Happy Birthday Jim Abad!

-

Flashback to our Hogan Spartans Class Reunion

Walnut Creek, CA. Jim, this was the only 'official' class reunion you made. You and E40! It was definitely a memorable one all around.
😄

This was the last one Dinna Santiago made. Rochelle Santiago was there too.

October 1995. Walnut Creek Marriott.


Join us & help build a Fil-Am online community.

Please leave a comment, and click to follow our website www.pinoybuilt.com. Join one of our sites in California: Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose or Vallejo.

Click on a tag below to browse.
Location: Walnut Creek, CA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Hi! Thank you for dropping by. Please leave us a comment. Sige na!

Popular posts from this blog

The Filipino Constellation: Why Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and Heart Disease Hit Fil-Am Families So Hard

-
Image
California • April 2026. The Filipino Constellation: Why Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and Heart Disease Hit Fil-Am Families So Hard. filipino american health, diabetes filipino, hypertension fil-am, heart disease filipino american, kalusugan, kidney disease, sleep apnea, pancreatitis, kaiser permanente distance, stanford care, aapi health disparities. KALUSUGAN • FIL-AM HEALTH • APRIL 2026 The Filipino Constellation: Why Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and Heart Disease Hit Fil-Am Families So Hard Filipino-Americans carry the heaviest chronic-disease burden of any Asian-American subgroup — but because the data is routinely aggregated, the crisis stays invisible. One man's clinical story names the pattern moving through our families. Every Filipino-American family I know has a version of this story. A tito who died of a stroke earlier than anyone expected. A tita on dialysis. A lola who managed her diabetes...
Read more

Marks of the Ancestors: Mel Orpilla and the Filipino Story of Vallejo

-
Image
Vallejo, California • March 2026. Mel Orpilla: Historian, Martial Artist, and Keeper of Vallejo's Filipino Memory. mel orpilla, vallejo filipino history, filipinos in vallejo, balintawak arnis, island warrior fighting sticks, manong generation, mare island naval shipyard, fil-am history, ifugao, ilocano heritage, pamana, filipino american history month. Vallejo, CA • Filipino American History Month 2026 Marks of the Ancestors: Mel Orpilla and the Filipino Story of Vallejo Historian, martial artist, and cultural keeper Mel Orpilla has spent decades ensuring that the Filipino presence in Vallejo—one of the oldest in Northern California—is documented, honored, and passed on. Mel Orpilla — historian, Balintawak Arnis master, and keeper of Vallejo's Filipino memory. 📍 Vallejo, California In the city of Vallejo, history lives in unexpected places. It lives in faded photographs tucked into family albums, in stor...
Read more

Daku kaayo ang kalipay: Reunited in Valencia, Bukidnon (April 1, 2005)

-
Image
April 2, 2026 at 01:17PM by pinoybuilt ​The April 1, 2005 Archive: Valencia, Bukidnon ​On March 25, 2005, the distance finally ended. After being separated since December 2004, I reunited with Tess and our girls in the cooler, quieter highlands of Bukidnon. ​This is a 30-second raw window into that afternoon, captured on an Olympus C3000z in the Barangay of Poblacion. You can hear the unedited "hiss" of 2005 technology, but more importantly, you hear my late wife, Tess. In the last third of the video, her laughter cuts through the decades—a reminder of the joy that anchored our diaspora journey. (I'll have to find video of her speaking fluent Bisaya). ​At PinoyBuilt.com, we analyze the news of today through the lens of where we’ve been. Sometimes, the most important "data" isn't a statistic, but a voice from 21 years ago. ​#PinoyBuilt #Bukidnon #Bisaya #FilAm #Diaspora #Legacy #2005Archive via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQZR7qkJx20
Read more

5 Years Later: Wrestling, Resilience, and a Fil-Am Journey

-
Image
Fremont, CA • January 31, 2026. Half a Decade of Growth: A Senior Year Reflection: Five years after the Mission San Jose Invitational, we reflect on the grit of the Fil-Am journey and building a future on Turtle Island. wrestling, benicia, high school, student-athlete, turtle island, fil-am, heritage, january 31 Fremont, CA • January 31, 2026 Half a Decade of Growth: A Senior Year Reflection Five years after the Mission San Jose Invitational: Building grit on the mat and a future on Turtle Island. Looking at this photo now, I don't just see a wrestling match; I see a pivotal moment in the journey from student-athlete to adulthood. In the Filipino-American experience, we often talk about "building"—building a life, building a legacy, and building a future on Turtle Island . "Wrestling is a metaphor for our collective experience. It’s about finding your footing, staying grounded, and facing ev...
Read more

Christmas Day 2025: Dominic & Paige

-
Image
Maligayang Pasko Kapamilya at Kababayan! 🎄 2025 December 25: Vallejo, California. Dominic and Paige. Dominic & Paige - 2005 July 16 Here you go Paige and Dominic. Flashback to Chesca's first birthday at Blue Rock when I shot this photo. Paige's lola brought her and her sisters. Twenty years ago! 💛 Explore Filipino American heritage, culture, and stories! Join our Fil-Am community to connect, comment, celebrate, and share experiences. Mabuhay! 📌 Follow  PinoyBuilt Instagram 👍 Like  PinoyBuilt Facebook ✍️ Follow  PinoyBuilt Blog 📺 Follow  PinoyBuilt YouTube 🎓 Interested in helping us create content? Apply as a  college intern  and join our team! #PinoyPride #PinoyCommunity #FilAm #FilipinoAmerican #PilipinoAmerican
Read more

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription: The Philippines' Oldest Written Record and What It Means for Every Filipino

-
Image
Philippines • April 2026. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription: The Philippines' Oldest Written Record and What It Means for Every Filipino. laguna copperplate inscription, philippine history, pre-colonial philippines, tondo kingdom, baybayin, decolonization, antoon postma, 900 CE, namwaran, kawi script. Philippine History • April 2026 The Laguna Copperplate Inscription: The Philippines' Oldest Written Record and What It Means for Every Filipino On April 21, 900 CE — 1,126 years ago today — a scribe inscribed Old Malay, Sanskrit, and Old Tagalog onto a sheet of copper in the Kingdom of Tondo. What he created is proof that Filipino civilization was literate, legally sophisticated, and globally connected six centuries before Magellan ever set foot on our shores. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, dated April 21, 900 CE — the oldest written document ever found in the Philippines. National Museum of Anthropology, Manila. When I was a ...
Read more

Learn Filipino: How Arthur Nery's "Isa Lang" Teaches the Language of Singular Devotion

-
Image
Vallejo, CA • April 2026. Learn Filipino: Arthur Nery's "Isa Lang" teaches Tagalog vocabulary, Filipino values, katapatan, singularity, OPM neo-soul, diaspora identity, tagalog word of the day. Learn Filipino • Word Studies • April 2026 Learn Filipino: How Arthur Nery's "Isa Lang" Teaches the Language of Singular Devotion One phrase. 464 million streams. A master class in Tagalog vocabulary, Filipino values, and why the language of your lolo sounds like this. Arthur Nery's "Isa Lang" — the OPM love song that taught a generation of diaspora kids what their grandparents already knew. | Photo: Viva Records I have a confession to make as a 1.5-generation Filipino: some of the deepest Tagalog I know came not from a classroom but from songs playing in the kitchen while my mother cooked. Not textbooks — adobo steam and music. That is how language has always survived in the diaspora. And right now, the ...
Read more