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With its active student membership growing to 150, the popular Kapamilya Club at Dominican staged its eighth annual Pilipino Cultural Night with "Liwanag" on April 14 in Angelico Concert Hall.

Pilipino Cultural Night, or PCN, showcases Filipino culture through acting, singing, and modern and cultural dances.

“Liwanag, meaning light, hopes to bring attention to what it means to be a Filipino-American and encourage discovering your culture and self-identity,” explains Nursing major and club president Jireh Ordaz ’19. “In this homecoming and coming-of-age-story, the main character, Jalina, struggled with her identity as a Filipino-American woman. On her journey back home to the Philippines, she begins to rediscover her Filipino culture and redefine what it means to be Filipino-American.”

Last October, 96 members of Dominican’s Kapamilya traveled to Cal State Fullerton to participate with nearly 50 schools from California, Nevada, and Arizona in the annual Friendship Games, the largest gathering of Filipino American student organizations in the state. Dominican placed first in games and second overall among teams from universities such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis.

This academic year Kapamilya has put an emphasis on expanding its community.

“We have collaborated with other Filipino clubs around the Bay Area to build our family beyond Kapamilya,” Jireh says. “In terms of PCN, we have more acting, singing, and dancing pieces and that are more elaborate than they have been in the past and we hope to share this all with any person who attends our show.”

Jireh says the club is open to any Dominican student. The next club meeting is April 22 at 6:30 p.m. in Albertus Magnus Room 105. Kapamilya will host its annual Filipino-Graduation on April 28 in Guzman Lecture Hall, where it will honor graduating seniors.

“We at Kapamilya strive to explore the identity, culture, and significance of Filipinos worldwide, as well as to build an inclusive family with all people who are willing to discover this with us,” Jireh says. ”I joined during my freshmen year of college by signing up at the club fair and from there I became a regular attendant for meetings.”

For more information email kapamilyadu@gmail.com.

Photo credit: Vanessa Cahayag '20