Mary Crown – who moved from the Philippines to Boston two decades ago – stood amid the chatter of Tagalog and English, the smell of barbecuing pork, and the voice of America’s Got Talent semi-finalist Roland Abante singing “Dynamite.”
“I’ve never seen so many Filipinos,” she joked.
Crown was among the throngs gathered at the Church Street parking lot in Cambridge for the 3rd Annual Filipino American Festival on Oct. 6. The event was organized by the Harvard Square Philippine American Alliance in partnership with Harvard Square Business Association.
The event included dozens of booths selling drinks, clothes, and crafts. Clouds of smoke from sizzling meat billowed over the crowd celebrating Filipino American History Month.
Crown, who lives in South Boston, said she enjoyed hearing Filipino languages and smelling the food, because it reminded her of home.
“I don’t really attend a lot of stuff (like this),” Crown said, “because I miss my home if I see a lot of (Filipino) people.”
Still, Crown said she’s attended the festival every year since. She was struck this year by how many people showed up.
For Crown, the event evoked memories of her past. She said she had sat for about 20 minutes in the jeepney on display near the entrance, reflecting on when she rode them in the Philippines as a child. Jeepneys originated in the Philippines after World War II, when American military vehicles were left on the islands. They were then bought and renovated into what is now one of the main forms of public transportation in the Philippines.
Next to the jeepney, Joey Golja stood in a booth with T-shirts decorated with the vehicles and with the mascot of Jollibee, a popular Filipino fast-food restaurant chain, mixed with sports teams like the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls. Golja is one of the founders of Project Barkada, a nonprofit based in New York. The shirts are sold to raise money to keep the jeepney at the festival running, in storage, and to tow it when necessary.
“It can drive,” Golja said, “but not four hours to Boston.”
Golja said the jeepney, or JeepNY as they call it, was brought to the U.S. by Apl.de.ap, the Filipino-born rapper and founding member of the music group the Black Eyed Peas. Golja said he called him up and asked if they could use it for community events.
Golja said it’s still in poor condition, even after fixing it up, but it’s good enough to bring to events, so people can sit in it and learn or reminisce.
The jeepney was on the other side of the festival from the stage, in front of which the Iskwelahang Pilipino cultural center students danced. The cultural center is in Bedford, where children are taught traditional Filipino dances and can join a dance group.
The Pangalay dance, or “fingernail” dance, was one of the dances they performed. Originating during the tribal period of the Philippines, it consists of dancers wearing long nails and mimicking the movement of the ocean to rhythmic music, which was played over a loudspeaker.
Throughout the event, which included fashion shows, a long line of visitors waited to eat from a stand by the Jamaican and Filipino restaurant, Bright Light. Pork, chicken adobo, lumpiang Shanghai, and pork sisig were the star dishes, as was halo-halo, a dessert made with condensed milk or coconut milk, crushed ice, ube ice cream and various sweet beans and jellies.
In fact, food dominated much of the event. At point, Chef Vallerie Castillo-Archer, the first female head chef of Philippine Airlines, even joined the festivities. And there was a balut-eating competition. Nine contestants were given two balut, salt, and a bottle of water. The players had to eat every edible part of the balut, a Filipino delicacy of an incubated duck egg that’s steamed and eaten from the shell.
After much slurping and chugging of water, University of Connecticut student Juanito Briones won.
“The hard part was the egg whites,” Briones said. “It kinda tastes like a gumball, very hard, so I just kept chewing, chewing, and washing it down with water Joey Chestnut-style.”
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