LOS ANGELES – Historic Filipi­notown (HiFi) celebrates two recently acquired distinctions, its designation as a Preserve America Community by First Lady Michelle Obama, Honorary Chair of the Preserve America Initia­tive, and the naming of Remedios “Remy” V. Geaga Square, after a pio­neering community leader: Pilipino American Network & Advo­cacy (PANA), Search To Involve Pilipi­no Americans (SIPA), My HiFi, Pilipino Workers’ Center and various Historic Filipinotown Leaders, elected officials, community organizations, Business­es, Residents and other stakeholders will be in attendance at the ‘Preserving Historic Filipinotown: A Community Celebration’ on Saturday, January 28, 2012, 11am to 1pm in Unidad Park, 1644 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles. Preserve America is a federal ini­tiative that encourages and supports community efforts to preserve and enjoy the nation’s cultural and natural heritage. Preserve America recognizes and designates communities, including municipalities, counties, neighbor­hoods in large cities, and tribal com­munities, that protect and celebrate their heritage, use their historic assets for economic development and com­munity revitalization, and encourage people to experience and appreci­ate local historic resources through education and heritage tourism pro­grams.

Historic Filipinotown leaders will be presented with the Preserve Amer­ica designation certificate by Milford Wayne Donaldson, FAIA, who was ap­pointed by President Obama in 2010 to chair the Federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. He is also the current California State Historic Preservation Officer. Several locally-elected officials have also been invited to attend, including members of Con­gress, the California State Legislature and County and City dignitaries.

Additionally, the community will celebrate the naming of the intersec­tion at Temple and Alvarado Streets Remedios “Remy” V. Geaga Square, after a Southland Filipino Community leader who dedicated her life to com­munity involvement and political em­powerment to end discrimination in employment, education, and housing, and for the rights of senior citizens. She was also active in restoring democratic rule in the Philippines and opposed martial law. Historic Filipinotown’s Preserve America application was facilitated by Pilipino American Network and Advo­cacy (PANA), co-chaired by Dr. Ben Marte and Dr. Leo Pandac. “PANA is grateful to First Lady Michelle Obama for bestowing HiFi with this honor.” said Marte,

“We are also very proud to have fa­cilitated the involvement of the many partners that made this designation possible, including Search To Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), My HiFi, the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC), the HiFi Neighborhood Council, Inc., HiFI Chamber of Commerce, Los An­geles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Councilman Eric Garcetti, the Com­munity Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and numerous other organizations and individuals.”