Filipino-Americans: A Diaspora Longer Than I Thought
I always thought before that Filipino-Americans, whom my family has become, were just a recent phenomenon triggered by the economic depression that hit the Philippines back in the 1980s. Although, after reading books on the colonial history of Filipino migration that I have acquired from the University of the Philippines Press I realized that Filipinos were not just subjects of the Spanish Crown in the Philippines but also deserters, adventurers, and even entrepreneurs in Mexico and the larger Americas as early as the late 16th century.
Manila Men Far Away from Home
Manila Men in the New World: Filipino Migration to Mexico and the Americas from the Sixteenth Century by Floro L. Mercene explores a migration history that basic education barely scratches. I learned that the Galleon Trade was not just a means to enrich the Spanish Crown in Madrid and the nobility in Manila and Acapulco and to facilitate cultural exchange but it was also an escape route for Filipinos, historically called Manila Men, desperate to flee their home in the Philippines from Spanish oppression. Upon disembarking at Acapulco and unloading the fleet’s precious cargo, the most daring Manila men would desert their Spanish commanding officers, flee into the city, and scatter into the rest of Mexico.
For his research, the author of the book set out into places in Mexico where Filipinos had been historically if he could find any descendants. He encountered inhabitants with Filipino features and questioned them if they had any Filipino ancestors. Strangely they would decline. He thought he was headed nowhere in his research until he realized that he should have asked if they had ancestors who were Manila men as they were known in Mexico.
The book also revealed how Filipinos have settled in the Baja California peninsula, a land formation comprising the northwest coast of Mexico just south of the American state of California. Initially, Filipinos went into California to flee their Spanish officers on board the galleons and eventually join the native American population.
During the galleon trade, California proved to be a mysterious and curious place for the Spanish colonial authorities of the Philippines, so much so that a Spanish noble actually entertained the thought of having the region annexed with the Philippines. However, that seizure came from Spanish Mexico with the leadership of Spanish adventurers and missionaries and the help of Filipinos who served as their soldiers and staff. These expeditions were usually afflicted with shipwrecks given California’s treacherous coasts but over time settlements and missions were established.
Beyond the Spanish Empire, the book uncovers the names of Filipinos who enlisted as soldiers and sailors in the American Civil War. Filipinos were also found to inhabit Boston and Philadelphia, even manning whaling fleets off the coast of Alaska, usually known as Manila men by their captains. As amazing as these stories are of Filipino adventurism, like the involvement of Filipinos in a Dutch piracy crisis that spanned from the western coast of Mexico to the Visayas region, the most astonishing story I have read was about a place called St. Malo in Louisiana.
According to the book, very little is known about the origins of this Filipino settlement in the swamps of Louisiana. It is speculated that Manila men who fled Mexico founded this settlement in order to hide from the Spanish authorities. Journalist Lafcadio Hearn investigated and later revealed this community to the American people with his writings and drawings.
He found that there were no women in the settlement and fishing was the dominant livelihood in the area. The houses of these fishermen were supported by stilts and were bare of any kind of furniture. Even if the settlement was under the jurisdiction of a nearby parish, it was mainly self-governing. The punishment for being a problem to the community or for disobeying the decision of the oldest man at trial was confinement inside a jail cell close to the swamp surface. Given this, many convicts would choose to relent.
Besides being a community mostly cut off from the rest of Louisiana, the book also reveals how the settlement was also home to a vibrant port life and shrimp industry. For a while this prosperity lasted and never did life away from the Philippines seemed so secure and flourishing until the early 19th century when a hurricane turned the entire settlement into rubble, compelling Filipinos to move into the city of New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana.
Entering the American Colonial Period
However, we all know that the Filipino legacy in the United States never ended there and continued on into the modern era. I learned from reading The Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and Migration in Filipino America, 1898–1946 that before the recent Filipino diaspora of the 1960s to the present day there was migration from the Philippines to the United States during the American colonial period.
