The Filipino Pride of National City
By Mandy Altura
San Diego, March 24, 2023
National City, located in the South Bay Region of San Diego, holds the distinction of having a very large Filipino community that has slowly built throughout its history. As of 2020, the National City Census data indicates that 17% of its approximately 60,000 residents are Asian, with a majority of that population being Filipino-American. Their history spans since the early 1900s, and it’s due to their efforts that the community stands strong to this day.
According to Geronimo Cristobal in his Scalar.USC story, The First Hundred,the first group of Filipinos to migrate to San Diego were the Pensionados, a group of Filipino students who migrated to California in the fiscal year of 1904 at the expense of the Philippine Commission. These students were placed in National City in order to develop their educational acumen, and over time, many more Pensionados arrived in the area.
Filipinos also arrived in San Diego through the United States Navy. According to Miguel Llora in his research paper, Communities in Transition: Filipino-Americans in San Diego and Imperial Valley, After WWI, Filipinos were permitted to work as stewards and mess boys. Following the end of their service, they were allowed to remain in the United States. Military recruitment increased dramatically during WWII, and National City offered a haven to many Filipinos, due to its affordability and proximity to the 8th Street Naval Base.
According to National City Councilwoman Ditas Yamane, the military and family values were a primary motivators for the growth of the Filipino community in National City.
“We are neighbors to the San Diego naval base. Parents who migrated here first have chosen to live in National City. That’s why you see a high population of Filipino-American business owners. The population doubled due to the cultural familial values of Filipinos. When one member of a family buys property in National City, it is common for their siblings or cousins to follow along as well.”
Jeffrey Cardinez, a 22-year-old graduate student born in National City, noted the affordability of the location as something that drew in many Filipinos.
“I think people moved here at the time because it was the most bang for your buck,” Cardinez said, “Word spread through friends of friends, which was initially mainly a Hispanic population, and then a growing population of Filipinos.”
As the years went on, the cultural Filipino identity of National City only continued to grow. The importance of Catholicism, an identity shared by both Hispanics and Filipinos, was a major connector of both populations.
Angela Subido, the Assistant Coordinator of SDSU’s Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Center, and longtime National City resident, also noted that churches were a common sight in the community.
“I grew up in the elementary school right next to St. Mary’s Church, where our parents would often leave us there in order to practice religion,” she said, “It was common for many Filipinos to teach their kids about Catholicism, while also connecting to people with shared identities.”
The cultural identities of both Cardinez and Subido only became more pronounced as they got older. Partly due to their increasing maturity, but also due to the increasing development of National City.
“At some point, every school started to combine together into one school,” Cardinez said, “And then I started to notice things like Tagalog being offered as a language class, or that people who were walking around in the quad area were just like me, and basically that there were a lot more Filipinos than I thought in relation to the Hispanic population.”
Subido, who also attended Sweetwater High School, added, “In high school was when I started to get involved in the Filipino community. I took Tagalog language classes and more resources were available, which weren’t really emphasized in elementary or middle school. I started thinking about culture, meeting people, going to food festivals, and being involved in the community with my family.”
Subido also gave insight to a lot of the cultural centers that were developed in the area. “There were a couple of historic centers. One, Pasakat, taught traditional Filipino cultural dances and parents enrolled their kids into classes for dance. Seafood City, a supermarket chain specializing in predominantly Filipino foods, is also popular in National City. There’s also a lot of bakeries and stores in the area.”
While the area continues to develop, the cultural values continue to stay strong in National City. This undoubtedly stems from the hard work and dedication of so many Filipinos who migrated to the United States.
“The Filipinos of National City are very loyal, very hardworking, and very loving,” said Yamane. “They’re educators, businesspeople, homeowners, and all of this contributes to the sales tax, the property tax, and all this contributes to the economic heartbeat of the city.”
“National City definitely has a strong Filipino community because it contains multiple generations of Filipinos.” Subido said, “There are lots of Filipino nurses who work at Paradise Valley Hospital. The Filipino youth typically bond with one another because of their parents, like it was common to know people who had family in the Navy. People from there care about the city and where it's from, they give back to programs that they didn’t have because there’s lots of pride attached to it. We all just want to help out the community that we grew up in.”