Today October 1, is the start of my 5th month residency here at THD. So far I am very happy here with my long patio ( secured with chicken wire) so that Batman & Robin can play without gallivanting outside the compound and nearby apartments.
My goal to play party bridge again has been achieved. Since 3 meals are included in my rent, I have not cooked a meal since June 1. I play Asian Mahjong, participate in exercises and other activities whenever I can. This is the new life I was aiming for during my aging years, after my downsizing activities 5 months ago.
In addition, the Month of October is also Filipino-American History Month. I am posting this blog ( very long) on the history of the Philippine-American connection for the last several decades for your reading pleasure and information. I apologize for its length but I feel it is necessary for all who you who had no idea of the more than 50 years of American influence in the Life of Filipinos and Filipino-Americans like me. I am very proud of my Filipino heritage. Enjoy and prepare for a long read!
Filipino American History Month (FAHM) is celebrated in the United States during the month of October. In 1991, Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) board of trustees proposed the first annual Filipino American History Month to commence in October 1992.
October was chosen to commemorate the visitation of the first Filipinos who landed as slaves, prisoners, and crew aboard Novohispanic ships in what is now Morro Bay, California on October 18, 1587. It is also the birth month of Filipino American labor leader Larry Itliong.
In 2009, California State Senator Leland Yee introduced a resolution, which was passed, that recognizes October as Filipino American History Month. It passed the California State Assembly and was submitted to the California Secretary of State.
The history of Filipino Americans begins indirectly, when Filipino slaves and indentured servants first visited what is now the United States aboard Novohispanic ships sailing to and from modern Mexico and Asia, loaded with cargo and prisoners. The first ship carrying these slaves docked around Morro Bay in Alta California territory under the control of Mexico City in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and then Madrid. Until the 19th century the Philippines continued to be geographically isolated but maintained regular communication across the Pacific Ocean via the Manila galleon. A few Filipino seamen and indentured servants managed to escape the Spanish Galleons in the 1700s and settled on the coast or in Louisiana, another territory. One single Filipino living in the United States fought in the Battle of New Orleans. In the final years of the 19th century, the United States went to war with Spain, ultimately annexing the Philippine Islands from Spain. Due to this, the History of the Philippines now includes domination from the United States, beginning with the three-year-long Philippine–American War (1899-1902), which resulted in the defeat of the First Philippine Republic, and the attempted Americanization of the Philippines.
In the 20th century, many Filipinos enlisted as sailors of the United States Navy, pensionados, and laborers. During the Great Depression, Filipino Americans became targets of race-based violence, including race riots such as the one in Watsonville. The Philippine Independence Act was passed in 1934, redefining Filipinos as aliens for immigration; this encouraged Filipinos to return to the Philippines and established the Commonwealth of the Philippines. During World War II, the Philippines were occupied leading to resistance, the formation of segregated Filipino regiments, and the liberation of the islands.
After World War II, the Philippines gained independence in 1946. Benefits for most Filipino veterans were rescinded with the Rescission Act of 1946. Filipinos, primarily war brides, immigrated to the United States; further immigration was set to 100 persons a year due to the Luce–Celler Act of 1946, this though did not limit the number of Filipinos able to enlist into the United States Navy. In 1965, Filipino agricultural laborers, including Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz, began the Delano grape strike. That same year the 100-person per year quota of Filipino immigrants was lifted, which began the current immigration wave; many of these immigrants were nurses. Filipino Americans began to become better integrated into American society, achieving many firsts. In 1992, the enlistment of Filipinos in the Philippines into the United States ended. By the early 21st century, Filipino American History Month was recognized.
First Filipinos In North America
Morro Bay, CA, USA
Migration patterns of immigration of Filipinos to the United States have been recognized as occurring in four significant waves. The first wave was a small wave during the period when the Philippines was under the jurisdiction of the Spanish East Indies, a territory ruled by Mexico City in New Spain; Filipinos, via the Manila galleons, would sometimes stay in North America as slaves or workers.
Between roughly 1556 and 1813, Spain engaged in the Galleon Trade between Manila and Acapulco. The galleons were built in the shipyards of Cavite, outside Manila, by Filipino craftsmen. The trade was funded by the Spanish Crown, with majority of the products coming from Chinese traders, while the ships were manned by Filipino sailors and slaves, while "supervised" by Mexico City officials. During this time, Spain recruited Mexicans to serve as soldiers in Manila. They also took Filipinos to serve as slaves and workers in Mexico. Once sent to the Americas, Filipino soldiers were frequently not returned home.
