Luz Maria Clayton / The SWC Sun Photo
By Natalia Rivera Banuet
A family that eats together stays together,” goes the Filipino folk wisdom.
And it doesn’t hurt if SPAM is involved.
San Diego County’s rich but overlooked Filipino culture bookends the Southwestern College District from National City to San Ysidro, but the food, films, fun and family of nearly 210,000 Filipino-Americans is mostly tucked away quietly in homes and the business districts of northern National City and the southern flank of San Diego in Nestor and San Ysidro.
Merkado Kultura, a two-day event at Balboa Park’s Mingei International Museum, was an effort to put the culture of the county’s high-achieving but humble Filipinos out into the light. Food may be the quickest way to a man’s heart, but it seems to work on women, too, as savory, salty Filipino favorites earned rave reviews from other members of the region’s diverse community.
Microbakery Pukshiet, owned by Izaiah Esguerra-Coloma, showed the way, powered by SPAM.
Esguerra-Coloma’s Tocino Spam Flatbread and the Kalat Cookie blended classic North American comfort foods with Asian Filipino flavors. Tocino celebrated the savory-greasy tastes of bacon with the salty soul of SPAM. It was a hearty snack that left newcomers mildly astonished and completely impressed. Kalat cookies had the unexpected crunchiness of toffee and pretzel, with the soft texture of oats and coconut.
Sponsored by Golden Guide, a non-profit advocacy organization for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders, Merkado Kultura featured a sleek, minimalist restaurant and a shop filled with vibrant, traditional textiles, furniture, decorations and ceramic kitchenware from 26 vendors with roots in the culinary and artistic traditions of The Philippines.
Organizer France Malvar, owner of Lu France Interiors, said she wanted a market that highlighted the rich and diverse culture of the Filipino-American community.
“I used to do it in San Francisco with the Philippine Consulate,” she said. “(It seemed a good fit) for the Mingei.”
Esguerra-Coloma said it is important for Filipinos to come together and step out into the broader community.
“I think being queer and Filipino I belong to two minority groups,” she said. “What’s consistent with both of them is the need for representation and the need to find your community. (Merkado Kultura) allows me to find those people.”
Joy Francisco, a clinical psychologist, is a Filipina-American author and a self-described fan of Merkado Kultura. She sold her children’s books, including “Little Yellow Jeepney.” Jeepneys are vehicles used during the 1899-1902 Philippine-American War that now serve as open-air buses with eye-catching artwork.
“I knew I wanted to be a psychologist and I wanted to help people,” she said. “When I became a parent I wanted to write books to connect kids to their culture.”
Preserving Filipino culture is very important, Francisco said.
She is also writing books in Laotian for American refugees of Laos.
Her books are in libraries, small businesses and independent
bookstores.
