Little Manila: Filipinos in California's Heartland - KVIE

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I thought Daly City is legit little Manila.

👍︎︎ 55 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Aug 02 2020 🗫︎ replies

I’m from Stockton. We also have a huge Hmong community there.

👍︎︎ 115 👤︎︎ u/BlazerDanger 📅︎︎ Aug 01 2020 🗫︎ replies

Gonna have to watch it later but this sounds so interesting!

👍︎︎ 34 👤︎︎ u/UltimateWerewolf 📅︎︎ Aug 01 2020 🗫︎ replies

Pho had its time in the light. It’s time to turn people onto Sinigang. More front page Filipino posts please.

👍︎︎ 73 👤︎︎ u/worbashnik 📅︎︎ Aug 02 2020 🗫︎ replies

Cool doc. Never knew the history behind the Filipino movement into the USA. Filipinos and Mexicans share a lot of the same struggles.

👍︎︎ 42 👤︎︎ u/Bombomp 📅︎︎ Aug 02 2020 🗫︎ replies

Lumpia! Lumpia! Lumpia!

👍︎︎ 26 👤︎︎ u/Typicalredditguy4 📅︎︎ Aug 02 2020 🗫︎ replies

So many of these issues regarding race and the Filipino seem so familiar oh the present day. When I was 3, my parents immigrated to the US in 1991 from a reality small town. When i was in HS, they told me how they told me how growing up they were taught and heard stories about how there was gold in the streets in the US. Stories about how hard work would lead to your success. I asked them why I had never heard this story before. They said it was because when they got here, they experienced so much racism and few opportunities. It's just the same story over and over. I'm sure this experienced in other immigrant cultures as well, but nobody remembers the Filipino. Im so happy to have found this video. It'sbl nice to know I'm not alone thinking about the struggles that Filipinos have experienced and continue to experience.

