Here's one of the only places you can ride in a Filipino jeepney

The jeepney that’s puttering its way through downtown San Francisco is basically a covered, elongated military jeep — except this one is purple and blue and adorned with geometric designs. The chrome bumper sparkles; so does the very large hood ornament that's in the shape of a horse.

Mario DeMira, who's driving it, says the vehicle attracts a lot of attention.

"You're gonna get a lot of honking and smiling," he said.

Jeepneys have been a popular and affordable way of getting around the Philippines since the end of World War II. American soldiers abandoned thousands of military jeeps, and locals used them to create public transportation.

“Each vehicle was customized to reflect the personal identity of the driver and handed down from generation to generation," said the San Francisco Bay Area-based pop musician Toro y Moi in a music video he made to accompany his 2022 album Mahal.

The Philippine government is planning to phase them out.

Yet these vehicles are still a beloved symbol of home for people in the Philippines and those in the diaspora.

After Toro y Moi acquired a jeepney for his album — despite its sprightly looks, its pushing 80 years old — he donated it to San Francisco's Filipino Cultural District, SOMA Pilipinas.

That's the jeep that's tooling around the district as part of a pilot tour for Filipino American History Month.

A flourishing community, despite challenges

San Francisco is home to one of the largest Filipino communities in the country. People originally came to the area and provided cheap farm labor more than 100 years ago. Many of them lived in a bustling neighborhood near the city's waterfront, referred to as "Manilatown," which has since been redeveloped and gentrified, displacing many in the community.

"My grandfather was one of the first Filipinos to own a pool hall and a restaurant in Manilatown on Kearney Street," said tour participant Nicole Salaver, a third-generation Filipina and an artist and program manager at Balay Kreative, a maker space in San Francisco. "Before they were all gentrified."

Today's Filipino community, including its cultural district, is centered in the South of Market neighborhood. That's where the jeepney tours happen.

"So much of that history has been buried and untold," said Raquel Redondiez, director of San Francisco's Filipino Cultural District, and today's tour guide. "And so a lot of the work of the cultural district is unearthing these stories."

Among many landmarks, the jeepney goes by St. Patrick’s, the 19th century Catholic church that originally served the local Irish community and is now an important spiritual hub for Filipino residents and visitors. It hosts a monthly mass in Tagalog.

The tour also drives through the area surrounding the convention center, where many working-class Filipinos lived after the collapse of Manilatown. Redondiez said most of them were pushed out again during the redevelopment of that site in the 1960s.

"Part of our work is really about reclaiming space and reclaiming the neighborhood," Redondiez said. 

Reclaiming heritage through art

One of the ways Filipinos are reclaiming the neighborhood is through art, Redondiez says.

The jeepney tour takes in many murals along the way. One of the most visible is "Ang Lipi ni Lapy Lapu," a towering, newly restored mural depicting the waves of Filipino immigration to the U.S. It shows figures important to Filipino Americans, from an indigenous chief to the co-founder of the United Farm Workers.

"Johanna Poethig painted this mural 40 years ago," said Redondiez, stopping the jeepney to take a closer look at the work. "And she helped lead the restoration along with younger Filipino artists." 

Even the neighborhood’s utility boxes have been artistically transformed. Adorned with simple pictures on them — a mother; two people hugging — they make the boxes look like oversized language-learning flashcards. "They teach Filipino alphabet and words," Redondiez said.

Redondiez said her organization soon hopes to offer regular jeepney tours. (Los Angeles' Historic Filipinotown also has a jeepney and occasionally runs tours.)

In the Philippines, despite widespread pushback, the government aims to replace these rickety, mostly diesel-powered vehicles with less polluting, modern ones.

"So it might not be too long before San Francisco is one of the few places left on earth where you can still take a ride in a traditional jeepney," she said.

Jennifer Vanasco edited the audio and digital versions of this story. Chloee Weiner mixed the audio story.