These Filipino Parents Once Hid Their Culture To Fit In. Now Theyre Helping Their Kids Embrace It

ALBANY PARK — After Neil Paule's daughter was born four years ago, he wanted to brush up on his Tagalog to help teach her the language of his parents and other relatives.

While Paule grew up in a Filipino household where Tagalog was spoken, his conversational skills had waned as he got older.

“I understand Tagalog very well. But me, personally speaking it, that's something I actively have to work on,†said Paule, 34, of Avondale. “And it's something that's really easy for me to lose if I'm just speaking English to everyone in my life.â€Â 

It's a common experience for many children of immigrants.

That's where The Filipino School Of Chicago comes in. The nonprofit was founded in 2024 by a group of moms with a background in education. They wanted to help Filipino families take pride in their cultural identity by providing language classes as well and other activities for kids and parents. 

The school hosts classes and events with its partners at Movement on Montrose, 2951 W. Montrose Ave., and Edison Regional Gifted Center, 4929 N. Sawyer Ave.

But organizers are fundraising to set up their own home to be located in Albany Park.

“It's important to us to be in Albany Park because of the historic connection with Filipinos in the neighborhood,†said Carla Navoa, one of the school's founders. “It's been a port of entry for Filipino immigrants and many of our members grew up in the neighborhood in the 1980s and 1990s, before their families moved out to the suburbs.â€

Their first online fundraising campaign in October, which is Filipino American History Month, raised more than $25,000, Navoa said. The goal over the next decade is to find and purchase a permanent home for the school where they can offer year-round programs for Filipino youth ages 0-18, she said.

Trying To Fit In

The first major wave of Filipino immigration to Chicago happened after the United States colonized the Philippines in 1898, followed by subsequent waves in the 1920s and '30s. Most of the new arrivals settled on the South Side, in neighborhoods like Hyde Park. Another wave in the '80s saw people move into enclaves across the North Side, with sizable populations in Lakeview, Edgewater, Lincoln Square and Albany Park, WBEZ reported. Many Filipino families eventually moved to the suburbs, the station reported.

Chicago's Filipino population rose from nearly 10,000 in 1970 to nearly 40,000 last year, according to U.S. Census estimates. Nearly 175,000 Filipinos make their home in Illinois.

About 39 percent of Albany Park's population of 46,620 are foreign-born, according to a 2025 community data snapshot from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency For Planning.  

Paule was born in Ravenswood but grew up in suburban Hoffman Estates. As a kid, he wanted to fit in with his classmates by appearing to be as American as he could, he said.

Paule made a point to speak English fluently and would quote bits from “The Simpsons†while hiding aspects of his background outside his home, unless it was at private gatherings around other Filipinos, he said. 

“Assimilation and fitting in is something a lot of immigrants, and a lot of Filipinos, do for survival. What's going to give you the best opportunities?†Paule said. “Everyone wants to be accepted.â€

Navoa had a similar experience as someone who was born in Manila and came to the United States when she was 5. She was also raised in the northern suburbs and identifies herself as a “1.5-generation Filipina.â€

“When I started school here, my parents made an effort to focus on English because they were afraid of confusion or me not being able to develop my English to communicate with my teachers and classmates if I was defaulting to Tagalog,†Navoa said.  

After becoming a parent, Navoa recognized her own limitations when trying to pass along her parents' language to her son, she said.

Navoa and the school's cofounders realized they weren't alone in wanting more help becoming fluent in the language, as well as wanting to promote the Filipino culture and identity they had to distance themselves from as children.

That led to them to open the school, she said. 

Filipino Pride

As subsequent generations of Filipino Americans have been born in and around Chicago, their connections to Filipino's rich cultural heritage have become more tenuous, which is why the school is so needed, Navoa said.

“It feels like we're reclaiming what we lost. Restoring what I lost personally,†she said. “It gives me a lot of hope that our young people can grow up proud, confident and supported.â€

Since launching in November 2024, the school has enrolled over 200 students in its family Tagalog and dance classes, Navoa said. Last month, over 60 kids were in the family Tagalog class — the most to date, she said.

In addition to language classes, the school offers dance lessons and storytelling sessions and other programs for families, as well as pop-up events at cafes and activity booth at street fests.

“We open every class with a poem that outlines our values. And one of those values is ‘bayanihan,' which is people coming together to work towards this shared goal,†Navoa said. “Another one is ‘kapwa' — I am you and you are me and the ways we're interconnected.â€

The school's programs also help model Filipino cultural values for families — like always bringing more than enough food to feed everyone and making sure all adults in a group look out for everyone's kids, Navoa said.

“Parents are able to build their village through our school,†Navoa said.

Paule signed up his daughter to build ties to with the Filipino community and, more importantly, show pride in her heritage from a young age, he said.

“I definitely want her to experience more ‘Filipino-ness.' And, at least for my daughter, she's 4 and is already like, ‘I'm Filipino!'†he said.

“I never did that when I was that young.â€Â