Pilipino Workers’ Center
Pilipino arts and culture
Formed in 1997, the Pilipino Workers’ Center provides services and resources to help meet the immediate needs of Pilipino workers and their families while organizing for long-term change. The Pilipino Workers’ Center (PWC) believes all individuals are entitled to safe working conditions, living wages, decent living conditions, access to quality healthcare, and basic human dignity. PWC also believes that the conditions of Filipino workers and the community here in Los Angeles are inseparably linked to the conditions in our homeland, the Philippines. PWC also serves as a research institute that focuses on the latest data, statistics and situation of Filipino workers and immigrants here in the United States, as well as a resource for information on the Philippines.
In 2010, PWC received a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program for their Hi Fi Haranas project, an intergenerational cultural exchange between Filipino elders and Filipino and Latino youth from the local neighborhood who are part of a youth media program, Pdub Productions. The focus of the exchange will be around traditional Filipino serenades called haranas. These songs evoke a time, place, and mentality that is familiar to the seniors but quite different and largely a mystery to youth growing up in Los Angeles’ historic Filipino Town. The seniors will teach and explain the haranas to the youth and ultimately a joint performance will be created.