Filipino American History, Culture & Community
PinoyBuilt
California Roots. Worldwide Kapwa. Serving the Filipino diaspora — from the 707 to Metro Manila to Dubai.
An independent, founder-led Filipino-American publication and a permanent archive of the diaspora. We publish today's stories and keep the ones that came before us.
Latest from PinoyBuilt
The newest story, front and center — plus what just followed it.
On This Day
From fifteen years of the PinoyBuilt archive — what we published, remembered, or marked on this date.
The language of lolo and lola, reclaimed one word at a time — song lyrics, regional tongues, and grammar for Fil-Ams finding their way back.
Learn Filipino
Word studies built on OPM, regional languages, and grammar — for Fil-Ams reconnecting with the language of their lolo and lola. Language is identity.
- Language Is Identity: Why Every Fil-Am Family Must Keep Filipino Alive
- MULTO teaches pagharap — the courage to face what haunts us
- Bawat Daan teaches tahanan — the word for home that means more than a house
- Maganda, Magayon, and the Word for Beautiful That Named a Volcano
Going home to the Philippines, photographed. Kept for the ones who were too young at the time to remember any of it.
Balikbayan
The wedding in 1999. The vacations. The reunions where nobody could agree on the restaurant. Landing at NAIA with taped-up boxes and a list of people to see — and the long flight back with a different list.
More balikbayan stories →Our primary format. Weddings, reunions, protests, fiestas, and ordinary Tuesdays — Filipino American life told frame by frame, and kept.
Photo Essays
Documentary photography from the diaspora and the homeland, published as dated, permanent entries in the archive.
More photo essays →Trips that built the brand and trips still being lived — Maui to Dubai to wherever the kids send the next photo from. Every stamp is part of the archive.
Travel
From the 2011 Maui trip that gave PinoyBuilt its name to the Dubai chapters and the kids' journeys we're documenting as they happen — photos, video, and the stories behind them.
Five cities this archive keeps returning to. Some because the diaspora is thickest there, one because it is home, and the rest because the family scattered and we followed.
Places
Filipino life photographed city by city — the parties, the parishes, the storefronts, and the airports we keep meeting each other in.
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Chicago
Dubai
Australia
Each city runs on its own label. Tag a post with the city and it lands here on the next load.
Where we come from, what was taken, and what we still carry. This is the spine everything else on the site leans against.
Decolonization
Reclaiming pre-colonial identity, language, and history — the throughline of everything PinoyBuilt publishes.
More decolonization coverage →Pre-colonial Philippines, the Philippine-American War, the manong generation, and the labor history that built two countries.
History
Pre-colonial Philippines, the Philippine-American War, the manong generation, and the labor history that built two countries.
More history →The people and the places. Who is holding the diaspora up, and where in America we actually live.
Community Profiles
Organizers, veterans, artists, nurses, and neighbors — the people and organizations holding up Filipino America.
More community coverage →Explore by Region
Filipino America, place by place. Each guide is a standing pillar page, not a news post.
Filipino Americans in USA
An estimated 4.6 million residents of Filipino descent — the third-largest Asian American group and the largest population of overseas Filipinos anywhere in the world.
Filipino Americans in California
1.7 million residents of Filipino descent — more than any other state, and more than any country outside the Philippines and the U.S. itself.
Filipino Americans in Hawaii
125,000 Sakadas built this state — from the SS Doric to the Hanapepe Massacre to the ILWU to Bruno Mars.
Filipino Americans in Texas
232,000 Filipino Americans and growing fast — now the third-largest home for Filipinos in the United States.
Population figures are sourced and dated on each regional guide.
The people you keep showing up for. Class reunions, backyard parties, and the friendships that outlasted the school that made them.
Barkada
Hogan Spartans who scattered across three decades and still answer the group text. The reunions, the get-togethers, the ones who flew in, and the ones we lost along the way.
More barkada stories →The generation being raised on this side of the ocean — and what it looks like to grow up Filipino in a California high school gym on a Friday night.
Kabataan
Games, proms, graduations, and the college Filipino clubs waiting a few years down the road. Shot from the bleachers by somebody’s dad.
More kabataan →What Fil-Am families need to navigate the UC system, campus by campus.
UC & U.S. Admissions
Campus-by-campus guides for Fil-Am families navigating the UC system — application counts, deadlines, and the Filipino student organizations waiting on the other side.
- UC Acceptance Season: A Filipino American Family Guide
- UC Davis received 122,271 applications for Fall 2026
- UC Irvine received 153,025 applications for Fall 2026
- UC Santa Cruz sets a record with 90,867 applications
Health through a Filipino American lens — the conditions that hit our families hardest.
Kalusugan
Health through a Filipino American lens — diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, sleep apnea, and the conditions that hit our families hardest.
When the Bato Breaks: Diabetic Kidney Disease and the Filipino-American Silent Crisis
The first piece in the Kalusugan series — diabetes, blood pressure, and the kidney disease that follows them through Filipino American families.
Policy and lived reality for OFWs, balikbayans, petitioners, and the families waiting on both ends of a case number.
Immigration & OFW
Policy and lived reality for OFWs, balikbayans, petitioners, and the families waiting on both ends of a case number.
More immigration coverage →Filipino creativity on the screen, on the stage, in music, and across the arts — from BINI, H.E.R., and Bruno Mars to OPM, Philippine mythology, and the stories shaping how the world sees Filipinos.
Entertainment & Culture
Screen, stage, music, and the arts — Filipino creativity shaping how the world sees us.
More entertainment & culture →Footage from the PinoyBuilt channel — and the occasional piece written around someone else’s video, always credited to the creator who shot it.
Watch
Fiestas, performances, tournaments, and family footage that a photograph could not hold. Some of it has been sitting on a hard drive for fifteen years.
More video →Filipino athletic excellence on the world stage — the matches, the milestones, and the flag carried across every court and field.
Sports
From Alex Eala's tour arc to the Filipino and Filipino-American athletes making their mark — every match, milestone, ranking, and breakthrough.
More sports coverage →
Recently Published
Browse the full archive →4.6 million Filipinos in the U.S. One platform telling our stories. Salamat, kababayan.
