From Nelson Street to the Loop: A Fil-Am Love Letter to Chicago

On June 3, 1979, my family sat outside Warren Barr Tower at 856 W. Nelson Street in Chicago for one final photo before beginning a five-day drive west; the destination: California. 

We were leaving behind the only American city we knew. At just a few years into our lives as Filipino immigrants, Chicago had already given us a crash course in American living—and left a permanent imprint on our identity.

Nearly a decade later, I returned. It was 1986, I was a little older—and in love. My girlfriend Liza Franco and I strolled downtown beneath Chicago’s iconic skyline and posed in front of “Duo” by Charles O. Perry, a vibrant sculpture at 55 E. Monroe Street. That photo reminds me how Chicago isn't just a city you live in—it's a place that lives in you. Its architecture, art, energy, and neighborhoods stay in your bones long after you’ve left.

“Chicago raised us in a way Manila never could—it taught us how to be Filipino in an American world.”

For many of us Filipino-Americans, Chicago was the first place we called home in the U.S. We settled in neighborhoods like Lakeview, Albany Park, and Rogers Park. We took the CTA, braved winters, and found warmth in family potlucks, Simbang Gabi, and tinola on the stovetop. We learned how to speak English while holding on to Tagalog. We balanced two worlds—Filipino and American—and slowly figured out what it meant to be both.

Whether you came in the '70s like we did or were born here decades later, Chicago is part of our Filipino-American story. And it deserves to be remembered, celebrated, and passed on.

Please come back for more old Chicago photos, and more of my stories. Happy Fourth of July. Salamat.

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