Dear Angelenos:

The Filipino American Library in Los Angeles was the first and largest collection of Filipino and Filipino American titles in the United States, assembled by a remarkable Filipina. Helen Agcaoili Summers Brown spent over three decades working for the Los Angeles Unified School District, not counting her stint as a welder for the California Shipbuilding Corporation in Wilmington during World War II. After she retired from LAUSD, she devoted her energies to her library documenting the Filipino American experience.

As a Pasadena City College student working on a paper about the Spanish influence on Manila, Brown found nothing on the topic in any local library, so she began collecting material that grew into a library of its own over the following decades: books, pamphlets, periodicals, maps, and clippings, but also musical instruments, games, dolls, and cooking utensils. “Auntie Helen” moved her home library into space donated by the Filipino Christian Church in 1985. Originally named the Pilipino American Reading Room and Library (PARRAL), the library moved to Luzon Plaza in 1994. It reopened as the Filipino American Library in its final location in 2000.

Earlier this month, the City held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Historic Filipinotown Eastern Gateway monument. “Talang Gabay: Our Guiding Star,” an arch designed by artists Eliseo Art Silva and Celestino Geronimo Jr., now spans Beverly Boulevard at Belmont, marking the neighborhood’s eastern entrance. I invite you to explore the Filipino American Library Collection online and read more about the Filipino American experience in Los Angeles in the Filipino Americans in Los Angeles, 1903-1980 Historic Context Statement prepared by the Department’s Office of Historic Resources.

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.