Interracial Romances of American Empire: Migration, Marriage, and Law in Twentieth Century California by Maria Paz Gutierrez Esguerra A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in the University of Michigan 2013 Doctoral Committee: Professor Scott Kurashige, Chair Professor Martha Jones Assistant Professor Victor Mendoza Professor Tiya Miles Professor Penny Von Eschen © Maria Paz Gutierrez Esguerra 2013 This is dedicated to my parents: Juan Valencia Esguerra, Jr. and Luz Gutierrez Esguerra for their endless love and support. ii Acknowledgements This has been an incredible journey and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to spend my time at the University of Michigan doing what I love best with the support of so many. This project would not have been possible without the support of many colleagues, family, friends, institutions, mentors, and teachers. At the University of Michigan, I would like to thank my committee: Scott Kurashige, Martha Jones, Victor Mendoza, Tiya Miles, and Penny Von Eschen who believed in this project well before I could even envision it on my own. I am indebted to my advisor Scott Kurashige who has done so much to help me and encourage me throughout this whole journey so that I could reach this incredible milestone. Martha Jones encouraged my enthusiasm for Critical Race Studies and helped frame my thinking of race and the law in new ways. Victor Mendoza, for his unwavering support of my work and professional development. I also extend my appreciation to Tiya Miles who has been a wonderful teacher and mentor. And a special thanks to Penny Von Eschen who has been an incredible support during my time at Michigan and who shares my passion for telling Rafael and Ellen’s story. Thank you to my professors, mentors and university colleagues: Christine Asidao, Howard Brick, John Carson, Emily Lawsin, Carol F. Karlsen, Mary Kelley, Matt iii Lassiter, Gina Morantz-Sanchez, Sarita See, Adelwisa Weller, and Magdalena Zaborowska who helped me grow in so many ways. I also want to thank the staff in the History Department for their hard work and their friendship. Special thanks to Lorna Altsetter, Diana Denney, and Kathleen King who have been with me every step of the way – for your kindness, your understanding, your laughter, and your belief in me, I will always be grateful. My graduate work has also been enriched by the mentorship of Heidi Ardizzone of Saint Louis University who has become a dear friend and whose work I truly admire. I am also incredibly grateful to Barbara Posadas of Northern Illinois University. Her pioneering work on Filipino Americans has been an inspiration and I have benefitted tremendously from her mentorship and friendship. I would like to thank my professors at Oberlin College who opened my world to labor and learning. I would never have embarked on the path of higher education and academia without their support and encouragement. To my undergraduate mentors: Mark Blecher, Michael Fisher, Meredith Gatsby, Brenda Grier-Miller, David Kamitsuka, Margaret Kamitsuka, Carol Lasser, A.G. Miller, and Paula Richman who showed me in theory and in practice how teaching inside and outside the classroom is really done. I am grateful to have had Moon-Ho Jung of the University of Washington as an advisor during my junior year and for introducing me to Asian American history. I teach my students with the same kind iv of dedication, passion, and enthusiasm that he did. In my senior year Pablo Mitchell was an incredible advisor who encouraged me to pursue my interests in research and the archives. It was in his class on American Mixed Blood from which the early beginnings of this dissertation was born. I also thank my professional colleagues at the Oberlin College Library: Roland Baumann, Cynthia Comer, Ray English, Jessica Grimm, Haipeng Li, Megan Mitchell, Alison Ricker, Cecilia Robinson, and Jennifer Schreiner. At the University of Minnesota I would like to thank my professors for helping shape my ideas and my project in the early stages of my graduate career: David Chang, Brenda Child, Cathy Choy, Sarah M. Evans, Erika Lee, Malinda Lindquist, Patrick McNamara, Louis Mendoza, and David Noble. I would also like to acknowledge my colleagues: Masako Nakamura, Trecia Pottinger, Jason Ruiz, Jeannie Shinozuka, Harrod Suarez and Andy Urban. This research has been funded through the generous support of many institutions: the Department of History, the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, the Gayle Morris Sweetland Center for Writing, the Horace Rackham Graduate School, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Rackham Summer Institute at the University of Michigan; the Department of American Studies as well as Sylvia K. and Samuel L. Kaplan at the University of Minnesota; the University of California Los Angeles Special Collections Library; Oberlin College Office