Filipino Heritage Workshops Starting in September

Are you looking for “Juan de la Cruz”? Let us help you!

“Juan de la Cruz” is a symbolic name used to refer to the Filipino in general. The closest North American equivalents are names like “John Doe”, “John Q. Public”, “Joe Schmoe” or “Joe Blow”. According to Wikipedia, the term was coined by Robert McCulloch Dick, a Scottish-born journalist working for the Manila Times in the early 1900s after discovering that it was the most common name in blotters. “Juan de la Cruz” is often used as a term to refer to the collective Filipino psyche.

The Filipino Centre Toronto is hosting a series of Heritage Workshops starting in September. They’re doing this in response to the growing need among Filipino youth in their search for cultural identity. It’s an expansion of the Tagalog and Homework club classes that the Centre has been offering over the past few years.

This fall, the Centre will be holding eight Saturday workshops on various aspects of Filipino culture for young adults between the ages of 18 and 25. They’re aiming to reach college and university students, who have told them that they wanted to learn more about their culture. Through these workshops, they hope to help young Filipino adults in their search for their Filipino identity and what it means within the context of the Canadian society and environment.

The workshops will cover a number of topics, including:

• Filipinos in Canada
• Our cultural roots
• Social and family values
• The arts: visual, performing, literary and culinary
• Filipino cinema and popular culture

Other related topics will be covered based on participant interest.

If you’d like to participate in this program, please contact the Filipino Centre Toronto by September 1st. You can register by calling the Centre at (416) 928-9335 or by emailing the program coordinators:

• Frank Villanueva (villanueva.frank@gmail.com)
• Mary Ann San Juan (maannsj@yahoo.com)