Singgalot: The Ties That Bind

Traveling Exhibition August 2008 to July 2011

Singgalot (The Ties That Bind) explores the challenges and issues that confronted Filipinos – following the annexation of the Philippines as a U.S. territory in 1898 – as colonial subjects and “nationals” and their struggle to acquire full citizenship status as immigrants in this country from the turn of the 20th century to the present.

It highlights the unique contributions of Filipinos in the development of Hawai’i and West Coast agribusiness industries, seafood and cannery industries in Alaska, in the U.S. military, public service, in the literature and the arts, sports, and more recently, as doctors and nurses in America’s health-care industry. Through these 100 photo murals and images, the social history and the development of the Filipino community in the United States were told and vividly portrayed.

Singgalot is now available to travel from 2008 to 2011. If you would like to host the exhibit in your area, please call the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) at 202.633.3160 and ask for Minnie Micu or e-mail her at micum@si.edu. Please click on the following link for more information.

This national tour was made possible through the generosity of Farmers Insurance Group.

Dean Alegado curated this exhibit. He is Associate Professor and Chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Singgalot was shown at the Smithsonian S. Dillon Ripley Center from May 18 to August 20, 2006. It is now on its national tour from August 2008 to July 2011. It was developed by the Smithsonian APA Program and organized for travel by SITES.