Honoring Filipino American History Month with Anjru Jaezon de Leon
Photo: lola which is Tagalog for grandma (left) and lolo which is Tagalog for grandpa (right) with Anjru Jaezon de Leon wearing a traditional “Barong Tagalog” (center)
For me, being Filipino American means trying to understand or recover parts of my culture that I had lost. Oftentimes, I felt like I needed to assimilate, but throughout the years, I maintained parts of my culture that I found represented me. So, I try to show up as much as I can in my own skin.” –Anjru Jaezon de Leon, OMI Family Resource Center Director
October is Filipino American History Month, and this year, we’re highlighting our Y staff member, Anjru Jaezon de Leon, who is a part of our Asia Pacific Islander Leadership Network (APILN), one of five Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) at the YMCA of Greater San Francisco. Our ERGs are groups of employees who share a common bond, shared customs, communities and/or life experiences that provide staff support, safe space, resources, and additional career or personal development.
In addition to being part of APILN, Anjru is Urban Services YMCA’s new OMI Family Resource Center Director. Our Bayview Family Resource Center and Urban Family Resource Center (FRC) serve as hubs connecting families with a network of local and citywide resources.
Our three Urban Family FRCs serves families in Oceanview, Merced Heights, Ingleside (OMI), Potrero Hill, and Western Addition neighborhoods. From basic needs assistance to parenting classes and workshops, youth groups to drop-in services, these programs provide wraparound services that ensure building strong, sustainable, and equitable communities for generations.
Recently, we interviewed Anjru to learn more about how he honors and celebrates Filipino American History Month, and how his Y role intersects with his identity and experiences:
How long have you been in this role, and what brought you to the YMCA of Greater San Francisco community?
I’ve been the OMI FRC Director for about a month, but I was previously the director and founder of our Peer Partner Program at Urban Services YMCA, while my first role at the Y was working at the Business Resource Center (BRC) at the Association Office (AO).
I was the Peer Partner Director for about two years and built it from the ground up. It’s a program that supports parents involved in the child welfare system, or with children involved in the juvenile system, to gain the resources they need to discontinue further system involvement through peer-based case management, resource linkages, workshops, and information and referrals. It’s unique because the case managers have lived experience as former foster youth, foster parents, or parents who’ve successfully navigated the system, and the ability to now support families currently involved with child welfare process and help them navigate it and reunify with their children.
Because of my lived experience as a former foster youth, this role really hit home for me and added complexity to my identity and experience as a Filipino American. At the time, I was focused on advocating for legislative issues impacting foster youth, and I thought this would be an amazing opportunity and challenge to start this program and support families who are experiencing this.
How have your roles so far at the Y intersected with your Filipino American identity and experiences?
When I was 5 to 7 years old, I attended after-school programs with the YMCA at Bessie Carmichael, a K-8th grade school in San Francisco’s SOMA District, which is also known as the SOMA Pilipinas or the Filipino Cultural District. Those were the influences I had growing up that involved a celebration of diversity and a reaffirmation of my culture. Also, I was surrounded by my family living on Natoma Street at the time, and it really felt like a community. Eventually, we started moving around a lot because of the rising cost of living in the city, as well as my dad’s mental health issues that affected my family in the forms of substance abuse and domestic violence, which led to my sisters and I being placed in foster care.
While I was in foster care, I always felt motivated because what empowered me was the care I felt when I entered strangers’ homes. They did their best to get me culturally affirming food while trying to get to know me and my culture, even incorporating my lola and lolo into our lives.
So, my positive experience in the YMCA’s after-school programs came full circle – from BRC to Peer Partner Director to OMI FRC Director. The same issues that impacted my family impact many others as well, including Filipino American communities.
Speaking of community, what does the concept of it mean to you? In what meaningful ways can organizations recognize and celebrate Filipino American History Month?
First, I found that food is my love language, both in giving and receiving food, especially Filipino food when it comes to sharing it with my team or with people I care about because that’s how my lola expresses her love to me.
Second, uplifting Filipino Americans within the organization and their experiences is a great way to learn about their different stories and how they see their identities.
Third, we should celebrate different leaders throughout history and into the present day, such as Larry Itliong, one of the founders of the United Farmworkers, who orchestrated the 1965-66 Delano grape strike and boycott. Also, sharing cultural stories or myths, and providing culturally affirmative services are additional ways to honor Filipino American History Month.
Any closing remarks?
I think about my lola and how she might have felt immigrating to the U.S. to seek better opportunities. It was an exciting experience, but also one that came with sacrifice, which I’ve come to learn from her and my parents. This story of sacrifice that threads our stories together showed up in the issues that we don’t normally address or talk about. So, I think the Filipino American experience has been a process of learning, relearning, and unlearning for me.
Learn more about San Francisco’s historic Manilatown by reading “Remembering Manilatown and Honoring Living Legacies of the Filipinx Bay Area,” written by Wangui Hymes, Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator.