👍︎︎ 10 👤︎︎ u/fvillar2 📅︎︎ Aug 02 2020 🗫︎ replies

Chop suey house sound pretty sweet

👍︎︎ 20 👤︎︎ u/teamblacksheep 📅︎︎ Aug 01 2020 🗫︎ replies

My wife’s from Stockton! I’ll have to check this out

👍︎︎ 10 👤︎︎ u/Mjose005 📅︎︎ Aug 01 2020 🗫︎ replies
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Few people know when they take the cross-town freeway through Stockton, California, they're passing through the remnants of a once-bustling community. All roads in America, with Filipinos, led to Stockton. It was home to the largest Filipino population outside of the Philippines, a neighborhood whose little-known history was integral to the development of Central California. Filipinos had garages, cafes, restaurants, and laundries. There were just so many businesses that you as a Filipino could frequent, because they had the things that you needed. Like many immigrants before them, Filipinos faced backbreaking work, low wages, and at times, extreme racism. Yet they still referred to Stockton as  El Dorado or the  City of Gold and (they) sought this place to fulfill their dreams. When the Philippines became a territory of the U.S. in 1898, Filipinos could freely enter the country. Recruited by the thousands as cheap labor to work the Hawaiian sugar plantations, they quickly began to migrate to the U.S. mainland. So Filipinos basically were not occupying the upper levels of the socioeconomic sectors. They weren't the high-end workers. They were agricultural workers (or) domestic service workers which is what the economy needed at that time. Following the seasons, they traveled up and down the West Coast harvesting crops from California to Washington and working the fishing canneries in Alaska during the winter season. Stockton provided a hub where Filipinos could always return. Filipinos arrived in Stockton mainly because they were recruited to Stockton. Stockton was the center of agricultural activity in the central valley of California. And of course, many labor contractors that were responsible for hiring Filipinos attracted them specifically to Stockton. Little Manila at its height was a lively four-block area pocketed next to Chinatown and Japantown. To some Stocktonians, this area south of Main Street was the notorious  skid row. For Filipinos however, it was the closest thing they had to a hometown. From the late 19th century on it was known as the oriental quarter. And this is where Chinatown was, and as Japanese immigrants start to come into the central valley, into Stockton, that started establishing   Nihon Macchi nearby. And this was anywhere from six to ten block area south of Main Street, and when Filipinos come to the United States, they find (found) that the only places that will welcome them are the people of the oriental quarter. It's an extremely diverse neighborhood. From the outside, though, most white Stocktonians just kind of generalize the area as Chinatown. My dad came from Loboc, Bohol in the Philippines. People told him to go to California to a place called Stockton because there were a lot of Filipinos there. So we came down by train, and they brought us up and dropped us off at the Lincoln hotel. And I looked out the window onto Main Street, and I could see so (many) Filipinos in my life! From Main Street to Lafayette Street you could see and smell all kinds of food in that town: Filipino, Chinese, Japanese.... They were making biko there. Lafayette and El Dorado Streets becomes this cross roads of not just Filipino community in Stockton, but in a sense, the Filipino community on the west coast. If you were looking for your cousin and you've recently arrived, you would come to El Dorado Street, because you knew there were thousands of Filipinos, especially during asparagus season, lining the streets. In Stockton Filipino workers in particular became synonymous with asparagus cutting, considered one of the toughest crops to harvest. The hardest work that I ever done (did) was asparagus. You had to get the asparagus out of the field, because during the hot days that sun would soak up the liquid in the grass, the asparagus. We called (asparagus) grass in those days. And if you got it to the  wash   house, (you'd) dry it,(since) they weighed it, see, (and) you get paid by the weight. And they want to make sure you got that grass into the wash house, but if it was late, the guys going to get mad, because you didn't pick it up right away. When working in the grass, the wind was blowing up the peat dust. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face. I wore two pairs of pants, three shirts, a bandanna over my head, and (a) scarf. And goggles. Yeah, goggles. And you had to tie your shoe strings around your shoes, because if the peat dirt would get up into your pant leg, you're going to itch like crazy when you sweat. After you finished work in the fields and get into the bunkhouse, you'd have to sweep down the bunkhouse. So you'd get all that dust outta there. That was miserable. There are very racist arguments that farmers make about Filipinos do (doing) this work, because they're (Filipinos were) shorter, and therefore they're closer to the ground. But I'd like to think that, you know, the ways that workers were organized in terms of home towns and in terms of provinces and the relationships that these men had with each other and the obligations that they had to each other, (they) really contributed to the efficiency they had in their work. And they had a reputation for being extremely skilled workers. For picking 100 pounds of asparagus picked (in) a day, Filipino workers received just 90 cents, less than half the amount paid to their white counterparts. This hard-earned cash was often sent to waiting parents and family members back in the Philippines. Filipinos and Filipinas, come to the United States with the intent of bringing