I am a reference librarian providing factual information, with accompanying references.
You may contact me at: eloisa -omit-this-spam-guard- @ucla.edu
Frequently Asked Questions
- How many Filipino Americans are there?
- When did Filipinos first come to America?
- Who are some noteworthy Filipino-Americans in history?
- Were all Filipinos, who came to the U.S. from 1898 to the 1920s, farm workers?
- How do I do research on my Filipino ancestors?
- Are Filipinos Hispanic?
- Are there documentary films on Filipinos in America?
- Why isn't Antonio Miranda Rodriguez on the Founders Plaque on Olvera Street?
- Why does one Internet site say the Unamuno landing in 1587 was not in Morro Bay?
- Would Blessed Pedro Calungsod be the first Filipino American saint?
- Which is that Chicago library with Filipino materials?
- Was the Yo-Yo really a weapon?
- Where are the concentrations of Filipinos in the U.S.?
- Any oral history examples on Filipino Americans?
- Who are Filipino American music legends before apl.de.ap of the Black Eyed Peas?
- What is the origin of the poster, Positively No Filipinos Allowed ?
| 1. How many Filipino Americans are there? |
•
The U.S. Census Bureau reports the top three ethnic Asian groups in the country (1990):
Chinese 1,645,472
Filipino 1,406,770
Japanese 847,562
--1990 Census of Population, General Population Characteristics.
•
American Demographics magazine "forecasts the Filipino population in the United States will rise to 2.1 million by the year 2000".
--Gannett News Service, November 18, 1996, by Honolulu Advertiser.
"Filipino Population in U.S. rivals Chinese-Americans".
•
The Sacramento Bee says "Filipino Americans -- at roughly 1 million -- are now the largest Asian ethnic group in California".
--Sacramento Bee, May 19, 1996, p.A1.
"Out From The Shadows" by Stephen Magagnini.
•
The Los Angeles Times states that Filipinos are "California's largest Asian community"
--Los Angeles Times, January 26, 1996, p.A1.
"Filipinos Happy With Life in U.S., But Lack United Voice" by K. Connie Kang.
•
The 2000 Census reported 2,364,815 Filipinos in the United States.
-- The Asian Population: 2000 (Census 2000 Brief), February 2002. - see page 9
Check the Census 2000 for many more interesting findings. For example, in Long Beach, CA,
which is 48.9% white, the largest Asian/Pacific population is Filipino (4%).
Please cite as: "How many Filipino Americans are there?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#numbers
| 2. When did Filipinos first come to America? |
It can be said that Filipinos, often referred to as Luzon Indians or Manila Men, were on sailing ships on the world's seas and oceans from the earliest of times -- not limited to Spanish galleons or to the Manila Galleon Trade years of 1565-1815. Click the Chronology below for facts like these:
- Indios Luzones landing in Morro Bay, California in 1587
- Filipinos shipwrecked near San Francisco Bay in 1595
- a village of Manila Men on the ourskirts of New Orleans, Louisiana in 1763
- Filipinos with Fr. Junipero Serra at the founding of the mission at Monterey in 1779
- Antonio Miranda Rodriquez among those chosen to settle in Los Angeles in 1781
•
Chronology of Filipinos in America Pre-1898 briefly lists documented historical facts, all of which occurred prior to the generally accepted "first wave" of Philippine immigration to the U.S. and prior to the 1898 date when the Philippines became a U.S. territory. Includes links to referenced information available on the Internet.
Please cite as: "When did Filipinos first come to America?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#history
| 3. Who are some noteworthy Filipino-Americans in history? |
(This section is under construction)
•
Pedro Flores, Father of the Modern American Yo-Yo (1926), in the American Yo-Yo Assn Hall of Fame.
"Flores did three very important things" according to Lucky Meisenheimer, chairman of the
American Yo-Yo Assn's History and Collecting Committee and author of the Yo-Yo collector's bible,
Lucky's Collectors Guide to 20th Century Yo-Yos
"First, he named the toy a "yo-yo" and although he had not coined the term himself,
as this was the name for the toy from his native country, the Philippines, and it became
a very popular term in the United States culture and among the press for describing the toy."
"Secondly, the Flores yo-yo had the string looped around the axle in place of
being fixed or tied to the axle. This allowed for the yo-yo to spin at the end of the string."
opening up a new arena of yo-yo play."
"Finally and most importantly he introduced the yo-yo contest which was essential for the
absolute craze that followed."
