Posted by Vivian Lin


I attended the “History of Filipino Farm Workers in America” presentation by Marissa Pulido Rebaya last week at Pitzer. The history of Filipino farm workers in the U.S. goes back to the early 1900s. The Sakadas (1906-1946) were men from the Philippines who were recruited to work in Hawaii on sugarcane and pineapple plantations. The Manongs (1920-1935) were 16 to 21 year old single, unmarried, and uneducated Filipino men who came to fill the gap left in the manual labor work force left by the 1924 U.S. Immigration Act [The word “Manong,” which appears in one of the last chapters of Dogeaters, is from the Ilocano dialect, meaning “older brother,” and used as a term of respect]. Since the Philippines were a U.S. territory, Filipinos were not excluded by the 1924 act; the Filipino quota actually increased at this time. Migrant workers predominantly worked crops in California and Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico, and Pacific Northwest fisheries and canneries in Washington and Alaska. They often had to travel with the crops, living in labor camps. These consisted of barracks made from wood scraps, without heat, plumbing, or toilets.

Around the time of the Great Depression, animosity toward people of color increased due to the belief that immigrants were taking jobs away. There were anti-Filipino race riots, such as the 1930 Watsonville riots in which a Filipino man was shot and killed. Filipinos held the status of “nationals,” which can be considered between alien and citizen status; this designation by the government made it so Filipino immigrants could not become naturalized citizens. They could not vote, own land, or join the military at this time. Following WWII, Filipinos who served in the military were able to gain citizenship.

Filipina women rarely immigrated, resulting in an unbalanced 14:1 ratio of men to women. Anti-miscegenation laws existed until 1947 in California (1967 for the rest of the country), which prevented the “mixing” of races. Young men living in the slums consequently turned to taxi dance halls (where they would pay per dance with a white woman… not prostitution or stripping, just to clarify), pool halls, and gambling for entertainment; some men spent a great deal of the money they earned here. Ms. Pulido Rebaya pointed out that the Filipino culture is a “passionate and romantic” one, and Filipino men would treat women nicely and dress up to go out. She noted that some white men were jealous of Filipino men for dancing with white women. The over-sexualized Filipino stereotype may have stemmed from this kind of anti-Filipino sentiment. To tie this into the literature we have covered so far, the character Marpo in Hisaye Yamamoto’s “Yoneko’s Earthquake” fit the description of a Manong, being a young, single Filipino man working in agricultural labor. Different cultural ideas of romance may have made Marpo more attractive as a romantic partner than the husband: Marpo was cavalier in defending Mrs. Hosoume, and Yoneko herself was rather fond of him. Mr. Hosoume’s regard for Marpo was characteristic of the fear prevailing at the time; Filipinos were not only a threat in terms of taking jobs, but also competing for the attention of women.

The Bracero Program (Public Law 78: 1951-1964) allowed Mexican workers to cross the border and work on U.S. farmland. Mexicans were regarded as being less likely to unionize in comparison to Filipinos, who had gained much experience striking and organizing [I haven’t included much regarding the actual politics of the movement, since I mostly wrote down specific individuals and organizations; I can provide more information if anyone would like]. Ms. Pulido Rebaya explained that Public Law 78 was a “divide and conquer” tactic, setting two ethnic groups against one another, competing for the same jobs. Even so, both Filipino and Mexican farm workers united against the growers to achieve the same goals. Strikes for equal pay and worker rights brought together Filipino leaders such as Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, and Pete Velasco, with Mexican labor leaders such as César Chávez, forming the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (today, United Farm Workers of America).

However, Filipino men working in the fields were getting much older by this time, and young Mexican men were taking larger roles in the labor force. Some leaders in the Filipino farm workers community began to feel marginalized, a minority within a minority; Larry Itliong chose to leave the organization for this reason. I felt that the presentation provided insight into race relations in the manual labor force, and how much could be achieved through collective efforts. Similarities in social and economic situation made a common struggle possible, as mentioned in Lipsitz’s discussion of unity and division in “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness.” Even so, the need for distinct identity and differences in goals and ideas remained. A single organization was not satisfactory in addressing all of the issues and needs specific to each group.