Put a Filipino in Antarctica, and in one month they’ll be one with the penguins.”įor Emano and others, “Bebot” is a vibrant reminder of their cultural past, an easy-to-digest history of their shared experience. “Part of the problem is we blend in so well,” said Winston Emano, an executive at an L.A.-based public relations firm and a community activist.
Many Filipinos arrive in the United States speaking English, immediately making assimilation easier. census found that less than 15% of its residents are actually Filipino. There is a historic Filipinotown west of downtown L.A., but the U.S. Though they’re the second-largest Asian group in California behind the Chinese, they have never established set “Filipino” neighborhoods - the equivalent of Monterey Park for Chinese Americans or Little Saigon for Vietnamese Americans. The Filipino American community is famous for putting its cultural identity behind assimilation. Teenagers - many of whom don’t even speak Tagalog - choreographed dance routines to it.īut it was the lyrics, not the beat, that had lasting resonance. With its choppy beat and shouting chorus of “Filipino! Filipino!,” the song became a showstopper at weddings and birthday parties. The musical story of his immigrant experience has become an unlikely rallying cry in California’s Filipino American community. The album contained several chart-toppers, but “Bebot” - as Pineda expected - wasn’t one of them.īut over the last year, “Bebot” has become a phenomenon in ways Pineda, 31, said he could never have imagined. The song, “Bebot” (Tagalog slang for “hot chick”), appeared on the Black Eyed Peas’ multiplatinum-selling album, “Monkey Business,” released in June 2005. Pineda wanted to recount his experience as a Filipino American but wasn’t sure how much the song would resonate with others - especially the Black Eyed Peas’ teenage fan base. The lyrics were personal, written entirely in Tagalog, the dominant language of the Philippines. SO begins the story of Allan Pineda, a member of the hip-hop band the Black Eyed Peas, who two years ago wrote a song about his journey from a poverty-stricken district in the Philippines to Los Angeles’ Atwater Village.