of Alumni, and the Doris G. Quinn Foundation. v This project also benefited from the constructive comments and suggestions of the American Culture Workshop, American History Workshop, the Black Humanities Collective, and IRWG Gender, Race and History at the University of Michigan. A special thanks to my Sweetland/Rackham Dissertation Institute writing groups, who read the earliest (and messiest) drafts of my chapters, especially my writing mentor Louis Cicciarelli who taught me so much about the process of writing and who encouraged me to be comfortable with “ the not knowing.” And finally my eternal gratitude to family and friends who contributed to this project with their laughter, love, and faith. Graduate school can be a very isolating experience and I am so glad that my friends did not let this be so. I am blessed to have met: Rabia Belt, Rebecca Cheezum, Phil Esposito, Paul Farber, Jonathan Fuentes, Portia Hemphill, Cynthia Marasigan, Aria Ofori-Mensa, Olugbenga Olumolade, Omosalewa Oyelaran, Angela Parker, Jamie Perryman, Matthew Stiffler, and Rachel Quinn. My fellow Obies for sharing my love of Oberlin and for your friendship: Courtney-Savali Andrews, Cristina Briboneria, Atley Chock, Menna Demessie, Chaunetta Jones, and Heather Phillips. To Tayana Hardin who began this Michigan journey with me during the Rackham Summer Institute in 2005. Thank you for your sisterhood and your love. To Trecia Pottinger for many years of friendship and for sharing your wisdom. I am grateful that we share Minnesota (and Oberlin) memories together. vi To Grace Louise Sanders for sharing your stories and for listening to mine. I cannot wait to see the chapters that will follow. To Rollin G. Johnson Jr who has been my companion, my partner, and my friend. I am grateful for your love and support. Thank you for sharing your family with me, especially Ida Miller and Marie Miller. To the Gutierrez and Esguerra families. I write in honor of my grandparents whose spirits and stories are ever present in every word I write: Juan G. Esguerra and Benita V. Esguerra as well as Cesaria Z. Gutierrez and Jose Gutierrez. My parents and my brother deserve my deepest gratitude. To my family – Dad, Mom, and Sonny – thank you for always believing in me even though I know it was a long journey and not always easy. Thank you for keeping me grounded and rooted; for always reminding me where home is. Sonny, thank you for being my brother and for loving me like only a brother can. To my parents, Juan V. Esguerra, Jr. and Luz G. Esguerra, I will be eternally grateful for your love and support. My Dad began my love of reading at an early age when he brought home books for me when he came home from long days of work. It is he who taught how to embrace reading and history. My Mom, who is a survivor, taught how to love and care for family even in the face of challenging moments. This is dedicated to you: Maraming salamat po sa inyong pag-mamahal at sa maraming sakrifisio na ginawa ninyo para sa amin. Ito ay para sa inyo. vii Table of Contents Dedication . ii Acknowledgements . iii Abstract . ix Introduction: The Strange Case of Filipinos in the United States . .1 Chapter One: The “Filipino Problem” of Migration & Miscegenation in 1920s California . 21 Chapter Two: Living in a World of Men: Filipinos in Los Angeles and the Paradox of the Filipino Bachelor . 54 Chapter Three: ‘You Can’t Marry in California, Not If You Are Filipino’: Interracial Marriage and Miscegenation Laws in 1930s California . .85 Chapter Four: ‘Exit the Filipino’: Narratives of Return and the 1935 Filipino Repatriation Act . 134 Conclusion . 170 Bibliography . 172 viii Abstract This dissertation begins and ends with migration stories, starting with Filipinos in Hawaii and later, the repatriation of over two thousand men, women and children to the Philippines between 1935-1941. Within these stories, I trace a complex history of migration, sexuality, and white supremacy that spans the Pacific. Interracial Romances of American Empire examines Filipino American lives through the lenses of two seemingly separate, but connected themes of migration and marriage. I argue that experiences of migration and miscegenation were central to how Filipino nationals viewed and defined their place in American society. In California debates about the “Filipino Problem” dominated discussions about unrestricted immigration in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Scholarship on this period has framed this new immigration problem in terms of race and labor. This dissertation shifts that focus and situates the emergence of the “problem” within themes of migration and miscegenation instead. I focus on migration and marriage laws to understand the ways in which federal and state legislation shaped Filipino American lives. That Filipinos were “U.S. nationals” meant that they came not as immigrants, but as U.S.