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Although federal legislation to allow "war brides" after World War II enabled veterans to bring home wives from the Philippines, few Filipinas were allowed into the United States before then, due to immigration restrictions that were intermittently relaxed. As a result, Filipino men often had to look outside their culture for companionship, as this vintage photo at the National Steinbeck Center shows. But interracial relations sometimes provided the excuse for brutal and sometimes deadly backlash from those who blamed the lower-paid Filipinos for the loss of their jobs, such as the 1930 riot in Watsonville that saw a mob of several hundred whites hunt and beat Filipinos in the streets.
View All Images John Steinbeck's fictional portrayal of Dust Bowl-era Okies in "The Grapes of Wrath" may have won him lasting acclaim, but his keen observations also extended to migrant workers from an even more distant land, the Philippines. In "Filipino Voices: Past and Present," a new multimedia exhibition at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, the words of the author provide an intriguing echo of the stories told by those immigrants, their ancestors and their descendants.
And though those stories begin with the origins of the multiethnic, multifaith culture in the Philippines and continue through colonization by Spain, they become most vibrant when Filipino sakadas, or contract laborers, first start toiling the fields of California in the 1920s. In a series of articles for the San Francisco News written in 1936, and later published as "The Harvest Gypsies," Steinbeck observed:
"They are unique in California agriculture. Being young, male and single, they form themselves into natural groups of five, six eight … they combine their resources in the purchase of equipment, such as autos. Their group life constitutes a lesson in economy.
"… They were good workers, but like the earlier immigrants they committed the unforgivable in trying to organize for their own protection. Their organization brought on the usual terrorism.
"A fine example of this was the vigilante raid in the Salinas Valley last year when a bunk house was burned down and all the possessions of the Filipinos destroyed. In this case the owner of the bunk house collected indemnity for the loss of his property. Although the Filipinos brought suit, no settlement as yet has been made for them."
The workers survived race riots, economic oppression and other injustices the way they had in the Philippines: by pulling together, in formal and informal labor and social groups, documented with vintage newspapers, photos and other artifacts at the Steinbeck Center and accompanied by the words of Ma Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath": "If you're in trouble or hurt or need — go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help — the only ones."
The humble cafes and gambling halls of Salinas' Chinatown, now a dilapidated area a few blocks east of the Steinbeck Center, became their early gathering place. At the exhibition opening on Friday, Albert Fong pointed to a picture of the long-closed Republic Cafe on Soledad Street, where he worked when he was 13, "washing dishes, cooking and serving. They were lots of Filipinos. They always stayed very close together," he said.
Near him, Phyllis Mageau of Bend, Ore., excitedly snapped pictures of family members whose portraits appear in the exhibit, including her grandfather Henry Garcia and dad Sam in Chinatown, and her mother Aurelie Garcia, now of Pacific Grove, seen waving at a parade in Monterey in a butterfly-sleeved gown similar to those on nearby mannequins. "It must have been before 1950, because this was before my brother was born," Mageau noted.
Steinbeck Center Deborah Silguero-Stahl and historian Alex Fabros Jr., who helped lead a number of guest curators from the community, said they hope the current installation will inspire even more Filipino Americans with connections to Salinas Valley to share their stories. "My goal is to make this a traveling exhibit that goes to Los Angeles, to San Francisco, and in a year or so to the Smithsonian," said Fabros, who also has created a documentary, "Unsung Heroes," about Filipino veterans.
Raising awareness of Filipino American issues runs in his family. One of the wall panels cites Fabros' father, a civil rights activist and journalist for Stars & Stripes and the Philippines Mail, in his last conversation with his son before his death in 1999:
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/05/02/central_coasting_filipino_voices.DTL#ixzz1tjRifagj
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Although federal legislation to allow "war brides" after World War II enabled veterans to bring home wives from the Philippines, few Filipinas were allowed into the United States before then, due to immigration restrictions that were intermittently relaxed. As a result, Filipino men often had to look outside their culture for companionship, as this vintage photo at the National Steinbeck Center shows. But interracial relations sometimes provided the excuse for brutal and sometimes deadly backlash from those who blamed the lower-paid Filipinos for the loss of their jobs, such as the 1930 riot in Watsonville that saw a mob of several hundred whites hunt and beat Filipinos in the streets.
