Historical Context
When exactly did the first Filipinos arrive in North America? Long before our research starts, Filipino sailors possibly arrived in Acapulco in 1565 (Cordova, 9)[1]. More importantly, heavy Filipino migration to the United States stretched from 1906 to 1934. The largest group to come to the United States were predominantly single males and between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two (Cordova, 14). The 1930 U.S. Census reported forty-five thousand two hundred Filipinos in the forty-eight states, approximately thirty thousand four hundred in California (Cordova, 37).
Further, anti-miscegenation laws and the absence of Filipino women added to the loneliness of Filipino men in California, trying to make a life for themselves. This led to a variety of entertainment options, some good and some bad. Filipino bachelors turned to gambling, taxi dance halls, fraternal organizations, cockfighting and other forms of entertainment to break the mundane agricultural life in the Central Coast of California. Anti-miscegenation laws were laws that prohibited marriage between white and non-white races.
For more on Filipino Communities: Time Off to Play
Further Reading(s):
Race, Demographics, and History in Monterey county; Local History Resources; Filipinos in Monterey County History
The website above holds a cumulative historical and demographic background of the Filipino communities residing within Monterey County from past to present. Some highlights of the website are: Anti-Filipino Discrimination, The Big Picture on Filipino Immigration, America is in the Heart.
“The community was wise enough to survive and learned all of the wrong things, but it was a form of survival.”
-Margie Talaugon
“They were not victims they were survivors”
-Margie Talaugon