Becoming Filipinos: by Clement Bautista Wo Years Ago, My Family and I Writing Our Histories Took a Road Trip from Oregon Down T the Length of California and Back
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OCTOBER 26, 2013 Photo by Frank Mancao, courtesy of National Pinoy Archives, FANHS Becoming Filipinos: By Clement Bautista wo years ago, my family and I Writing Our Histories took a road trip from Oregon down T the length of California and back. WHAT’S INSIDE Once we left Oregon and visited a his- ■ Knights of Rizal Hold Initiation, Recognition Ceremonies S3 toric Chinese town hidden away in the ■ Bold Dreams, Uncommon Valor: The Florentino Das Story S4 Sacramento Valley farm fields, we had ■ Fil-Am History Fest 2013 to Feature Eskrima S4 planned an overnight rest in Stockton, ■ Jose Rizal’s Legacy and Nation-Building: A Book Review S5 California. In the morning, while for- ■ Fil-Am History Fest 2013 S6 aging for breakfast in Downtown ■ Get to Know the Last of the First American Filipinos S7 ■ Ilocandia Exhibit on Display at UH Hamilton Library S10 Stockton, our eyes caught sight of a ■ Filipino Filmmakers Accentuate 33rd HIFF S11 building sign reading Filipino Center ■ Filipino-American: A Hyphenated-State-Of-Wonder...? S11 Plaza. Investigating this unexpected ■ Fil-Am History to Be Taught Statewide S12 find was something we couldn’t pass ■ Community Forum on Mindanaw* S13 up. ► Continue on S2 ■ FilCom Center Concludes Fall Citizenship Class S16 S2 HAWAII FILIPINO CHRONICLE SUPPLEMENT COVER STORY FilipinO AmERiCAn HiSTORY mOnTH 2013 BECOMING... (from page S1) neous or nonexistent portrayals doctor, became a labor con- The elderly gentleman of Filipinos in mainstream nar- tractor when he immigrated to greeting us at the seemingly va- ratives of Asian Americans. Stockton in 1963 to join his fa- cant Center was Jose Bernardo, She sets out to “rewrite the ther, Pablo Mabalon, and his who also happened to be one of dominant narrative of Asian brother, Tex. In Stockton, my its founders. He was distinctly American history, which has father could not find work as a proud to show us around the downplayed Filipina/o Ameri- doctor. He worked as a con- Center—describing how it was can community building to tractor every year from 1963 envisioned, the obstacles en- favor a male-centered, so- to 2005, when he passed away countered during its construc- journer narrative; and to ex- at the age of 80 during the as- tion and the challenges faced to amine the important local paragus harvest in April. He remain solvent. But most of all, communities, identities and in- typed out lists of his workers Bernardo was especially stitutions built by early immi- on his manual typewriter, cal- Fil-Am Veterans Band & Orchestra, Aala Park, July 4, 1946. pleased to inform us that their grants and investigate how culated payroll every week on Photo courtesy of Ben Acohido and eFIL Archives. 40-year old mortgage was they were constructed and his ancient adding machine about to be paid up, giving the changed over time.” and called his workers in the non-profit Associated Filipino But LMH really begins and beginning of the seasons to be Organizations of San Joaquin ends with Mabalon herself: ready for pruning and har- County, Inc. sole ownership of starting from her birth and vesting grapes, peaches and the Center. childhood memories of passing asparagus. So dedicated was While we were both fasci- time with “old-timers” at her my father to his crop, his crew nated and inspired by the sto- grandfather’s diner—the and to the Yamadas, the ries Bernardo told us about Lafayette Lunch Counter—to Japanese American farming Center’s formation, his chroni- the establishment of a “vibrant family for whom he worked for cle intrigued us for what he did community of hotels, pool four decades, that even when not say: There didn’t seem to halls, dance halls, restaurants, he fell suddenly ill at the as- be many Filipinos in the neigh- grocery stores, churches, union paragus packing shed and had borhood, so why was a Center halls and barbershops.” Her to be rushed to the hospital, he Protest march to save the original Ota Camp in Waipahu, ca. 1974. Photo courtesy of UHM Office of Multicultural Student Services and eFIL Archives. here? In fact, with the excep- heartwarming narrative contin- agonized about his workers tion of the elderly residents of ues with the tragic but fateful and the crop. When my father insult. He passed away in ipina/o community in the na- the Center’s housing complex, demolition of the same com- died several days later, some 2005, four years before Con- tion. Urban development and there didn't seem to be any munity, including the building of his workers grieved along- gress voted to issue a $15,000 highway construction had de- signs of anyone actually “liv- which had housed her grandfa- side my sister and me as if one-time payment to