A few years back, my 8-year-old son, a voracious reader, asked if there were books he could read about Filipino and Filipino American history. I was secretly thrilled at his request but after searching for age-appropriate materials and looking in our own collection of books, it was disappointing to find there wasn't much out there. Around the same time my 4-year-old daughter began Philippine dance classes. It was inspiring to see young children, mostly 2nd and 3rd generation Filipino Americans, exposed to their cultural heritage through traditional folk dances. I bookmarked these experiences in my head hoping that one day my kids could learn and experience Filipino and Filipino American culture in a nurturing environment with a deeper understanding of their place in the diaspora.

With over 3 million Filipinos in the United States and tens of thousands that migrate each year, Filipinos represent a substantial and ever-growing diaspora in the U.S. Yet, we continue to be invisible to the majority of America. We have little political representation-there has only been one Filipino American elected to the California Legislature, in a state that contains the largest population of Filipinos living in the U.S. Our children's history books are absent of the long and contentious history of American imperialism in the Philippines or the contribution of Filipino farmworkers in the successful fight for farmworker rights in California. Filipinos are seldom represented in popular media or sports. As a survival mechanism, Filipino immigrants have become masters of assimilation at the cost of losing language, culture and history. It is within this context that a group of us came together to envision a different path for our young people.