First Filipinos ("Luzonians") to set foot in North America arrive in Morro Bay (San Luis Obispo), California. These people were slaves on the galleon ship Nuestra Senora de Esperanza, under the command of Spanish Captain Pedro de Unamuno; These Filipinos were the first known Asians to set foot in California, post-European colonization.
First Settlement
Saint Malo, Louisiana, USA
The first permanent settlement of Filipinos settlements in the United States is at the independent community of Saint Malo, Louisiana.
Manilamen
Louisiana, USA
During the War of 1812, Filipinos residing in Louisiana, referred to as "Manilamen" residing near the city of New Orleans, including the Manila Village, were among the "Baratarians", a group of men who fought with Jean Lafitte and Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. The battle was fought after the Treaty of Ghent was signed.
Filipinos In The American Civil War
United States
Approximately 100 Filipinos and Chinese enlist during the American Civil War into the Union Army and Navy, as well as serving, in smaller numbers, in the armed forces of the Confederate States of America.
Pensionado Act
United States
The Pensionado Act is Act Number 854 of the Philippine Commission, which passed on 26 August 1903. Passed by the United States Congress, it established a scholarship program for Filipinos to attend school in the United States. The program has roots in pacification efforts following the Philippine–American War. It hoped to prepare the Philippines for self-governance and present a positive image of Filipinos to the rest of the United States. Students of this scholarship program were known as pensionados.
From the initial 100 students, the program provided education in the United States to around 500 students. They would go on to be influential members of the Philippine society, with many of the alumni of the program going on to work for the government in the Philippine Islands. Due to their success, other immigrants from the Philippines followed to be educated in the United States, in excess of 14,000. Many of these non-pensioned students ended up permanently residing in the United States. In 1943, the program ended. It was the largest American scholarship program until the Fulbright Program was established in 1948.
During World War II, Japan initiated a similar program during its occupation of the Philippines, named nampo tokubetsu ryugakusei. Following the War, and Philippine independence, Filipino students continued to come to the United States utilizing government scholarships.
Second Wave Of Filipino Immigration
United States
The second wave was during the period when the Philippines were a territory of the United States; as U.S. Nationals, Filipinos were unrestricted from immigrating to the US by the Immigration Act of 1917 that restricted other Asians. This wave of immigration has been referred to as the manong generation. Filipinos of this wave came for different reasons, but the majority were laborers, predominantly Ilocano and Visayans. This wave of immigration was distinct from other Asian Americans, due to American influences, and education, in the Philippines; therefore they did not see themselves as aliens when they immigrated to the United States. By 1920, the Filipino population in the mainland U.S. rose from nearly 400 to over 5,600. Then in 1930, the Filipino-American population exceeded 45,000, including over 30,000 in California and 3,400 in Washington.
Anti-Filipino Riots
Watsonville, California, USA
Filipino laborers' resilience in harsh working conditions made them favorite recruits among farm operators. In California's Santa Clara and San Joaquin Valleys, Filipinos were often assigned to the backbreaking work of cultivating and harvesting asparagus, celery, and lettuce. Due to gender bias in immigration policy and hiring practices, of the 30,000 Filipino laborers following the cycle of seasonal farm work, only 1 in 14 were women. Unable to meet Filipino women, Filipino farm workers sought the companionship of women outside their own ethnic community, which further aggravated mounting racial discord.
In the next few years, white men decrying the takeover of jobs and white women by Filipinos resorted to vigilantism to deal with the "third Asiatic invasion." Filipino laborers frequenting pool halls or attending street fairs in Stockton, Dinuba, Exeter, and Fresno risked being attacked by nativists threatened by the swelling labor pool as well as the Filipino's presumed predatory sexual nature.
The Watsonville riots was a period of racial violence that took place in Watsonville, California, from January 19 to 23, 1930. Involving violent assaults on Filipino American farm workers by local residents opposed to immigration, the riots highlighted the racial and socioeconomic tensions in California's agricultural communities. The violence spread to Stockton, San Francisco, San Jose, and other cities.
