The Romance of Magno Rubio Unit

Lesson Plans on the Filipina/o American Experience in the 1930s and 1940s
Dawn Bohulano Mabalon
Assistant Professor, History San Francisco State University dmabalon@sfsu.edu

Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales
Associate Professor, Asian American Studies San Francisco State University aticu@sfsu.edu

Liza Marie S. Erpelo

Assistant Professor, Language Arts Skyline College erpelol@smccd.edu

Unit Overview
A. Who is Carlos Bulosan? Who is the Filipina/o American in the time of Carlos Bulosan?
1. America is the Heart: Colonized American Dreams Before and Beyond Bulosan 2. Little Manila: Filipinos in Californias Heartland

B. Who is Magno Rubio? What can we learn about the Filipina/o American experience through Bulosans short story The Romance of Magno?
1. The TITLE Love in the Time of the Manongs: The Romance of the Filipino with America 2. The TIME and TREATMENT Race Matters: Anti- Filipino Sentiment in the 1930s 3. The TEXT The Romance of Filipinos/as in America: A Short Story of a Long History

C. Performing The Romance of Magno Rubio

Day 1. Classroom as a Stage Day 2. Stage as a Classroom Day 3. Connecting Magno Rubio, Carlos Bulosan, and our current experiences

For additional lesson plans on Filipina/o American History, purchase the Pin@y Educational Partnerships: A Filipina/o American Studies Sourcebooks at http://phoenixpublishinghouseintl.com/titles.html
Parts of the Romance of Magno Rubio Lesson Plans were excerpted from the sourcebooks.

Unit Purpose
PROBLEM We created this unit on The Romance of Magno Rubio for the Northern California premiere of the Ma-Yi Theater production of The Romance of Magno Rubio, an Obie-award winning off-Broadway play, written by Lonnie Carter, based on Carlos Bulosans short story, and directed by Loy Arcenas. It is our hope that area educators will bring the short story and play, and curriculum about the Filipina/o American experience, into their classrooms. Ultimately, we hope that educators will bring their students to the play. Carlos Bulosan arrived in Seattle on June, 1930 as a 17-year-old from Magusmana, Binalonan, Pangasinan. As U.S. nationals, Filipinos were not excluded by anti-Asian immigration laws; Bulosan was one of more than 100,000 mostly male Filipina/o immigrants who streamed into Hawaii and the United States between 1902, when the Philippines formally became a U.S. colony, and World War II. Deeply influenced by their colonial American teachers who bragged of the incredible educational opportunities awaiting him and other Filipinos in that country, Bulosans pioneering generation of Filipinas/os (most of them Ilocanas/os and Visayans from farming families in the provinces) instead found themselves struggling to survive as migrant workers, toiling in the fields across the West Coast and the Midwest and under brutal contracts on Hawaiian sugar and pineapple plantations. Though their American teachers had told Bulosan and his generation that they would pick gold up from the streets in America, in the words of one oldtimer, the stark reality of their lives in America could not have been further from their nave dreams. The onset of the Depression reduced their pay to a dollar a day; the economic crash and the exploitation of Filipino laborers through low wages made it impossible for them to save enough money to return home

rich, or even at all. From the late 1930s through World War II, Bulosan split his time between Stockton, the center of Filipina/o America, and Los Angeles, doing labor union and political organizing work and publishing his poetry, essays, and short stories. In 1946, he published America Is In the Heart, a gritty ethnobiography and National Book Award nominee about the Filipino immigrant experience in the two decades before World War II. From 1948-49, Bulosan lived in a small residential hotel 110 El Dorado Street in Stocktons Little Manila district (demolished in the 1960s for the Crosstown Freeway). That year, he helped organize the massive, yet unsuccessful, Local 7 asparagus strike. In same time period, he set to work on twelve short stories about, Bulosan wrote, the real Filipinos. The Romance of Magno Rubio was one of these stories. These pieces are written in humor, anger, bitterness, love, compassion, contempt, he wrote to a friend in 1955. Magno is a simple, hard-working Ilocano farm boy with little education, yet with larger-than-life dreams of love and success, like many early Filipino immigrants, and like Bulosan himself. By the time we meet the characters in Magno Rubio, these immigrants have been toughened by loneliness, discrimination and hardships. Barred from citizenship, and from marrying whites by Californias strict antimiscegenation code (with a sex ratio imbalance of 14 Pinoys to 1 Pinay, the law made marriage and family building almost impossible for these men), these pioneers struggled to survive on meager earnings and in horrific working conditions on West Coast farms. Magnos pen pal Clarabelle, the six-foot tall blonde whom Magno befriends through a lonely hearts magazine, represents something even larger to Magno and his friends. By the end of the story and the play, we realize that for Magno and his bunkmates, Clarabelle represents America herself, with all her illusory promise and allure, her deceptiveness and her callous treatment of adoring Magno. Clarabelles rejection of Magno represents the betrayal felt by the thousands of Filipinos American colonial subjects -- who arrived on American shores with such innocent anticipation, with open hearts and big dreams, only to be rebuffed by Jim Crow segregation on the West Coast and laws that prohibited their full integration in American society. Though more than 100,000 Filipinas/os arrived in Hawaii and California before World War II and played an integral role in the shaping of the West Coast and Pacific Rim political economy and culture, Filipina/o American experiences still play a marginal role in American historiography and in literature. A close study of Bulosans short story and the play upon which it was based give us an incredible opportunity to explore myriad issues around race, ethnicity, gender and class in 20th century California history and in American mid-century literature. It is our hope that this curriculum unit and the premiere of the play in Northern California are significant steps towards bringing the Filipina/o American experience from margin to center in our classrooms and in our scholarship. Guiding Questions: What were the experiences of Filipino immigrants on the West Coast from the 1920s to the 1950s? How did American colonialism shape the dreams, expectations and immigration patterns of Filipina/o immigrants to the United States in the first decades of the 20th century? What were the expectations of these immigrants, and what was the reality they endured? How are Filipina/o immigrants agents in their own history, vs. victims? What were the impacts of the extreme sex ratio imbalance on Filipino immigrant men? What kinds of labor were Filipino immigrants performing in the early 20th century? How and why were they so central to the California agricultural economy in the early-to-mid 20th century? What were their working conditions, and how did they respond to these conditions?

MIND: CONTENT Learning Goals

1. 2. 3. 4.

Students will gain a basic understanding of the history and legacy of American colonialism in the Philippines. Students will understand why Filipinas/os immigrated to the United States in large numbers, and understand their experiences in the United States from the 1920s to the 1950s. Students will understand how racism, sexism, and the low wages and exploitation of blue-collar and farm workers affected the lives of Filipina/o immigrants and their families from the 1920s to the 1950s. Students will understand how immigrant labor helped to build the American economy, and

particularly, California agriculture, in the first half of the 20th century.

BODY: SKILL Learning Goals

1. Critical Literacy: Students will learn about the struggles and complexities in Filipina/o American history through the use of literature and performance. 2. Language Literacy: Students will develop narrative writing skills (narrating the formation of their identity). Students will develop oral presentation skills (presenting their family histories). 3. Creative Literacy: Students will explore multiple ways of expression through drawing cognitive maps, performing skits, and analyzing multiple forms of text and media. 1. The history of Filipinas/os in the United States is directly related to the students and teachers experiences. 2. Students and teachers will apply analytical concepts to be critical of the experiences of Filipinas/os in the United States and discuss ways to address current issues.

SOUL: RELEVANCE Learning Goals

UNIT CONCEPTS ANTI-FILIPINO SENTIMENT

Definition, Description, and/or History of the Concept Anti-Filipino sentiment peaked during the late 1920s, partly as a result of the depression, resulting in racially motivated attacks, mobs, and murders. In 1933, anti-Filipina/o exclusionists and pro-independence lawmakers ally to draft the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which promises Filipino independence in 1944, changes the status of Filipinas/os from national to alien, and restricts immigration from the Philippines to 50 per year. In Bulosans America Is In the Heart, he writes that the lives of Filipinos were cheaper than those of dogs, and that it was a crime to be a Filipino in America. Laws prohibiting the marriage of whites and blacks date back to the founding of the American republic and the institution of slavery. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, racial scientists and eugenicists deemed a mixing of the races (miscegenation) as biologically undesirable. Laws prohibiting the marriage of anyone legally or socially defined as white with someone of another non-white, racialized group were antimiscegenation laws. Miscegenation is a racist term implying that such mixing is degrading to both racialized groups and that the resulting children will be lower than either parents race. Different states had antimiscegenation laws naming various ethnic or racialized groups depending on the local demographics. For example, in the South the focus was on preventing intermarriage between whites and people legally and socially defined as Black (in some states if you were 1/16th Black, in other is you were 1/32nd Black you were so defined). Californias anti-miscgenation laws prohibited the marriage of whites to blacks, Mongolians, and Indians. Landmark Interracial Relationship Cases & Antimiscegenation Laws: The first recorded interracial marriage in North American history took place between John Rolfe and Pocahontas in 1614. The first anti-miscegenation law in what was to become the United States was enacted in Maryland in 1661. It prevented the intermarriage of white women with Black men. In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th century, many American states passed anti-miscegenation laws. Typically a felony, these laws prohibited the solemnization of weddings between people categorized socially and legally as white and those categorized in specific non-white groups and prohibited the officiating of such ceremonies. Antimiscegenation laws were integral to the institutionalization of slavery because it meant that Black men could be easily persecuted for the crime of looking at a white womanand the cry of rape was often used to justify the lynching of Black men during this time. It also kept white women and the ideal of white womanhood as the sole domain of white men. Meanwhile, white men could and did freely have sex with Black women, and anti-miscegenation laws prevented such unions from ever being legally sanctioned. Definitions of Blackness were strict; if you were 1/32nd black in some states you were legally Black. That means if you had one great great great grandparent who had been legally and or socially considered Black, so were you. Thus, the mixed heritage children of interracial unions could rarely inherit their white fathers property. At the time that anti-miscegenation laws were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, sixteen states still had laws prohibiting interethnic marriage. Those laws were not completely repealed until November 2000, when Alabama became the last state to repeal its law. Mixed heritage organizations are now beginning to celebrate June 12th as Loving Day to commemorate the struggle of this and many other brave couples. (For more information, go to http://lovingday.org.)

ANTIMISCEGENATION

COLONIALISM

In 1933, Filipino immigrant Salvador Roldan challenged the states law by asserting that Filipinos were Malay, and therefore, not subject to the law; he was able to marry his white fiance. The next year, the state added Malay to the law. A system in which one nation exercises military, economic, and political power to control another countrys: Land by establishing colonies or political rule Labor through slavery and/or exploitation Liberty by taking away freedom and/or violating human rights Life by attempting to destroy indigenous culture, ideology, identity, and spirituality Language to control communication and education Legacy through the destruction of histories, herstories, and ourstories Under feudalism, Land = Power. If you want more power, you need more land. The European colonial experience was based on the quest of nations for more power. Often, the understated result of this expansion was the mass murder of indigenous people, as well as the enslavement of Africans and the native population of the continent. The Philippines was a direct colony of Spain, and later, the United States (Artnelson Concordia, Tibak, 2006). (PEP book) All people of color in Stockton, including Filipinas/os, were excluded from most areas of Stockton north of Main Street. Chinese, Japanese and Filipinas/os were segregated into area downtown called the Oriental Quarter. Filipinas/os settled near Chinatown and Japantown at the intersection of El Dorado and Lafayette Streets and created a four-to-six block area they called Little Manila. It was a diverse neighborhood, full of Filipina/o owned businesses, restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, residences, churches and organizations that was home to the largest community of Filipinas/os outside of the Philippines from the 1930s to the 1960s. Many Filipinas/os lived in the small residential hotels in the area. After World War II, when many Filipina/o families settled in neighborhoods near Little Manila, the neighborhood was still a gathering place for the regions Filipina/o American community. In the 1950s and 1960s, city officials marked Chinatown, Japantown and Little Manila for urban redevelopment and the State Highway Commission identified a corridor that included much of Little Manila for the Crosstown freeway. Thousands of Filipinas/os and other residents lost their homes and businesses. In 1972, the Filipina/o community built the Filipino Center, a downtown complex with affordable housing and a place for displaced businesses. In 1999, the city evicted more elderly Filipinas/os to build a McDonalds on El Dorado and Lafayette Streets. Filipinos continue to be the largest Asian ethnic group in Stockton and surrounding San Joaquin County. In 2002, the city, under pressure from the community, designated a four block area downtown as the Little Manila Historic Site. Term of respect and admiration for the generation of men and women who immigrated to the United States between the beginning of the American colonial period to World War II, coined by their descendants and more recent immigrants. However, some scholars are critical of the term for a number of reasons, and prefer to use terms like pioneers and first wave immigrants. For some Ilocanos and Visayans, Manong/Manang are familial, terms used for an older sibling, and terms of deeper respect (Uncle, Lolo, Tata/Tay (father), Sir, and Mr., for example), were more often used for the pioneer immigrants. Scholars also maintain that the term Manong/Manang Generation also freezes that generation in old age, conceptualizes that generations identity only in relationship to younger and newer immigrants, and doesnt recognize their youthful experiences in America, multidimensional lives and their different life experiences over many decades. Pinay/Pinoy: The nickname Filipina/o immigrants gave themselves in the United States, to identify anyone who is Filipina/o with American roots/experiences. Some its earliest uses can be traced back to the mid1920s. The term traveled back to the Philippines, where it is now widely used for any Filipina/o. Dignified Labor: The Filipina/o American farm workers and cannery workers performed extremely difficult work with great skill and pride. However, they were often exploited, abused, devalued, and mistreated by the people who employed them. Despite this, they were dignified and proud of their work and their skill, and determined that they be treated and paid accordingly. They were skilled workers and highly professional. They did work that many could not, or refused, to do. They fought for economic justice by organizing labor unions that fought for fair wages and working conditions. They had great dignity, and believed that their hard work was worth good pay and safe working conditions. They sacrificed many of their dreams, including going to college, to help their families in the United States and the Philippines. They were Pinay/Pinoy Pioneers.

