Fall ‘Anihan’ Celebration honors Fil-Am farmworkers’ history

Community members gather at Remagination Farm. CONTRIBUTED

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Remagination Farm celebrates the harvest season with the first annual Fall Anihan (Harvest) Celebration on Saturday, Sept. 7 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The event aims to foster a sense of community and connection with the earth, and is a nod to Filipino American and agricultural workers’ history.

On Sept. 8, 1965, Filipino farmworkers, led by Larry Itliong, walked off the fields to protest low wages and poor working conditions in what is known as the Delano Grape Strike. This led to solidarity among all farm workers with Itliong joining forces with Cesar Chavez, forming the United Farm Workers (UFW). The success of the UFW strikes resulted in better pay, benefits and workers’ protection.

“Our Anihan Festival marks 59 years since that historical moment and marks a new era in Filipino American history,” says Remagination Farm founder Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, professor emeritus of Asian American Studies at UC Davis and a widely published researcher, highly sought-after speaker and a long-time community organizer.

Robyn Magalit Rodriguez (left) and Joshua Vang. CONTRIBUTED

“We gather together in community not as workers fighting against exploitation by industrial agriculturalists who also extract heavily from the land, but as stewards celebrating our restored relationship to Mother Nature and committed to restoring the soil that has been destroyed by our ancestors’ exploiters.”

The farm, which spans eight acres of land, is under the care and stewardship of Rodriguez and her husband, Joshua Vang, a second-generation Hmong refugee and nature expert.

“The farm intends to implement intergenerational farming techniques that draw on the owners’ Hmong and Philippine ancestry, along with local Native American indigenous land knowledge,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez founded Remagination Farm in 2023 after the passing of her 22-year-old son, Amado Khaya, prompting her to realign “her life’s work of nearly two decades and liberating it from the confines of academia through the services she offers in the Remagination Lab.”

Rodriguez and Vang, along with their younger son, have carried on Amado Khaya’s “commitment to indigenous rights and climate justice by taking on the role as land stewards.”

Food and live music

The Fall Anihan Celebration features live music, workshops, food tastings and a sari-sari store. Attendees also have the  opportunity to pick their own fruit, vegetables and flowers to take home, as well as hang out with farm animals.

Remagination Farm produce/CONTRIBUTED

Performers include Astralogik, a queer Pinay duo from the San Francisco Bay Area, known for their soulful chill-folk-R&B and unique journey as Filipino Americans and healers.

Also performing at the event are DJ Xanh Tran, a queer and trans Viet DJ from San Jose; Amihan and Malaya, sisters who blend hip-hop and R&B with the powerful chants of the people creating music rooted in the struggle for land and liberation; and Doble Bara, a Tagalog alternative hip-hop group whose music speaks to the Filipino experience both in the Philippines and the US.

Activities include a cyanotype workshop with Jamie Cardenas of Magpie Alchemy; a cooking workshop using Remagination Farm’s produce with Chef Roline Casper of Roline’s Uniquely Filipino; and youth-centered activities with Alexis Tence, a first-generation Filipinx Chinese writer and intuitive healer.

The event offers food tasting featuring baked goods and other items made with farm produce, including ube zucchini bread, chai spice zucchini bread, pandan zucchini bread,  cantaloupe “ice candy” and pickled cucumber.

Attendees will have exclusive access to items for sale at the sari-sari store. Vendors include Kristian Kabuay, Marielle Atanacio (by m atanacio), studio damili, MT Vallarta, Caralie Wegeng (Craftibabii), Native Sol and Lisa Bustillo (Original Goddess).

Also available at the event are Remagination Farm produce, including varieties of squash (zucchini, acorn and pumpkin), pepper, basil, sage, corn, okra, eggplant, radish, beets, tomato, kale, lemon, cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, sunflower, marigold, calendula, ampalaya (bitter melon) and upo (bottle gourd).

With the recently passed resolution declaring October as Filipino American History Month in California, the Fall Anihan Celebration serves as an early kick-off for this important month.

All events at the farm serve as fundraisers for the Amado Khaya Initiative (AKI). Donations to AKI, which are tax-deductible, help keep the doors of Remagination Farm open.

Tickets are $165 per vehicle of up to four people, plus $35 for each additional guest per group.