The five days of the Watsonville riots had a profound impact on California's attitude toward imported Asian labor. California's legislature explicitly outlawed Filipino-white intermarriage following 1933's Roldan v. Los Angeles County decision. By 1934, the federal Tydings–McDuffie Act restricted Filipino immigration to fifty people per year. As a result, Filipino immigration plummeted, and while they remained a significant part of the labor in the fields, they began to be replaced by Mexicans.
Prohibition Of Interracial Marriages
United States
After the Supreme Court of California found in Roldan v. Los Angeles County that existing laws against marriage between white persons and "Mongoloids" did not bar a Filipino man from marrying a white woman, California's anti-miscegenation law, Civil Code Section 60 was amended to prohibit marriages between white persons and members of the "Malay race" (e.g. Filipinos). The laws preventing interracial marriage with Filipinos continued until 1948 in California; this extended nationally in 1967 when anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the United States Supreme Court by Loving v. Virginia.
Philippine Independence Act
United States
The Tydings–McDuffie Act, officially the Philippine Independence Act (Pub. L. 73–127, 48 Stat. 456, enacted March 24, 1934), is an Act of Congress that established the process for the Philippines, then an American territory, to become an independent country after a ten-year transition period. Under the act, the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines was written and the Commonwealth of the Philippines was established, with the first directly elected President of the Philippines. It also established limitations on Filipino immigration to the United States.
The act reclassified all Filipinos, including those who were living in the United States, as aliens for the purposes of immigration to America. A quota of 50 immigrants per year was established. Before this act, Filipinos were classified as United States nationals, but not United States citizens, and while they were allowed to migrate relatively freely, they were denied naturalization rights within the US, unless they were citizens by birth in the mainland US.
Land Ownership For Filipinos
Supreme Court of the United St
Washington Supreme Court rules unconstitutional the Anti-Alien Land Law of 1937 which banned Filipino Americans from owning land.
1st Filipino Infantry Regiment
San Luis Obispo, CA, USA
The 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment was a segregated United States Army infantry regiment made up of Filipino Americans from the continental United States and a few veterans of the Battle of the Philippines that saw combat during World War II. It was formed and activated at Camp San Luis Obispo, California, under the auspices of the California National Guard. Originally created as a battalion, it was declared a regiment on 13 July 1942. Deployed initially to New Guinea in 1944, it became a source of manpower for special forces and units that would serve in occupied territories. In 1945, it deployed to the Philippines, where it first saw combat as a unit. After major combat operations, it remained in the Philippines until it returned to California and was deactivated in 1946 at Camp Stoneman.
Supreme Court Decision Allowing Filipinos To Own Property
Supreme Court of the United St
Celestino Alfafara is celebrated in Filipino American history lore as the man who won “the California Supreme Court decision allowing aliens the right to own real property.” In the most recent conference of the Filipino American National Historical Society in Albuquerque, New Mexico in June 2012, “The Legacy of Celestino T. Alfafara” was the focus of the plenary on “Fighting Anti-Alien Property Laws”. Before Alfafara, the only way Filipinos could own property in California was if they collectively purchased it in the name of their fraternal organizations like the Caballeros de Dimasalang the Gran Oriente Filipino and the Legionarios del Trabajadores.
Filipino's War Veterans Benefits Rescinded
Washington D.C., DC, USA
The Rescission Act of 1946 is a law of the United States reducing (rescinding) the amounts of certain funds already designated for specific government programs, much of it for the U.S. military, after World War II concluded and as American military and public works spending diminished. The effect was to retroactively annul benefits to Filipino troops for their military service under the auspices of the United States while the Philippines was a U.S. unincorporated territory and Filipinos were U.S. nationals.
Third Wave Of Filipino Immigration
United States
The third wave of immigration followed the events of World War II. Filipinos who had served in World War II were given the option of becoming U.S. citizens, and many took the opportunity, over 10,000 according to Barkan. Filipina war brides were allowed to immigrate to the United States due to the War Brides Act and Fiancée Act, with approximately 16,000 Filipinas entering the United States in the years following the war. This immigration was not limited to Filipinas and children; between 1946 and 1950, one Filipino groom was granted immigration under the War Brides Act. A source of immigration was opened up with the Luce–Celler Act of 1946, that gave the Philippines a quota of 100 persons a year; yet records show that 32,201 Filipinos immigrated between 1953 and 1965. This wave ended in 1965.