LITTLE MANILA IN STOCKTON

MANONG/MANONG GENERATION

PINAY/PINOY PIONEER LABOR (1906-1934)

Degradation and Exploitation: Because of racism and capitalism, Filipinas/os and other immigrants and workers of color laboring in agriculture, canneries, industries, and in domestic work were exploited and degraded despite their skill and experience. Filipinas/os, considered a dispensable, cheap labor source, worked the longest hours and were paid the lowest wages and endured the worst working and living conditions. They were humiliated, treated unfairly, and forced to work in conditions few Americans would accept. Their hard work and professionalism were devalued because of racist and classist ideas about Filipinas/os and about the nature of physical labor. For example, some farmers believed that Filipinas/os were suited to farm work, because they were shorter and therefore, closer to the ground. Many farmers and bosses believed that Filipinas/os deserved low wages because they were thought to be racially inferior. Determined Activism: Despite their mistreatment, Filipina/o American farm workers were determined to fight against the exploitation of farm and cannery workers. Even though they were often beaten, arrested, jailed, shot at, dismissed, and ignored, they persisted in fighting for wages through militant and highly organized labor unions. Filipinas/os who arrive in the United States in this period about 100,000constitute the first major wave of Filipina/o immigration to Hawaii and the mainland United States. Beginning in 1906, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association (HSPA) recruited thousands of workers, most of them Ilocanas/os and Visayans. By the 1920s, Filipinas/os immigrated directly to the United States mainland, and some sakadas began leaving Hawaii to settle on the mainland. Most of the early immigrants became laborers in plantations in Hawaii, on farms in the United States, or in Alaska in the salmon canneries. Many were inspired by the pensionadas/os and desired the opportunity to go to school in the United States, but had to work as laborers to survive. As nationals of the United States, Filipinas/os entered the United States without restriction, filling a labor vacuum on the West Coast that arose when all Asian immigration was prohibited from entering the United States under the 1924 Immigration Act. The majority of these immigrants were young men under the age of 30; about ten percent of these immigrants were women. Filipinas/os settled in such West Coast cities as Stockton, California, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salinas, Watsonville, and Seattle, creating vibrant Little Manilas, Manilatowns, and many Filipina/o American organizations. Filipinas/os also created militant and highly organized labor unions in Stockton, Salinas, and in the Alaskan salmon canneries. Anti-Filipina/o sentiment peaked during the late 1920s, resulting in racially motivated attacks, mobs, and murders. In 1933, anti-Filipina/o exclusionists and pro-independence lawmakers ally to draft the TydingsMcDuffie Act, which promises Filipino independence in 1944, changes the status of Filipinas/os from national to alien, and restricts immigration from the Philippines to 50 per year. This period is characterized by three key developments: the exclusion of Filipinas/os and the change in their status, the onset of World War II, and the coming of age of American-born or American-raised children of the pre-war immigrants. Filipinas/os can no longer move freely between the Philippines and the United States and are now classified as aliens. World War II brings devastation and horror to the Philippines as the United States departs and Japan occupies the Philippines. However, Filipino immigrants in the United States are offered an opportunity to fight in the Philippines in the U.S. Armys First and Second Filipino Infantry Regiments, and to become naturalized citizens. Though the majority of immigrants were Filipino men, there were many Filipina/o American families in Hawaii and in the United States. The children in these families became adolescents in the late 1930s and 1940s, in the process, creating a unique Filipina/o American identity and ethnic culture. Identity is not the same as heritage, though many people often conflate the two ideas. Identity is more often about who an individual identifies with rather than what an individual identifies as. Therefore, a person of mixed Filipina/o and Thai heritage may identify first as an Asian American because she feels more in common with other Asian Americans than with either the Thai or Filipina/o American communities. A person of mixed heritage is likely to have a sense of identification with more than one community, so different identities may be fore-grounded at different times. - The collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which a thing is definitively recognizable or known. - The set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member or group. - The quality or condition of being the same as something else. - The distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity; individuality. (Dictionary.com)
RACISM

THE PINAY/PINOY PIONEERS: SAKADAS, STUDENTS, WORKERS, AND ADVENTURERS (1906-1934)

THE EXCLUSION PERIOD, WAR, AND THE SECOND GENERATION (1934-1946)

IDENTITY

The systematic subordination of members of targeted racial groups who have relatively little social power

in the United States (African Americans, Latino/as, Native Americans, and Asian Americans), by the members of the agent racial group who has relatively more social power (Whites). This subordination is supported by the actions of individuals, cultural norms and values, and the institutional structures and practices of society (Adams, Bell, and Griffin, 89). When we think about racism, we can look back at hundreds of years of acts of racism. The term racism, however, did not actually appear until the 1930s.

AMERICA IS IN THE HEART: COLONIZED AMERICAN DREAMS BEFORE AND BEYOND BULOSAN
Description: In this lesson plan, students will learn about Carlos Bulosan, a Filipino American writer, activist, and community leader. He is one of the most widely-read Asian American writers of recent history. Lesson Plan Materials:
Carlos Bulosans Biography Excerpt of America is in the Heart (pages 143-146 and pages 188-189)

PART 1: CULTURAL ENERGIZER

Carlos Bulosan: The Man, the Myths, and the Movements

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Pass out Carlos Bulosan Biography written by Dawn Mabalon. This can also be assigned for homework the night before. Ask the students to describe Carlos Bulosan in their own words. Then ask the students to describe how they relate to his life.

PART 2: COMMUNITY COLLABORATION AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION America is in the Heart: Assign the students to read an excerpt from Carlos Bulosans America is in the Heart. This
cultural energizer aims to uncover why Bulosan entitle his self-proclaimed autobiography, "America is in the Heart?"

Step 1

Pass out excerpts from America is in the Heart or assign it for homework the night before. Have the students underline words or statements that answer the following question, What does Carlos Bulosan mean by, America is in the Heart?

Step 2

First, you may want to address the concept of autobiography with your students. In the "Autobiographical Sketch" that was provided in San Juan's On Becoming Filipino which was originally included in Stanley Kunitz's Twentieth Century Authors in 1955 Bulosan wrote: "my life is recorded in my autobiography, America Is in the Heart. Between 1931 and Pearl Harbor day, I lived violent years of unemployment, prolonged illness, and heart-rending labor union work on the farms of California. It was when I was dying of tuberculosis in the Los Angeles County Hospital that I had the opportunity to seriously read books which opened all my world of intellectual possibilitiesand a grand dream of bettering society for the working man." (216)

Step 3

One of the major questions surrounding Bulosans work concerns the question of the autobiographical authenticity of Heart. Some have described his work as a novel or a collection of stories that include both composite characters and non-fictional representations of players in early Filipina/o American history, rather than an autobiography. In his descriptions of the manong generation1 Bulosan provides the contemporary reader one perspective that has been used as the metanarrative in understanding early Filipino American history. This metanarrative focuses

Manong/manang means "older brother/sister" in Ilocano and Visayan. This is a term of respect and admiration for the generation of men and women who immigrated to the United States between the beginning of the American colonial period to World War II, coined by their descendants and post-1965 immigrants. However, some scholars are critical of the term for a number of reasons, and prefer to use terms like pioneers and first-wave immigrants. For some Ilocanos and Visayans, Manong/manang are familial, terms used for any older relative, and terms of deeper respect (Uncle, Lolo, Tatay, Sir, and Mr., for example) were often

primarily on the experiences of early Filipino immigrants (mostly male, single, and working class) and their bachelor society. For example, historian Ronald Takaki relies almost exclusively on Bulosans autobiography in part of his section on Filipino immigrants in his history of Asian Americans, Strangers from a Different Shore. Although Heart is very useful, it alone cannot provide a comprehensive history of these early Filipino American immigrants. Our sole reliance on Bulosans text can create a rather static, if not stereotypic image of early Filipino immigrants. The legacy of their experience is rich and deserves to be studied from more innovative sources of analysis (San Buenaventura, 1). Despite this critique, and other issues of historical accuracy and autobiographical authenticity, Bulosans stories can still be used to provide important themes to early Filipino American history. Discussions around the title provide an indication of Bulosan's feelings on this early part of Filipino American history. Students often identify the title America Is In The Heart as a manifestation or rewording of the "American Dream", but I often challenge students to rethink their initial thoughts on the title by asking, "Do we dream with our hearts or our minds?" I also ask, "In the book, does Bulosan achieve some kind of American Dream?" It may be important to provide the students with a guiding statement about the title and then have them make references to other parts of the book. One way to look at the title is to ask if Bulosan believed that America is in the "heart of Filipinos" who spend their lives in the United States. The concept of America is not historically material, rather, America is a feeling or emotion. If America is living only in the heart, it may be that Bulosan believes that it is a fabrication of the individual's mind or soul and that its essence is alive only if propagated and transformed by its residents and citizens. The concept of America, therefore, goes beyond the concept of a dream, but rather, it is a Dream Deferred, as articulated by Bulosans contemporary, Langston Hughes. An extension of this discussion would be to connect colonialism to how Filipinos construct their own meaning for the American Dream. As a result of colonialism in the Philippines, Filipinos have struggled with historical amnesia with the following L's:

Land by establishing colonies or political rule Labor through slavery and/or exploitation Liberty by taking away freedom and/or violating human rights Life by attempting to destroy indigenous culture, ideology, identity, and spirituality Language to control communication and education Legacy through the destruction of histories, herstories, and ourstories How does this affect our relationship with America? and the American Dream?

Step 4

Discussions centered on the meaning of the title can be further discussed in the four parts of the book. You may want to have the students take the title and show how it is represented in each element of the book, including the plot, narrator, point of view, setting(s), and characters. The title can also be related to themes in the four parts of the book, beginning with the Philippine memories, then the immigrant experience, along with the title's relationship to the social issues of discrimination, racism, class struggle, and even settlement. The discussions on the title and the questions provided below allow the class to get a chance to contextualize Heart in Filipino American history.

PART 3: CONCLUSIVE DIALOGUE/CRITICAL CIRCULAR EXCHANGE

used for pioneer immigrants. Scholars also maintain that the term Manong/manang Generation also freezes that generation in old age, conceptualizes that generations identity only in relationship to younger and newer immigrants, and does not recognize their multidimensional lives and their different life experiences over many decades.

Problems/Questions of the Day:

The following questions can generate student discussion and research projects: 1. How does America Is in the Heart represent the early Filipina/o American experience? 2. What aspects of this early experience could have been left out? (for example, women's perspectives) 3. How did poverty in the Philippines affect Bulosans immigration to the United States? 4. What are the differences between pre-World War II and post-1965 immigration? 5. Does Bulosan present an accurate portrayal of the "manong/manang generation?" 6. How do the title and Bulosan's writing style affect the presentation of his perspective? 7. How do the class and labor struggles in the United States relate to racism and criminalization of the Filipino in America? How do the class struggle and Bulosan's interactions with communism relate to the title?

Connection: Do you feel like your own experiences relate to Carlos Bulosans? Assessment: What did you learn from this lesson plan? What could have been improved?

