Placeography

The Placeography was created by Aiza Bragg, Maibell Ong, and Samira Pourghanad. This work further extends and engages with the Kuwentong Pamamahay project and was made possible through the UBC Arts Amplifier Collaborative Cohort Program.

This placeography is primarily based on the multiple interviews conducted and compiled for Kuwentong Pamamahay. Thus, many of the locations discussed are mentioned throughout the interviews and are specific to the Joyce-Collingwood area of Vancouver. Additionally, some locations mentioned are not noted in the interviews but aim to broaden familiarity with the Joyce-Collingwood neighbourhood and other places of significance to Filipino Canadians in BC. We have chosen these locations based on their relevance to the accompanying walking tour, accessible resources, as well as our own personal knowledge of the area. The placeography aims to bring forward additional information about specific places to help support the curiosity and desire to learn more about significant places discussed in many of the stories.

Keywords

1. Churches
2. Community Centres and Neighbourhood Houses
3. Student Associations
4. Home
5. Markets and Restaurants
6. Schools

Churches

The dominant religion in the Philippines is Christianity, including a substantial Roman Catholic population.¹ In addition to Christianity (94% of the population), 4% of the Filipino population is Muslim (concentrated on the southern islands of Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan)², and many communities throughout the Philippines follow indigenous beliefs and practices. It is also important to note the influence of Buddhism, Daosim, and Confucianism on Filipino spirituality, especially in the Chinese-Filipino community, even amongst those that practice Catholicism.³ Additionally, the practice of animist spirituality has significantly shaped Filipino culture and has strong connections with Filipino environmental stewardship.⁴

In the Filipino Canadian community in Vancouver, many residents are culturally connected to the city’s various Roman Catholic parishes and other Christian congregations. For some, the Catholic religion signifies an important aspect of their Filipino heritage, culture, and family traditions. Given the widespread prevalence of Catholicism within Filipino and Filipino Canadian culture, this placeography focuses on Catholic churches. However, it is important to acknowledge the presence of different religious and spiritual practices both in the Philippines and among Filipino communities across the world.

St. Mary’s Parish

Address: 5251 Joyce St., Vancouver
Area: Joyce-Collingwood
Interviews mentioning this location: Anne Claire Baguio, Derick Gonzales

St. Mary’s Parish, which officially opened in October of 1923, offers a wide range of Catholic services including Mass, other Sacrements and Bible study. It is estimated that approximately 80% of the parishioners at St. Mary’s are of Filipino heritage.⁵ The Parish also serves as a community hub for the Filipino Canadian community in Vancouver, with various events held throughout the month, including musical events. For instance, the members of the Knights of Columbus at St. Mary’s Parish formed an all-Filipino male choir that sings during mass.⁶

St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Parish

Address: 2881 Main St., Vancouver
Area: Mt. Pleasant
Interviews mentioning this location: Derick Gonzales, Jotham Villaneuva, Jocelle Refol & Kathleen Zaragosa

St. Patrick’s was officially opened in 1910. In 2015, the parish gained national media attention when the pastor, Father James Hughes, hosted a viewing party from the Church for famous Filipino boxer Manny Pacquaio’s fight against Floyd Mayweather.⁷ The parish is connected to an elementary school (St. Patrick Elementary School) and high school (St. Patrick Regional Secondary). It is estimated that over 85% of the parishioners who attend St. Pat’s Sunday service are of Filipino heritage.⁸ This is a significant increase from ten years before, when the estimated Filipino demographic was 75%,⁹ which suggests a growing Filipino community in this neighbourhood.

St. Anthony Catholic Church

Address: 7237 Morrow Rd., Agassiz
Area: Agassiz (BC Interior)

This church has served Catholic residents in the interior of BC for over one hundred years. In 1939, St. Anthony of Padua was given official parish status.¹⁰ This means the parish is under the observation of a pastor. St. Anthony is particularly significant for the Filipino Canadian community in BC because it contains a shrine of Sto. Niño de Cebu, “built as a gift to the Archdiocese of Vancouver to create a permanent commemoration of the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines.”¹¹ Cebu is a major city in the Philippines as the birthplace of many Filipino Canadians and this parish helps forge a connection between the Filipino/Cebuano communities in the Vancouver area and their homeland.

Community Centres and Neighbourhood Houses

Community centres and neighbourhood houses are an integral part of any neighborhood. They promote inclusion, create safe areas for congregation, and enable visitors to make friends, share culture, and access public resources.

