Expand<\/a><\/p>\nFor many like Potente, the night was like a reunion. Walking along the edge of the stadium, Potente constantly stopped as she ran into cousins, caught up with friends and snapped photos with the bay serving as her background.<\/p>\n
In a region separated by bridges, water and city limits, the Giants brought together Filipino baseball fans from across the Bay Area. Filipinos have a large presence in the region with Santa Clara County alone serving as home to over 100,000 Filipino Americans.<\/p>\n
But despite being one of the largest Asian American groups in the South Bay, community members often note that their culture can feel overshadowed in an area with diverse demographics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that a lot of times Asians get lumped into one. So being pulled out as Filipino where Southeast Asian isn\u2019t always highlighted is nice,\u201d said Anna Marie Maliwat, a recruiter and content creator.<\/p>\n
Kian Ramos agreed. \u201cI think Filipino culture has gone unnoticed sometimes,\u201d said the 25-year-old radiology technician.<\/p>\n
Before the first pitch was thrown out, Filipino Heritage Night transformed the stadium into a community. The evening began as the delicate sound of harp strings played by musician Gabrielle Elyse Oberes Padre, better known as GEO,\u00a0 echoed throughout as she played the national anthem. Filipino youth smiled as they joined on the field alongside players.<\/p>\n
A sense of nostalgia followed as Spanky Rigor, co-founder of VST & Company,\u00a0 threw the ceremonial first pitch. He connected generations with his 1970s Manila Sound, a popular music movement in the Philippines that combined western and Filipino elements.<\/p>\n
Central to this year\u2019s celebration was\u00a0 the custom commemorative jersey designed by Filipino freelance illustrator LeRoid David. Although it was not David\u2019s first time designing for the Giants, he said he was proud to represent Filipinos across the bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, I rarely saw anyone like me in the media, especially when it came to representation. That was always my motivation \u2014 maybe one day my art can be out there and I can represent the community,\u201d said David, surrounded by thousands of fans wearing his design.<\/p>\n
Sitting beneath the giant Jumbotron screen, Chair of Vallejo Pista Sa Nayon, Jen Mojica, watched the game surrounded by family and friends and passed around crab cakes and chips. Mojica, who took part in planning heritage night, said that large-scale events hosted by major franchises offer a platform to inspire younger generations who might otherwise feel disconnected from their roots.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur culture is generations of sacrifice, history and storytelling,\u201d said Mojica. \u201cSo my motive is to not only promote that, but to invite continued community building and collaboration and also really engage the generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the seventh inning stretch, Filipino fans were making their presence known . Fans in the section under the big screen waved a Filipino flag across the stands in hopes of getting seen on the Jumbotron.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they [Filipinos] have had a really big boom in popularity over the last couple years,\u201d said Ramos, as she watched the flag waving. \u201cAnd that\u2019s great to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kayla Lee is a member of the class of 2028 at Cupertino High School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s Note: This article was written for Mosaic, an independent journalism training program for high school and college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,100517,162,4,1792,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342],"class_list":["post-828232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco-giants","tag-baseball","tag-filipino","tag-giants","tag-mlb","tag-oracle-park","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-sanfranciscogiants","tag-sf","tag-sf-giants","tag-sfgiants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117432810981252830","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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