their family out of poverty. And their American colonial teachers tell them that they're going to come to the United States, that this is such a land of opportunity, that they're going to pick up gold up off of the streets, and the irony is that Little Manila is centered around El Dorado street. They're going to return in a few months as these extremely, wealthy men, who are coming back to save their families and bring their provinces and their barrios out of poverty. And that doesn't necessarily happen. The early groups of Filipinos who arrived in Stockton were mostly young single bachelors eager to liven up Little Manila and ready to show some style. But who were these guys who arrived in America? And, this is not my imagination, they arrived, you know. You would think they were movie stars, seriously. The way they dressed. The way they smiled and ...their mustaches. They really prided themselves in the way they looked, and that was combing their hair, making that straight line down the center or the side of their scalp just so they would look dashing. The Filipino men dressed... whether they were from Chicago, New York, Seattle...they all dressed the way they dressed in Stockton. They all were flashy. They wore suits that were just unbelievable. They would never go into a store and buy a $20 suit and hit the streets. These guys came out looking like movie actors. And yet they were common laborers working in the agricultural industry. Pinoys, as Filipinos are sometimes called, sought out the American dream in new cars, gambling dens, and dance hall girls. You also have stories of Filipinos with the best intentions of saving money end up losing all their money in the gambling halls or in the taxi dance halls, (or) on clothes and on cars. And one of the things you have to remember is that when these young men and women are coming to the United States, they're in their late teens, (or) they're in the early 20's. This is the first money they're ever earning in their entire lives. And this is also, you know, the birth of the consumer culture in the United States. My father opened the Rizal Social Club. Now they had someplace to go. It was some kind of entertainment for them. My dad got girls from San Francisco, Los Angeles, (and) Sacramento: about 20-25 girls working there. But they were all Caucasian girls. And these pinoys, they were all young guys from the islands, they had never danced with a Caucasian woman. It was something for them. And they'd come in the dance hall dressed up like peacocks. Taxi dance: you'd grab one girl, (and) go from one girl to another. It's like a taxi cab, and then here in Stockton we'd call 'em  dime jigs . 10 cents a dance. A jig was the dance. They loved to dance. They would do the fox trot, the jitterbug, the swing, the tango, any of that, and they prided themselves in being dancers. I appreciated the role of the taxi dancers and the ladies of the evening, because they took the sexual drive of the Filipino men and kept it away from us. They (the Filipino men) treated us like relatives. They would feel that our family was their family. And so these gals did us a favor. They saved our souls from damnation. Because migrant farm working was not conducive to family life, Filipina women and children were not encouraged to immigrate. Limited to a ratio of 14 Filipino males to every 1 female, Filipino men instead often found relationships with women of other races. Though many states prohibited Filipinos from marrying whites, a new generation of mestizos, mixed-race Filipinos, was born. My father came from Luzon, and my mother is white. So they were not able to get married in Arizona, 'cause in 1931 Arizona had an anti-miscegenation law. My mother and father had to go to Lordsburg, New Mexico to get married, because they allowed Filipinos to marry whites. On my mom's side it's black, Irish and native American. And on my father's side it's Ilocano from the Philippines. When I stop to think about it, at our family reunions and different family gatherings, it's every color of the rainbow. Whites in Stockton are absolutely shocked and angered that Filipinos would  dare date white women. My god, the affront these young Filipino men wearing these incredible suits that they worked so hard in the fields to buy. You know, walking around downtown Stockton with these white women on their arms, really incited a lot of racist anger. These boiling racial tensions along with fierce competition for jobs during the Depression culminated into race riots and clashes between whites and Filipinos all over the West Coast. On January 29th, 1930, a bomb shattered the front of the Filipino Federation Building in Stockton. Well, during those days that (type of) racism was something that wasn't against the law. We were never allowed to go beyond Main Street, north of Main Street, where you could be spotted because you were dark skinned. My father would never go into town unless he had his brother or his cousin or some of his town mates with him. And that was mainly for protection. If anybody wanted to come up to you and just make a derogatory remark, then they would do it, and there was no recourse. It would only make things worse. Back in the 30's early 40's there was a feeling of discrimination back then. I remember one time this guy, Johnny Mokado, and I we went to some hotel. And right there on the steps:   No Filipinos Allowed . Man, I was shocked to see that. That really amazed me. But it just didn't dawn on me at that time of being discrimination. We just said you don't want us, you don't want us. So we just took off. But later on you found out that you couldn't go the other side of Main Street, or you couldn't own property. In the Fox Theater, which is the main theater in Stockton, we were not allowed. Filipinos were not allowed to sit in the center