There is a term Filipinos use to describe unity: “pagka-kaisa.” Since October is Filipino American History Month, local Filipino organizations have called for younger generations to keep the spirit of pagka-kaisa alive—and what better way to do so than with a celebration?
Rosalie Marquez, president of the Filipino American National Historic Society/California Central Coast Chapter, is helping to organize the celebration that will include Filipino Americans from throughout the area. She said there are about 20 different Filipino American organizations on the Central Coast because they each represent their own province where they once lived.
“Now we want to say, let’s come together as Filipino Americans and share our experiences,” Marquez said.
The celebration will feature a photo exhibition on the early Filipino pioneers, a dinner and dance, Filipino folk dancing, and other entertainment.
Grace Yeh will speak about the process of organizing her exhibit “Routes and Roots,” which explores how the Filipino community became established on the Central Coast.
Yeh, along with co-collaborator Craig Rock, spent nearly a year interviewing Filipinos in Salinas and in South San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara counties gathering personal accounts and early photos.
“There’s not an archive, the history isn’t really preserved anywhere,” Yeh said. “It was hard at first, then we got some good leads, and then we got a lot of stuff.”
The exhibition is broken into two parts, as the name suggests. The first part explores the routes early immigrants took to get to the Central Coast. The travelers were mostly immigrant farm workers, so the exhibit explores their living and working conditions.
The second part of the exhibition is the growth and establishment of the Filipino community. Yeh said originally they were mostly single men because of their participation in World War II. They couldn’t marry because of interracial marriage bans in force at the time. They couldn’t travel to the Philippines to find a wife because they weren’t granted American citizenship, so they wouldn’t be able to come back. It wasn’t until they received citizenship that these Filipino men could travel to the Philippines and bring back wives. And when the wives came, so did the culture. Suddenly, there was Filipino food, organized community centers, and dances. In short, the base of today’s Filipino American culture formed.
Yeh and Rock met mostly with the widows of the early immigrant men, most of whom had passed away. Yeh said the men were often in their 40s by the time they brought back wives, who were sometimes 20 years younger.
While the Filipino American History Month celebration will feature some work from the exhibition, the full
exhibition is on display at the Oddfellows Hall in Arroyo Grande.
Yeh said she was excited the exhibit was up, but was more excited by the interactions and conversation the community was having.
“Grandparents were talking with kids about their experiences, and kids were asking questions, and I believe that’s what history is,” she said. “It happens in those conversations.”
Arts Editor Shelly Cone listens when history talks. Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 7, 2010.