I noticed a building across Mission street with a big black board...
The word "Filipino" caught my eye...
I'm not sure when this will open, but this is exciting news, especially in this part of town where there is a large Filipino American presence.
Sadly, I couldn't find a working link for the SFFCC.
The next place I want to highlight was a park named after a Filipina American athlete, who in my opinion, has largely been ignored by the history books, Victoria Manolo Draves.
She can be seen wearing a yellow bathing suit, arms raised in a diving pose, in this mural, "Ang Lipi ni Lapu Lapu" in San Francisco's SoMa. In fact, this mural is just a few blocks away from the building above.
(photo from my "Ang Lipi ni Lapu Lapu" post, February 2011)
Victoria Draves is also seen at the far left of Eliseo Art Silva's Filipino American History mural off of the 101 and Beverly Blvd in Historic Filipino Town in Los Angeles:
(photo from my "Hi-Fi Mural: Gintong Kasaysayan Gintong Pamana" post, April 2010)
Victoria Manolo Draves won two gold medals at the 1948 Olympics in London in both springboard and platform diving.
(photo from FilAmSports.Wordpress, April 2010)
The child of a Filipino father and an English mother, Victoria was born in the SoMa district in San Francisco. She experienced much racism in her youth, such as being excluded from the more "exclusive" swimming clubs because of her ethnicity.
(previous two images from the Victoria Manolo Draves Park facebook page)
Victoria Draves, along with Sammy Lee (a Korean American and the men's platform winner) were the first Americans of Asian descent to win gold medals at the Olympic games. Her beauty, grace, and elegant diving style was sensational. She eschewed playing exotic island beauties in Hollywoods (the offers rolled in after she won the gold medals) and instead, chose to turn professional and performed in water shows and later, with her coach (who was also her husband), established swimming and diving programs.
The two-acre park in the SoMa was dedicated in 2006 in her honor. Bert and I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Victoria Draves in 2002 at the FANHS National Conference in Los Angeles; at the time, she was in her late 70's. She was such a lovely lady and quite eloquent in describing her humble beginnings. There was a workshop that featured Filipino American athletes. Of them all, she was the one I wanted to see the most because of her pioneer accomplishments. Sadly, she died on April 11, 2010 at the age of 85 from cancer.
We didn't get a chance to stop by the park, but I snapped this one shot while on our way to dinner that evening.
The Filipino Cultural Center
Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 92103
thesffcc.com (the site doesn't seem updated; the last post was in 2010)
Victoria Manolo Draves Park
Folson St. and Sherman St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
FB page
plus images of the park on ParkScan
More information about Victoria Manolo Draves:
"The Triumph of Victoria Manolo Draves" by Rodel Rodis, Asian Week April 28, 2010
Obituary NY Times, April 29 2010
Jeopardy Question from the YouOffendMeYouOffendMyFamily blog...
plus some great footage of her in action at the 1948 Olympics (embedding was disabled).
and Victoria in her own words (2001):
She was such a beautiful and graceful lady
There is also Georgina Tolentino, a young Pinay filmmaker who is planning to produce and star in a film about Victoria Draves' life:
More info on the film here:
www.victoriamanalofilm.com
Unfortunately the Kickstarter campaign was unsuccessful. I still hope that this young filmmaker is able to get her proposed documentary made...
More Filipino American sites of interest in the SoMa:
"Bayanihan House and Arkipelago Books" June 2009 - Bayanihan House is a community center for Filipinos while Arkipelago is one of the only bookstores in the U.S. focusing on Philippine and Filipino American books.
"Ang Lipi ni Lapu Lapu mural" February 2011 - An 8 story mural depicting Filipino American History
"Filipino Street Signs in the SoMa", February 2011 - Featuring street signs bearing the names of Filipino revolutionaries and national heroes.
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