Filipino Naturalization Act
Washington D.C., DC, USA
The Luce–Celler Act of 1946 is an Act of the United States Congress which provided a quota of 100 Filipinos and 100 Indians from Asia to immigrate to the United States per year, which for the first time allowed these people to naturalize as American citizens. Upon becoming citizens, these new Americans could own property under their names and even petition for their immediate family members from abroad.
The Act was proposed by Republican Clare Boothe Luce and Democrat Emanuel Celler in 1943 and signed into law by U.S. President Harry S. Truman on July 2, 1946, two days before the Philippines became independent with the signing of the Treaty of Manila on July 4, 1946. Because of the imminent independence of the Philippines, Filipinos would have been barred from immigrating without the Act.
Delano Grape Strike
Delano, California, USA
Preceding the Delano grape strike was another grape strike organized by Filipino farm workers that occurred in Coachella Valley, California on May 3, 1965. Because the majority of strikers were over 50 years old and did not have families of their own due to anti-miscegenation laws, they were willing to risk what little they had to fight for higher wages. The strike succeeded in granting farm workers a 40-cent-per-hour raise, which resulted in a wage equivalent to the $1.40-per-hour wage that the recently outlawed braceros were paid After the strike in Coachella, farm workers followed the grape-picking season and moved north to Delano The Filipino farm workers who came up from Coachella were led by Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, Benjamin Gines, and Elasco under the AWOC. Upon arriving in Delano, the farm workers were told by growers that instead of being paid the $1.40-per-hour wage they received in Coachella, they would be paid $1.20-per-hour, which was below the federal minimum wage Despite attempts at negotiation, growers were not willing to raise wages since workers were easily replaceable This pushed Itliong, who was the leader of the AWOC, to organize Filipino farm workers and pressure growers into granting them higher wages and better working conditions On September 7, 1965, Itliong and Filipino farm workers gathered inside Filipino Community Hall, and the AWOC unanimously voted to go on strike the next morning.
The Delano grape strike was a labor strike organized by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a predominantly Filipino and AFL-CIO-sponsored labor organization, against table grape growers in Delano, California to fight against the exploitation of farm workersThe strike began on September 8, 1965, and one week later, the predominantly Mexican National Farmworkers Association (NFWA) joined the cause. In August 1966, the AWOC and the NFWA merged to create the United Farm Workers (UFW) Organizing Committee.
The strike lasted for five years and was characterized by its grassroots efforts—consumer boycotts, marches, community organizing and nonviolent resistance—which gained the movement national attention. On July 1970, the strike resulted in a victory for farm workers, due largely to a consumer boycott of non-union grapes, when a collective bargaining agreement was reached with major table grape growers, affecting more than 10,000 farm workers.
The Delano grape strike is most notable for the effective implementation and adaptation of boycotts, the unprecedented partnership between Filipino and Mexican farm workers to unionize farm labor, and the resulting creation of the UFW labor union, all of which revolutionized the farm labor movement in the United States.
Fourth Wave Of Filipino Immigration
United States
The fourth and present wave of Filipino immigration began in 1965 with the passing of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. It ended national quotas, and provided an unlimited number of visas for family reunification. By the 1970s and 1980s the immigration of Filipina wives of service members reached annual rates of five to eight thousand. The Philippines became the largest source of legal immigration to the United States from Asia. Many Filipinas of this new wave of migration have migrated here as professionals due to a shortage in qualified nurses; from 1966 until 1991, at least 35,000 Filipino nurses immigrated to the United States. As of 2005, 55% of foreign-trained registered nurses taking the qualifying exam administered by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) were educated in the Philippines. Although Filipinos made up 24 percent of foreign physicians entering the U.S. in 1970, Filipino physicians experienced widespread underemployment in the 1970s due to the requirement of passing the ECFMG exam to practice in the U.S.
Filipino American History Month
United States
Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles
Historic Filipinotown, Los Ang
On July 31, 2002, the City of Los Angeles designated Historic Filipinotown with the following boundaries: on the east by Glendale Boulevard, on the north by the 101 Freeway, on the west by Hoover Street, and on the south by Beverly Boulevard. The area, located in Council District 13, had commonly been referred to as the "Temple-Beverly Corridor". Both the Department of Public Works and the Department of Transportation were instructed in install signage to identify "Historic Filipinotown". Neighborhood signage was installed at the intersection of Temple Street and Hoover Street and Beverly Boulevard and Belmont Avenue. In 2006, Historic Filipino town signage was installed along the 101 Freeway at the Alvarado Street exit.
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