In the early phases of the new colonial period, the Americans institutionalized public education for the Filipino people. This development came with the construction of public schoolhouses and the introduction of an American education that included English, American civics, and history. In these classes, young Filipinos learned not only American English but also the benevolent mission of America and the opportunities that the homeland had in store for them.
This education allowed the colonial government to export willing Filipino labor into the United States to work in the growing economy’s agricultural sector. Based on the book, among the places Filipinos found themselves in were the plantations of Hawaii working with imported Japanese laborers. They toiled hard for their pay, which they would send back to family in the Philippines; a prequel to the remittances that would sustain the Philippine economy later in the future.
Plantation work had deplorable conditions, even the living standards, and the pay was low. There were also cases of labor abuse by plantation owners. In response, Filipino workers tried to mobilize against them but strikebreakers would shut them down. At one time, a Filipino-led mobilization was so large that it shut down the entire plantation industry on the island but the owners retaliated much harder. They deported the strikers back to the Philippines and replaced them with new laborers.
Filipino migrant workers also found themselves manning the salmon cannery crews in Alaska. They had to be shipped from Seattle in order to get hold of the seasonal work. Similar to Hawaii, their work and living conditions were not ideal even if the sweltering heat was no longer a concern. They only lived in makeshift wooden shacks with inadequate heating.
In California, the Filipinos there trod on a different path even if they still assumed agricultural labor in the surrounding farms. They were able to buy cars, fancy suits, and even court white women. Stockton, the beating heart of the Filipino community in California, was at the center of this migration phenomenon. It was the go-to place for Filipinos in America given the agricultural jobs nearby, the growing Filipino population, and the Filipino-led associations and enterprises that were based there.
Among these establishments were the gambling dens and taxi dance halls that Filipinos would flock to after their hard work in the fields. Besides losing hard-earned savings to gambling, Filipinos were also able to interact with white women: flirting and dancing with them into the night. After all, there were very few women among the Filipino migrant population.
Sadly, the success of the Filipinos was not welcomed wholeheartedly by the local white population. They perceived their Asian visitors as an economic and social threat — stealing their jobs, fancying their women, and diluting their pure racial blood with interracial children. They responded with race riots, beatings, and even bombings. Some states imposed anti-miscegenation laws, compelling Filipino-white couples to cross state lines just to get married.
Beyond this social conflict in the halls of the federal government, the delegation of the Philippine government and the agricultural industry lobbied hard to allow the Filipino migrant workers to stay against a powerful interest coalition fighting for their deportation. This bloc comprised of the Native Sons of the Golden West and other anti-migrant groups.
This was a far cry from what was being taught by public school teachers in the Philippines. Instead of the United States being the land of opportunity for those fortunate enough to enter it, the country was a bastion of centuries of racism to the detriment of people with dark skin. Although, this attitude soon changed with the 2nd World War.
Racism was set aside and publicly condemned in order to gain the moral high ground and muster popular support for the war effort against Japan and Germany. The federal government also proceeded to persuade the Filipino migrant population to enlist in the armed forces with the prospect of citizenship at the end of the war.
Many volunteered to fight and were later sent off to Asia. Most got the American citizenship they were promised but some were unable to out of legal technicalities even if they have fostered deep social and economic roots in America. At least after decades of discrimination and uncertainty, Filipino migrants were finally able to legally secure their lives.
Revelations
Reading these two books not only enlightened me of how far back Filipino migration to America went but also made me realize that my family is part of a national story larger than the migration phenomena of the 1960s. I have discovered that this has been happening all this time and it is disappointing that this history is barely raised in basic education.
I wish this was widely known so people can take pride in the fact that past Filipinos went so far to secure their future even with the obstacles they had to overcome. Even today this determination still rings true. Yet let us not forget that they have left the Philippines for better lives, which compels us in the present to make our country better so others would rather choose to stay.
Sources:
Manila Men in the New World: Filipino Migration to Mexico and the Americas from the Sixteenth Century
The Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and Migration in Filipino America, 1898–1946
