Migrant Scribes and Poet-Advocates: U.S. Filipino Literary History in West Coast Periodicals, 1905 to 1941
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Migrant Scribes and Poet-Advocates: U.S. Filipino Literary History in West Coast Periodicals, 1905 to 1941 by Jean Vengua A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Genaro M. Padilla, Chair Professor Tom Leonard Professor Mitchell Breitwieser Fall 2010 1 Abstract Migrant Scribes and Poet-Advocates: U.S. Filipino Literary History in West Coast Periodicals, 1905 to 1941 by Jean Vengua Doctor of Philosophy in English University of California, Berkeley Professor Genaro Padilla, Chair Much of the earliest prose and poetry published by Filipinos in the United States appeared in the many periodicals published and edited by Filipinos from 1905 through the end of the Great Depression. Today, these periodicals function as historical "archives." However, they also document U.S. Filipino literary heritage from the first half of the twentieth century, especially in forms of persuasive writing such as editorials and feature essays, and also in poetry, short stories, reviews, and literary criticism. The periodicals nurtured Filipino writers as they struggled to find their voice in the foreign nation that employed them as non-citizen workers, and had colonized and exploited the material resources of their homeland, the Philippines. A study of these texts may help to add breadth and depth to our research and understanding of Filipino writing in the U.S., both its literary production and history, as well as its contemporary forms. This dissertation is a preliminary survey of writing found in eight U.S. Filipino periodicals in the Western U.S. during the early 20th century. It articulates several broad functions of these newspapers and magazines in relation to the production and support of U.S. Filipino writing. While U.S. Filipino periodicals constituted their own social spheres, providing venues and reading constituencies for writers, the work they published also narrated and thus reinforced the formation of Filipino communities—both migrating or localized—as well as group and individual identities, although the effects varied, in terms of the writer‘s gender. This study examines the historical and material contexts for this writing, exploring the lives of the writers themselves, as well as specific examples of texts that they produced. i Table of Contents Acknowledgements ______________________________________________________________________ ii Introduction ______________________________________________________________________ 1 Chapter I – The 19th and early 20th Century Press in the Philippines and the Filipino Student Magazines ______________________________________________________________________ 8 Chapter II – The Northwest: Victorio Acosta Velasco and the Philippine Advocate ______________________________________________________________________ 42 Chapter III – Central Coast: the Three Stars, Philippines Mail, and the Filipino Pioneer ______________________________________________________________________ 71 Chapter IV – War and the Irony of Unity: the Philippine Commonwealth Times and the Philippine-American News Digest ______________________________________________________________________ 120 Chapter V – Conclusion ______________________________________________________________________ 146 Bibliography ______________________________________________________________________ 154 Appendix ______________________________________________________________________ 163 ii Acknowledgements For their guidance and support, my thanks and appreciation to Genaro M. Padilla, Tom Leonard, Mitchell Breitwieser, José David Saldívar, Sue Schweik, and Oscar Campomanes. Independent researchers and archivists have been of great help; these include Alex Fabros, Jess Tabasa, the staff of the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, Allen Library at the University of Washington, the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA, Steinbeck Library in Salinas, Monterey County Historical Society, and Fred and Dorothy Cordova of the FANHS archives in Seattle. Friends and fellow scholars at Berkeley, including Elizabeth H. Pisares, Nerissa Balce, Gladys Nubla, and Margo Ponce Diaz, have inspired my research. Thanks also to Leny Mendoza Strobel, Eileen Tabios, Joselyn Ignacio, Dida Kutz, Mary Scherr, and my son, Dana Gier, for cheering me on. Special appreciation goes to Michael Fink for his technical expertise and unwavering support; and to Carla Alicia Tejeda, my friend and partner in the dissertation process. 