The National Yo-Yo Museum provides a biography of Pedro Flores. Here are more key facts.
The first Flores Yo-Yo Company was located in the historic Granada Building on State Street
in downtown Santa Barbara, California. With the financing from a couple of investors, Flores
mass produced Yo-Yos at two Flores Yo-Yo factories in Los Angeles in the late 1920s. These
factories were located at 6301 Sunset Blvd (at Cahuenga), and at 1938 Hyperion Ave (near Sunset).
In 1929, Flores filed and received a trademark for his Flores Yo-Yo. [U.S. Patent Office Official Gazette]
In 1930, Donald Duncan Sr. bought the Flores Yo-Yo Manufacturing Corporation, and started the
Duncan Yo-Yo Company. Duncan was a consummate marketer, but Flores stayed on to provide
the Yo-Yo expertise.
NOTE: While the Museum of Yo-Yo History says "Duncan introduced the looped slip-string, which
allows the yo-yo to sleep" in its Duncan Company profile, the Museum adds on its Flores Yo-Yo page
that "The string was a slip string, an innovation creditted to Donald Duncan, but apparently a part of
Flores yo-yos before the company was sold."
.
Pedro Edralin Flores was born on April 29, 1893 in Vintar, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. [WW1 & WWII draft]
•
Victoria Manalo Draves, 1st Woman in Olympic History to Win 2 Gold Medals in Diving
(London Olympics, 1948) on the U.S. Olympic Team.
She was inducted into International
Swimming Hall of Fame in 1969. Recently profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle, 3/3/2002.
•
Bobby Balcena, Major League Baseball Player -- Cincinnati Reds (Redlegs) in 1956.
He was a legendary player for the champion Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League.
He was born on August 1, 1925 in San Pedro, California. He died on January 5, 1990.
See also:
Filipino American Sports Greats
Filipino Americans in Hollywood
In Search of the Ubiquitous Filipinos
Helen Brown - founder of Filipino American Library in Los Angeles
Doroteo Ines - educator and film maker, A Filipino in America (USC, 1938)
Royal Morales - "Uncle Roy", community activist
Please cite as: "Who are some noteworthy Filipino-Americans in history?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#prominent
| 4. Were all Filipinos, who came to the U.S. from 1898 to the 1920s, farm workers? |
(This section still in-progress)
There were large numbers who came to be farm workers starting in 1906, and we owe a lot to their struggle for acceptance in the American society. However, there were many others who came under different circumstances.
There were quite a few who came to attend universities. Some of these college students were Pensionados who were getting an education in the U.S. in order to return to government service in the Philippines. There were also college students who were here on their own funds, seeking a better life. Unfortunately, after they received their degrees, many of them could not find employers willing to hire them in their chosen careers.
There were also many other different stories surrounding others that came. Take for example, Isidro Canlas, who came to the U.S. in 1905. He came with an American soldier who had become his friend who was returning to his hometown of Buffalo, New York. Canlas then moved to Denver, Colorado working for another former soldier, and then accompanied this employer to Long Beach, California in 1910. Canlas was a muleskinner.
[Eloisa Gomez Borah has done research on the biography of Isidro Canlas.
.
See also the articles in Press-Telegram, the Asian Journal and the e-zine Our Own Voice essay ].
Please cite as: "Were all Filipinos, who came to the U.S. from 1898 to the 1920s, farm workers?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#1920
| 5. How do I do research on my Filipino ancestors? |
There are how-to books specifically on tracing Filipino ancestors, I even wrote a review article on these for Filipinas Magazine:
•
"Tracing Your Ancestral Roots: Can You Dig It?", FILIPINAS Magazine, June 1996.
You may find these books at your local public library.
A particularly good one is done by the Mormons, called:
•
Tracing Your Philippine Ancestors by Lee W. Vance
(Provo, UT: Stevenson's Genealogical Center, 1980. 771 pages)
Among the steps recommended is to track down the name of the ship and point of entry of your early immigrant ancestors. I believe you may want to consult:
•
Immigrant and Passenger Arrivals - National Archives and Records Administration
Among the source documents available are:
•
Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1891--1957
Record Group 85 -- These records on microfilm reels are divided by the port of entry.