Handout Carlos Bulosan Biography By Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, Ph.D. Adapted from the book manuscript Life in Little Manila: Filipinas/os in Stockton, California, 1917-1972
Writer, activist, and community leader Carlos Bulosan is one of the most widely-read Asian American writers of recent history. His classic novel about the Filipino immigrant experience in California, America Is In the Heart, is read in Asian American Studies, labor history, California history, and ethnic studies classes nationwide. Born into poverty in the rural farming village of Magusmana in Binalonan, Pangasinan, Philippines, on November 24, 1913. At the time, the Philippines was a United States colony. Urged by his American teachers who bragged of the incredible opportunity awaiting him and other Filipinos in that country, Bulosan arrived in the United States in July 1930, with only a grade school education. Disabled by a childhood accident that crippled his leg, Bulosan turned to writing and labor organizing. Bulosan traveled up and down the West Coast, organizing workers into the newly-formed United Cannery and Packing House Workers of America (UCAPAWA) in the Alaska salmon canneries, and in agriculture, and collecting the stories of his fellow Filipino immigrants. An ardent leftist political activist and union organizer who believed that Filipinos should be allowed to become citizens (at the time, Filipinos and other Asians were barred from naturalization), Bulosan along with Filipino immigrant Claro Candelario, founded the Committee for the Protection of Filipino Rights, which lobbied Congress in the 1930s for Filipino citizenship rights. With Candelario, Bulosan moved to Stockton in 1939 to organize for the citizenship campaign. Though Bulosan also had occasional residencies in Seattle and Los Angeles, he lived in Stockton intermittently through his entire life, making Stocktons Little Manila one of his main residences (for years, he received mail at 110 S. El Dorado Street, which was a Filipino-owned barbershop, and at 50 E. Lafayette Street, Ambo Mabalons Lafayette Lunch Counter, according to his papers at University of Washington). His dream was to become a writer, however, and in the late 1930s, he began writing poetry and short stories, becoming a largely self-educated and self-taught writer. He is remembered as a gentle young poet with a fiery pen by Stocktonians who read his columns and poetry in local Filipino American newspapers such as The Philippine Journal and the Philippine Examiner. In 1942, he published a poetry collection, Letter from America. In 1943, he gained national fame when he was asked to write Freedom from Want, a companion essay to Roosevelts Four Freedoms speech and Norman Rockwells Four Freedoms paintings in the Saturday Evening Post. Bulosans moving essay in the Post reminds readers of the struggle against poverty, and for justice for working people. He writes, But our march to freedom is not complete unless want is annihilated. The America we hope to see is not merely a physical but also a spiritual and an intellectual world. We are the mirror of what America is. He published Voice of Bataan, poems in tribute to that battle and its fallen soldiers that same year. The following year, he published the bestseller The Laughter of My Father. In the 1940s and 1950s, his essays and poetry were published in the New Yorker, The New Republic, The Writer, Books Abroad, Midweek, Town and Country, Harpers Bazaar and in Filipino American ethnic newspapers based in California, such as The Commonwealth Times. But his most lasting, and important, achievement is his semi-autobiographical novel, America Is In the Heart, nominee for a National Book Award in 1946. The book chronicles the trials, tribulations, heartbreak and triumphs of the thousands of Filipino immigrants who were living in the United States during the Depression and before World War II. Stockton plays a critical role in the book. In the book, Bulosan writes of the vibrant Little Manila community in downtown Stockton. The books protagonist, Carlos, is given a political education in labor organizing and social justice by a character in the book, Claro, a character based on his old friend and Stockton community leader Claro Candelario. Of Stocktons Little Manila, Bulosan writes in America Is In the Heart: some of the hoboes told me that there were thousands of Filipinos in StocktonIt was twilight when the train pulled into the yards. I asked some of the hoboes where I could findmy countrymen. El Dorado Street, they said. It was like a song, for the words actually mean the land of gold. I did not know that I wanted gold in the new land, but the name was like a song. I walked slowly in the streets, avoiding the business district and the lightsI saw many Filipinos in magnificent suits standing in front of poolrooms and gambling houses. There must have been hundreds in the street somewhere, waiting for the nightI walked eagearly among them, looking into every face and hoping to see a familiar one. The asparagus season was over and most of the Filipino farmhands were in town, bent on spending their earnings because they had no other place to go. Bulosan is one of the most widely recognized figures in Asian American history. Of the one million Filipinos who found themselves in the United States in the two decades before and after World War II, Carlos Bulosan, his entire life and works, represents the heroic struggles and sacrifices of the Filipino community, writes scholar Dr. E. San Juan, Jr. In 1948, Bulosan lived in the Mariposa Hotel at 132 E. Lafayette Street, where he helped labor organizers Chris Mensalves, Ernesto Mangaoang, Rudy Delvo and Larry Itliong organize the 1948 Local 7 Asparagus Strike, one of the largest farm labor strikes in American

history. But Bulosan was concerned with oppression everywhere, not only in the Filipino community. A section of America Is In the Heart illustrates Bulosans dedication to using his writing to fight oppression in the largest context possible: America is not a land of one race or one class of men. We are all Americans that have toiled and suffered and known oppression and defeatAmerica is also the nameless foreigner, the homeless refugee, the hungry boy begging for a job and the black body dangling from a tree. America is the illiterate immigrant who is ashamed that the world of books and intellectual opportunities is closed to him. We are all that nameless foreigner, that homeless refugee, that hungry boy, that illiterate immigrant and that lynched black body. All of us, from the first Adams to the last Filipinos, native born or alien, educated or illiterate -- We are America! Bulosan is the author of a number of short stories, books and poetry collections published during his lifetime and posthumously (see selected bibliography). Stricken with tuberculosis since his arrival in the United States, he moved from Stockton to Seattle in the late 1940s because of the more pleasant climate; the heat aggravated his health during Stockton summers. By the early 1950s, McCarthyism and red-baiting of labor union leaders made him an FBI target along with other Filipino labor leaders considered radicals. Bulosan died September 11, 1956, of bronchopneumonia in Seattle in the 1950s, and is buried at Queen Anne Hill. He died jobless and penniless, but left a rich legacy behind. Today, Bulosan lives on amongst generations of college students who read his books, poetry, short stories and other writings in required readings in their courses in Asian American, Filipino American, and California history and literature. He is widely regarded as one of the most important writers in California during the mid-century. Several theatrical productions of America Is In the Heart have been staged worldwide. In 2003, Lonnie Carter adapted Bulosans short story The Romance of Magno Rubio into an off-Broadway smash that earned eight Obie awards. Bulosans short story tells the tale of Magno Rubio and his four friends, Filipino migrant workers in the Delta yearning for love, companionship, and the American Dream during the Depression. Presented by the acclaimed Ma-Yi Theatre Company in New York and directed by Loy Arcenas, the play has performed to sell-out crowds worldwide since its 2003 New York debut. The play and the New York cast and crew will come to Stockton October 4 and 5, 2008 to the Bob Hope Theatre in two benefit performances for the Little Manila Foundation, and Oct. 9-12 to the Skyline College Main Theater for benefit performances for Philippine International Aid.

LITTLE MANILA: FILIPINOS IN CALIFORNIAS HEARTLAND

Description: This lesson plan introduces the students to history, community, and struggles of Little Manila in Stockton, California. Lesson Plan Materials:

Little Manila: Filipinos in Californias Heartland

Create Prompts for Building Our Community Exercise

PART 1: CULTURAL ENERGIZER

Little Manila: Filipinos in Californias Heartland. (30 mins). Directed by Marissa Aroy for the KVIE Viewfinder Series. Available for $15 at http://www.littlemanila.net and kvie.org.

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Have the students watch the documentary: Little Manila: Filipinos in Californias Heartland Have them write a letter to the someone in the Philippines in Carlos Bulosans voice about what happened to Little Manila in Stockton in the 1960s and 1970s, when redevelopment and the freeway destroyed the community.

PART 2: COMMUNITY COLLABORATION AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION Building Our Community: This activity requires the students to create their own community. Give them some toys and instruct them to create their ideal community with the toys. Then have them share the elements of their community with the rest of the class. Step 1 Step 2
Divide the students into five groups. If they are already in barangays, they should work together to build their ideal communities. Instruct them to come up with following: Name for their community Location Buildings Next, pass out the toys. Have them build their communities wherever they are seated. Give them 20 minutes to finish the construction of the neighborhood. After their neighborhoods are complete, have the whole class take a tour of the communities. Have the students walk around the room to take a cursory look at the new constructed neighborhoods, and then have each group explain the vision of their neighborhood. This should take about 15 minutes. After the community tour, present a different scenario to each community. Pass out one of the five scenarios to each group: 1. You have just received a letter from the State Highway Commission. They have identified your house, block, and entire street for demolition to build a freeway. They will buy your home from you, but only for the lowest price. You cant afford to buy another house. What is your response? How do you organize your community? 2. The owners of a residential hotel in your neighborhood want to turn it into a parking lot and evict all the residentsall of them poor and working-class people or elderly. They say that the hotel is already run down and a parking lot would be profitable. The hotel is a beautiful building, designed by one of the citys leading architects, but it has gotten rundown and dilapidated. They argue that their plan is

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about progress for the community. You must convince your elected officials that the hotel should stand, and all the residents should be able to stay. What do you do? 3. A group of investors from the Filipina/o American community approaches you, saying they want to help you reinvigorate your neighborhood, which is full of historic buildings, organizations, and families, including elderly and poor people who cannot afford to move. They tell you that they want to bring a big Filipino corporate bakery, a Starbucks, a huge grocery store, and a large parking lot to your area. But in order to do this, they must demolish everything and throw everyone out. The city likes their idea, and so do other middle-class and more privileged Filipinas/os, who live in other areas and do not know the history of your neighborhood. What should you do? How do you organize your community? 4. A big discount retail store, like a Wal-Mart, wants to move into your neighborhood. There are some pros and cons to this. There might be more jobs in the area, and a cheap place to shop. But it would definitely put all the small Filipina/o shops and local mom-and-pop grocery stores, drugstores, and pharmacies out of business in your neighborhood. It would also bring traffic, pollution, and lowpaying jobs, since the company will not allow their workers to form or join unions. What is your response? What should you do as a community? 5. Suddenly, your neighborhood is becoming the hippest and coolest neighborhood in the city because of its cheap rents, historic architecture, cultural diversity, and its location near downtown. But now, it is hard to find an apartment because the cost of rent is rising. Landlords are evicting old tenants and bringing in new ones who can pay double the rent. New condos and lofts are being built that no one in the neighborhood can afford to buy. The corner grocery store was turned into a caf/gallery, the shoe repair and dry cleaning store has become an Internet company, and the new shopping mall and movie theater on the next block does not allow young Filipinas/os to hang out there unless they are shopping. The new gourmet grocery store sells food too expensive for your family to afford, and all of the new restaurants are too costly for your friends and family. What should you do? How do you react, and how should you organize your community?

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Give each group a piece of butcher paper and have them come up with the following: Main Issue in the Scenario Community Response Steps to Addressing the Issue Give them 10 minutes to come up with their answers.

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Have the students share their answers. They should designate one person to read the scenario that was given to them and three people to present what they wrote on their butcher paper. After they are all done presenting, conclude by connecting the students responses. Bring the students back to the Cultural Energizer by returning to the Manilatown Talkshow. Bring the panelists back and have them describe what they did when these same scenarios took place in their neighborhoods. Ted Lapuz (Scenarios 1 and 3): We couldn't do much to fight the city council because we lacked political power and organization. Some old-timers felt that you could never fight city and state officials, and they just cried and moved on. I went to Little Manila to see what was happening to the Manongs in Little Manila and I was inspired to do something. Nine city blocks and two blocks of Little Manila were demolished for the freeway! With some strong allies, we fought for a Filipino Center to provide housing and a place for displaced businesses, and we obtained federal loans and grants. It opened in 1972! The Center was a success and is celebrating its 36th year. And now a new generation with the Little Manila Foundation is fighting demolitions, displacements, and honoring the history of the neighborhood. They fight city hall and developers to protect the last original buildings of Little Manila, and the culture and history of our neighborhood. Check out the historic banners in Little Manila! Al Robles and Estella Habal (Scenario 2): We fought a protracted (ongoing) struggle against the

owners of the International Hotel and the city to protect the residents and fight the evictions of the residents of the I-Hotel. We lost this battle, the residents were evicted and displaced, and the hotel was destroyed. A hole in the ground reminded everyone of that tragic night of August 4, 1977 when everyone was evicted. But we won in the endwe sparked a national movement for affordable housing and cultural preservation of Filipina/o American historic neighborhoods. In 2005, the new International Hotel and the Manilatown Center were built. It is a symbol of our historic presence in the neighborhood, the struggle of the I-Hotel. Most importantly, it is a place where we can all come home to Manilatown. Royal Morales (Scenarios 1-5): All of these things happened in LA to varying degrees. We didnt own land and we lacked political power, so our landmarks were destroyed and urban redevelopment took away much of what was historic. The new generation in LA went to the city council and designated the neighborhood as Historic Filipinotown. Organizations like SIPA, the Filipino American Library, the Filipino American Service Group (FASGI), and the Filipino Christian Church fight to protect the neighborhood and our history. We make sure we make political allies and community organizations to strengthen our political power. Look for the Historic Filipinotown sign off the 101 Freeway! Bring on New Guests: Community Activist from Hercules, CA (Scenario 4): We fought a big-box retail store and went to city hall and the national and local media to protest its desire to come into our community. We did research to show how harmful this store would be to our economy, city, and culture. We organized our entire community and won the battle to keep out the store! It was a historic battle that made national news. Community Activist from the South of Market Community Action Network (Scenario 5): We created an organization that would fight for social justice and the rights of people who live in the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco. The residents were becoming victims of gentrification that resulted from the dot-com boom in San Francisco. Poor, working-class, and immigrant residents of South of Market were being displaced in their own community! Now we fight developers and city policies that try to harm our neighborhood and our community, and we have won a lot of important victories.

