Chicago's Balikbayan Book Club grows to nearly 50 people a month as Filipinos reconnect with their roots

The Rizal Center's monthly Balikbayan Book Club pairs Filipino literature with home-cooked Filipino food, and has grown from 10 members since launching last December.

A Chicago book club that pairs Filipino and Filipino diasporic literature with home-cooked Filipino food has grown from 10 members to nearly 50 people each month since it launched last December, Borderless Magazine reported on 29 October.

The Balikbayan Book Club meets on the first Wednesday of every month from 6pm to 8pm in the ballroom of the Rizal Center, the Chicago community centre named after Philippine national hero José Rizal. The club also livestreams its meetings on Discord so members can join discussions online.

For its 7 October gathering, held during Filipino American History Month, the club read Rizal's novel Noli Me Tángere. Volunteers from the club's Kusina Team served arroz caldo and party trays of pork adobo to the group.

"Now, we're feeding what? Forty-plus people once a month?" said Austin Kole, one of the club's first members and a "bayani", the title the club gives its leaders. "It's crazy. I love it. It's so cool."

A space to explore heritage

Club organisers and members told Borderless the group offers young Filipinos a space to explore heritage and cultural identity and to learn more about the Philippines and their family history. Its Discord group chat has 150 users, and more than 200 people subscribe to its email newsletters.

"A lot of people [who] come are like half Filipino and don't know their culture that well, or they grew up in the Philippines, and they're very much connected," said Teddy Gonzales, the club's founder and chief bayani. "Or they just moved in from [the] East or West Coast, and are looking for a community."

Gonzales said the club is open to anyone willing to join, even those who have not finished the book. Books are nominated and voted on by members, and the club reads in English, according to the Rizal Center.

What the club has read

Titles on the club's 2026 schedule include:

• Arsenic & Adobo by Mia P. Manansala
• Lolas' House by M. Evelina Galang
• The Latinos of Asia by Anthony Christian Ocampo
• Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista
• Noli Me Tángere by José Rizal

The next meeting, on 4 November, covers the graphic memoir I Was Their American Dream, and the December session is set for 2 December, according to the Rizal Center's schedule.

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