For pre-1953, for example:
•
Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at San Francisco, CA, 1893-- 1953
"... indexes to passenger arrival records for the port of San Francisco, May
1, 1893--May 9, 1934. The first 21 rolls reproduce the general index to
passengers. The second alphabetical index on rolls 22--27, relates to
individuals arriving from the Philippines, ... extracted from the San
Francisco passenger lists. Each entry provides the date of arrival and the
vessel name. ..."
If you have ancestors dating back to when Spain was a global power, check out:
•
Catálogo de pasajeros a Indias durante los siglos XVI, XVII y XVIII
at the Archivo General de Indias, but parts have been published in book form.
If you have ancestors who are buried in cemeteries in the U.S., especially in towns where many Filipinos lived in the early 1900s, please volunteer to inventory local cemeteries for Filipinos:
•
How To Inventory a Cemetery -- Links to Resources.
Please cite as: "How do I do research on my Filipino ancestors?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#genealogy
| 6. Are Filipinos Hispanic? |
Most Filipinos have Spanish-surnames, and many have a Spanish ancestor or two. It is an undeniable historical fact that the Philippines was a Spanish colony from 1521 to 1898 -- many times longer than the almost 50 years (1898-1946) that it was an American colony. So for several hundred years, Spain had influence on Philippine language, literature, food, architecture, and other aspects of custom and culture.
•
Los Indios Bravos
The Filipino Solidarity Project
This "group strongly believes that Filipino culture remains characteristically Hispanic ...".
•
Somos Primos -- See also their: Historical Mini-Articles
"... identity problem is based on many historical occurrences and political/social factors".
•
Filhispanic Circle / El Círculo Flipinohispano -
see Articles: English and Spanish.
The page of the Spanish culture and language in the Philippines -- with valuable links
"...the Philippines, a nation belonging to the great family of hispanic countries".
•
hispanofilipino -- at Yahoo! Groups
"People interested in the preservation of the hispanofilipino identity
and the Spanish language in the Philippines".
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Hispanic Roots:
Philippines Hispanic Society Sheet Metal Workers, Local Union #28
•
Spanish Made Easy and Practical For Filipinos -- Grupo Hispano-Filipino
•
¡Hola, Kaibigan!
-- Filipino-Spanish world website
•
The Situation of Spanish in the Philippines today, & other Hispano-Filipino articles
Please cite as: "Are Filipinos hispanic?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#hispanic
| 7. Are there documentary films on Filipinos in America? |
Yes, there are many. Here's are just a few available ones that you may have seen on PBS:
•
Filipino Americans: Discovering Their Past for the Future - FANHS, 1994
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In No One's Shadow - Naomi & Antonio De Castro, Visual Communications, 1988
•
Manong - Linda Mabalot, Visual Communications, 1978 (30 min.)
•
Bontoc Eulogy - Marlon Fuentes, 1995
•
Dancing the Shrimp
- James & Isabel Kenny, Magic Lantern Films, 1988 (60 min.)
•
Dollar A Day, 10¢ A Dance - Geoffrey Dunn and Mark Schwartz, 1985 (30 min.)
•
The Fall of the I-Hotel - Curtis Choy, 1983 (58 min.)
•
A Filipino in America
- Doroteo Ines, 1938, Filipino American Heritage Institute
•
Green Pastures: Filipinos in the Heartland - Univ. of Kansas, 1997 (58 min.)
Please cite as: "Are there documentary films on Filipinos in America?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#films
| 8. Why isn't Antonio Miranda Rodriguez on the Founders Plaque on Olvera Street? |
Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, along with his daughter, were among those chosen to be the original settlers of the City of Los Angeles in 1781. He did start the expedition with the other pobladores, but his daughter got sick with small pox along the way, causing his delay in order to take care of her lingering illness. Antonio Miranda Rodriguez's name does appear in the first census for Los Angeles, and the next as well, however, in the census of 1783 his name was dropped and his allotment was re-assigned to someone else. His daughter eventually died of her illness, and he did subsequently arrive in Los Angeles, despite some stories to the contrary. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Miranda found that his allotment had already been assigned to another, but that the presidio in Santa Barbara wanted him.
Miranda's highly valued skill as a gunsmith or armorer was desired for the Presidio of Santa Barbara. The Presidio in Santa Barbara was in charge of protecting the area missions and settlements, including San Gabriel and Los Angeles, as the closest other presidio was in San Diego. Miranda settled in Santa Barbara in 1783 and lived there until his death. He was buried in the chapel of this Presidio in Santa Barbara. Presidio life is an interetsing study of the soldiers in these garrisons.