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Following the talk show, you should return to the problems of the day.

PART 3: CONCLUSIVE DIALOGUE/CRITICAL CIRCULAR EXCHANGE Problems/Questions of the Day: There are visible Chinatowns, Japantowns, and other ethnic enclaves, but where are our Manilatowns? What happened to Little Manila in Stockton, the Manilatown in San Francisco, and Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles? These neighborhoods were vibrant and productive. How did they disappear? What did the Filipinos in these neighborhoods do to preserve their community? What strategies were used to organize or respond to officials who wanted to destroy their neighborhoods? Assessment: How was it for you to build your community? What was it like when the scenario was about the destruction of your community? Connection: How do you relate to the stories shared on the talkshow? Are there issues in your own community that are similar to those of the Manilatowns? What can we learn from the ways that the members of the Manilatown communities responded to the scenarios in their neighborhoods? RESOURCES AND NOTES
Robles, Al. Rapping with 10,000 Carabaos in the Dark. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 1996.

Dawn B. Mabalon, We Were So Sorry to Lose El Dorado Street: Race and Redevelopment in Stocktons Little Manila, in Positively No Filipinos Allowed, ed. Gutierrez and Tiongson, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006. Estella Habal, San Franciscos International Hotel: Mobilizing the Filipino Community in the AntiEviction Movement. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008.

LOVE IN THE TIME OF THE MANONGS: THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO

Description: This lesson plan focuses on introducing the play, the Romance of Magno Rubio. Lesson Plan Materials:
The Romance of Magno Rubio short story

PART 1: CULTURAL ENERGIZER

Love Hurts: Students will be asked to describe their understanding of love and how they may have or have not experienced heartbreak or extreme disappointment. This is introduced in the notion of love in The Romance of Magno Rubio. In fact, the character of Clarabelle in the short story is an allegory for America, or the American Dream as experienced by Filipino immigrants. Clarabelle breaks Magnos heart in the same way that the racism and poverty of the United States caused incredible anguish for Filipina/o immigrants who had believed that the United States was a golden land of opportunity.
Have the students do a freewrite for 10 minutes. Ask them to address the following topic: Have you ever loved someone who did not love you back? If not, can you come with up an example of that you know of when someone loved someone but they did love back. You can use examples from friends, family, movies, stories, novels. Ask a few students to share what they wrote.

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PART 2: COMMUNITY COLLABORATION AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION

Whats Love Got to Do with It: Students and teachers will break down the title of The Romance of Magno Rubio

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Write the name Magno Rubio on the board. Give the students two minutes to draw a person whose name is Magno Rubio. Have them share their drawing with one other person. And have them come up with five descriptive words that would describe a person called Magno Rubio. Ask the students to share a couple of their words with the rest of the class. Then lead a discussion about the name. Ask them to imagine that the word Magno can mean big. It can also be short for Magnificient. What then would this person look like? Then have the students read the first description of Magno Rubio. Ask then what they think: Does the description of Magno Rubio look like your perception of the name? Why or why not? Most likely the studentss perceptions would be different from the description and in many ways it could be considered that Carlos Bulosan was aiming to be ironic.

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Then introduce the concept of irony. Irony is an implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. Three kinds of irony:

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verbal irony is when an author says one thing and means something else. dramatic irony is when an audience perceives something that a character in the literature does not know. irony of situation is a discrepancy between the expected result and actual results.

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www.tnellen.com Have the students describe how irony is being used by Carlos Bulosan. Before the students continue to the read the story, have them try to figure out the ways the three kinds of irony might be used in The Romance of Magno Rubio. Focusing the on the title of the story. How is the name Magno Rubio ironic? What does Magno mean in Latin? What does rubio mean in Spanish (it means blonde) How might be the notion of romance be ironic? What do you guess might be ironic about the story? Why do you think Bulosan named the main character Magno Rubio and titled the story this way? Have the students read the entire story for homework. Have them write a journal on how the story represents the three kinds of irony

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PART 3: CONCLUSIVE DIALOGUE/CRITICAL CIRCULAR EXCHANGE Problems/Questions of the Day: What does Magno Rubio represent? How is irony used in the short story? Connection: Students will connect their own personal understandings of love to The Romance of Magno Rubio. Assessment: Ask the students about what they learned from this lesson plan and how it might be improved.

RACE MATTERS: ANTI-FILIPINO SENTIMENT IN THE 1930S

Excerpted from Pin@y Educational Partnerships: A Filipino American Studies Sourcebook, Volume I (Tintiangco-Cubales, 2007) Created from lesson plans by Vixie Javier, Elaine Villasper, Angelica Posadas, Paulino Love, and Melissa Nievera

Description: What kinds of social forces were working against Filipina/o laborers in the 1930s? Why were Filipinas/os seen as
a social and economic threat to Americans? What sort of negative stereotypes were assigned to Filipinas/os? How did violence erupt between whites and Filipinas/os? How did the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 and Anti-Miscegenation laws reflect and promote racism? How do our experiences relate to the racism faced by Filipinas/os in the 1930s?

Lesson Plan Materials:

Positively No Filipinos Allowed photograph Prompts for Community Collaboration

PART 1: CULTURAL ENERGIZER

Positively No Filipinos Allowed picture reflection: Students will examine the infamous poster-sized photograph of the Positively No Filipinos Allowed sign posted on the door of a hotel in Stockton, California in 1945. A copy of the poster image is included in this packet.

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Post the image of the hotel with the sign that reads, Positively No Filipinos Allowed. Ask the students to write a reflection of what they see. Give them about 10 minutes to write. Have some the students share what they wrote.

PART 2: COMMUNITY COLLABORATION AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION

Break it Down for Me: Each barangay will share with the class true stories of racial discrimination against Filipina/o Americans in the 1930s through a collective spoken word piece. Also infused in these verses will be their own thoughts and feelings about these historical accounts.

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Before students divide into their barangays, the lead teacher will explain that each barangay will be receiving a prompt defining a racialized policy or describing an event involving racism against Filipino Americans in the 1930s. The lead teacher will further explain that each barangay will 1) read the prompt, 2) students in the barangay will individually jot down their thoughts and feelings about the prompt, 3) then turn their notes into a verse, and 4) finally reconvene to share their verses to form a full spoken word piece. The teachers will distribute prompts to each barangay. Below are examples of prompts to distribute to each barangay. Prompt 1 Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934: This policy granted Philippine independence in 10 years, reclassified all Filipinas/os living in the US as aliens, and reduced Filipina/o immigration to 50 per year. Like the exclusion of the Chinese in 1882 and the Japanese in 1924, the US government restricted the entry of Filipinos in 1934 because they were considered racially undesirable, and therefore, unfit for citizenship. Repatriation Act: This law offered free transportation back home to the Philippines, but made it mandatory for those who took this offer to stay there. They would never be able to return the US. Only about 2,000 Filipinas/os returned to the Philippines of a total population of more than 100,000. One Filipino who took advantage of the Repatriation Act later realized he made a mistake. He arrived home as a

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repatriate, which his community translated as failure or loser, as he appeared to have given up fulfilling his dreams in America. Another Filipino wrote a letter to his wife in the Philippines saying, Working steady from sunrise to sunset, six days a weekIf I can keep up with the hard work, God willing, I should be returning home in two years. Enclosed is a small amount of $45.00. Set aside part of it for Antonios education, and keep paying Tata Iniong for that piece of land where someday, we will build our own house. Prompt 2 Anti-Miscegenation Laws: These laws in California and in several other states prohibited the marriage between whites and people of color to preserve the purity of the white race, as one California attorney general described. White Americans, therefore, condemned the dating of Filipino men and white women. Oct. 24, 1929. At a street carnival in Exeter, southeast of Fresno, Filipinos escorting white girls were shot with rubber bands. A fight broke out and blew up into a riot in which an angry white mob, led by Chief of Police C. E. Joyner, beat and stoned Filipinos in the fields. Even after such episodes, Filipino men and white women still naturally pursued their attraction for one another. Many couples eloped to marry outside of the state of California. Prompt 3 Racial discrimination incident In his book, America is in the Heart, Carlos Bulosan describes a time when he was hanging out at a pool hall and two police detectives came in armed. They shot and killed a Filipino man, called an ambulance, dumped the dead body in the street, and left unaffected by their act of violence. When Carlos Bulosan asked why the man was shot, another Filipino answered, They often shoot Pinoys like thatwithout provocation. Sometimes when they have been drinking and they want to have fun, they come to our district and kick or beat the first Filipino they meet. Prompt 4 Race Riot incident Jan. 22, 1930. By this time, two consecutive days of race riots had already occurred throughout Watsonville. It was the third day now and the riot was reaching its peak, when mobs of hundreds of white Americans dragged Filipinos out of their homes and camps into the streets, whipping and beating them, even throwing them off the Pajaro River bridge. A Chinese apple-dryer where Filipinos worked was destroyed. Bullets were sprayed into a Filipino home on Ford Street. Watsonville police made a sincere attempt to protect the Filipinos, but were clearly outmanned. Prompt 5 The most infamous race riot incident Jan. 23, 1930. This was the last day of the 4-day Watsonville race riots. It was early morning. Eleven Filipinos huddled into a closet, hoping to escape bullets fired into their bunkhouse. At dawn they found their twelfth bunkmate, Fermin Tobera, dead. He was shot through the heart. While the community at large found this shocking and a bit extreme, some whites generally maintained their belief that Filipinos were only ten years removed from savagery and should be kept out of the valley. Though seven whites were arrested for the murder, all charges were eventually dropped.

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Each student will brainstorm on a piece of paper all their thoughts and feelings about their narrative. They will each draft a spoken word verse, using their brainstorming notes and the description of the event/narrative provided to them. They will share their verse to the rest of the members in their barangay, discussing the kind of discrimination their Filipina/o American character(s) experienced at the time. The barangay will then work to merge their verses into a full collective spoken word piece. Each barangay will share their multi-verse spoken word piece to the class.

PART 3: CONCLUSIVE DIALOGUE/CRITICAL CIRCULAR EXCHANGE

Problems/Questions of the Day: What kinds of social forces were working against the Filipino laborers in the 1930s? Why were Filipinos seen as a social and economic threat to Americans? What sort of negative stereotypes were pinned to Filipinos? How did violence erupt between whites and Filipinos? How did the Tydings-McDuffie Act

1934 and AntiMiscegenation laws constitute racism? How do our experiences relate to the racism faced by Filipinos in the 1930s? Assessment: What did you like most about this lesson plan? How do you think it can be improved? Connection: Students will be encouraged to connect historical accounts of anti-Filipino American history to their own experiences (and/or experiences of family/community members) today, so that they can be mindful of forms of anti-Filipino sentiment in contemporary society. Are racism and discrimination against Filipina/o Americans still apparent
today? Where do you see it? Does it still affect us? How so? Have you experienced racism?

RESOURCES AND NOTES

Bulosan, Carlos. America is in the Heart. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1941. DeWitt, Howard. Anti-Filipino Movements in California: a History, Bibliography and Study Guide. San Francisco: R and E Research Associates, 1976. Meynell, Richard B., Little Brown Brothers, Little White Girls: The Anti-Filipino Hysteria of the 1930s and the Watsonville Riots, Passports 22(1998). Takaki, Ronald. In the Heart of Filipino America: Immigrants from the Pacific Isles. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1995.

