Luz Victoria de Leon, a pioneering Filipino American cultural organizer, longtime mentor and co-founder of the Filipino American Arts Exposition, whose work helped establish San Francisco’s Pistahan Parade and Festival as a defining West Coast celebration of Filipino heritage, has died.

Her death was shared publicly by longtime friend and theater collaborator Chris Millado in a tribute titled “Paalam, Ate Luz.” Details about her age, cause of death and memorial arrangements were not immediately available.

For more than three decades, de Leon helped turn an ambitious community project into Pistahan, the annual parade and festival that draws thousands to San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens to celebrate Filipino art, cuisine, history, music, dance and creativity. The event is now in its 33rd year and is widely described as the largest Filipino cultural celebration on the West Coast.

A builder of Pistahan

De Leon was part of the core circle of organizers who helped launch the Filipino American Arts Exposition, or FAAE, in the mid-1990s. The organization created Pistahan as a space where Filipino Americans could gather publicly, share the diversity of Philippine regional traditions and make Filipino culture visible in one of the country’s major cities.

The festival grew into an annual community reunion: a parade through downtown San Francisco followed by a free, family-oriented gathering at Yerba Buena Gardens featuring cultural pavilions, performances, food vendors, artists, entrepreneurs and local organizations.

Pistahan’s 2026 celebration took place Aug. 8 and 9. Its parade began at Civic Center Plaza, traveled down Market Street and concluded at Yerba Buena Gardens, where the festival featured Filipino food, dance, music and cultural presentations.

Today, the Filipino American Arts Exposition is led by President Al Perez, who carries forward an institution shaped by de Leon and the early community organizers who believed Filipino culture belonged not at the margins of the city, but at its center.

A demanding, generous mentor

For many young Filipino Americans who came through Pistahan as volunteers, de Leon was more than a festival leader. She was “Tita Luz,” a mentor whose standards were high and whose commitment to the work was unmistakable.

She introduced countless volunteers to the Filipino American community in San Francisco, including this writer, who first worked with Pistahan in the 2000s.

Before Perez led the organization, Epee Rafanan served as festival director under de Leon. Their close working relationship, marked by spirited disagreements and quick reconciliations, reflected the intensity with which they pursued Pistahan’s success.

De Leon’s passion was especially visible in the painstaking work behind a major cultural event: coordinating volunteers, ensuring programming met the community’s expectations and insisting that each task be completed with care.

She taught those around her the value of hard work, pakikisama and refusing to settle for mediocrity. Her lesson was not to do the work only for others’ approval, but to do it well because one’s own standards and integrity demanded it.

Even after retiring and returning to the Philippines, de Leon stayed in touch with the young organizers she had mentored. She continued to follow their work, offering reminders to be thoughtful about public communication and to protect the reputations they were building.

A lasting cultural legacy

De Leon’s legacy can be measured in the scale of Pistahan today, but also in the people who learned from her.

The festival’s continuing presence in San Francisco offers a visible reminder of the Filipino American community’s history, creativity and place in the city’s civic life. Its programs bring together generations, elders who recognize the traditions, young people encountering them in new ways and non-Filipino visitors invited to learn through food, music, dance and art.

That reach reflects the vision de Leon and her fellow founders pursued from the beginning: Filipino culture as something living, public and worth celebrating with confidence.

For those who knew her personally, she will be remembered not only as a founder, executive producer or cultural advocate, but as a tireless community worker who made time to guide others.

Her work helped build a stage for Filipino American stories. Her mentorship helped ensure there would be people ready to stand on it, lead it and keep it alive.