When in Southern California, go to the Presidio in downtown Santa Barbara and see the wall plaque listing him (Antonio Miranda) among those buried in the Presidio Chapel. Another thing to see is the commemorative tile at the foot of the altar, which was placed there by the Filipino Community of Santa Barbara.
According to the research of William Marvin Mason, former curator of the History Division of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Antonio Miranda Rodriguez was not just a settler but also a soldier, a soldado de cuera, and was literate (unusual for that time), as at least one report has been found that was written by him.
We owe a lot of what we know about Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, beyond Los Angeles, to William Mason, who had been doing this research until his untimely death in late 2000. Mason, who wrote an article about the Chinese in Mexico, found "chinos" (not Chinese, but Filipinos from the nao de china, or Manila Galleons) mentioned in church records of marriages in Mexico.
His daughter will be donating his papers, hopefully to UCLA.
In a tribute to Bill Mason, veteran California Historian, I compiled what he shared with me in regard to his research on Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, when I was requested to deliver the lecture for a special event held at the Santa Barbara Presidio on June 13, 2004. This "Historical Lecture on the Occasion of the Life of Antonio Miranda Rodriguez" was also published in 2004 in La Campana, the quarterly journal of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation.
ADDENDA: Antonio Miranda was not a Spaniard, and he was not Chinese; he was ethnically Filipino according to some leading and very respected academic historians. As your teachers warn you, question what you find on the Internet and judge them by the sources they cite for their information. Here are documented sources by men of great reputations as academic historian, provided by a librarian from a major university.
Mason, William M. Los Angeles Under the Spanish Flag (So. California Genealogical Society, 2004. 116p)
Page 15: "Antonio Miranda Rodriguez ... was listed as a chino on one of the lists of pobladores. ... But to people in Mexico, chinos were from Asia, irrespective of nationality. ... [Miranda] was from Manila, and was quite likely a Filipino."
________________ "The Founding Forty-Four", Westways, Vol. 68, No. 7, July 1976, pp. 20-23.
Page 23: "Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, chino. Miranda, as he was usually called ... On Mexico's west coast chino was the term applied to natives from the Philippines, to distinguish them from Mexican Indians, since both were called indios. Miranda was a native of Manila, and apparently a Malayan Filipino."
Bancroft, Hubert Howe History of California, Vol. I. 1542-1800, Vol.18 The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft
Page 345: "Antonio Miranda, chino, 50 years, ... was not a Chinaman, nor even born in China, as has been stated by some writers, but was the offspring probably of an Indian mother by a father of mixed Spanish and negro blood."
(While the term Filipino was used in the 17th century for full-blood Spanish born in the Philippines to differentiate them from the full-blood Spanish Peninsulares (Spanish in the New World who were born in Spain); because Miranda, as described above by academic historians, was not full-blood Spanish, this argument is irrelevant in Miranda's case.)
•
El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park - Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation
•
A Southern California Chronology - Historical Society of Southern California
•
Los Angeles Under the Spanish Flag by William M. Mason (So. California Genealogical Society, 2004).
[The First Census of Los Angeles (1781) appears on page 66]
•
The Garrisons of San Diego Presidio: 1770-1794 by Bill Mason - Journal of San Diego History
Please cite as: "Why isn't Antonio Miranda Rodriguez on the Founders Plaque on Olvera Street?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#miranda
| 9. Why does one Internet site say the Unamuno landing in 1587 was not in Morro Bay? |
When you visit Internet sites, it is important to be a critical thinker (see: Hoax? Scholarly Research? Personal Opinion? You Decide!) because you never know who you are dealing with -- as that classic New Yorker cartoon says, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog". Anyone can call themselves an historian, but more weight needs to be put on the word of an historian with academic credentials (a professor of history at a university, graduate degrees in history, published on this subject in an academic journal).
There are several facts to consider when looking into the Unamuno landing in California in 1587:
(A) Captain Unamuno was inexperienced, but ship's pilot Gomez was experienced. We are indebted to Pedro de Unamuno because he was explicit in his ship's log when describing the Filipinos among them, the Indios Luzones -- many ship's logs of that time did not. But although Pedro de Unamuno was an inexperienced captain and a last minute replacement for the untimely death of Francisco Gali, Unamuno's ship's pilot Alonso Gomez -- who put the landing at 35½° latitude, about where Morro Bay is located -- was very experienced. Gomez had been the pilot on Gali's highly successful voyage as well as several others. Some point to the workings of an astrolabe, although there is no mention that Gomez used one or relied solely on one.