THE ROMANCE OF FILIPINAS/OS IN AMERICA: THE SHORT STORY OF A LONG HISTORY

Description: This lesson plan will show the relationship between the short story, The Romance of Magno Rubio and the Filipina/o American experience from the 1920s to the 1950s. It may also be connected to current issues in the Filipina/o American community. Lesson Plan Materials:
The Romance of Magno Rubio short story
Letters In Exile: An Introductory Reader on Pilipinos in America- A project of Resource Development and Publications, UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1976

PART 1: CULTURAL ENERGIZER

Have and Have not: Students will discuss, in pairs, a time when they really wanted something but could not have it.

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Have the students get into pairs. Instruct them to share a time with each other when they really wanted something but could not have it. Ask them to identify the Who What Where When How and Why In their story if when they wanted something that they could have. Have them share their experiences.

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PART 2: COMMUNITY COLLABORATION AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION

The Racism of Magno Rubio: Through this assignment students will connect the short story to articles that describe discrimination against Filipinos during that time.

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Have the students read the short story, The Romance of Magno Rubio. Dependent on the grade and reading level if your students, you may want to read some the story in class. Ask the students to answer: What did Magno Rubio want but could not have? After coming up with a few answers, ask the students why they think Magno Rubio could not have what he wanted. It will be important to relate their answers to the larger problem of racism. Share with the students the definition of racism: The systematic subordination of members of targeted racial groups who have relatively little social power in the United States (African Americans, Latino/as, Native Americans, and Asian Americans), by the members of the agent racial group who has relatively more social power (Whites). This subordination is supported by the actions of individuals, cultural norms and values, and the institutional structures and practices of society (Adams, Bell, and Griffin, 89). When we think about racism, we can look back at hundreds of years of acts of racism. The term racism, however, did not actually appear until the 1930s.

Have them put the definition in their own words.

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Break up the class into five groups. (This can also be taught in five class sessions if you have time in your course to focus on Filipino American racism.) Give each group an article for the book, Letters In Exile: An Introductory Reader on Pilipinos in America- A project of Resource Development and Publications, UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1976: 1. California Discrimination Against Filipinos 1927-1935 2. No Orientals Wanted Here 3. Anti-Filipino Race Riots 4. Anti-Miscegenation Law and the Pilipino 5. Filipino Immigration Viewed as a Peril Instruct each group to Read their assigned article Identify how the article explores an act(s) of racism against Filipinos. Uncover the 3 most important points covered by their assigned article Relate their article to the Romance of Magno Rubio Come up with a create way to teach the rest of the class about the main ideas in their article and how it related to the experiences of Magno Rubio. Encourage them to use skits, poetry, movement, and/or visual art to teach the rest of the class. They should be given between 15-20 minutes to teach their article. This lesson plan can span between 2-5 days. If you assign the articles for homework, students should be given at least 20-30 minutes to come up with their lesson plans to teach the class about their article. If they will be reading the articles in class, you may want to give them one whole class time to prepare for their teaching presentation. A. B. C. D. E.

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PART 3: CONCLUSIVE DIALOGUE/CRITICAL CIRCULAR EXCHANGE Problems/Questions of the Day: What kind of the discrimination affected Filipinos? How did discrimination limit what they were allowed to desire, accomplish, and how they lived? Connection: Encourage students to connect the Romance of Magno Rubio to the major struggles that Filipinos faced during that time.

PERFORMING THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO

Description: The student will get to experience acting out parts of the play in class, watch the play with professional actors, and analyze the current days applicability of the play. Lesson Plan Materials:
The Romance of Magno Rubio play Tickets for the play Props for the play

DAY 1: CLASSROOM AS A STAGE

Students will perform parts of Magno Rubio.
Choose scenes from the play to have the students perform. Have the students prepare their skits. Have the students perform their scene and have them present one critical question to their classmates that connects the scene current issues in the Filipina/o American community or their own ethnic/racial community. As a conclusive dialogue have the students uncover how performing the play is different than reading the short story. Prepare the students to look for ways in which the play is different from the short story.

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DAY 2 : STAGE AS A CLASSROOM

Students will watch the play on a community stage.
Get tickets for students to watch the play. For the student night tickets for the San Bruno show, contact Liza Erpelo at erpelol@smccd.edu. For Stockton tickets at $10 each for students, contact Dawn Mabalon at dmabalon@sfsu.edu or (415) 810-6380 (regular prices are $35-15). As a conclusive dialogue have the students uncover how watching the play with professional actors is different than performing the play is different than reading the short story.

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DAY 3: CONNECTING MAGNO RUBIO, CARLOS BULOSAN, AND OUR OWN EXPERIENCES
Students will create skits that are current representations of Magno Rubios experiences.
When the students are back in the classroom the day after they watch the play, have them go around and share what they experienced. Then ask them to think critically about who Magno Rubios identity. Ask them: What does Magno Rubio represent to them personally. What does he represent to Filipinas/os in American? What does represent to Filipinas/os worldwide? Then ask the students, What does The Romance of Magno Rubio teach us about ourselves, our communities, and American society?

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Ask the students to get into 4 ot 5 groups. Have each group create a skit that represents the same concepts that they learned about in Magno Rubio and have then reenact in a way that is relevant to their own current experiences. As a conclusive dialogue, ask the students: Why do people make it difficult for an honest people like Magno Rubio to live in the world?

Carlos Bulosan Bibliography For additional information about Carlos Bulosan: http://www.bulosan.org/html/bulosan_biography.html http://www.reflectionsofasia.com/carlosbulosan.htm http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5202 NOVELS All the Conspirators. 1998. Anvil Publishing, Inc. Introduction by Caroline Hau and Benedict Anderson. The Cry and the Dedication, 1995. (previously published as The Power of the People), E. San Juan, Jr., ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Temple Univ. Press. The Power of the People. 1977. Alive Magazine, 10 September Special Issue. America Is In The Heart, 1973 (1946). Seattle: University of Washington Press POETRY AND SHORT STORIES The Voice of Bataan. 1943. New York: Coward McCann Chorus for America: Six Filipino Poets. 1942. Los Angeles: Wagon and Star Letter from America. 1942. Prairie City, Illinois: J.A.Decker SELECTED ESSAYS IN PERIODICALS As Long as the Grass Shall Grow, 1949. Common Ground, Summer Freedom from Want. 1943. Saturday Evening Post, March 6. How My Stories Were Written. 1972. In San Juan, Carlos Bulosan and the Imagination of the Class Struggle. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press. I Am Not a Laughing Man, 1979. Amerasia Journal 6: 1 May; The New Tide, October-November, 1934. If You Want to Know What We Are 1940. Literature Under the Commonwealth. Arguilla, Manuel E. et.al. eds., Manila: Philippine Writers League Man Against The World," 1979 Amerasia Journal 6: 1 May Manuel L. QuezonThe Good Fight! 1944. Bataan Magazine (August): 13-15. My Brother Osong's Career in Politics, 1979 Amerasia Journal 6: 1 May My Education, 1979 Amerasia Journal 6: 1 May

Terrorism Rides the Philippines. 1952. 1951 Yearbook. Seattle, WA: ILWU, Local 37 The Romance of Magno Rubio. 1979. Amerasia Journal 6: May 1 The End of the War. New Yorker, September 2, 1944, pp 21-23. COLLECTION Short Stories The Laughter of My Father. 1944. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co. The Philippines is in the Heart. 1978. E. San Juan, Jr., ed. Quezon City: New Day Publishing The Power of Money, 1990. Introduction by Licerio Lagda. Manila: Kalikasan Press Essays and Letters Bulosan: An Introduction with Selections, 1983. edited by E. San Juan, Jr.. Manila: National Bookstore Printing. If You Want to Know What We Are: A Carlos Bulosan Reader, ed. E. San Juan, Jr. Minneapolis: West End Press: 1983. an introduction with selectionsOn Becoming Filipino: Selected Writings of Carlos Bulosan, ed. by E. San Juan Jr. (Temple University Press, 1995) Selected Works and Letters. ed. by E. San Juan and Ninotchka Rosca. Honolulu, Hawaii: (Friends of the Filipino People 1982). Sound of Falling Light: Letters in Exile, 1960. Dolores Feria, ed., Quezon City : University of the Philippines Press. Poetry Carlos Bulosan and His Poetry: A Biography and an Anthology. Evangelista, Susan, 1985. Seattle: University of Washington Press / Quezon City: Ateneo University Press. WRITINGS ON CARLOS BULOSAN Alquizola, Marilyn. Asian Americans: Comparative and Global Perspectives. 1991. Eds. Shirley Hune et al. Pullman: Washington State Univ. Press, 199-209. the power of the people______________. "Subversion or Affirmation: The Text and Subtext of America Is in the Heart. 1989. Paper presented at the meeting of the Assn. for Asian American Studies, Hunter College of the City Univ. of New York.

Aquino, Joann Natalia. 2001. It's Still In the Heart': Remembering the Journey of Carlos Bulosan Asian American Journal: International Examiner on May 2001. http://www.newfilipina.com/members/pngayon/01.07/carlosbulosan.html Bishop, Donald. 2003. The Four Freedoms Revisited, ( U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria). Paper presented at the Women's History Month Celebration, March 18, 2003, Lagos, Nigeria . http://abuja.usembassy.gov/wwwhbishop4free.html Bogardus, Emory. 1976. Anti-Filipino Race Riots. In Letters in Exile . Ed. Jesse Quinsaat. Los Angeles, Ca: UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Campomanes, Oscar. Carlos Bulosan. 1998. In Encyclopedia of the American Left. Eds. Mari Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle and Dan Georgakas. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press. _____________ & N.V.M. Gonzalez, "Filipino American Literature." 1996. An Interethnic Companion to Asian American Literature. Ed. King Kok Cheung. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 62-124. ____________ & Todd S. Gernes, Two Letters from America: Carlos Bulosan and the Act of Writing. 1988. MELUS 15.3, Fall, 15 - 46. America is in the HeartCasanova, Pascale. Literature as a World. 2005. New Left Review 31 (Jan-Feb): 71-90. Chung, S.F. Review of The Cry and the Dedication and On Becoming Filipino. 1996. The Journal of Asian Studies: 1148-49. Cimatu, Frank. Remembering Carlos Bulosan. 2002. Philippine Daily Inquirer (Sept. 25): A17. De Leon, Ferdinand M. Revisiting the Life and Legacy of Pioneering Filipino Writer Carlos Bulosan. 1999. Seattle Times, August 8. <http://www.reflectionsofasia.com/carlosbulosan.htm> De Vera, Arleen. Without Parallel: The Local 7 Deportation Cases, 1949-1955. 1994. AmerAsia Journal 20.2: 1-25. Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature. 1986. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Denning, Michael. 1997. The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the 20th Century. London: Verso Books. Estrada, George. 75 years later, works of Filipino author still shine. 2005. The News Tribune (24 July) <http://www.thenewstribune.com/ news/northwest/story/ 5045836p-4601431c.html> Evangelista, Susan, 1981. Carlos Bulosan and the Beginnings of Third World Consciousness. 1981. Unpublished Dissertation, The University of the Philippines, if you want to know what we areFeria, Dolores, 1957. Carlos Bulosan: Gentle Genius Comment, First Quarter, 57-64.

