ABOUT
About PinoyBuilt
A digital monument for the Filipino American experience — built by the diaspora, for the diaspora. Independent. Historically grounded. Unafraid.
PinoyBuilt exists to do two things: make sure our stories don't get lost, and make sure the next generation knows what we stood for.
From the historic Navy towns of California to the frontline hospitals of Houston; from the halls of the Rizal Center in Chicago to the stretches of the Filipino-American Highway in San Diego — we document the Fil-Am journey with honesty, context, and a point of view. Independent, community-driven, and opinionated when the story calls for it. Our editorial voice is built on investigative spine, essayistic depth, and diaspora urgency — pointed at the people who hold both countries up: the nurses, the caregivers, the seafarers, the farmworkers, the teachers, the organizers written out of the textbook.
"He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination." — José Rizal
The Mission
PinoyBuilt was born on March 28, 2011 — from a conversation in Maui about Filipino apparel, grit, and the absence of a platform that truly centered us. Fifteen years in, the mission has deepened. PinoyBuilt is now a dual archive.
For the Community
A living, breathing record of the Filipino diaspora — where our history is not a footnote in a textbook but the main text. A guide for first-, 1.5-, and second-generation Fil-Ams, OFWs from Dubai to Toronto to Rome, and every kababayan still watching us from the homeland.
For My Family
A father's archive. I have three U.S.-born children — Veronica, JianCarlo and Francesca — and, one day, grandchildren. They did not take the train from Marikina to Bicol as kids. They did not live through Marcos. Much of what I know about being Filipino — the language, the history, the kapwa, the reasons we fight and the reasons we endure — they will only inherit if someone writes it down. PinoyBuilt is me writing it down.
When I am gone, I want my kids and their kids to be able to open this site and learn two things: what is right — anti-authoritarianism, worker dignity, kapwa over transaction, the moral imagination of the Katipunan held against the abuses of our time — and who I was. Every article, every photo essay, every Learn Filipino entry carries a piece of both.
"Aling pag-ibig pa ang hihigit kaya, sa pagkadalisay at pagkadakila, gaya ng pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa? Aling pag-ibig pa? Wala na nga, wala." "What love could surpass, in purity and greatness, the love of one's native land? What other love? None — truly, none." — Andrés Bonifacio, Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Bayan (1896)
The Work Behind the Build
PinoyBuilt is a founder-led labor of love that requires many hats to keep the archive alive and growing:
The Builder: From Marikina to the 707
My journey began in Marikina — in SSS Village, reading about the Katipunan, idolizing Rizal and Bonifacio the way other kids idolized basketball players. I left the Philippines at age nine, in 1976, carrying a political inheritance I didn't yet have words for: a refusal to look away from authoritarianism, and a conviction that the Philippines — and the Fil-Am diaspora — owes the masses who hold it up far more than it has ever given them.
I have three U.S.-born children — Veronica, Francesca, and JianCarlo. They will never know Marikina or Marcos the way I did. I bought this domain in 2011 so they — and their children, and yours — could still learn where we came from, what we stood for, and why it mattered. A proud Hogan Spartan ('85) from East Vallejo and UC Davis alumnus, I run PinoyBuilt as a digital archive, a cultural compass, and a father's record in the making.
- 1966 Born in Makati; raised in SSS Village, Marikina
- 1976 Arrived in Chicago — "I loved Chicago from point zero"
- 1979 First arrival in Vallejo — the 707, home ever since
- 1988 Glendale, CA — with three titas, Glendale College
- 1989 Return to Chicago — Wright College
- 1995 Back to the 707 — permanent return to Vallejo
- 2011 Founded PinoyBuilt — domain registered in Maui, March 28
Who We Serve
PinoyBuilt serves three public audiences — in this order of priority:
Whether you're second-generation in Daly City, a nurse in Dubai, a teacher in Toronto, or a student in Manila — if you care about the Filipino story, this platform is for you. And whether you're one of my three kids or someone else's grandchild fifty years from now, this archive is being built with you in mind.
What We Publish
PinoyBuilt runs a full editorial operation — daily news, weekly deep dives, ongoing photo essays, and a growing archive of community stories. Here are our content series:
What We Cover
USA · California · Chicago · Los Angeles · Hawaii · San Diego · Texas · Stockton · Vallejo · Washington · New York
Filipino Americans by the Numbers
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau ACS · Pew Research Center · Neilsberg (2023–2025 estimates)
California alone accounts for roughly 38% of all Filipino Americans in the United States — more than the next five states combined. Explore our full national overview in the USA pillar page.
The Los Angeles and San Francisco metro areas hold the highest concentrations in California. Daly City — long known as the "Pinoy Capital of the U.S." — remains one of the densest Filipino communities in the nation by percentage of population. San Diego is home to the Filipino-American Highway and the country's first Filipino American mayor of a city with over one million people.
Filipino immigration to Vallejo dates back to the early 1900s, driven by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard — one of the oldest and largest naval installations on the West Coast. Generations of Filipino sailors, laborers, and their families put down roots here, making Solano County not just a California story, but the most historically concentrated Filipino American county in the entire United States. The 707 isn't just a home base. It's ground zero for the Fil-Am diaspora in America. Read the full Vallejo pillar page →
Join Us
✍ Become a contributor
PinoyBuilt publishes first-person essays, community histories, photo essays, and diaspora perspectives from Filipino Americans nationwide and around the world. Whether you are 1st, 1.5, or 2nd generation — whether you are in Vallejo or Virginia or Dubai — your story belongs in this archive.
Share your story Meet the contributors💬 Join the conversation
Every post on PinoyBuilt has a comment section — and that's where the community comes alive. Share your memory, your reaction, your family's version of the story. Your voice makes this archive richer for everyone who comes after.
Browse posts & comment See recent comments📧 Contact the editor
For press inquiries, partnerships, corrections, or general questions — reach PinoyBuilt's editorial team directly.
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"The Filipino is worth dying for." — Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. (1932–1983) · assassinated at Manila International Airport, August 21, 1983
PinoyBuilt exists to remind us: our stories matter — even when we weren't favored, expected, or counted in. This archive is built for the community I serve, and for Veronica, Francesca, JianCarlo, and every Fil-Am kid who'll inherit the Filipino story long after us. Tayo ang nagsusulat ng ating sariling kasaysayan.
