culture - language, hip hop dancing, PCN it’s wonderful."
Ave who was born in the Philippines but raised here can relate with many FilAms.
"I was born in Pampanga and came here when I was five-years-old," said Ave. "Growing up I felt more American than Filipino. I never learned Tagalog since pampagan is my native language."
She said college is usually the time when Fil-Ams begin to search for their history.
She hopes that Kayamanan Ng Lahi would help them with their search and teach others about Filipino culture.
A mother of two, she said that her two sons wouldn’t have to wait until they are in college to learn about their Filipino roots.
It’s something that she’s going to make sure she teaches at an early age
( Published on May 6, 2009 in MDWK Magazine p. 5 )
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