Geron, Tomio. Filipino Prophet. 1995. AsianWeek (Aug. 4): 13. Gier, Jean V. "... To Have Come from Someplace: October Light, America Is in the Heart, and 'Flip' Writing after the Third World Strikes." 1995. Hitting Critical Mass 2.2 Spring: 1-33. Gonzalez, N. V. M., and Oscar V. Campomanes. "Filipino American Literature." 1996. An Interethnic Companion to Asian American Literature. Ed. King Kok Cheung. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 62124. Gotera, Vince. "Carlos Bulosan: Passion, Poetry, Politics." 1993. Connecticut Review 15.2 Fall: 11-23. Grefalda, Rem-Antonia, ed. 2006. A Carlos Bulosan Issue, Our Own Voice Literary eZine for Filipinos in the Diaspora http://www.ourownvoice.com/ Grow, L. M. "The Laughter of My Father: A Survival Kit." 1995. MELUS 20.2 Summer: 35-46. ___________. "Modern Philippine Poetry in the Formative Years: 1920- 1950." 1984. ARIEL 15.3 July: 8198. Guyotte, Roland L. Generation Gap: Filipinos, Filipino Americans and Americans, Here and There, Then and Now. 1997. Journal of American Ethnic History (Fall): 64-70. The Philippines is in the HeartJaskoski, Helen. "Carlos Bulosan's Literary Debt to Richard Wright." 1996. Literary Influence and African-American Writers. Ed. Tracy Mishkin. NY: Garland, 231-43. Jameson, Fredric. Third World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism. 2000. The Jameson Reader. Eds. Michael Hardt and Kathi Weeks. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers. Koshy, Susan. Sexual Naturalization. 2004. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Lee, Rachel. The Americas of Asian American Literature: Gendered Fictions of Nations and Transnation. 1999. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Libretti, Tim. "America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan." 2001. A Resource Guide to Asian American Literature. Eds. Sau-ling C. Wong and Stephen H. Sumida. NY: Modern Language Association of America, 21-31. _________, First and Third Worlds in U.S. Literature: Rethinking Carlos Bulosan. 1998. MELUS Journal 23.4: 135-55. _________, 1997. "Writing Across and Within Borders: The Representation of Imperialism and the Defense of Nationalism in U.S. Third World Writing" in Mediations, vol. 20 (Spring), pp. 62-77. ____________, 1995 'What a Dirty Way of Getting Clean': The Grotesque in U.S. Proletarian Literature" in Literature and the Grotesque , ed. Michael J. Meyer. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 171-193. Lukacs, Georg. Marxism and Human Liberation. 1972. Ed. E. San Juan. New York: Dell Publishing Co. Mensalves, Chris. 1956. Reporting for Carlos Bulosan, Daily People's World, December 28 issue.

Mostern, Kenneth. "Why Is America in the Heart?" 1995. Hitting Critical Mass 2.2 Spring: 35-65. McWilliams, Carey. Most Filipino Immigrants Do Not Want Repatriation 1997. Asian Americans: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc. the laughter of my fatherMorantte, P.C.His Heart Affair with America, an unpublished biography. 1977. Published under the title Remembering Carlos Bulosan Nguyen, Viet Thanh. Home of the Brave. 1996. A.Magazine: 65-66. Okihiro, Gary. 2005. Japanese Americans and the Making of Democracy During World War II Japan Focus, Oct, 26, 2005. http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=431 Ordonez, Elmer A. 2005. OPINION The Other View, Carlos Bulosan (II), Manila Times, Oct. 1, 2005 _____________. 1985. A Review of Carlos Bulosan and His Poetry: An Anthology and biography by Susan Evangelista." Seattle & London: University of Washington Press (distributed outside North America and Europe by Ateneo de Manila University Press, Philippines ), JSTOR: Pacific Affairs, Vol. 59, No.1, p. 172 Pomeroy, William. The Philippines: Colonialism, Collaboration, and Resistance! 1992. New York: International Publishers. Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 10: Late Twentieth Century, 1945 to the Present - Carlos Bulosan." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide. <http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap10/bulosan.html> America is in the HeartPoster by Pintig Cultural Group San Juan, E. Jr., 2000. After Postcolonialism: Remapping Philippines-United States Confrontations. New York : Rowman and Littlefield. _____________, 1996. "Searching for the Heart of 'America' (Carlos Bulosan)." Teaching American Ethnic Literatures: Nineteen Essays. Eds. John R. Maitino and David R. Peck. Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 259-72. _____________, 1995 "In Search of Filipino Writing: Reclaiming Whose ' America '?" The Ethnic Canon: Histories, Institutions, and Interventions. Ed. Liu D. Palumbo. Minneapolis : Univ. of Minnesota Press, 21340. _____________, 1991. "Beyond Identity Politics: The Predicament of the Asian Writer in Late Capitalism." American Literary History 3.3 Fall: 542-65. _____________, 1976 (1972). Carlos Bulosan and the Imagination of the Class Struggle. New York: Oriole. Santos, Alfonso P., 1956. As I Knew Them. Literary Apprentice, October. Schirmer, Daniel B. and Steve Shalom, eds. The Philippines Reader. 1987. Boston: South End Press.

Slotkin, Joel. "Igorots and Indians: Racial Hierarchies and Conceptions of the Savage in Carlos Bulosan's Fiction of the Philippines." 2000. American Literature 72.4 Dec: 843-66. Solberg, S. E. "Bulosan Theseus Villa." 1988. MELUS 15.2 Summer: 3-25. Sugisawa, Rieko. "Carlos Bulosan's Search for America and Himself: America Is in the Heart." 1995. AALA Journal 2, 1-11. Takaki, Ronald. Strangers from a Different Shore. 1989. Boston: Little Brown and Company. Teodoro, Luis. Notes on The Power of the People. 1985. Mithi 1: 3-14. Valderrama, N.G. 1948. Allos This Week , 21 March 1948 Valeros, Margarita. 1955. An Appreciative Study of the Life and Works of Carlos Bulosan, M.A. Thesis, National Teachers College. Waggoner, Eric. 1999. Conference presentation Two Nations: Iconography and Inversion in the Autobiographies of Mother Jones and Carlos Bulosan. Remembered Lives. Laramie WY: University of Wyoming, June 17, 1999. Yabes, Leopoldo. 1947 The Dream of Carlos Bulosan The Evening News, Saturday Magazine, 25 January 1947 _____________. 1947. More on Carlos Bulosan The Sunday Post Magazine, 16 March 1947

A General Timeline of Filipina/o American History

Compiled by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, Ph.D. Sources:
Borah, Eloisa Gomez. Chronology of Filipinos in America Pre-1898. (1997-2004) http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/chronology.pdf (accessed June 20, 2006). Buchholdt, Thelma, et al. Filipino American History Timeline found at http://www.fanhs17.com/timeline.htm (accessed July 14, 2006). Choy, Catherine Ceniza. Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2003. Cordova, Fred. Filipinos: Forgotten Asian Americans. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Publishing Co., 1983. Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture, Los Angeles. 2000 Calendar, Kaugnay: Interconnectedness. Filipino American History Timeline: http://www.csus.edu/aas/filipinos/timeline.htm (accessed June 10, 2006). Gaerlan, Barbara S. "The Movement in the United States to Oppose Martial Law in the Philippines, 19721991: An Overview," Pilipinas 33 (Fall 1999): 7598.

History of Los Angeles, http://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi03c.htm (accessed July 17, 2006). Kim, Hyung-chan and Cynthia C. Mejia, eds. The Filipinos in America, 1898-1974: A Chronology and Fact Book. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1976. Los-Indios-Bravos.com: The Filipino Solidarity Project Timeline. <http://www.los-indios-bravos.com> (accessed August 27, 2006). Operation Manong. <http://opmanong.ssc.hawaii.edu/filipino/sakada.html (accessed June 17, 2006).

March 16, 1521 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan discovers the Philippines and claims the islands for Spain. April 27, 1521 Lapu-Lapu defeats and kills Magellan in the Battle of Mactan. September 16, 1559 Ruy Lopez de Villalobos names the islands Filipinas in honor of King Philip of Spain. June 21, 1569 Miguel Lopez de Legazpi becomes the first Spanish Governor General of the Philippines. 1565-1815 The extremely lucrative Manila Galleon Trade brought products from Asia to Europe in exchange for New World silver. Ships sailed between Manila and Acapulco, bringing porcelain, ivory, spices and silk from China and Southeast Asia to Mexico, where products were then brought overland to be shipped to Spain. Ships were built in the Philippines with indigenous labor, using Philippine wood, and Indio labor was used extensively on the ships. October 18, 1587 Seven Luzones Indios, or natives of Luzon, land on Morro Bay on the Central California Coast. They are slaves on a Spanish Galleon. September 22, 1762

British invade the Philippines. 1763 Filipinos jump ship around New Orleans and establish communities in the bayous of Louisiana. Lafcadio Hearns article about the Manila Men at St. Malo is published in Harpers Weekly on March 31, 1883. August 10, 1779 Father Junipero Serra conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation upon Vicente Tallado, a Filipino from Pampanga, Philippines, at Mission Monterey, California. 1781 Filipinas/os Antonio Miranda Rodriguez of Sonora, 50, and his daughter, Juana Maria, 11, were chosen to be among the founding settlers of Los Angeles. While in Baja California, the two fell ill and were delayed. Upon their arrival to Alta California, Rodriguezs skills as a gunsmith were needed elsewhere, and he was reassigned to Santa Barbara in 1782, where he died and was buried. 1789 June 5, the Eleanora (captained by Simon Metcalfe) with 24 "Manilla men" and the Fair American (captained by Thomas Metcalfe) with 5 "Manilla men" sailed from China for the Pacific Northwest coast of America. 1848 "Manila Men" comprised the majority of miners at Tulitos, one of the earliest gold mining camps in Mariposa County during the California Gold Rush. June 19, 1861 Jose Rizal is born. 1872 In what would be later called the Cavite Mutiny, more than 200 Filipino troops and workers are crushed by Spanish troops. The Spanish colonial government cracks down on the nascent nationalist movement. Three Filipino priests (Jose Burgos, Jacinto Zamora, and Mariano Gomez) are executed and become among the first martyrs of the Philippine Revolution. Ironically, the nationalist movement continues to grow in spite, and as a result, of harsh Spanish repression. 1887 Jose Rizals Noli Me Tangere is published. In 1891, he publishes El Filibusterismo. January 17, 1891 Pablo Manlapit born in Lipa, Batangas. August 23, 1896 The Cry of Pugadlawin, which signals the beginning of the Philippine Revolution. The Katipunan, led by Andres Bonifacio, revolts against Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines. December 30, 1896 Jose Rizal executed by Spanish firing squad. December 30 is celebrated as Rizal Day in the Philippines and by Filipinas/os in the United States. May 10, 1897

Andres Bonifacio, leader of the Magdiwa faction of the Katipunan is found guilty of treason by an opposing faction of the Katipunan (the Aguinaldo-led Magdalo party) and is executed. April 26, 1898 Formal declaration of the Spanish-American War. May 1, 1898 Admiral George Dewey sails to the Philippines and engages the Spanish fleet in the Mock Battle of Manila Bay, in which Spain stages a loss to American forces in order to save face. The following day, the American flag is raised over the Philippines. June 12, 1898 Emilio Aguinaldo, first president of the Philippine Republic, declares Philippine Independence in Malolos. November 19, 1898 U.S. Anti-Imperialist league announces support of Filipino revolutionaries. December 10, 1898 The Treaty of Paris is signed, and Spain cedes the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. January 5, 1899 General Harrison Gray Otis proclaims American sovereignty in the Philippines. January 23, 1899 Inauguration of the Philippine Republic, the first constitutional democracy in Asia. February 4, 1899 Philippine-American War begins when Willie Grayson, a private from Nebraska, shoots at Filipinos at San Juan Del Monte Bridge. February 6, 1899 U.S. Senate votes for the annexation of the Philippines by military force. 1899-1910 Philippine-American War (called the Philippine Insurrection in most American history books) in which Filipinas/os resist American colonial rule throughout the Philippines. American troops committed terrible atrocities against the Filipino people. Approximately one million Filipinas/os died during the war. March 15, 1900 In accordance with the Treaty of Paris, Spain leaves the Philippines, ending almost 300 years of colonial rule. March 23, 1901 Emilio Aguinaldo is captured by U.S. forces. June 21, 1901 William Howard Taft becomes first American Governor General of the Philippines. August 23, 1901 600 American teachers arrive in the Philippines aboard the U.S.S. Thomas.