1 Introduction Migrant Scribes and Poet-Advocates: U.S. Filipino Literary History in West Coast Periodicals, 1905 to 1941 When I entered graduate school in the 1990s, there seemed to be a consensus in Asian American studies that Filipino American writing had its genesis primarily in the early writings of Carlos Bulosan; America is in the Heart was the most often cited of his works. It was first published in 1943, and resurrected in 1973 by Carey McWilliams during the beginning of the Third World Strikes of the 1970s. Among writers or academics unfamiliar with Filipino American literature in the 1990s, the genre seemed barely to exist, or was thought to be in its earliest stages. We now know that Filipinos have been writing and publishing in the United States since at least January 24, 1899, with Felipe Agoncillo‘s Memorials to the U.S. Secretary of State and the U.S. Senate, published by the American Anti-Imperialist League.1 In ―Filipino American Literature,‖ Oscar Campomanes has pointed out that prose written by Filipinos can be found ―from 1905 onward,‖ including the work of ―Juan Salazar, Juan Collas, and Marcelo de Gracia Concepcion in the 1910s–1920s, Greg San Diego and the brothers Jose and Teofilo del Castillo in the 1930s– 1940s.‖2 Much of the earliest prose and poetry published by Filipinos in the United States appeared in periodicals published and edited by Filipinos from 1905 through the end of the Great Depression. In his study of "The Filipino Press in the United States," sociologist Emory Bogardus took note of "the prolific nature of the Filipino press" in the 1930s, noting ―six or eight newspaper- magazines in Los Angeles…‖ alone.3 Enya P. Flores-Meiser has estimated twenty newspapers published by Filipinos from 1931-1940, although she does not specify region.4 I have found either microfilm copies or reference to at least forty-four periodicals published during the period 1905 to 1941. During that period, these publications were examined by sociologists in order to understand and report on the migratory and social patterns of Filipinos. Today, these periodicals function as historical "archives."5 But, as I argue here, they also document U.S. Filipino literary heritage6 from the first half of the twentieth century, especially in forms of persuasive writing such as editorials and feature essays, but also in poetry, short stories, and literary criticism. A study of these texts may help to add breadth and depth to our research and understanding of Filipino writing in the U.S., both its literary production and history, as well as its contemporary forms. Filipino writing on the West Coast was fueled by a group of writers who were community leaders, intellectuals, and labor organizers. To Oscar Campomanes‘ list of writers we can add Victorio Acosta Velasco, J.C. Dionisio, P.C. Morantte, Simeon Doria Arroyo, D.L. Marcuelo, and many others. Together they formed a collaborative network of ―traveling‖ editors and writers, or ―scribes‖ as more than one reporter called them, many of whom were migrant workers for at least part of each year, and students for the rest of the year, who paid their tuition and lodging through service work or agricultural and kitchen labor. A few were lucky enough to have the funds to start businesses, or were saavy at social networking and able to find patrons. Their newspapers and magazines provided a reading constituency for emerging U.S. Filipino writers 2 who were rarely published in the mainstream media. The periodicals also provided the beginnings of a critical dialogue about Filipino literature written in the U.S. This dissertation is a preliminary survey of writing found in eight U.S. Filipino periodicals in the Western U.S. during the early 20th century.1 This study articulates several broad functions of these newspapers and magazines in relation to the production and support of U.S. Filipino writing. These functions include providing writers with venues and readers, helping to unite communities and to cohere group and individual identities through various types of reports, narratives, and poems. In the process, I examine the historical and material contexts for this writing, exploring the lives of the writers themselves, as well as specific examples of texts that they produced. The writing samples include essays, editorials and op-eds, testimonials, short stories, poems, reviews of books, film, and dramatic performances, and literary criticism. The newspaper or magazine setting—comprised of reportage, ads, juxtaposition with articles, number and placement of columns, and typography—are important indicators of meaning and emphasis in the writings by Filipinos of this era. The study is necessarily limited by time and geographic constraints, and the apparent dearth of legible originals and copies in California. In some cases, print or microfilm copies were incomplete, ―mutilated‖ or otherwise only partly legible. In one university library, copies of the Philippine