Aming Kuwento
In 2008, the Kababayan Program and Filipino Student Union at Skyline College published their first book, Aming Kuwento: Our Stories, a collection of artwork, photography, poetry, short stories, and essays about the Filipino and Filipino American experience. Students, faculty, staff, and community members all contributed to the project, which was funded by a Trustees’ Fund for Program Improvement awarded in Fall 2004. The book was inspired by the words of Evangeline “Vangie” Buell, co-founder of the East Bay chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society:
“If we do not tell our own history, then others will tell it for us — as they interpret it — and we will risk losing the essence and truth about the Filipino American experience. That history could fade from memory, and one day, our children’s children could be asking, ‘Who were our ancestors? What were they like? What did they do?’ and there could be no one to answer and nowhere to look.”
Five years later, thanks to a second Trustees’ Grant, the Kababayan Program has produced a second volume, Aming Kuwento II: The Next Chapter. This time, the book was created by the students in Liza Erpelo’s class, Literature 267 AK: Filipino American Literature. The students in the class created the call for submissions, served as the editorial board for the project, and came up with the concepts for the cover art. The books were published by 360 Digital Books.
Aming Kuwento II: The Next Chapter was officially released on Monday, May 20, 2013 at Skyline College in the Hosting Gallery of the Multicultural Center. Books are available for sale in the Kababayan Program office (4-246) at $15 each. All proceeds from the book will go to the “Friends of Kababayan” fund, a community-supported fund to provide resources such as educational materials, supplies, equipment, and scholarships for the Kababayan Program students, faculty, and staff.