(B) Determining latitude was scientifically precise 67 years before 1587. What is important to remember is that by 1587, determining latitude was no longer a problem, it was longitude that continued to baffle navigators. Latitude was precise 67 years earlier, according to Dr. Patricia Seed, MIT visiting scholar and history professor at Rice University, at her award-winning Internet site, Forum on European Expansion and Global Interactions:
"By the 1520s Portuguese experts realized that the
scientific precision equal to that they had achieved in fixing latitude
could only be approximated in establishing longitude." [emphasis added]
(C) Henry Raup Wagner's research is respected by academic researchers.
Who is Henry R. Wagner, whose research is most referred to regarding the Unamuno voyage? Long after his death in 1957, his many books and academic journal articles continue to be cited by academic historians. To determine where Unamuno's landing site Puerto de San Lucas was, Wagner "made several trips to the coast in the neighborhood of 35½° ... the result has been to convince him that the Puerto de San Lucas was what is now known as Morro Bay".
Among his many contributions is the Wagner Collection of Mexican Broadsides at his alma mater, Yale University. A few academic historians may not have pointed to Morro Bay, these discrepancies are covered in "Filipinos in Unamuno's California Expedition of 1587" (AMERASIA Journal, v.21,#3, Winter 1995-96).
(D) Unamuno did not mention the Morro Rock in his log. Why didn't Unamuno mention the Morro Rock? We don't know for sure, but we know Unamuno was inexperienced and that this was his first voyage as a captain. There are also some additional circumstances that may be behind Unamuno's not mentioning the Morro Rock, see (E) below.
(E) In 1587, Morro Bay did not look like it does today.
The Morro Bay that Unamuno saw was different than what we now see there, as the configuration of Morro Bay has changed:
(a)
The original entrance to Morro Bay was from the north. The north entrance was closed in 1933 by the WPA construction of the jetty that now connects the Morro Rock to the shore and that changed the configuration of the area.
(b)
The sand spit to the south had been originally fairly narrow and straight.
(c)
What we now see as the south channel had been dredged during WWII and the breakwater was also just constructed only in the 1940s.
(d)
Before all of these changes, a sailing ship hugging the coast southward to Acapulco would have used the original northern entrance to enter the bay, and would have been well into the bay and docked near present-day White Point (near the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History), and perhaps missed the Rock due to heavy fog as it entered and left the bay.
(e)
Most of us visit Morro Bay in the sunny months of summer, and although it is hard to imagine fog so heavy that you couldn't see the Morro Rock, award-winning photographer Robert W. Elayer proves to us how the Morro Rock can "disappear" in his photographic evidence that there are times, such as in October, when California coastal communities witness the familiar periods of almost zero visibility -- this condition can even happen on sunny days, with the marine layer.
To commemorate the Unamuno landing in Morro Bay, and the Filipinos in the landing party, an historical landmark was dedicated on October 21, 1995 by the Filipino American National Historical Society. The ceremonies were attended by local dignitaries and over 600 FANHS members from all over the U.S. -- Thanks largely to the efforts of the FANHS-California Central Coast Chapter, and its former president, Ernie Cabreana.
Please cite as: "Why does one Internet site say the Unamuno landing in 1587 was not in Morro Bay?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#morrobay
| 10. Would Blessed Pedro Calungsod be the first Filipino American saint? |
(This section is under construction)
I don't have much experience doing research on religious topics, but as I librarian I will do the research to provide you with some information and credible references on Blessed Pedro Calungsod, who was martyred on Guam (now part of the USA) in 1672.
Please cite as: "Would Blessed Pedro Calungsod be the first Filipino American saint?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#calungsod
| 11. Which is that Chicago library with Filipino materials? |
I believe you mean the Newberry Library in Chicago. As a professional librarian, I am happy to give you a guide to the resources of the Newberry Library, with focus on Philippine research. The information you need is at the Newberry Library website itself.
The special collections at the Newberry Library that reflect early American interest in the Philippines are:
•
The Ayer manuscript collection
•
Edward E. Ayer Collection
•
Philippine History Bibliographies (lists of books available in the NL)
Of special note on the last link above, it includes:
Phelan, John Leddy. "The Philippine Collection in the Newberry Library."
The Newberry Library Bulletin 3.8 (1955): 229-236.
whose author, Phelan, wrote the much referenced The Hispanization of the Philippines.
