A full circle moment amongst the Chocolate Hills
Just before the pandemic started, my friend Maritessa started painting as a hobby. Over the weekend, Maritessa’s artwork was featured in a pop-up art show organized by a local art curator.
The art show was called “Making the Most of It” and featured art pieces from amateur artists who started focusing on their creative pursuits in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place orders.
Maritessa’s painting shows the Chocolate Hills of Bohol, located in the Philippines.
Connections Between Bohol and the Bay Area
Bohol also happens to be where my Filipino family is from. Through my mom’s side of the family, I’m descended from a founding member of the Bohol Circle, one of the country’s oldest Filipino-American social clubs.
The Bohol Circle was created in 1936 to provide a dignified burial for Boholians whose families could not afford funeral arrangements.
Through the Bohol Circle, Filipino immigrants could find a local Filipino community that provided mutual aid and other resources to help them build their new lives.
The Bohol Circle Center is located in Alameda, California. In 2022, the city of Alameda established the Bohol Circle Immigrant Park to honor the legacy of the Filipino-Americans who created and sustained this club to provide a financial safety net for Filipino families.
As I finish writing this short essay, it is not lost on me that I met Maritessa while doing economic justice work to help communities who have historically been excluded from the banking system through redlining.
It’s extraordinary to see the many ways in which we can end up doing work that honors our ancestral lineages and cultural traditions.
Congratulations to my friend Maritessa on having her beautiful painting of the Chocolate Hills in Bohol featured in an Oakland art show!
Your art honoring the motherland brings pride to our ancestors.