What Is Little Manila Rising?
The activists of Little Manila are dedicated to bringing multifaceted equity to Stockton. After generations of neglect of communities in the margins and the notion that diversity is a hindrance to progress, they believe in cherishing all communities and that diversity is our city’s greatest asset..
In 1999, when two newly graduated college students, Dawn Mabalon and Dillon Delvo, returned to Stockton after learning about the significance of their hometown to Filipino American history, they literally found demolition equipment in front of buildings of what remained of the Little Manila community, the largest population of Filipinos in the world outside of the Philippines from the 1920s to the 1960s. They figured that someone should do something about this, so they started Little Manila Rising.