Also on this bibliography of bibliographies is an index of their
Philippine Photograph Collection:
Newberry Library. "A Tribal and Subject Index to the Philippine Photograph
Collection."
Unpublished, n.d. call number: Special Collections Reference
Also of interest is the NL collection:
•
Spanish-American Manuscripts (also in the Ayer collection)
To search the catalog for particular books or manuscripts, click on
"Search the On-Line Catalogue" from the:
Collections & Catalogue page.
NOTE: You will have to use the onsite Card Catalog, because:
"The online catalogue: catalogue records added since 1978. Please note
that the online catalogue has catalogue records for only 10-15% of the
Newberry's holdings. Unless the work was published post-1978, you should
consult both Newberry catalogues."
Try a search using the keywords: blair robertson
to see just a few manuscripts (added post-1978) from the Ayer Collection
that is referenced in the indispensable reference work:
•
Blair, Emma Helen and James Alexander Robertson.
The Philippine Islands 1493-1803. 55 volumes.
Cleveland, OH: The Arthur H. Clark Co. 1903.
About instructions to visitors at the Newberry Library, see:
•
Using the Newberry Library: Frequently Asked Questions
I hope I have provided the help you need. In case you have questions I
have not answered, direct those to the librarians at the Newberry Library
itself -- "Feel free to contact the Newberry Library Reference Department
(reference@newberry.org) with questions." Good luck on your research, and please keep me informed of your progress
and the focus of your research.
Please cite as: "Which is that Chicago library with Filipino materials?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#newberry
| 12. Was the Yo-Yo really a weapon? [and other Yo-Yo myths] |
The myth of the Yo-Yo being a Filipino weapon was well addressed in Debunking Yo-Yo Myths by Virgilio Pilapil, former president of the Filipino American National Historical Society, a paper presented on June 29, 2000 at the 2000 National FANHS Conference, held at the Virginia Wesleyan College, Virginia. Based on research which included personal interviews with town elders in the Philippines, the conclusion reached was that the stories about how the Yo-Yo was a Filipino weapon, did NOT originate in the Philippines.
However, since this urban legend persists on the Internet, here again are the documented facts.
In the book, The Klutz Yo-Yo Book by John Cassidy (Klutz Press, 1987), Donald Duncan Jr. is quoted to say that his uncle brought the idea to Duncan Sr. that the yo-yo being a early Filipino weapon would make a good marketing ploy. [Thanks to Daniel Volk, former Duncan Yo-Yo demonstrator, for locating this citation]
"Tom Ives, my uncle, was with my father in the early days marketing yo-yos, and
it could be that he started the idea. Probably embellished a rumor he'd heard."
-- Donald Duncan, Jr.
Add to this the evidence from physicist Wolfgang Burger, who scientifically challenged the idea of a Yo-Yo being a weapon because, among the points he made, the Yo-Yo is weakest at the point of full extension.
"The unwinding string acts as a significant brake,
slowing down the Yo-Yo and softens impact at the bottom."
-- Wolfgang Burger. "The Yo-Yo: A Toy Flywheel"
American Scientist, March-April 1984 (vol.72), p.137-142
Please help set straight this urban myth. Too many respected Internet sites, who should know better, have relied on sources that are not documented (unlike the above sources), and thereby help promulgate this urban myth. Please send the link to this section to any website that still repeats this urban myth. Thanks.
Museum of Yo-Yo History got this right: "Contrary to popular belief, the yo-yo was never a weapon."
Please cite as: "Was the Yo-Yo really a weapon?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#yoyo
| 13. Where are the concentrations of Filipinos in the U.S.? |
(This section is under construction)
San Francisco, New York City, and Chicago come to mind, initially. You can say that Filipinos are everywhere in the U.S., but they are invisible -- a common quote goes, "Filipino Americans? That's a best kept secret!".
Los Angeles also has a large population of Filipino Americans, and a revitalized Historic Filipinotown in the City of Los Angeles (bounded by 101 Freeway to the north, Beverly Blvd. to the south, Hoover St. to the West, and Glendale Blvd. to the East).
Even Long Beach, also in Southern California, has a Filipino Neighborhood, declared by the Long Beach City Council in 1992, it is located in West Long Beach (centered along Santa Fe Avenue from 20th Street to Spring Street).