Collingwood Neighbourhood House

Address: 5288 Joyce St., Vancouver
Area: Joyce-Collingwood
Interviews mentioning this location: Sammie Jo Rumbaua

This non-profit agency serves the Renfrew-Collingwood area of East Vancouver, offering social programs that promote interactions among community members. For instance, there are senior bingo nights, art classes, cedar carving, and even courses aimed at helping newcomers to Vancouver find employment. Services are offered in English, Mandarin, Tagalog, and Spanish.¹² In late 2023, Collingwood Neighbourhood House helped co-found Kusina, a community kitchen program that specifically caters to caregivers and their families.¹³ In addition to meals, Kusina connects caregivers with settlement services, social services, mental health resources, and legal aid.¹⁴ Informally, the Neighbourhood House has also hosted Filipino Canadian dance classes.

Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House

Address: 2131 Renfrew Street (at 5th Avenue), Vancouver
Area: East Vancouver
Interviews mentioning this location: Josh Rasalan

Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House offers a wide range of community services, including childcare, youth programs, and settlement services. Frog Hollow has a particularly vibrant offering for Filipino-Canadians, especially newcomers to BC! For those who have recently immigrated from the Philippines, Frog Hollow helps visitors feel connected to their homeland.¹⁵ For instance, Frog Hollow hosts the annual Harvest Festival in the summer - a chance for the community to come together, have food, listen to music and catch up with new and old friends.

Multicultural Helping House Society

Address: 4802 Fraser Street, Vancouver
Area: Joyce-Collingwood

Started in 1996, the Multicultural Helping House Society (MHHS) has been providing assistance to newcomers to Canada through settlement services, employment opportunities, social services, skills enhancement and respite housing, as well as legal assistance and education services.¹⁶ Originally named the Filipino Canadian Support Services Society (FCSSS), this organization was initially structured to help support new Filipino immigrants to Canada.¹⁷ Today, the Society is funded by all three levels of government (federal, provincial and municipal) with a great number of resources for (Filipino and other) immigrant workers in Canada. The MHHS works closely with immigrant youth and assists in reunification for children separated from their migrant labourer parents as well. The MHHS has also helped raise funds over the years for various causes, such as aid for Typhoon Ondoy. Senior members of the Filipino community are also able to find assistance at the MHHS. During the pandemic, they created care packages with personalized food packages to low income seniors, including comfort food and fruits. Over 3,000 bags were distributed with the help of volunteers.

Student Associations

The existence of student associations are a significant tool for community building. Universities, in particular, offer younger people a chance to interact with each other in a safe and welcoming space through the various community groups.

Leeds’ Filipino Society

Address: Lifton Place, Leeds
Area: University of Leeds
Interviews mentioning this location: Anne Claire Baguio

In the northern city of Leeds in the United Kingdom, the Leeds’ Filipino Society offers University of Leeds Filipino students opportunities for group gatherings through the Leeds’ Filipino Society. First recognized in 2017, this society helps Filipinos meet one another while “studying, working, and living in Leeds.”¹⁸ Activities include movie nights, karaoke, and food-based events.¹⁹ These activities encourage community building among the students, and are a wonderful way for students to unwind amid their busy study schedules.

Filipino McMaster Student Association

Address: 1280 Main St. W, Hamilton, ON
Area: McMaster University
Interviews mentioning this location: Anne Claire Baguio

At McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, the Filipino McMaster Student Association “shares and promotes Filipino culture… through social, educational, and charitable initiatives.”²⁰ FMSA encourages members to embrace the diversity around them, while also embracing their identities.²¹ Events include board game nights, socials, and dances.

Home

The definition of ‘home’ is a personal, and constantly evolving, concept. Within the context of this placeography, we can consider ‘home’ as any place that generates a feeling of connection for the people that occupy it. Under this characterization, ‘home’ can constitute any physical space. For instance, ‘home’ can refer to formal locations, such as buildings or streets, or informal locations, such as a park bench or a spot under a tree. For some, home can be something as abstract as ‘any place where one feels happiest and at peace’. For others, home requires agency on the part of the person – they must actively work at making a place home.

