SoMa Pilipinas Studies 2000 In Two Languages by MC Canlas

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Out of print title.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a resolution establishing the SoMa Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District in the City and County of San Francisco, and adopted the resolution on April 12, 2016. But what about the name: SoMa Pilipinas?

The first part of the name, “SoMa”, refers to the established name of the neighborhood: SoMa is the accepted shorthand for a relatively large neighborhood in San Francisco located just south of Market Street. The second part of the name, “Pilipinas”, refers to The Philippines itself. The country was named Las Islas Felipinas after King Philip II of Spain, and is now known in English as The Philippines. Its inhabitants are Filipinos, and the official national language is Filipino (Tagalog is just one of the country’s numerous languages).

However, in all Philippine languages, the name and spelling of the country or nation is Pilipinas, with capital P and not F; indeed, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has PH for 2-digit ISO and PHL for 3-digit ISO for Philippines.  

The connection between The Philippines and SoMa Pilipinas is well established in the resolution adopted in April 2016: “Whereas. Filipino immigration patterns to San Francisco are rooted in the conquest and subsequent colonization of the Philippines by the United States in 1898, the American colonial regime in the Philippines from 1899-1946, and ongoing, often unequal and imperialist US-Philippines relations from 1946 to present”

As a cultural heritage district the connection of SoMa Pilipinas to the Philippines is and should be prominently presented in variety of forms and articulations in the boundaries of the district.  The SoMa Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District is bound by 2nd Street to the East, 11th Street to the West, Market Street to the North, and Brannan Street to the South.

- MC Canlas

Paperback: 209 pages
Publisher: Arkipelago Publishing, 2002
Language: English
ISBN: 0-9713423-2-6