Here are some examples of Filipino community histories and Filipino/Manila towns across United States:
•
Filipino Americans in Chicago by Barbara Posadas
•
Filipino Americans in Seattle by Cynthia Mejia-Giudici -- also Fred & Dorothy Cordova
•
The Filipino Community in the greater Los Angeles Area by Paul Dia
•
Little Manila (Stockton, CA) - around Lafayette and El Dorado Streets
•
Manilatown (San Francisco)
•
The Filipino Community in New York City by Lourdes Marzan, Asian Am, Queens College.
•
Manila Avenue (Jersey City, NJ)
Please cite as: "Where are the concentrations of Filipinos in the U.S.?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#communities
| 14. Any oral history examples on Filipino Americans? |
Here are a few oral histories available on the Internet. These include transcript, audio and video examples. Hope you make yours available online when you school project is done, so others can benefit from it.
•
Al Baguio Salinas farm worker (on cockfights) -- Filipinos in the Fields - Coastridge audio
•
Frank Barba: Filipino Labor Contractor -- Agricultural History Sta Cruz Cty, UCSC transcript
•
Fred and Dorothy Cordova FANHS founders -- Seattle Civil Rights, UW video
•
Sugar Pie DeSanto singer/songwriter/recording artist -- Fillmore Stories, PBS video
•
Apolonia Dangzalan: Businesswoman -- Agricultural History Sta Cruz Cty, UCSC transcript
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Vicki Draves 1948 Olympics Champion U.S. Diving Team 2X Gold -- LA84 Foundation transcript
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Andy Imutan V.P. United Farm Workers (pickets) -- Filipinos in the Fields - Coastridge audio
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Alfonso Ossorio abstract expressionist artist -- Archives of American Art, Smithsonian transcript
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Bob Santos activist (on Seattle civil rights movement) -- Seattle Civil Rights, UW video
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Jess Tabasa (taxi dancing, Tobera killing) -- Filipinos in the Fields - Coastridge audio
Please cite as: "Any oral history examples on Filipino Americans?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#oralhistory
| 15. Who are Filipino American music legends before apl.de.ap of the Black Eyed Peas? |
Where do I start?!! At least from the time the Philippines was an American colony, Filipinos were on the American music scene. There were Filipinos in the U.S. Navy Bands before WW1, in marching bands at World's Fairs before and after 1904, in orchestras on American cruise ships in the 1920s and 1930s, and among musical performers in the Traveling Chautauquas in the early 1900s. There were LOTS of Filipino musicians in our American past.
Let me list just a few names that would be fairly easy to find more information on, and to write about in your paper.
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Danny Barcelona -- drummer, Louis Armstrong's All-Stars band, 1958 until Satchmo died 1971
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Joe Bataan -- King of Latin R&B, his discography, "most famous Afro-Filipino
in East Harlem"
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Billy Hinsche -- of Dino, Desi & Billy, now Ricci, Desi & Billy, & Beach Boys - Interview + Interview
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Joseph "Flip" Nunez (1931-1995) -- jazz pianist-vocalist-composer, born in Stockton, LA-raised
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Larry Ramos -- with New Christy Minstrels, then with The Association - audio of Cherish, Windy
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Rocky Fellers -- Dinah Shore, 1960; Killer Joe #16 Billboard’s Top 100, 1963; Great Big World
Please cite as: "Who are Filipino American music legends before apl.de.ap of Black Eyed Peas?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#musicians
| 16. What is the origin of the poster, Positively No Filipinos Allowed ? |
The photo used in this poster is credited to Sprague Talbott, Look magazine photographer, in the book, One Nation by Wallace Stegner (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1945). This photo appears on page 43 of this now out-of-print book, as part of its Chapter 2 titled, "Legally-Undesireable Heroes: The Filipino in America". This photograph may be easier to locate and view in the currently in-print book titled, Filipinos, Forgotten Asian Americans by Fred Cordova (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1983), where it appears on page 114.
This is just one of several signs seen in California in the late 1920s and 1930s. Another such sign read, No Dogs or Filipinos Allowed. It was a time when Filipino were made to feel unwelcome and were even victims of racial violence. Anti-Filipino riots broke out in Exeter in the San Joaquin Valley, in Watsonville, and even spilled over into other communities in California, such as Stockton.
Please cite as: "What is the origin of the poster, Positively No Filipinos Allowed ?",
in Americans of Filipino Descent - FAQs by Eloisa Gomez Borah
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm#poster
©1997-2008 Eloisa Gomez Borah All Rights Reserved.
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