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Filipinos have a long history of serving alongside or as part of the U.S. military, as this vintage photograph at the "Filipino Voices: Past and Present" exhibition at the National Steinbeck Center documents. Text panels describe the involvement of Filipino guerrillas and soldiers in fighting the Japanese invasion in World War II, including the death of thousands of Filipino and U.S. prisoners of war on the Bataan Death March.
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The everyday life of Filipino Americans as they embraced American ways can be seen in vintage family photos such as this one of Narciso Bulosan Caliva wearing a Scout uniform in Salinas' Chinatown, on view through July 22 at the National Steinbeck Center. Curators of the "Filipino Voices: Past and Present" exhibition hope to add more photos, artifacts and stories over the next few months, as more community members are inspired to share their history. Ultimately, some of the collected resources will go on display at an Asian cultural center in the city.
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The old storefronts of Chinatown in Salinas can be seen in this undated photo at the National Steinbeck Center. Places like La Plaza Cafe (pictured) and the Republic Cafe, often offered a home away from home for the many single men from the Philippines working in the Salinas Valley in the 1920s and '30s. Although the area is blighted today, several redevelopment projects are under way, including one that might link the isolated area with the Steinbeck Center and Oldtown Salinas, just a few blocks west.
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The cutout image of a typical mid-20th century Filipino farm worker greets visitors at the National Steinbeck Center. Filipinos began working on California farms around 1920, when the Philippines was still a Commonwealth of the United States, and became the most numerous field workers in the 1920s and '30s, according to the museum. At the advent of World War II, many found work in the state's shipyards.
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The Philippines' elegant women's costume of brightly colored, bejeweled dresses with butterfly sleeves can be seen on mannequins as well as in vintage photos in "Filipino Voices: Past and Present" at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas. The exhibition begins with a look at the multiethnic heritage and customs of the Philippines before and after Western contact.
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Although Salinas today is 80 percent Latino, members of its current and former Filipino community turned out en masse on April 26 for the opening of "Filipino Voices: Past and Present" at the National Steinbeck Center, the third in a series exploring the heritage of those who lived in Salinas' Chinatown. The Filipino show, on exhibit through July 2012, follows previous exhibitions focused on the Chinese and Japanese communities. Material from all three exhibits will eventually become part of the future Asian Cultural Experience museum in the Republic Cafe, a Chinatown landmark just a few blocks from the Steinbeck Center.
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A front page from the Philippines Mail, founded in Salinas in 1921 under the name the Philippine Independent, and passages from John Steinbeck help the National Steinbeck Center illustrate the rising racial and economic tensions Filipino farm workers faced in California as their numbers grew. Former writers for the Philippines Mail the oldest Filipino newspaper in the United States will also be part of a panel discussion on the challenges they faced, as part of the annual Steinbeck Festival on May 4.
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John Steinbeck's observations are paired with scenes from Filipino history in the Philippines and the United States in the new "Filipino Voices: Past and Present" exhibition. One such passage from 1936, in the section on farm workers: "...in California we find a curious attitude toward a group that makes our agriculture successful. The migrants are needed, and they are hated...[because] if allowed to organize they can, simply by refusing to work, wipe out the season's crops. They are never received into the community nor into the life of a community ..."
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Unlike the National Steinbeck Center's previous exhibitions about the area's Chinese and Japanese American communities, "Filipino Voices: Past and Present" opens with displays on the culture and history of the multiethnic people before Western contact, including this traditional nipa hut of lashed bamboo. The exhibition outlines the various rebellions against Spanish colonial rule and later U.S. control of the multiethnic island nation, which ultimately brought a wave of workers to Hawaii and California in the early 20th century.
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