October 23, 1901 U.S. General Jacob Smith orders his troops to kill everyone over the age of 10 and to make Samar a howling wilderness. More than 20,000 Filipinos are killed. January 4, 1902 Philippine Insurrection declared officially over by the United States government. November 3, 1903 The first 100 pensionadas/os arrive in California. Approximately 209 American-government sponsored Filipina/o students called pensionadas/os travel to the United States to attend universities. The majority return to the Philippines to teach and take government posts. Though thousands of self-supporting Filipina/o immigrants follow these students to the United States to attend colleges and universities, most do not complete their educations because of low wages and discrimination. April 30, 1904 Indigenous Filipinas/os exhibited at the St. Louis Worlds Far, 1904. December 25, 1904 Philip Vera Cruz is born. April 1, 1905 Filipino Students Magazine publishes its first issue in Berkeley, California. March 9, 1906 American soldiers massacre more than 900 Filipino Muslims at Mt. Dajo, Mindanao. September, 1906 Filipino Students Convention held at Cobb Hall, University of Chicago. Several students organize the Knights of Rizal. December 20, 1906 Fifteen Filipino laborers arrive on Oahu, marking the beginning of massive Filipina/o immigration to the United States. They are recruited by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association. The following year, 210 arrive. 1906-1934 More than 100,000 Filipinas/os, mostly single men (though about ten percent were women), immigrate to Hawaii, Alaska and the mainland. Filipinos in Alaska call themselves Alaskeros, in HawaiI, they call themselves Sakadas. Some have grade school and even college educations, though most come from poor areas in the Visayas and the Ilocos regions. With the Great Depression lowering wages and with working conditions terrible, Pinoys and Pinays struggled to build communities, raise families, send money home to the Philippines and maintain dignity in the face of rampant racism and discrimination. Stockton, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle became large gathering points for Filipinas/os. The gender imbalance, at 14 Pinoys to 1 Pinay through the 1920s and 1930s, made marriage and family difficult, if not impossible, for many Filipinos. 1907 The American colonial government establishes the first nursing school in the Philippines. This school sparked the creation of other institutions and laid the foundation for what would become a mass migration

of Filipina nurses to the United States and around the globe throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. Most of these nurses began arriving in the United States after 1965, when a nursing shortage and reformed immigration laws facilitated their immigration. 1910 According to the U.S. Census, 246 Filipinos are residing in Alaska. From the 1920s to the 1980s, Filipinas/os were a significant part of the labor force in Alaskan salmon canneries. November 24, 1911 Carlos Bulosan is born in Pangasinan. June 15, 1913 Battle of Bud Bagsak, Mindanao, marks the end of the Philippine-American War. October 25, 1913 Larry Dulay Itliong is born in San Nicolas, Pangasinan. 1914 Filipino students at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California begin working in asparagus in the nearby San Joaquin Delta. 1920 Approximately 5,693 Filipinas/os are living in the United States, with 3,300 in California. January 19, 1920 Pablo Manlapit leads the first major pan-Asian strike in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. Filipinas/os and Japanese participate. The strike lasts for two months. January 22, 1921 The Philippine Independent News, the first Filipina/o American newspaper in the United States, is published in Salinas, California. The Caballeros De Dimas-Alang, a fraternal organization, is established in San Francisco. 1923 The Filipino Student Bulletin uses the term Pinay to refer to a woman of Filipino descent in the United States. June 18, 1923 Pancho Villa wins the World Flyweight Boxing Title. February 2, 1924 The Legionarios del Trabajo, a fraternal organization based in Manila, establishes its first American lodge in San Francisco. Ti Silaw (The Light) is published in English and Ilocano in Honolulu. 1924 Pablo Manlapit leads another strike in Hawaii, which consists of mostly Filipinas/os working on four islands. The strike, which lasted approximately six to eight months, led to increasing violence against

Filipinas/os; sixteen Filipino strikers were shot and killed by police in Hanapepe on the island of Kauai. Manlapit is jailed and deported. Filipinas/os who participated in the strike are blacklisted by many employers, which lead to the immigration of many families and single men to the mainland. May 25, 1925 In Toyota vs. U.S., Supreme Court rules that Filipinos, except those who have served in the Navy for three years, cannot become naturalized citizens. December 27, 1925 Filipino Federation of America founded in Los Angeles by Hilario Camino Moncado. 1927 The American Federation of Labor (AFL) adopts a resolution urging Congress to bar Filipino immigrants from entering the United States. November 8, 1927 Anti-Filipino riot in Wapato, Washington. 1928 Filipino workers driven out of the Yakima Valley, Washington. Filipino Christian Fellowship founded in Los Angeles, Calif. June 9, 1928 Pedro Flores establishes the Yo-Yo Manufacturing Co. in Santa Barbara, Calif. 1929 Filipinas/os in Juneau, Alaska, organize the first Filipino community organization. Several other Filipina/o organizations follow in subsequent decades. Mga Anak ng Bukid, (Children of the Farm), a mutual aid organization and nascent farm labor union, founded in Stockton, Calif. April 15, 1929 A Filipino hospital, the Amistad Oriental Hospital, the first in the nation, opens in Stockton. It is opened by Dr. A. F. Amistad, a Filipino physician. October 24, 1929 Anti-Filipino riot in Exeter, California. 1930 Approximately 45,208 Filipinas/os are living in the United States, with approximately 30,000 living in California. Filipino Community of Stockton and Vicinity, Inc. founded in Stockton, Calif. January 22, 1930 Anti-Filipino rioting in Watsonville results in the shooting death of Fermin Tobera. January 29, 1930 Two white men bomb the Filipino Federation building in Stockton, Calif.

January 26, 1930 L.A. Superior Court judge rules that Filipino/White marriages performed since 1921 are invalid. 1932 Salvador Roldan Case Anti-miscegenation laws in many states, including California, prohibited marriage between whites and Mongolians, Negroes, and Indians. Pointing out that the law specified Mongolians and that did not include Filipinos, who were Malay, Salvador Roldan sued the State of California and won -- temporarily. Lawmakers simply added Malay to the law. December 8, 1930 A Filipino rooming house in the Imperial Valley, California is bombed by a white man. Three Filipinos are injured and one is killed. January 27, 1933 Filipino labor contractors of the Salinas Valley met at the camp of Rufo Canete on the Chualar stretch of highway near Salinas. They vote to incorporate as the Filipino Labor Supply Association of Monterey County. On Feb. 27, they oppose a wage reduction attempt of the Salinas Valley Vegetable Growers Association. June 19, 1933 Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union founded in Seattle, Washington. December 10, 1933 Filipino Labor Union founded in Salinas Valley, Calif. March 24, 1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act is passed. The law promises independence for the Philippines in 10 years, changes the status of Filipinas/os in the United States from national to alien, and restricts Filipina/o immigration to the United States to 50 per year. August 27, 1934 Filipino Labor Union organizes the Salinas Lettuce Strike. September 10, 1934 Anti-Filipina/o riots in the San Joaquin Valley, California. July 10, 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Filipino Repatriation Act. The U.S. government invites all Filipinos to take an all-expense paid boat trip back to the Philippines, with the condition that those who leave can never return. Only about 2,100 returned. December 1, 1936 Virgil Duyungan, founder and president of Seattles Canner Workers and Farm Laborers Union, and Aurelio Simon, union secretary, are murdered by a labor contractors agent in Washington. March 24, 1938 First National Filipino Conference, Sacramento, California. October 2, 1938 Ceferino Garcia wins the World Middleweight Boxing title.

April, 1939 Seven thousand Filipino asparagus workers, organized as the Filipino Agricultural Laborers Association (FALA), strike successfully during the height of the asparagus season in Stockton, Calif. 1940 The AFL charters the FALA, now known as the Federated Agricultural Laborers Association, in Stockton. June 10, 1941 Resident Commissioner Francisco Varona, instrumental in organizing Filipino labor and Filipina/o American communities, dies suddenly of a cerebral hemmorhage in New York. December 7, 1941 Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. December 9, 1941 Japan invades Northern Luzon. December 20, 1941 Congress passes Public Law 360, which allows Filipinos to serve in the Army of the United States. 1941-1945 World War II Hundreds of Filipinos in America joined the segregated units in the US Army to fight the Japanese in the Philippines; they formed the First and Second Filipino Infantry Regiments and were naturalized. Thousands of Filipinos in the Philippines joined the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), but are still fighting for recognition and benefits. January 2, 1942 Manila falls to Japan. April 1, 1942 First Filipino Infantry Battalion activated at San Luis Obispo, California. April 3, 1942 Japanese attack Bataan. April 4-13, 1942 Bataan Death March, in which Japanese soldiers march Filipino and American soldiers inland in Luzon. Thousands die. July 13, 1942 First Filipino Infantry Regiment activated in Salinas, California. January 13, 1945 and January 16, 1945 Liberation of Cavite City (13) and Corregidor and Bataan (16) from Japan. March 18, 1945 Liberation of Panay from Japan.

August 15, 1945 Japan surrenders, ending World War II. December 28, 1945 War Brides Act allows veterans to bring wives and children to the U.S. Filipino Americans who were members of the First and Second Infantry Regiments take advantage of the act and bring over families they created during the war. 1946 A postwar labor shortage caused by war casualties and lucrative defense work led to Hawaiis request for exemption from the 100-per-year immigration quota for Filipinas/os. Around 6,000 men, 446 women, and 915 children came as sakadas in 1946 before the granting of Philippine independence on July 4, 1946. This batch, called Sakada 46, were more educated than earlier recruits, and they immigrated as family units. January 18, 1946 79th Congress passes Rescission Act, which denies benefits to Filipino veterans of USAFFE. In March, President Truman would sign the act, which transferred $200,000,000 for the pay of veterans of USAFFE, but would bar these veterans from most benefits under the G.I. Bill of Rights. March 10, 1946 Carlos Bulosans semi-autobiographical novel, America Is In the Heart, is published. July 2, 1946 The Luce-Cellar Act (also called the Filipino Naturalization Act), enabled Filipina/o immigrants to become naturalized citizens. Filipino quota adjusted to 100 annually. As veterans brought back war brides from the Philippines, communities experienced tremendous growth. July 4, 1946 The United States recognizes Philippine independence, ending almost five decades of American rule. March 14, 1947 Signing of the U.S. Military Bases agreement, which allowed 22 U.S. military bases in the Philippines. It also allowed the U.S. Navy to recruit Philippine citizens, who, after a number of years in the Navy, are allowed to naturalize. Filipina/o Navy families begin settling in such cities as San Diego, Alameda, Vallejo, Seattle, Charleston, Virginia Beach, and in Hawaii. August 7, 1948 Victoria Manalo Draves, Filipina American diver from San Francisco, is the first woman to win two gold medals in the same Olympics, in London. 1948-49 Local 7 leads a major, but unsuccessful, asparagus strike in Stockton, California. Organizers and participants include Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, Carlos Bulosan, and Claro Candelario. 1950s-1990s: Urban Renewal destroys Little Manilas and Manilatowns From the 1950s to the 1990s, urban renewal and freeway projects lead to evictions, demolitions and displacements in Filipina/o American communities in Stocktons Little Manila, San Franciscos Manilatown, and in the Little Manila and Temple districts of Los Angeles.

1952, McCarran-Walter Act The act abolished the racial provisions of the 1790 Naturalization Act and allows immigrants of all racial groups to naturalize. However, the act, which was written at the height of anti-Communist sentiment, redbaited leftists, labor union activists and progressives, and allowed for the harassment and deportation of radical Filipino labor leaders. September 11, 1956 Carlos Bulosan dies in Seattle, Washington. 1957 Dorothy and Fred Cordova found Filipino Youth Activities in Seattle, Washington, a social service agency for youth. In 1959, they found the FYA Khordobah, an award-winning Filipino American drill team still in existence today. August 30, 1961 First issue of the Philippine News published by Alex Esclamado. The paper becomes the longest-running Filipino American newspaper. 1965 Ferdinand Marcos is elected president of the Philippines. Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1965 Racial and national origins preferences abolished and immigration laws radically changed, with the Philippines allowed a 20,000 annual quota. By the 1980s, the Philippines and Mexico sent more immigrants to the U.S. than any other countries. In the first decades after the passage of the act, women constituted more than 2/3 of the documented immigrants from all countries. Immigration preferences favor educated professionals and artists (such as doctors, nurses and engineers), but family reunification and chain migration brings thousands of Filipinas/os of all class and regional backgrounds to the United States. September 5, 1965 Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), led by Larry Itliong, calls a strike against 33 grape growers near Delano, California. September 8, 1965 The 2,000 mostly Filipina/o members of the AWOC begin the famous Delano Grape Strike. September 16, 1965 Cesar Chavezs National Farm Workers Association joins the AWOC. 1966-1975 Escalated phase of the Vietnam War. 1967 The Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and the National Farm Workers Union form the United Farm Workers Union -AFL/CIO (UFW). Cesar Chavez is elected president, and Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz are elected vice presidents. Pete Velasco becomes treasurer. 1968 Filipino students at San Francisco State organize the Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE).

