Courtesy of Kasama

Oct. 1 marks the first day of Filipino American History Month, or FAHM, celebrated every year since 1992. It is a month to commemorate the presence of Filipinos in the United States, first recorded on Oct. 18, 1587. The Filipino Club at Yale, also known as Kasama, celebrated this month by commemorating their unique history and by sharing their cultural dishes and traditions with the broader Yale community. 

Elisa Cruz ’26, co-president of Kasama, shared three focuses she had for this month: capitalizing on the growing size of Kasama, expanding beyond the Filipino community through collaborating with other clubs and a feeling of being restored. She especially stressed the importance of connecting with those in communities beyond just Kasama’s.

“For this month, our main focus was to build community amongst Kasama members, but also beyond that. I think I’ve had a lot of conversations with my friends about this where sometimes on Yale’s campus, a lot of our cultural centers or communities sometimes feel very insular, but there’s really beauty in us just sharing and engaging with other people’s culture in a way that is, one, obviously respectful, but, two, also very joyous and very enthusiastic,” Cruz stated.

Cruz also talked about the rapidly growing size of the club. She said that while there were only roughly nine members last year, there are at least 25 members involved now. 

She and another member, James Tibang ’27 agreed that this made celebrating FAHM much more special this October as they can now begin to build traditions and a stronger community.

“We didn’t do much programming for Filipino American History month, last year. So it was kind of the first big year that happened,” Tibang shared.

Some of this programming included two events where speakers in the clubs delved into Filipino history and the Tagalog language. Both members and nonmembers were welcomed and encouraged to join them for some food and to learn something new. 

Janina Gbenoba ’27, one of the social chairs for Kasama, was very active in helping create these two events, the Filipino Language Empowerment Workshop on Oct. 5 and the Kasama x Mecha Mexican-Filipino Labor Activism event on Oct. 25, both of which occurred in the Asian American Cultural Center multipurpose room.

“I’ve absolutely loved getting to be in a community with not only my fellow Kasama members, but also the broader Filipino community at Yale. It’s been such a sweet month of coming together in Filipino traditions and fun club events, and it also feels really special that this month marks a year since we started our Tagalog at Yale campaign,” Gbenoba stated. “My favorite part of FAHM so far has been the fact that we as a club have also been focused on recognizing the ways in which our stories as Filipinos are deeply intertwined with those of other cultures; I had the honor of being a part of events like the Filipino Language Empowerment Workshop and the Kasama x Mecha event, both of which gave us the space to talk about the love and power that lies in intercultural solidarity.”

At the Filipino Language Empowerment Workshop, main organizers Cruz, Gbenoba, Marissa Halagao ’27 and Alexis Yam ’27 wrote and presented a slideshow teaching the history of the Tagalog language and colonial linguistic suppression. Gbenoba added that this event was a collaboration with the Political Action and Education Team of the AACC.

Advocacy for including and representing the Tagalog language and culture in university curriculum has been a widespread movement across the United States. In fall 2025, Yale will offer its first Tagalog language course due to the advocacy of Filipino Yalies. Celene Bennett ’26, one of the social chairs, like Gbenoba, expressed the importance of Tagalog.

“Uplifting the U.S.’s fourth most spoken language and giving Filipino American students access to a language that connects us to our family members is critical. However, we must recognize American colonialist suppression and the linguistic diversity in the Philippines. Teaching Tagalog is a necessary step, but it’s not enough to prove that the university is uplifting Filipino students and our history to its fullest potential. The Filipino language empowerment workshop drew attention to these points, and Kasama will continue to push for comprehensive education about Filipino culture and history,” Bennett said.

Tibang helped prepare food for the Language Empowerment event. They served lumpia, a Filipino spring roll, and pancit, which is a noodle dish. 

He was also able to provide insight and reflect on the importance of the Tagalog language,

“It’s important to empower the youth and make people aware that, you know, Tagalog is not a dead language, it is very alive and very used,” Tiband stated. “It’s important because it goes back to the history and that fight for liberation and independence from colonialism. I feel like language has a big part in symbolizing that.”  

Their other political programming event was in collaboration with Mecha de Yale where Halagao and Gbenoba from Kasama and Diego Paz ’27 and Pablo Macias Lopez ’27 from Mecha facilitated a discussion on the history and the documentary “Delano Manongs” which tells the story of Filipino and Mexican laborers during the 1965 Delano Grape Strike.

There was a discussion on how their histories and cultures intersect with one another, establishing intercultural solidarity between Filipinos and Mexicans during this month. Bennett reflected on the event, vetting it as a success.

“The turnout and energy was high, and we got to discuss shared elements of our cultural identities while learning about Larry Itliong and Filipino American farmworkers and activists who are often left out of the story,” Bennett said. “I had never been taught about Larry Itliong, but I knew Cesar Chavez, and it was really special to get to learn that history alongside other students who were as touched by the story.”

Cruz added that although Kasama recognizes the importance of political programming they also like to celebrate Filipino American History Month by building community and sharing their culture, such as through the annual night market.

Every year, the Asian American Student Alliance invites the AACC affiliate organizations to set up booths on Old Campus and hand out desserts, cultural dishes and drinks. This year, Kasama’s sophomore team made turons — a grilled wrapper that contains plantain or banana and jackfruit. It is then caramelized and sprinkled with brown sugar.

Tibang, a sophomore, was a part of the team that made this dessert, which they cooked in the AACC.

“It was a really nice experience for us sophomores. It was me, Marissa, Janina and Anika that helped make the food. Actually we made the food. That was a very fun experience for all of us. Then after the cooking process, we hauled it over to Old Campus where the whole event was being held,” Tibang said. “Aside from the food, there were a lot of performances from various organizations. Especially Asian dance organizations or just performance organizations in general that held some performances out in the open while people were walking around and having tastings of every organization that offered food or a drink.”

Cruz shared that due to Kasama’s growing size, the community this year felt particularly strong. She said that they ended up using a turon recipe from one of their elder members which she said was reminiscent of being passed down traditional recipes from a grandmother.

With a packed month of educational and community-building events, Kasama finished off FAHM with “Halo-Haloween” which occurred on Oct. 31. 

Bennett explained that Halo-Haloweekend is her favorite event because of the good food, such as halo halo, and festive spirit. Also spelled haluhalo, halo halo is a popular cold treat in the Philippines with shaved ice, condensed milk and a variety of different fruits. She added that it is a great way to spend time with the Kasama family and other friends, the energy always being high. Cruz shared a final reflection on “Halo-Haloween” as FAHM came to an end.

“It was also a pretty tight turnaround, but to see it like come in fruition, especially as we’re now ending it tomorrow with ‘Halo-Haloween’  has been really, really special just because I think there’s a lot to be said when you see a lot of people who are passionate about what they’re doing,” Cruz said.

Kasama was founded in 1989.