Helen Agcaoili Summers Brown

Helen Agcaoili Summers Brown (May 16, 1915 – January 25, 2011), often referred to as "Auntie Helen", was a Filipina-American educator and librarian. Brown established the first library in the United States to focus on the Philippines and the Filipino-American experience. She was an educator at the Los Angeles Unified School District for 34 years, where she worked to help Filipino-American children connect with their heritage and educate all students about Filipino culture.

Early life and education

Helen Agcaoili Summers Brown was born in Manila on May 16, 1915. She was the third of seven children born to Trinidad Agcaoili Summers, a Filipina woman, and George R. Summers, an Anglo American man. Her father had emigrated to the Philippines to teach English as part of efforts to establish Western-style schools following the acquisition of the Philippines by the United States through the 1898 Treaty of Paris. The experience inspired her to become a lifelong collector of resources about Filipino culture. She is the first known Filipino to have graduated from UCLA. Brown was an early supporter of Asian American Studies at UCLA; she was a member of the interim steering committee that drafted the proposal to establish the Asian-American Studies Center in 1969. They traveled to Boulder City, Colorado to get married due to California's miscegenation laws, then in place, which would not permit a mestiza to marry a white man. She also lobbied on behalf of Filipino-American schoolteachers, working to increase the number of teachers and to see them promoted within the system.

A short documentary titled Got Book? Auntie Helen's Gift of Books was created by Florante Ibanez in 2005 to recognize Brown and the founding of the FAL. In the film, Brown is interviewed by her son and discusses her upbringing in the Philippines as a mestiza.

When the Filipino American Library closed, the collections were sent to the University of Southern California Libraries. The USC Libraries have digitized materials in the Filipino American Library Collection, including materials written in English, Tagalog, and Ilocano.

Later life and death

Brown and her family lived for over fifty years in Hermosa Beach, California. She spent her last years in an assisted living residence in Hermosa Beach. Brown died there on January 25, 2011.