Celebrating Filipino American History Month
In 1991 the month of October was first proposed by the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) Board of Trustees to commemorate the arrival of the first Filipinos to the new world which happened in October 1585 when Filipinos landed in what is now Morro Bay, California.
FANHS chapters took up the call and started organizing celebrations the following year. Today, more community groups are taking up the call with various activities and events to bring awareness to the significant role Filipinos have played in American life and history.
Migrations of Fili[inos to the US
Filipinos came to the new world over the span of two and half centuries or 250 years. As noted above, the first Filipinos who landed near Morro Bay were crew members of the Senora de Buena Esperanza, a trading ship known as a Manilla galleon.
In 1521, Ferdinand Magellan claimed the Philippines for Spain. Soon after, Spanish trading ships for 250 years crossed the Pacific from Manila to Acapulco, Mexico known as the Manila galleon trade bringing spices, porcelain, Chinese silk, and other luxury goods from Asia first to Mexico (then known as Nueva Espana) then to Spain. Migration during this time was largely due to Filipinos fleeing the cruel conditions on board the Spanish trading ships. When they had the chance, they “jumped ship” to escape their horrible conditions.
Because of these “escape” incidents, we find the establishment of Filipino settlements in America as early as 1763 like the Filipino settlement in Louisiana. Another Filipino settlement was in Alta California established in the early 1800s when this area was still part of Mexico. This area later joined the Union in 1850 as the state of California.
The Manong Generation
The first truly large group of migration from the Philippines were the Filipino “manongs”. Over 100,000 mostly single and young Filipino men came in the 1920s through the depression years of the 1930s.They were recruited as cheap labor to replace Chinese and Japanese workers for the farm fields of Hawaii and the West Coast and the fishing canneries in Alaska. Their predecessors, Chinese and Japanese laborers, were banned due to racism and white xenophobia.
The Philippines at this time, was a colony of the United States making it a convenient source of cheap labor for the US agricultural and fishing industries. Filipinos faced the same harsh realities as their predecessors with back breaking working conditions, low pay, substandard housing, and they were not allowed to marry caucasian women. Many remained single through to their golden years without wives and children. Those who married had families with African-American, Latino, and native women. The few who married white women did it in a different state.
The second wave of Filipino immigration starts after the end of WWII
Filipino manongs who enlisted to join the war effort during WWII were granted US citizenship after the war. Filipinos in the Philippines who also joined the US war effort were promised US citizenship but was later reversed. Many Filipinos who were now citizens went back to the Philippines to find wives to bring back to the US. They settled down and raised families. This set the foundation for building stable Filipino American communities especially in US cities near US naval bases like San Diego and Virginia Beach in the east coast. From these Filipino American enclaves emerged the Filipino American 2nd generation group.
The Third Wave
The last and continuing wave of Filipino migration is the current one which started in 1965. My family and I are part of this immigration wave like most of us are. The new 1965 immigration laws allowed my family to join my father (who came in 1963) under the new law’s “family reunification program”.
The new immigration laws also gave preference to professional immigrants reflecting the labor needs of the country in this period. As a result, an influx of Filipino professionals in the health field like nursing, and medical technology, as well as accounting and other skilled professions came to the US in large numbers. Once settled, these professionals petitioned their parents to join them under the family reunification program. Their parents in turn petitioned the other siblings to come to America.
In the late 80s and 90s, there were around half a million Filipinos in the US. Today, that number is estimated to be 4.5 million. It helps to use these immigration waves as a framework to explore, learn, construct, and share our Filipino American immigrant experience and history. Much of this work is taking place in Filipino American history programs that exist in some of our universities. The establishment of ethnic studies programs more broadly was the result of student activism in the 70s and 80s demanding that the histories of people of color communities be told.
Outside of academia and on a community level, I as chair, would like to share the Carlos Bulosan Book Club’s (CBBC) vision and efforts to explore, learn, & share our Filipino American immigrant experience. For one, the CBBC has developed a study guide for the book “America is in the Heart” by Carlos Bulosan, a renowned writer, poet, a labor organizer, and an activist fighting for the rights of farm and cannery workers during his time.
We hope to package it into 4 webinars corresponding to the 4 parts of the book. The webinar format led by a presenter/moderator will allow attendees to participate even if they are not in the same area as the presenter/moderator. An ongoing project of the CBBC is to document the family stories of our early pioneers, the “manongs”. The CBBC’s mission is to encourage all members of our community to start “telling our stories”, regardless of which immigration wave you belong to.
I would like to end with the following:
Carlos Bulosan frequently reminds us of our shared experiences and common bonds with other people here in America and from other lands. While we spotlight our own Filipino American stories, we learn and celebrate other immigrants’ struggles and successes as we all strive to be part of America and participate in making it a more perfect union. Most of our community is part of the 99%. And for those of you who happen to part of the 1%, I hope you rally to the cause of the majority, the 99%.
By Jaime Geaga, PA, MPH, and Chair of the Carlos Bulosan Book Club. Speech given at the Carson, CA celebration of Filipino American History Month in 2019