Why I built this
I'm sharing this the way it was given to me, as a reminder that we carry our history with us, but also that we're actively contributing to that history and shaping the future of our community. That future belongs to the students who come next, and to your younger siblings, nephews, nieces, and all the kapatid still to come. Tito Joe Sabado
"No history, no self. Know history, know self."
The phrase is widely used across Filipino American communities and classrooms. Its English phrasing was popularized in the early 1990s by Mel Orpilla of FANHS Vallejo, as the title of his Filipino American history presentation, and it's often traced to José Rizal, who taught that a people must know their history to know themselves. Whoever first phrased it, the idea is the one Dr. Fred Cordova and Dorothy Laigo Cordova spent their lives arguing through FANHS: without documented Filipino American history, we lose a coherent sense of self and community. I didn't want us to lose ours, so I started gathering it here.
What I've put together
A year-by-year timeline of KP, our officers, our events, our Pilipino Cultural Nights, set alongside the larger story that gives it meaning: a map of Filipino-American history, the figures who came before us, and the sources I leaned on. I've always believed KP is one chapter in a much older story, and I wanted to show both at once.
Who I am
I'm an alumnus of Kapatirang Pilipino, and I serve as its advisor at UC Santa Barbara. KP shaped who I am. This is my way of giving back to the organization that gave me so much, and of stewarding our history for the kapatid who come after me.
KP was here before me, and it will be here long after I'm gone from UCSB. I don't want its long history, its impact, or the way it intersects with the larger story of Filipino America to be forgotten.
Help me keep it accurate
I've gathered what I could, with care, but I know it isn't complete, and some of it still needs verifying. If you find something I got wrong, or you're holding records (programs, rosters, photographs, or stories) that belong in our history, please reach out. This is a living archive, and it only grows with all of us.
Contribute programs, photos & storiesMabuhay ang Kapatirang Pilipino. Tito Joe Sabado