The Maharlika Cultural Troupe of Martinez, CA started in February 1992 when Tito Rudy Bautista began teaching folk dances to some boys and girls as entertainment in a prayer group fiesta. The mere entertainment turned out to be a discovery of hidden talents. From there came the idea of formally creating a cultural youth group, with the help of the parents and the community including Bobby and Corrie Barlaan among many other key members. The main objective is to help young men and women learn about the cultural traditions of their parents, share with the community and give them lasting, beautiful memories of how they spent their teen days, to be shared with their own families in the future. It is a cultural institution, where the youth activities include folk dancing, learning and playing native musical instruments such as the kulintang, dabakan drum, gandingans, agongs and gangsa gongs, singing Filipino songs, mastering the tagalog language, learning about the different tribal groups, where they are located and what is indigenous in that particular tribe, and most of all, understand the many old customs and traditions of the Philippines and sharing it with mainstream America. The group’s aim is to promote cultural awareness and racial harmony with the community.The Maharlika Cultural Troupe was incorporated in September 1994 as a non-profit organization. The group is now a cultural institution well-known in the Bay Area because of their numerous performances in different church festivals in Northern California. For the past few years they have been the featured dance troupe in different venues such as: the San Francisco Craft & Folk Art Museum, Oakland Asian Cultural Annual Fund Raising Dinner, the San Francisco Asian Art Museum for the Millenium, Oakland’s Street Fest and the nationwide First Night Celebration welcome the new millennium which was held locally in Martinez. They have also participated at numerous festivals such as Monterey’s Filipino Festival, Paramount Great America’s Pistahang Filipino, Six Flags Marine World’s Kababayan Fest, Milpitas Filipino-American Festival, U.P. Alumni Association’s Annual Filipino productions in Walnut Creek, Daly City’s Fil-Am Friendship Celebrations, Filipino American Arts Exposition Pistahan, Diablo International Resource Center’s “Celebration of Life”, an annual International Dance Festival held in the Regional Arts Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, Earth Day International Celebration at the Concord Pavilion and Reno, Nevada’s Pacific Asian Festival. Maharlika was chosen to be one of two Filipino groups representing the Philippines in the year 2000 at the 3-weekend performance in June of the most prestigious international folkdance festival in the west coast, the Ethnic Dance Festival, held at the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco.Maharlika Cultural Troupe continues to be a place of fun, camaraderie, and learning for the youth. It still serves as a institution for social and artistic development of young men and women, and at the same time to take them away from idle moments that would lead them to undesirable elements. Supported by dedicated parents and the community, Maharlika will always be there to serve and entertain. It has many workshops planned for the future. This includes Tagalog classes, Filipino cuisine cooking class, rondalla, and many other worthwhile and important projects. One has to see this performing group to appreciate their talents, and at the same time enjoy the beauty of the Philippine culture.