part of the movie theater. They were relegated to the side aisles against the walls. And that went on through probably the 40's and maybe even the 50's. Well, to understand racism and to understand the ways that Filipinos were treated, you have to really understand racism and the construction of race relations in the United States at the turn of the century. Filipinos are essentially the only Asian immigrants entering at this time in which the U.S. essentially said, we are closing our doors to anybody who does not fit this racial stock that we imagine Americans should be made up of, which is white Anglo Saxon protestant racial stock. And so Filipinos are also coming into an area that is populated by people who have migrated from the Midwest and the South, and brought with them (Midwesterners and southerners) to California their ideas of racial superiority (and) rigid segregation, and so Stockton is an extremely segregated city. Why do they (the Filipinos) feel they can wear these suits and drive these cars and date anybody they want to? Well, that's what their American teachers tell(ing) them (what) they can do (as American residents) in the Philippines. It's important to remember that they grew up in an American colonial culture, and they come to the United States in part because of the extreme poverty that capitalism in American colonialism brings, that's for sure. But they also come to the United States because of the movies they see; because of stories that they hear; because of the teachers who tell them that America is this land of opportunity. They don't tell them about the racism in the United Sates. They don't tell them they're not allowed to go to certain places; that they're not going to be able to become citizens. In 1934, motivated by anti-Filipino sentiments, Congress passed the Tydings McDuffie Act which later granted independence to the Philippines, but restricted immigration of Filipinos to America to just 50 per year. (The) 1934, Tydings-McDuffie Act changed the status of Filipinos from nationals, which was this kind of in between status of colonial subjects, to aliens. One year later, Congress attempted to deport Filipinos from the U.S. with the Repatriation Act: a one-way ticket back to the Philippines. For many of these Filipinos to go back home on this one-way ticket and to have to promise to never come back was really seen as a slap in face from the American government. Filipinos knew what was happening. They knew that congress was essentially trying to stop Filipino immigrants from coming to the U.S. And then with the repatriation act, they saw that Filipinos were essentially being told to get out. And this becomes a rallying point for Filipinos to come around and another reason why Filipinos feel they need to create community organizations in order to give themselves, you know, give each other support. There was a Masonic Order brought over from the Philippines called the Gran Oriente. There was the Legionarios del Trabajo, there was the Caballeros de Masalan, and there was the Filipino Federation of America. And so Filipinos from Stockton could choose from any number of these fraternal orders to find companionship, to find support, (and) to find family. Stockton leaders like Claro Candelario sought out justice for the Filipino community. He spoke against racism, the gambling halls and other businesses taking advantage of Filipinos, as well as the unfair labor practices against farm workers. I think, really and truly, my dad felt that there has to be something better from the Filipinos, also. But when he came to Stockton, he found out how these agricultural workers were really treated, (and) where they lived. And, well, he just got involved in the movement. In 1939, Filipino labor leaders organized an asparagus strike in Stockton demanding the restoration of higher wages. Their strike was so successful that all but two growers agreed to their terms. I'm happy to say that my dad was able, in some way, to help the Filipinos, and if his dream of the Filipino having a better image than what it was then, that is his legacy. World War II was a turning point for Filipinos. Eager to prove their patriotism, Filipinos volunteered en masse to fight against the Japanese. The 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry regiments were formed, and these wartime efforts led to improved status for Filipinos. My grandfather, Delvin Bohulano, he volunteered, and he was in the Filipino infantry regiment. And he was involved in that mass nationalization ceremony that you see pictures of thousands, of Filipinos lined up taking their citizenship oath. With citizenship, now you can buy land, (and) now you vote. This is an incredible change for Filipinos. After World War II, the Filipino community, like the rest of the nation, flourished and took new shape. A larger number of Filipinas start coming in because they are (were) war brides. Men who fought overseas in the 1st and 2nd Filipino regiments, when they go back to the Philippines there is an opportunity for them to meet and marry young Pinays. Young families, better financial possibilities and a new identity as American citizens all created a sense of community and belonging that hadn't existed before. Little Manila was no longer a bachelor society. It became a gathering place for Filipino families. Well, the sports that the Filipinos had back in those days, was very few. So we decided to get our own team up. And so each town would get their own basketball team: Livingston, Sacramento, Vallejo, San Francisco, (and) L.A. We'd get together and have a tournament: all of us guys. It was we'd get to know each other, (and) meet new girls, you know? My dad had this queen contest going on for a Miss Philippines. The queen contests were popularity contests: you had to sell votes, and they were a