The Filipino
experience in America has had a few writers --- Carlos Bulosan and
Manuel Buaken, have both have written about THE OLD TIMERS (OTs or
Manongs.) They first came to the US via the cane fields of
Hawaii. They then moved to California and the west coast.
They came in
1903s. worked in the fields in what has been known as the "work
circuit of Filipino migrants." From Washington and Oregon to
Marysville, California (picking pears); beet picking in Sacramento,
San Luis Obispo and Salinas, lettuce picking in Stockton, walnut picking
in San Jose, grape in Fresno, potatoes in Bakersfield, tomatoes in
Imperial Valley, carrots in Phoenix, Arizona, then the cycle starts
all over again.
The Watsonville,
California riot proved they were not wanted. Fermin Tobera, lay dead,
shot by White vigilante group of farmers who wanted them out. Fermin
was quietly sleeping in his bunk bed. His body was shipped to Philippines.
His funeral caused a stir. We were under a Commonwealth rule. In 1934,
the quota of 50 immigrants were allowed. Before that time, there was
unlimited entry as we were American "nationals" without
rights of citizenship.
More jobs opened
up as the war clouds gathered in the Pacific and Europe. In 1941 Filipino
volunteers were turned down by the U S armed forces. After the fall
of Bataan and Corregidor, he suddenly became wanted. Some 13,000 of
them walked in the uniform of the U.S. armed forces. American attitude
turned around. Different jobs opened up as industries needed manpower.
The total number of Filipinos grew to about 45,000.
Now, back to
the OTs. Fully three fourths of the agricultural workers moving with
the crops. The Alaskan canneries were no stranger Filipinos. The jobs
were not wanted by white Americans. Jobs described as "back-breaking
stoop labor."
Three factors contributed to the rootlessness and mobility of the
Filipinos: (1) dependence on agricultural work, with a few in "service"
occupations; (2)alien land laws did not allow Orientals to own or
lease farms, and froze them as migrant crop workers, (3) women shortage,
with a ratio of 14 to 1. The anti miscegenation laws in California
did not allow Filipinos to marry Caucasian (to mean white) women.
The three factors
resulted in pre-occupation with gambling, especially cockfighting,
and pre-occupation with White women in dance halls, hence, the title
"DOLLAR A DAY, TEN CENTS A DANCE."
The story of
the Manongs is not new. I read about them even before landing
in San Francisco. AMERICA IS IN THE HEART, Carlos Bulosan's classic
work, chronicles those times. So did Manuel Buaken, in his I HAVE
LIVED WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Writer Ben Santos wrote about them
as well.
In other parts
of the U.S., Filipinos were railway porters, barbers, taxi drivers,
in Seattle, Chicago, Washington DC, and New York. Ben Santos' YOU
LOVELY PEOPLE, THE DAY THE DANCERS CAME, BROTHER, MY BROTHER, THE
MAN WHO THOUGHT HE LOOKED LIKE ROBERT TAYLOR. Ben Santos is a later
chronicler. Writer, NVM Gonzales intones:
"only the Filipino should write about the Pinoy experience in
America."
Every PINOY should
see DOLLAR A DAY, TEN CENTS A DANCE, if he wants to KNOW his ROOTS.
For ROOTS GIVE MEANING AND UNDERSTANDING ---THE WHYS AND WHATS OF
THE FILIPINO EXPERIENCE.
