Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, October 11, 2023 10 groundbreaking Filipino Americans in US history Filipino Americans are the third-largest Asian American ethnic group in the United States, after Chinese Americans and Indian Americans—and they have had a long history in the United States. The first Filipino Americans to arrive in the United States were sailors aboard a Spanish galleon who landed in present-day Morro Bay, California, on Oct. 18, 1587.