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'Friendship Games' Unite Filipino Americans For 30 Years

Heidi Carreon |
October 25, 2015 | 2:27 p.m. PDT

Contributor

Even at 7 a.m., UCR Katipunan PSO "Kati-Squad" is ready to SPUF. (Heidi Carreon/Neon Tommy)
Even at 7 a.m., UCR Katipunan PSO "Kati-Squad" is ready to SPUF. (Heidi Carreon/Neon Tommy)
Not every college student can bear to be awake at 7 a.m. on a Saturday, but the students of Cal State Fullerton's Pilipino American Student Association (PASA) Kaibigan didn't seem to mind the early hour as they waved streamers and blew noisemakers, clad in tie-dye and beaded necklaces.

Staying true to a tradition of school spirit and friendship, PASA students were excited to welcome 36 other Filipino student organizations, hailing from California, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona, to a birthday party for a mutually beloved event. 

Costumed participants sang a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday" as they lined up to enter the 30th Annual Friendship Games

The yearly Friendship Games event is the largest self-organized gathering of Filipino students in the country. Its fame is so renowned among Filipino student organizations that it has been copied in other regions such as the Midwest and was featured on the Youtube channel ISAtv. Each year, Filipino student organizations from the western United States gather at CSUF to compete in unique picnic games throughout the day.

READ MORE: Overseas Filipinos Often Act As Informal Diplomats

Anthony Militante, president of USC Troy Philippines, looks for another organization to SPUF with. (Heidi Carreon/Neon Tommy)
Anthony Militante, president of USC Troy Philippines, looks for another organization to SPUF with. (Heidi Carreon/Neon Tommy)

Although the games seem silly—and in some cases awkward—they are nonetheless competitive. Some organizations train and strategize all summer for Friendship Games in hopes of winning the 8-foot tall trophy.

For her part, Claire Imada loved Friendship Games ever since she participated in PASA through their dance team. Though she isn't Filipino, Imada became one of the coordinators to ensure that students fall in love with Friendship Games the way she did—after a life-changing day full of SPUF-ing. 

SPUF stands for "Spirt, Pride, Unity, Friendship," and is the Friendship Games creed. In a nutshell, the SPUF sentiment encourages not only individual school pride, but also building relationships between organizations. In order to build those connections, organizations "SPUF" with each other while waiting for their round to play a game.

"[It's that] feeling you get when you see all of the schools repping not only themselves but the 'unity' part of SPUF. Everyone is all together with their own spirit and with their own pride in their own school," Imada says.

To Imada, SPUF means being with other PASA members, who have become her second family. "It's just repping our school," she said. "Not to attack the other schools, but to show them a piece of what we are and how we as a club—as friends—all function and have fun."

Abby Saabedra, president of UC Davis Mga Kapatid, says that interacting with other schools and their presidents is her favorite part of coming to CSUF. "Honestly, everyone's clubs are super welcoming, and I think just feeling the spirit of Friendship Games makes it worth it for me," she said.

People of all ethnicities are welcomed at Friendship Games, but the SPUF-fest has a special place in the hearts of many Filipino Americans, so much so that organizations are willing to travel many miles to Fullerton for the event. Although the trip from Davis to Fullerton costs her organization $6,000, Saabedra says that going to Friendship Games is a long-standing tradition for Mga Kapatid.

"The way we see Friendship Games at UC Davis is like a Fil-Am student movement," she reasoned. "I think to be repping that at our own school, to be sharing with other schools is a monumental thing to contribute to."

READ MORE: Living Under The Bamboo Ceiling: One Asian American Student's Struggle Against Model Minority Discrimination

For people who didn't grow up in an area where there was a strong Filipino community, like Paula Reyna Small, Stanford Pilipino American Student Union's cultural dance chair, seeing hundreds of Filipinos in one place is a welcome sight.

"I think it's a great time for people to come together to feel the aspect of pamilya [family]," she said. "It's nice to be in a group of people that really appreciates the Filipino culture, and to see how excited everyone is just to be here. To be around each other in friendly competition and enjoying each other's company makes a really great atmosphere."

The Happy Birthday theme was doubly appropriate for Saturday's event, as the following day, Oct. 25, marked the birthday of famed Filipino-American labor organizer Larry Itliong—this year celebrated for the first time as a statewide holiday in California as Larry Itliong Day. Itliong was a contemporary of Cesar Chavez, who, for comparison, has had a day in his honor for twenty years in California.

For many Filipino-American students who feel their culture is often overlooked in the mainstream, Friendship Games has consistantly served as a place to celebrate their roots and community. 

Students from CSUS compete in "The Nasty," in which a person must run across a field with a PVC pipe between his or her legs and transfer the pipe to a teammate without the use of hands. (Heidi Carreon/Neon Tommy)
Students from CSUS compete in "The Nasty," in which a person must run across a field with a PVC pipe between his or her legs and transfer the pipe to a teammate without the use of hands. (Heidi Carreon/Neon Tommy)
"Just the visibility and awareness of the unification of collegiate Filipinos is really important to show that we are actively bridging together and communicating with each other for the purpose of uniting ourselves," says Zach Chaco, chair of the Southern California Pilipino American Alliance, "We may not be doing it for specific [social] issues, but just the fact those bridges of communication are open is a great step ahead."

Even though it's nice to win a trophy taller than Shaquille O'Neal, the real reason Friendship Games remains popular among Filipino students is because of the bonds formed both within and without each individual organization. And as the event's 30th birthday party came to a close Saturday, all who were there wished for many, many more. 

Contact contributor Heidi Carreon here and follow her on Twitter here



 

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