Pilipino Unity Student Organization’s Halo Halo Mixer was the third of four events honoring Filipinx American History Month in October. The event was held on Oct. 22 in conference rooms A and B at the Hinson Campus Center.
The event featured bingo, karaoke and halo-halo: Tagalog for “mix mix,” a popular dessert in the Philippines. Halo-Halo consists of shaved ice, evaporated milk (PUSO also offered oat milk as an alternative) and assorted toppings such as red beans and nata de coco (coconut jelly). Halo-Halo is typically topped with ice cream, and leche flan is occasionally added.
Daniel Flores, 18, an economics major and one of PUSO’s officers, brought all of the ingredients and worked the ice maker for a portion of the event.
“My favorite part was all of the new people that came to support us,” Flores said. “Also making the ice was really fun.”
One of PUSO’s advisors, Sherwin Mendoza, an English professor, said the student officers took the lead in putting the event together, and that the Office of Equity helped ensure the event would be supported by De Anza Student Government funds.
“Me and Adriana Garcia from the Office of Equity were kind of supporting. So they (the officers) would have ideas, and then we would see if we had resources to implement the ideas,” Sherwin Mendoza said.
Frances Mendoza, 21, a studio art major and administrative assistant for the Impact AAPI learning community program, said that another worker in Impact AAPI gave them instructions on how to set up the karaoke.
“It was all very much a community group effort that was able to bring this to life,” Frances Mendoza said.
The turnout for the event was much higher than anticipated. Sherwin Mendoza said that there were only around 10 RSVP’s, but he later found out people were inviting their friends. Tony Santa Ana, an Asian American and Asian studies professor, also invited his Filipinx American History and Culture class.
“I was anticipating max 40 (people),” Sherwin Mendoza said. “We had at least twice as many.”
Throughout the event, all attendees were invited to come to the front of the room and sing karaoke.
Frances Mendoza said that they were looking forward to singing at the event because they don’t get many opportunities to do karaoke outside of their apartment.
“I felt like this was a very safe space,” Frances Mendoza said. “Especially because some of the singers who went before me, the way I would describe their voices is very similar to how a lot of my uncles or my Tito sing, which made me feel very safe because we’re all here to have fun.”
Sherwin Mendoza said that some attendees showed new sides to themselves when they were given the opportunity to sing.
“I was talking to professor Santa Ana and he mentioned that one of his students, who he thought was really shy, actually came out and sang,” Sherwin Mendoza said. “It was almost like he couldn’t recognize him.”
Frances Mendoza said that community is a big moral value held by Filipino Americans.
“To be able to organize everybody together — not just faculty, students, even prospective club members — in a space like this, to have fun and feel comfy and safe, I think that’s my favorite part,” Frances Mendoza said.
The last event hosted by PUSO for Filipinx American History Month took place on Oct. 29. Tony Santa Ana invited four Filipino-American writers to his Filipinx American History and Culture class to share their stories.
Although Filipinx American History Month is now over, PUSO plans to host more large-scale events like the Halo-Halo Mixer in the future.
“I feel like we have a pretty good core of officers and people who are supporting and helping out,” Sherwin Mendoza said. “So I’m sure that there are going to be things in Winter and Spring.”
