ABOUT
The PHILIPPINE HERITAGE COLLECTION (PHC) is sponsored by the Friends of the Echo Park Branch Library and it opened to the public in October 2012. Currently the collection has over 1,000 books in English, Tagalog and other dialects from regions of the Philippines The PHC serves as a special resource to the community-at-large, students in Historic Filipinotown, and is accessible to all Angelenos. It is the only collection of its kind within the entire Los Angeles Public Library system of 70 branches.
The PHC’s beginnings were inspired by the Pilipino American Reading Room and Library (PARRAL) established in 1985 founded by the late Helen Agcaoili Summers Brown, a former public education schoolteacher and social worker. The collection was later known as the Filipino American Library (FAL) and was housed in various locations throughout Historic Filipinotown through the years.
The FAL collection included more than 6,000 books, articles, ephemera and artifacts reflecting the Filipino experience in the Philippines and United States. USC Libraries acquired the FAL collection following the library’s closing. The Echo Park Branch Library’s special PHC collection aspires to continue the literary tradition established by “Auntie Helen”.
The PHC began and grew from donations of books (examined and approved by the Library Branch Manager) as well as financial contributions used to purchase books. The following are some of the first donations:
- Reme Grefalda (poet, playwright, & stage director) then the founding curator for the Asian American Division of the US Library of Congress, donated the initial 100 books from her private collection in 2013.
- Gregory Villanueva F.A.I.A. with the American Institute of Architects generously donated $1000 in 2014.
- Linda Nietes-Little, owner of the Philippine Expressions Bookshop generously donated books with a value close to $2000 in 2014.
- The Builder’s Lions Club donated seven coffee table type books in 2014.
- The Echo Park Neighborhood Council awarded a grant of $2000 for the purchase of books in 2016.
- In December 2016, Dr. and Mrs. Michael Gonzales (Mrs. Patricia Araneta Gonzales) obtained a matching grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in the amount of $1000. The funds were used to purchase books written by NVM Gonzales. A celebration of his Centennial was held at the Library in May 2016.
Please contact usif you want to donate to the collection. Thank you.
