an overview of filipino-american history

the following is my column for the october issue of alam mo ba.

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Since October is Filipino-American History Month, here is a brief overview of Filipino-American history that I hope you'll find useful and informative....
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The first Filipinos to land in America came via the Spanish galleon trade that existed from 1565-1815. The trade route went from Manila to Acapulco, with several stops in Spanish America. Filipinos, who were also known back then as Luzon Indians or Manila Men, were often part of the crew, and some of them wanted desperately to escape Spanish brutalities.

According to Filipino-American history researcher and Barrio Fiesta speaker Eloisa Gomez Borah, the first Filipinos in America landed in Morro Bay, California, on October 17, 1587. They were part of the crew and landing party of the Spanish galleon Nuesta Senora de Buena Esperanza, with Pedro de Unamuno as captain. Other Filipinos deserted other Spanish galleons during the galleon trade era and settled in other places in California and in Louisiana.

When the City of Los Angeles was founded in 1781, Filipino Antonio Miranda Rodriguez was chosen to be one of the original settlers of the city. He later became the ironsmith for the Santa Barbara mission.
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When the Philippines became a United States territory in 1898, the US Navy started to enlist Filipinos as stewards and mess boys. This begins what Marina Claudio-Perez says is the first of three waves of Filipino immigration into the United States.

From 1903-1934, a small group of Filipinos (about 500) came to the United States to study at American schools. They came to be known as the pensionados, for they were subsidized by a modest stipend from the government because they were the best Filipino students. At the same time a large number of Filipinos, mostly bachelors, came to work as agricultural workers in San Francisco and Seattle or as sugar plantation workers in Hawaii. Many of them were Ilocanos, and the elder bachelors were called Manongs, a term of respect for elderly men.
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The second wave of Filipino immigration to the US came after World War II, when US Congress passed the War Brides Act. The act allowed Filipino servicemen from WWII American units to migrate to the US along with their dependents. The US Navy in 1946 stopped recruiting Filipinos because the Philippines was now an independent country; however, in 1947the Military Bases Agreement between the US and the Philippines allowed the Navy to again recruit Filipino citizens, who would gain US citizenship after a number of years in the service. Many of these Filipinos ended up moving to America.
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The third wave began in 1965, when the US Immigration and Nationality Act greatly increased the annual number of Filipinos migrating to the US to 20,000. It was then that many Filipino professionals moved to the US in search for a better life and better jobs/opportunities. In 1970 the US Navy allows Filipinos to enter into any occupational rating. The trend of Filipinos migrating to the US continues to this day, when many are coming to the US for jobs etc., especially open nursing positions.
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Throughout all of Filipino-American history, racism and discrimination laws against Filipinos were a major problem. They were affected by many anti-miscegenation laws around the country, and it was not until 1967 that all anti-miscegenation statutes in the US were wiped out. Some Filipinos were frequently harassed and run out of their homes and towns. Some laws such as the 1937 Anti-Alien Land Law in Washington state forbade Filipinos from owning or leasing land. When the influx of Filipino professionals came in 1965, a significant number couldn't practice their profession due to racism/discrimination and prejudice in the work force and lack of opportunity. Today most racism/discrimination against Filipinos is gone; however, to say that it is non-existent in America today would be a mistake.
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So that ends my brief overview of Filipino-American history. There is so much more out there regarding this subject; however, space limits me to this much. We as Filipino-Americans should continue to learn more about our own history and recognize those before us who overcame so many obstacles to settle in America and live the American dream.
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Websites where I got info:

http://www.library.ca.gov/assets/acrobat/filipino.pdf
http://www.capaa.wa.gov/filipinoamericans.html
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/egbgalle.htm
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/chronology.pdf

filipino spy? in the white house?

picture from cnn (sketch: christine cornell)

so today we find out that a former marine, leandro aragoncillo (a naturalized us citizen) had allegedly misused his top-secret fbi clearance to steal classified info and sent it to people in the philippines. (article on cnn here.)

now why in the world would he do this? the philippines, a long-standing ally of the us, has absolutely no reason to spy on it....

well apparently, some say that among the stuff he stole was a classified dossier on president arroyo, and that he passed it along to her political opposition. so what would the opposition need the dossier for? a coup? conspiracy theory.....??

ok, enough with that direction...again, these are all allegations right now, so things will get settled pretty soon. will the media cover it? maybe.........

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looking around the web today...i found a good resource/link site for filipino-american history / culture, so check it out here. resources compiled by the lemieux library.

navy links etc.

ok, sorry for not updating this for a while...now that barrio fiesta is over, i'll actually have some time to post in this blog.

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two weeks ago in my KSK segment i talked a little about the state of the philippine navy today....

here's the official navy webpage. of interest here are their downloadable video clips.
here's a link to the trillanes papers i talked about. it's very long and detailed...read if you want, and decide for yourself...

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...so october is filipino-american history month. barrio fiesta was held to commemorate it, and one of the speakers in the event was one eloisa gomez borah.

i highly recommend visiting her website (in the other links of interest section) which details some of her works.

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more to come soon. i mean it, really.