each eli- stroyed the beloved community ing” around the Center. The 10- ther's diner. We eventually end their own father had died.” gible Filipino veteran—a pay- of thousands of Filipinas/os in story complex seemed to stick with Mabalon’s desperate ef- This early passage not ment some felt was insulting in Stockton and obscured the his- out in a ghostly collection of forts to reclaim the vestiges of only recounts the memories of its implication that the veter- tory of Filipinas/os in Stockton low-rise commercial office what was once called, Stock- an observant daughter watch- ans were mercenaries instead for new residents and new im- spaces—a telltale sign that an ton’s Little Manila. ing her hard-working, dedi- of loyal soldiers who were migrants.” unwanted neighborhood was These personal memories cated and underemployed serving their Commonwealth For Mabalon, rewriting previously relocated. of Mabalon are situated in the father at work, it also reminds and country.” the dominant narrative of Fil- We knew Stockton had overarching historical context us of the complex interactions Mabalon also uses her ipinos in the U.S. is part of re- once served as a hub for Asian of Philippine-U.S. relations, with other Asian American own family history as authen- claiming and realizing the immigrant workers in central initiated by the U.S. coloniza- groups. Mabalon again returns tic illustrations of the negative memories of space. Through Californian, but the Center’s tion of the Philippines and its to a personal vignette to illus- effects of social relations, pub- the Little Manila Foundation, immediate neighborhood gave exploitation of cheap, avail- trate the disastrous effects of lic policy, and the urban re- Mabalon continues to raise no indication of any major able labor. The Filipino mi- post-WWII policy: newal destruction of Little public awareness of spaces presence, Filipino or otherwise. grant laborers’ experiences of “Receiving the worst post- Manila. They are stories that that once existed through Thanks to a recent book by San racism, discrimination and war benefit package were the easily resonant with many Fil- printed words and images, in- Francisco State University as- acts of violence would only be more than 250,000 Filipino ipino immigrant families and ternet blogs and commemora- sociate professor Dawn Bohu- tempered by their displace- veterans who had joined the to read them is to relive mo- tive events. In this way, new lano Mabalon, “Little Manila is ment toward the Japanese USAFFE in the Philippines, ments in our own life experi- spaces and memories are gen- in the Heart: The Making of the Americans during WWII. among them my father, ences. A final example of erated. In 2008, Mabalon and Filipina/o Community in Because Mabalon’s story Ernesto Mabalon. In 1946 these “moments” takes place others published “Filipinos in Stockton, California,” the puz- of Little Manila is framed by Congress passed the Rescis- as Mabalon brings herself into Stockton,” a collection of his- zle posed by Stockton’s Fil- her own personal history and sion Act, which declared that the narrative: torical images of the vibrant ipino Center Plaza’s oasis-like recollections, what has even- their service ‘shall not be “The remaining two blocs Filipino community which existence was explained. tually fallen victim to the deemed to be or to have been of Little Manila gradually de- had once occupied Stockton’s wrecking ball is not merely service in the military or na- cayed as the old-timers died Little Manila district. Opening Little Manila's Heart bricks, wooden frames and tional forces of the United and businesses closed. My “Little Manila is in the glass windows of a quaint States or any component grandfather sold the Lafayette Doing History Heart” (LMH) is the latest neighborhood—it is the col- thereof or any law of the Lunch Counter to another Fil- Mabalon’s account of Lit- among a wealth of books on or lected memory and identity of United States conferring right, ipina/o American family. A new tle Manila is personal history about Filipino Americans ap- a community and, signifi- privileges or benefits,’ even generation of Filipina/o Amer- writ large. LMH is compelling pearing just before and after the cantly, of Mabalon herself. though President Roosevelt icans—I count myself part of for its “eye-witness” coverage 2006—the commemoration of Some of the most poignant had promised them full equity this group—was born and of a community’s lifespan 100 years of Filipino migration passages in LMH are when with other veterans. My father, raised in Stockton with little or through documents, oral histo- to Hawaii and the U.S. Ma- Mabalon reveals herself as a veteran of the campaigns on no knowledge of the vibrant ries and Mabalon’s own recol- balon ambitiously sets out to narrator: the island of Panay, consid- urban landscape that had been lections.