Filipinos in the East Bay

Images of America: California

by Evangeline Canonizado Buell, Evelyn Luluquisen, Lillian Galedo

Filipinos are a community nearly 2.5-million strong in the United States in 2007. At the turn of the 20th century, the first wave of Filipino migration began, continuing until the start of World War II. During this time span, sponsored students, veterans of the Philippine-American War and their families, and young men recruited in the Philippines to serve in the U.S. military or work in California and Hawaii's expanding agricultural industries would all arrive in the United States. On the San Francisco Bay Area's eastern shore, Filipino presence in the labor force transitioned with the region's economic and social evolution from mainly farm and service laborers to industrial workers to professional, administrative, and service workers. Today the East Bay is a vibrant center of the Filipino community's deeply rooted and rich cultural, political, and economic life.

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2008

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This book is so amazing! It's bittersweet to see some faces of community folks who've since passed away, namely Helen Toribio and Ray Gatchalian.

My only criticism is that no one project is ever 100% complete, and there are obvious absences within these pages, for example, Pusod and its former staffers, which was formerly based in Berkeley, and in its heyday, a bustling East Bay center of the Fil Am arts and activist scene, however short-lived it was.

Despite these absences, this project fills me with warmth; it's a well organized compilation of historical evidence, generations of workers making families and homes here. We see the wives and descendants of Buffalo soldiers, agricultural workers, military men actively making community, claiming this place. Filipinos have been here for a long time. I look at these old pictures of Fil Am communities in Oakland, and think about how our centers seem to have moved. I see a map of Oakland Chinatown and see the Fil Am family owned businesses, community centers, and gathering spaces, and as I have worked in Oakland Chinatown for over 8 years now, I see how those have vanished.

As well, I am honored to be included in this book, as a longtime Fremont resident, now Oakland resident, and Fil Am community artist. Also in the section of artists in which I am included are writers Vangie Buell, Janet Mendoza Stickmon, Oscar Penaranda, and Aimee Suzara, blues singer Sugar Pie Desanto (my god, how hot is she!), blues musician Carlos Zialcita, the band Mahal, and musicians Ben and Joachim Luis. They include pictures of the FAA sponsored Lasa ng Jazz show which took place at the Alice Arts Center in the early-mid 1990's (across the street from my old studio apartment), and which showcased Fil Am musicians contributions to and immersion in American jazz. In these Lasa ng Jazz pictures we also see Rudy Tenio, Melecio Magdaluyo, Flip Nunez, et al.

There is so much in this book. I love it.

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wishing it had more early 20th-century information/ images, otherwise...