September 6, 1968 Filipina/o students in PACE, members of the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), play a large role in the Third World Strike at San Francisco State College. The demands of the students include an open admissions policy and the establishment of the College of Ethnic Studies. In 1969, Filipina/o students go on strike at UC Berkeley to demand ethnic studies. The College of Ethnic Studies and the Department of Asian American Studies is established in the fall of 1969. December 26, 1968 The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is founded. 1969 The Filipino Student Association is founded at University of California, Berkeley. The organization is later renamed the Pilipino American Alliance, joins the Third World Liberation Front and organizes protests for the establishment of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. March 29, 1969 The New Peoples Army (NPA) founded. January 30, 1970 First Quarter Storm (anti-Marcos protests in the Philippines from January-March). Anti-U.S./Anti-Marcos movement begins. May 8, 1970 Marion Lacadia Obera becomes first Filipino judge in the United States (in California). July 29, 1970 Delano growers sign labor contracts with the United Farm Workers Union. June, 1971 First issue of Kalayaan newspaper, published by the Kalayaan collective of Filipino activists in the Bay Area, which led to the creation of the KDP in 1973. Publication ushers in era of the formation of Filipina/o collectives and left groups in San Jose, New York, San Diego, Seattle and other cities and college campuses. September 3, 1971 Hundreds of young Pinays and Pinoys gather in Seattle for the First Filipino Peoples Far West Convention in Seattle. Subsequent conventions are held in Stockton (1972), San Francisco (1973), and Los Angeles (1974). The Far West Conventions continued annually until 1975. Panelists include labor organizers, political activists, artists, and educators. Issues discussed included the Filipina/o American labor movement, identity, politics, art, culture, and the Filipino American movement. August, 1972 The Filipino Center is dedicated in Stockton, California. The dedication coincides with the Second Pilipino Peoples Far West Convention, hosted by activists in that city. The Center is a low-income housing and retail center developed by the Associated Filipino Organizations to house displaced Filipina/o pioneers, many of them now senior citizens, and ethnic businesses. The Barrio Fiesta, which celebrated the opening of the Center, is celebrated annually to this day. September 21, 1972

Dictator Ferdinand Marcos declares martial law in the Philippines, sparking a massive protest movement among Filipinos in the United States and in the Philippines. Thousands flee the Philippines, seeking political freedom. The United States maintains staunch support for the Marcos dictatorship. September 23, 1972 The National Committee for the Restoration of Civil Liberties (NCRCLP) founded in San Francisco. 1972 SIPA, Search to Involve Pilipino Americans, founded in Los Angeles. Samahang Pilipino founded at UCLA. 1973 Filipinos for Affirmative Action founded in Oakland, Calif. Ferdinand Marcos announces the creation of the Balikbayan program, which invited all overseas Filipinas/os to return to the Philippines to visit. The program is criticized as a pro-Marcos propaganda ploy, but several hundred Filipina/o Americans return. July 28, 1973 Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino (KDP), or Union of Democratic Filipinos, founded in Santa Cruz, California. It formally disbanded in 1987. Anti-Marcos organizations founded in the fall of that year include the Movement for a Free Philippines (Sept. 22, 1973 in Washington, DC) and the Friends of the Filipino People (October 20, 1973, Philadelphia, Penn.) May 18, 1973 Marcos Blacklist of U.S. residents is revealed in Los Angeles. December 28-29, 1974 First AMLM (Anti-Martial Law Movement) Unity Conference in Chicago, Ill. 1975 Liwanag, a collection of Filipino American art, photography, fiction and poetry is published in San Francisco. The book is representative of the radical and passionate work produced by young Filipino American artists in California in the 1970s. Many formed the Kearny Street Writers Workshop and made music in bands like Dakila and drum groups like Ating Tao. Pioneering Filipino American writers such as Jessica Hagedorn, Al Robles, Jeff Tagami, Jaime Jacinto, Virginia Cerenio, Oscar Penaranda and Shirley Ancheta, among many, many others, emerge from this region and period. January 1, 1975 Eduardo Malapit, first Filipino American mayor, takes office in Kauai. The first mainland Filipino American mayor, Apolinar Sangalang of Lathrop, Calif., takes office in 1990. November 2, 1975 Anti-Martial Law Coalition formed in New York City. August 4, 1977 Amidst massive protests, tenants of the International Hotel in San Francisco are evicted and the building is soon demolished, leaving hundreds of single and aging Filipino and Chinese men homeless. 1980s

 Filipinas/os fast becoming the nations largest Asian American group and the largest Asian American group in California as a result of immigration laws since 1965. The Anti-Martial Law Movement politicizes and polarizes the Filipino American community. Moreover, ideological rifts plague the movement itself. Filipina/o American hometown, regional, political, social, religious and professional organizations flourish as the post-1965 population mushrooms. Suburban, Midwest, East Coast and Southern settlement of immigrants and Filipina/o Americans in such places as Daly City, Calif., Union City/Fremont, Calif., New Jersey, Chicago, and Virginia. New immigrants swell the older communities of Stockton, San Francisco, Seattle, Salinas, Watsonville, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Vallejo, and Chicago. Filipino American youth play important roles in early hip hop culture, particularly through DJ culture and dance. Problems persist, among them continuing racism and occupational downgrading, U.S. support of the Marcos dictatorship, a lack of national exposure and recognition, little political clout, dismal rates of high school and college admission and completion, and disproportionately high rates of teen pregnancy, teen suicide, and AIDS. June 1, 1981 Gene Viernes and Silme Domingo, labor activists and KDP members, are murdered by Marcos agents in their union hall in Seattle. November 26, 1982 Filipino American National Historical Society established in Seattle, Washington. Fred and Dorothy Cordovas landmark book Filipinos: Forgotten Asian Americans is published in 1983. The Society promotes October as Filipino American History Month, which commemorates the arrival of Luzon Indios in California in October, 1587. 1983 National Democratic Front representatives from the Philippines are sent to the United States. August 21, 1983 Senator and opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. is assassinated at the Manila airport upon his return to the Philippines. November 3, 1985 On American television, Ferdinand Marcos announces a snap election for the presidency, to be held January 17, 1986. The date is postponed to February 7. 1986 The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) grants amnesty to undocumented immigrants, including thousands of Filipinas/os. February 22, 1986 The People Power EDSA movement, supported by a military coup, topples Marcos regime and elects Corazon Aquino president of the Philippines, sparking another wave of immigration to the U.S. February 25, 1986 President Ronald Reagn formally withdraws his support of the Marcos administration, and Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos leave the Philippines for Hawaii.

1987 KDP officially disbands. The National Pinoy Archives established by the Filipino American National Historical Society in Seattle, Washington. The Archives is the worlds largest collection of Filipina/o American historical and cultural materials. 1990s A San Diego study finds that Filipino girls have the highest rate of suicide and unwanted pregnancy among Asian ethnic groups. Filipinas/os have the highest rate of AIDS among Asian Americans. Filipinos eventually have the lowest admission rate of any ethnic group in the UC system, and few Filipino American professors have tenure nationwide. Filipina/o undergraduates at colleges and universities nationwide rally for the hiring and tenure of Filipino American professors, Filipino American Studies courses, higher admissions and retention for Filipina/o college students, and ethnic studies courses. Youth Activists create summer camps and programs to develop Filipina/o American youth leadership in Sacramento and at Stanford University (i.e., Project Pull). Pilipino Youth Coalitions created in Northern California cities. Daly City, Milpitas, Stockton, Vallejo, Union City and Carson elect Filipino American city officials. Clothing companies Downright Pinoy, Pinay, and Tribal Pinoy are established in Los Angeles in the mid1990s. Mark Pulido is the first Filipino elected student body president at UCLA. The San Francisco Bay Areas Represent and L.A.s Our Path to Follow poetry/spoken word events bring Filipino American poets and performance artists to wide audiences. The digital media revolution and the internet allows Filipina/o Americans to produce, publish and disseminate their own books, magazines, zines, CDs, independent films and documentaries and create their own independent record companies, film production companies, and music festivals. In the 1990s, The Rocksteady Crew -- djs Q-bert, Apollo and Mixmaster Mike -- win the DMC World Championship three years in a row. Their crew, the Invisibl Skratch Picklz, continue to dominate and influence turntable jazz and hip hop culture in general. The Beat Junkies form in L.A in the 1990s. Because of the explosion of Filipina/o American arts, the era of the mid 1990s to the early 2000s is dubbed by some scholars and artists as the Filipino American cultural renaissance. National Filipino American organizations such as the Filipino Civil Rights Advocates (FilCRA), the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NAFFAA), and the Filipina Womens Network (FWN) are established. Filipino Veterans and advocates, including such groups as the Veterans Equity Center in San Francisco, the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans and other national organizations, continue the campaign for Filipino World War II veterans benefits to well into the 2000s. Millions of Filipinas/os have left the Philippines to find work worldwide. The remittances of these overseas workers constitute a large portion of the Philippine economy. 1990 The Immigration Act of 1990 allows family reunification for those given amnesty in 1986. The Act also allows more than 150,000 Filipino veterans of World War II to immigrate to the United States. Approximately 20,000 become citizens. maganda (UC Berkeley) begins publication and links its origins to the original Filipino Students Bulletin published in Berkeley in 1905. September 16, 1991 The Philippine Senate rejects a proposed treaty for U.S. bases.

April 11, 1992 FIND, Filipino Intercollegiate Networking Dialogue, is founded as a networking organization amongst East Coast college-age Filipinas/os. May, 1992 Publisher Mona Lisa Yuchengco launches Filipinas magazine. First Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture in Los Angeles. April 24, 1993 A Reaffirm/Reject split emerges in the National Democratic Front in Europe. 1994 The Pilipino American Reading Room (PARRAL), now the Filipino American Library, established in Los Angeles. 1996 California voters pass Proposition 209, which abolishes race, ethnicity and gender preferences in admissions, hiring and contracting for public institutions. 1997 Byron Achido and Alex Tizon of the Seattle Times win the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism. Filipino veterans create Equity Village in Macarthur Park in Los Angeles to publicize their campaign for benefits. Several veterans go on a hunger strike. December 5, 1994 Benjamin Cayetano, descendent of sakadas, elected governor of Hawaii. May 5, 1998 Filipino Christian Church designated a Historic Cultural Monument by the City of Los Angeles. 1998 Bindlestiff Studio becomes an important San Francisco Bay Area center for Filipina/o American arts and performance. 1999 The piNoisepop Music Festival brings together Filipina/o American bands and musicians from around the nation for an annual performance festival in San Francisco. January 11, 1999 Library of Congress changes subject heading Philippine Insurrection to Philippine-American War. August 10, 1999 Joseph Ileto, Filipino American postal worker, killed by white supremacist Buford Furrow. 2001 Rod Pulidos Flipside is the first Filipino American feature film to debut at the Sundance Film Festival. Gene Cajayon and John Castros feature film tribute to 1990s Filipino American youth culture, The Debut, opens in theaters nationwide. Angela Perez Baraquio of Hawaii crowned Miss America.

 Pin@y Educational Partnerships founded at San Francisco State University by Allyson TintiangcoCubales. September 11, 2001 In coordinated suicide attacks planned by Islamist fundamentalist group al-Qaeda, planes are hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon, the World Trade Center in New York, and into a field in Pennsylvania. Because almost 3,000 die in the attacks, many Americans react with shock and distress; moreover, the attacks represent the first terrorist attacks on American soil. In reaction, President Bush declares a War on Terror. The xenophobic atmosphere post-9/11 fuels an atmosphere of extreme racism, backlash, violence, and suspicion. In the weeks after the attacks, hundreds of Filipina/o airport workers, many of them permanent residents, are laid off when the newly formed Transportation Security Administration overhauls airport security and replaces immigrant laborers with citizens. Anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-South Asian sentiment and violence increase dramatically after the attacks. Americans witness an erosion of civil liberties (The Patriot Act). The Immigration and Naturalization Service, now housed in the newly formed Department of Homeland Security, increases deportations and harassment of political dissidents and radicals, Arab Americans, Muslims, South Asians, and Filipinas/os. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her administration become staunch allies of the Bush Administration in the War on Terror, and American troops are sent to the Southern Philippines, ostensibly for the purpose of training Philippine troops. June, 2002 The Filipino Community Center is dedicated in Waipahu, Hawaii. October, 2002 Stockton City Council designates the Little Manila Historic Site, the nations first Filipino American citydesignated historic site. 2003 The city of Los Angeles designates Historic Filipinotown. March 19, 2003 President Bush declares war on Iraq. 2004 The Filipino Community Center and the Bayanihan Center open in San Francisco. 2005 The new International Hotel is dedicated and the Manilatown Center on its ground floor is dedicated and opened. 2005-2006 Protesters in the United States and the Philippines call for the resignation of President Gloria MacapagalArroyo, citing suspicions over her role in rigging the 2004 Presidential election, her role in the War on Terror, her poor human rights record and her crackdown on political dissent and protest. Demonstrations without permits are stopped. February 24-March 3, 2006 In response to an alleged coup attempt, President Macapagal-Arroyo declares Proclamation No. 1017, in which she declares a State of Emergency for the nation. Critics charge that the proclamation is tantamount to a declaration of martial law. Demonstrations are dispersed and a crackdown on leftist political leaders ensues.

May, 2006 In a report, Amnesty International expresses concern over the murders of militant activists and community workers in the Philippines.