Stockton Fil-Ams preserving Filipino martial arts form

Escrima is also seen as an important link of young Filipino Americans to Filipino culture. SCREENGRAB/ABC10

Filipino Americans in Stockton, California are preserving a Filipino martial art known as Escrima, both as a cultural link and a method of self-defense at a time of rising criminality and anti-Asian hate.

Guros (teachers) Dexter Labonog and Carlito Bonjoc are at the forefront of Escrima’s revival in the city’s Filipino community.

“This Filipino martial arts is not just about weapons, it’s about basically angles of attack,” Labonog told Jeannie Nguyen of ABC10.

Bonjoc confirmed that with Escrima, training starts with weapons first, then moving on to empty hands, while in other Asian martial arts it’s the reverse.

The nonprofit Stockton Multi-Style Escrima was formed to provide Escrima classes for free. SCREENGRAB/ABC10

Escrima in Stockton is traced back to Grandmaster Leo Giron, who learned the art in Bayambang, Philippines, immigrated in the 1960s. Giron taught students the use of readily available weapons like knives and sticks.

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The nonprofit Stockton Multi-Style Escrima was formed to provide Escrima classes for free and to preserve the original teachings of Giron, who passed away in 2002. Escrima is also seen as an important link of young Filipino Americans to Filipino culture.

Stockton Multi-Style Escrima holds a yearly crab feed, which raised $10,000 this year for equipment and free classes, ABC10 reported.