This is particularly pertinent for those who have moved to Canada or are born in Canada to immigrant parents that have maintained a connection with their homeland. Second generation Filipino youth, in particular, navigate multiple notions of ‘home’ composed of sometimes conflicting images, cultures, discourses, and places.²² What a Filipino Canadian considers to be ‘home’ might be contradictory or even inconsistent. For many, the physical aspect of ‘home’ is not sufficient: it is other people (friends and family) that render a place a true home. Rather than focusing on geographical and spatial definitions, this understanding of home centres instead on lived experiences and cultural memory.²³

St. Pat’s High School Gym

Address: 115 E. 11th Ave, Vancouver, BC
Area: Mt. Pleasant
Interviews mentioning this location: Derick Gonzales and Jocelle Refol

The gymnasium at St. Patrick Regional Secondary School, also known as St. Pat’s, is considered ‘home’ to many students who enjoy playing a game of basketball, spending time with friends, or watching sports games. Indeed, this metaphysical interpretation of ‘home’ is a reminder that home is not a place, but a feeling rooted in a memory. For some former students, the gym constitutes a place where they have spent so much time that it has inspired new ventures. For instance, Derick Gonzales co-founded Journey Basketball, a youth basketball program with a majority Filipino coaching staff, which aims to give back to the Filipino Canadian community.²⁴

Joyce-Collingwood

Address: n/a
Area: Metro Vancouver, BC

Interviews mentioning this location: Anne Claire Baguio, Derick Gonzales, Jotham Villaneuva, Jocelle Refol, Sammie Jo Rumbaua, Jocelle Refol & Kathleen Zaragosa and Josh Rasalan

Joyce-Collingwood is named after the skytrain station located at 5099 Joyce Street. It serves as the hub for the neighborhood which contains numerous Filipino restaurants, grocers, community areas as well as homes and apartments. For some Filipino Canadians, the Joyce-Collingwood area constitutes ‘home’ because it is a place that holds childhood memories and nostalgia of youth. Most significantly, Joyce-Collingwood’s many Filipino restaurants and businesses enable the link between food, culture, and a sense of belonging.

Cebu

Address: n/a
Area: Central Visayas region
Interviews mentioning this location: Anne Claire Baguio

Cebu is a province in the Philippines where the primary language is Cebuano (as a language, Cebuano is separate and distinct from Tagalog, which is more widely spoken). The capital city is Cebu City. The island is an important aspect of tourism in the Philippines.²⁵ For some Filipino Canadians with Cebuano heritage, Cebu is considered as home because it is where their parents and grandparents live.

Vancouver

Address: n/a
Area: Southwestern British Columbia
Interviews mentioning this location: Anne Claire Baguio, Derick Gonzales, Jotham Villaneuva, Jocelle Refol, Sammie Jo Rumbaua, Jocelle Refol & Kathleen Zaragosa and Josh Rasalan

Vancouver is a major city in British Columbia located on the lands of the Coast Salish peoples, including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.²⁶ Today, Vancouver has a very diverse, multicultural population, including a vibrant Filipino Canadian community. Many of the young Filipino Canadian generations consider Vancouver as ‘home’ due to the presence of their family, relatives, and friends. Additionally, Vancouver’s natural elements (parks, beaches, oceans, and mountains) help reinforce the feeling of ‘home’ for some Filipino Canadians.

East Van

Address: n/a
Interviews mentioning this location: Jotham Villaneuva and Sammie Jo Rumbaua

Area: East Vancouver is the area east of Ontario St., brushing up against the border of Burnaby. Many Filipino Canadians first move to East Vancouver upon immigration and come to consider the area as ‘home.’

Burnaby

Address: n/a
Area: In between East Vancouver and Coquitlam
Interviews mentioning this location: Jotham Villaneuva, Jocelle Refol, and Sammie Jo Rumbaua

For Filipino Canadians, the area surrounding Metropolis at Metrotown is a popular hub with many restaurant options - all of which is situated in the heart of Burnaby. The city of Burnaby is home to one of the highest open-space-to-resident ratios in North America: 25% of the land is composed of parks and open spaces, fostering a large community presence.²⁷ Additionally, Swangard Stadium in Burnaby is now the host of Pinoy Festival, which is the largest gathering of Filipino Canadians in the region.²⁸ Pinoy Festival features cultural performances, traditional dances, art and painting exhibitions, local Filipino bands, and a beer and music garden.²⁹

Sliced Mango Collective

Address: n/a
Area: Vancouver and Burnaby

Sliced Mango Collective is a Filipinx youth organization based in Vancouver. Co-founded by Claire Baguio and Kathleen Zaragoza, Sliced Mango holds regular events, including a creative writing workshop, an art-making showcase, and plenty of food-based activities (such as picnics!) For instance, Sliced Mango recently hosted ‘Kaligayahan Paglaban,’ an art-making social held at Bob Prittie Library in Metrotown - with snacks and art materials provided! In March 2021, Sliced Mango began the #SliceOfSupport campaign in order to protect six Filipino and Chinese restaurants from closure in the Joyce-Collingwood area. These restaurants include Pampanga’s, Plato Filipino, Joyce Jiaozi, and Kay Market. Thanks to Sliced Mango’s efforts, the city recognized the loss of cultural food on the community stakeholders, and the rezoning application for 5163-5187 Joyce Street has been put on hold. This campaign is a major inspiration for both Kuwentong Pamamahay and the PAUWI Walking Tour. For more information on Sliced Mango’s community support initiatives and activities, you can visit them at @slicedmangoco.

