Celebrating Filipino culture at the Dress-Up Parade

Published 6:00 am Friday, September 8, 2023

PENDLETON — For the last 10 years, the Eastern Oregon Philippine-American Community has shared Filipino culture with the local community through gatherings and performances. Part of that includes an elaborate, award-winning float in the Dress-Up Parade.

EOPAC, a group founded to create a community for local Filipino people and share their culture with the broader community, has driven a float in the parade since 2014 and won an award almost each year. Decorated with flowers and arches, and this year, balloons, the approximately 10-foot by 20-foot float celebrates Filipino culture with traditional clothing and dances.

President Ailea Villanueva said the float is intentionally designed to allow space to perform traditional dances, which she and other EOPAC members said are tweaked each year.

“We’ve danced one with candles on our heads, we’ve danced one with pots on our heads, to represent collecting water from the mountain,” Villanueva said, also listing a flower and fan dance for past performances. “We have a number of dances that we’ve done.”

A particular group favorite is the tinikling dance, which Villanueva said the group is performing this year. She said the dance is named after a bird in the Philippines that dances between bamboo. Performers dance between two sticks of bamboo, before the sticks are clapped together, forcing the dancer to jump outside.

Children will perform this dance on the moving parade float while others will dance next to the float. Villanueva said the group performed the dance on the float in the past and enjoyed it.

“It’s actually really, really fun,” she said. “People really liked how challenging it is.”

Each member has danced on the float, Villanueva said, but it is a small tradition to have children dance on the parade float. In this way, the group said the torch of their Filipino traditions is being passed to the next generation.

“We’re continuing to maintain the culture and heritage, despite living in this country,” Villanueva said.

She added that she, being born in the United States as a first generation Filipino-American, was in a group such as the Eastern Oregon Philippine-American Community growing up.

The group has a large collection of trophies it has won for the float. However, Villanueva said the group doesn’t participate in the Dress-Up Parade for the awards. Member Noemi Wiseman said the group members are proud of their culture and want to share it with the community.

“It’s heartwarming, when people would just clap their hands,” Wiseman said about the parade. “It’s always nice to see a different culture.”