dollar a piece. The fraternal organizations would use this as a fundraiser. Actually that was a big moneymaker at that time. Anita was one of the most beautiful mestizas that I have met, and Anita was one of the candidates. And she won. What did I do with the money? I actually bought furniture for our home. I bought a stove, a dining room set, and a living room set with the 800 dollars. The work of thousands of Filipinos went into making California's heartland what it is today, a multi-billion dollar agricultural industry that makes California the fifth largest economy in the world. Yet few people are aware that Filipino farm workers played a crucial part in one of the great labor movements of American history: collaborating with Cesar Chavez. The conditions in the fields were amazing (for) what these guys put up with. A gentlemen by the name of Larry Itliong was in Stockton, and he was part of the labor movement to get Filipinos involved in this whole issue of unfair labor in the fields. (In) 1965 where (when) people think, wow, United Farm Workers, Chicanos, started this movement. But actually it was the Filipinos that dragged the Mexicans into the labor movement. Filipinos from Sacramento, Stockton, (and) the central valley are basically following the crop rotation. They're down in Coachella Valley. They get to Delano. And so the workers were kind of upset already about what's happening, considering that they came from Coachella, and they were getting $1.40 there. And here in Delano it was $1.10. (If) Filipinos go out on strike, (then) big problem. The Mexicans are going to become the strike breakers, So Itliong goes up to Chavez and says, "Look, we need your support." And Chavez says, "No, I can't give you my support." Itliong says, "Why not?" Chavez says "I'm not ready. We'll wait 2-3 more years." Itliong says, "No. We go on strike now, and you join us. Or when you go on strike in 1968, we're going to break your strike." Larry Itliong joined his group of Filipinos with Cesar Chavez's group of Chicanos, and together they created the United Farm Workers, the most successful farm labor union known today. By the 1960's, the Filipino community in Stockton began to move away from the downtown area. City officials started to clear out the ethnic neighborhoods for urban redevelopment. A few years later the cross-town freeway construction destroyed most of Little Manila. The freeway construction and demolition started in 1967. And then when federal money for freeway construction dried up in the 1970's, it became the freeway to nowhere. And so it was this monument to the ways that people of color in Stockton who had been really pushed aside in favor of freeway construction and redevelopment. Right down here was a store. Right here was a garage where a lot of the guys in the 50's used to hang out and make their hot rods. Right down here? Mrs. Segundo Reyes' beauty shop. Little Manila was devastated. They cleared almost everything but the Mariposa hotel and the Rizal Social Club and the what was once the AFL-CIO Union Hall, which is now the Emerald Restaurant. I couldn't believe what happened. The Manongs, the older Filipino men, and others who resided in the hotels of Little Manila were relocated by the city. Some stayed here at, they called it  they'd go to the   Daguhoy Lodge . They had their own clubs: the Demasalan, the Legionarios, (and) the Iloilo Circle. The last few remnants of this important community are barely apparent, but its significance lives on. Filipino organizations are fighting to preserve the remaining buildings now deemed an endangered historical site. What you are standing in front of is the Filipino Plaza. The Filipino Plaza was dedicated in 1972. And a group of Filipino activists and a group of Filipino organizations in Stockton realized that thousands of manongs, thousands of old-timers, were losing their homes because of redevelopment. So these Filipinos got together (and) they called themselves the Associated Filipino Organizations. And this is the nation's first Filipino-American planned and inspired affordable housing project in the nation. My feelings about preserving Little Manila are real strong. It (Little Manila) represents a part of history that will forever be a part of California. Do you really want (to show) your grandchildren and point to an empty lot and say, "This was where this important strike was planned." Or point to a dilapidated building that is about to be torn down and say, "This was where this organization met." Because what does that say about how we value our history? That if we allow our historic places to become parking lots and to become empty lots, what does that say about what we think about ourselves as Filipino Americans and how much we value our long history in the U.S.? California's history is so entrenched in the things that happened in the Little Manila area. I seriously feel that I'm standing on Manongs' shoulders. Whether they're a child of an immigrant who came in the 1980's or the great grandchild of a Filipino couple who came in the 1920's, it's my hope that when students leave the tour they have this connection to Stockton and really think about the struggle of Filipinos to survive. And so to preserve these buildings, to preserve this history, that's our  utang   ng loob , that's our debt for what they've done for us. ♪♪ To order a DVD copy of this program call 888-814-3923. The cost is $14.95 plus shipping and handling.
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Channel: KVIEvideo
Views: 846,106
Rating: 4.8987398 out of 5
Keywords: KVIE, ViewFinder, Stockton, Little Manila, Filipino, California, Dean Devlin
Id: FNCZ8sGJs8I
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 26min 46sec (1606 seconds)
Published: Tue Oct 01 2013
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