The Washington State History Museum in Tacoma is throwing open its doors on Thursday, October 15, from 3 to 7 p.m. for a free community celebration that traces how land, labor and culture shaped Filipino and Filipino American life across the state. Called “Ani: The Harvest of History,” the event is the museum's third annual Filipino American History Month commemoration, and it centers this year on the farmworker communities of Eastern Washington and the family of one of the labor movement's most consequential organizers.
According to the Washington State Historical Society, the program is presented with FANHS-GPS and is built to help visitors discover how land, culture and community have shaped Filipino and Filipino American life in Washington. The event falls on the museum's Third Thursday slot and will include historical presentations, a live performance and a community reception, with programming focused on seasonal farmworkers and communities in Eastern Washington, per the same listing. As Lynnwood Times reports, the afternoon also honors the Filipino American Community of the Yakima Valley, the organization that has long stewarded the historic Wapato Filipino Community Hall.
A Panel Rooted in the Delano Grape Strike
The centerpiece of the afternoon is a panel on labor activism featuring members of the Itliong family, according to the University of Washington's Office for Faculty Advancement. The panel explores Filipino American labor activism, a legacy tied directly to Larry Itliong, who in 1965 helped lead the Delano grape strike and boycott for better wages and working conditions, as documented by PBS. Itliong is remembered as a union organizer and civil rights activist whose work with Filipino farmworkers helped reshape American labor history, per Lynnwood Times.
Alongside the panel, guests will be able to view objects from the museum's own collections, including a cannon from the Philippines and a nineteenth-century Philippine flag, the Lynnwood Times reports. The event will also include performances and vendors, giving attendees chances to connect through Philippine and Filipino American history, culture and traditions throughout the four-hour program.
Wapato's Hall and Its Place on the National Register
The Yakima Valley thread running through Ani: The Harvest of History connects to a building with its own recent milestone. The Filipino Community Hall in Wapato was added to the National Register of Historic Places in late 2023, according to the Yakima Herald-Republic. The hall's roots trace back to Filipino pioneers, most living in the Wapato area, who banded together to form the Filipino-American Community of the Yakima Valley after facing discrimination, the Herald-Republic reported.
That history of organizing mirrors a broader pattern across the state. Washington's recorded Filipino population grew from just 17 residents in 1910 to 3,480 by 1930, including 1,600 in Seattle, according to HistoryLink. By the late 1990s, the Filipino American community in the Seattle area was estimated at 30,000 people, with numerous social, religious, regional and umbrella organizations having formed as early as the 1920s and 1930s, HistoryLink notes. One of those groups, the Filipino Community of Seattle, purchased the Empire Bowling Alley in 1965 to give the organization its first permanent home.
Part of a Growing Statewide Observance
Ani follows in the footsteps of the museum's 2024 commemoration, “Laban: The Filipino Fighting Spirit,” which used the Filipino word for “to fight” as its theme and focused on community resilience and Filipino contributions to American history, according to the Northwest Asian Weekly. That earlier event, curated by FANHS's Greater Puget Sound Chapter, featured performances, food and exhibits from community organizations and vendors.
This year's observance also arrives alongside a new national framing. For 2026, the Filipino American National Historical Society chose “Beyond the Margins: Centering Intersectional Filipino American Histories” as its theme, according to the University of Washington's faculty office. Ani: The Harvest of History is free to attend and is organized by the Filipino American National Historical Society–Greater Puget Sound Chapter, commemorating Filipino American history and culture at the museum, which is operated by the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma's Museum District on Pacific Avenue.
