April and May 2025
Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day.
The Roedde House Museum stands in solemn remembrance of the victims affected in the tragic events of Saturday, April 26th, at the Lapu Lapu festival at Fraser and 41st street. We are in mourning for the victims, and sending strength, peace, and love to the friends and families of those affected. The Filipino Community has and always will be central to Vancouver’s immigrant identity, and we hope for unity during this time of loss.
On April 27th, 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines declared April 27th as Lapu-Lapu Day to honour the first hero in the country who defeated foreign rule.
Lapulapu (1491-1541), was a Datu (chief) on the Island of Mactan, now an island that makes up part of the Philippines. Lapulapu is famous for the Battle of Mactan in 1521, where he and his men defeated Ferdinand Magellan. His resilience and perseverance against oppression prevented Spanish imperial conquest over the Philippines for another forty-four years, when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi arrived in 1565.
Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapulapu
Benson Flores, known as ‘Old Ben’, was the first recorded Filipino Immigrant to Canada. He came to British Columbia in 1861, before the province even became part of Canada. Filipinos had been coming to North America as early as 1565 as servants, stowaways and mariners along the west coast, going from Mexico to Alaska. These men, known as “Manila Men”, were recruited in naval operations, notably the “San Carlos el Filipino”, to aid Spanish colonies of Santa Cruz de Nuca and For San Miguel on what is now Nootka Island, off the coast of Vancouver Island.
Larger numbers of Filipinos migrated to Canada in the 1930s. Many of these first-generation Filipino Canadians were mainly women who worked as nurses and teachers.
Vancouver is home to the second largest Filipino community, making up the third-largest Asian Canadian and visible minority group.