Markets and Restaurants

There are many Filipino food options available in the Lower Mainland. In the Joyce-Collingwood neighbourhood in particular, Filipino restaurants and grocery stores serve as a cultural hub for the neighbourhood’s prevalent Filipino Canadian population. Additionally, the Fraser and Mount Pleasant neighbourhoods boast many Filipino restaurants and markets.

Kay Market

Address: 5169 Joyce St., Vancouver
Area: Joyce-Collingwood

Kay Market is a beloved Filipino grocery store. With its close proximity to the Joyce-Collingwood sky train station, and its location in the heart of the Joyce-Collingwood neighborhood, Kay Market is the favoured - and fairly beloved - choice for the local Filipino community. They carry many imported Filipino items, including hard-to-find snacks. For some younger members of the Filipino Canadian community in central and east Vancouver, Kay Market constitutes their earliest shopping memories.

Max’s Restaurant

Address: 3546 Kingsway, Vancouver
Area: Joyce-Collingwood

Max’s Restaurant is a famous Filipino chain restaurant with over 180 locations in the Philippines, 4 in the Middle East, and 21 in North America.³⁰ Particularly recognized for its fried chicken dishes, Max’s Restaurant offers Filipino dining. The restaurant first opened in 1945 in Quezon City (northeast of Manila) by Maximo Gimenez.³¹ Located in Joyce-Collingwood, their Vancouver branch (the only location in British Columbia) opened in 2012 and has been highly popular with customers across the Lower Mainland ever since.

Pampanga’s Cuisine

Address: 5179 Joyce St., Vancouver; 6094 Fraser St., Vancouver
Area: Joyce-Collingwood; South Cambie
Interviews mentioning this location: Derick Gonzales, Jotham Villaneuva

For those who prefer family owned and operated restaurants, Pampanga’s Cuisine is a popular choice for Filipino dishes. Their first location opened in June 2018 on Joyce Street. In attestation to their popularity and growth in the Lower Mainland, they recently opened a second location on Fraser Street. The restaurant is named after the province of Pampanga, which is commonly recognized as the food capital of the Philippines.³² Stopping at a restaurant for food after attending mass on Sundays is a prominent memory for many Vancouverite Filipino Canadians.

Schools

There are a number of elementary and secondary schools that hold significance within the Filipino-Canadian community in Vancouver. Below are just a few of the many examples that can be found in the Vancouver area.

St. Mary’s School

Address: 5239 Joyce St., Vancouver
Area: Joyce-Collingwood

St. Mary’s is an elementary school in the Joyce-Collingwood area of Vancouver, serving students from kindergarten to grade seven. The school is associated with the Catholic institution, St. Mary’s Parish and therefore, the curriculum follows a Christian education program.

St. Patrick Elementary School

Address: 2580 Quebec St., Vancouver
Area: Mt. Pleasant
Interviews mentioning this location: Derick Gonzales

As this elementary school is connected with St. Patrick’s Parish, it follows a Christian curriculum. St. Patrick’s recently celebrated its centenary. For many Filipino Canadians that grew up in central and east Vancouver, St. Patrick’s elementary school is a site of nostalgia.

St. Patrick Regional Secondary School

Address: 115 East 11th St., Vancouver
Area: Mt. Pleasant
Interviews mentioning this location: Derick Gonzales

St Pat’s high school, established in 1923, is connected to St. Patrick’s Parish and therefore follows a Christian curriculum. The majority of the students at St. Patrick’s are Filipino Canadian.³³ The high school features a very prominent athletic program – for some former students, the high school gym (the site of many basketball matches) was reminiscent of a ‘second home’ while they were growing up.

Sir Charles Tupper Secondary

Address: 419 E. 24th Ave., Vancouver
Area: East King Edward Area

Sir Charles Tupper Secondary opened in 1959. In 2023, the school made national headlines when the CBC reported that the Vancouver school board had voted to offer Filipino language and culture courses for students enrolled in grades 10 through 12 at Sir Charles Tupper Secondary. As language is firmly connected to cultural preservation, the presence of Filipino language classes is a step in the right direction for culture and community building. In particular, the promotion of Filipino language classes at Sir Charles Tupper Secondary indicates acknowledgment of the vibrant Filipino community in the neighbourhoods surrounding the school.

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