Filipinos have been living in California for about four hundred years. The earliest Filipinos in California can be traced back to 1587. Filipinos were among the crew and landing party of Captain Pedro de Unamuno who landed in the central California coast in 1587 (Borah 2001). There are a few other documented cases of Filipinos in the United States before the 1900’s but the first major wave of Filipinos came in the early 1900’s with the immigrant laborers. When the first wave of immigrants came

An act much later in Filipino Californian history which had an impact on many Filipino American lives was the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. This law allowed for two types of Filipino American immigrants to come to not only California, but the whole United States. One type of Filipino immigration that was allowed was called “relative-selective immigration”. This allowed for immigrants to come who were petitioned relatives of previous migrants who had become U.S. citizens. The other type of immigration was called “occupational immigration”. This allowed for more Filipino professionals to come to the United States, especially those in the medical field. The “relative-selective immigration” had more of an impact in California because most of those coming as a result of “occupational immigration” ended up on the east coast. This created an occupational difference between Filipinos on the east and those on the west. Because of these two forms of immigration, the number of immigrants in the U.S. (California especially) multiplied exponentially (Mateo, 2001).

The discrimination against Filipinos is shown by the racial riots against Filipinos around 1930. In late 1929 in Exeter, California, 300 Caucasian men attacked a Filipino camp because they were angry that the Filipinos there took their fig and grape picking jobs. They stoned and clubbed about 50 Filipinos and burned their barn down. On January 20, 1930, about 200 Caucasian Americans hunted down Filipinos in Watsonville because they were angered by the thought of Filipinos dancing with white women in a dance hall. The dance hall was raided and two days later, and a mob of 500 white Americans beat Filipinos, killed one and destroyed the Filipinos living quarters (Mateo 2001). As you can see these were very tough times for Filipinos because they were brutally discriminated against for many unfair reasons.

Since the ratio of Filipino men to Filipino women in the United States at this time was around 14:1, Filipino men had to find company in other women around them (Mateo 2001). It was hard for them to find women, so many Filipino men sought the company of prostitutes. Filipino men would pay a whole day’s income for a moment of pleasure with a prostitute. Sadly, this was the only way for many Filipino men to enjoy themselves with women in America (Takaki 1989).

Tensions between growers and Filipinos continued to increase when Filipinos created the Filipino Labor Union. 4,000 Filipinos joined the FLU which was a noticeable chunk of the 30,000 Filipinos living in California at that time. Filipinos made up 40% of the total agricultural work force in Salinas Valley so they couldn’t be ignored. In August 1933, FLU held a one-day strike to raise wages. Growers brought in more immigrants to fill the void of the Filipinos on strike. The FLU continued to expand and growers created the Filipino Labor Supply Association which was made up of Filipino contractors who opposed the FLU. The growers would replace FLU workers with Filipinos from the Filipino Labor Supply Association when the FLU went on strike. FLU strikers were also driven off by police officers who would arrest strikers and Caucasian citizens who would torment members of the FLU when they would strike. It wasn’t easy for the Filipinos to stand up for their rights but they kept at it. When the strike ended, they gained almost a 40% increase in wage (from twenty-five cents to forty cents) and the FLU was recognized as a legitimate farm workers’ union (Takaki 1989). They were the first successful farm worker union in United States history. In 1938, Filipinos organized the Filipino Agricultural Laborers Association but organizers believed that all workers should be included so they soon changed the name to Federated Agricultural Laborers Association (FALA). The FALA continued to hold various successful strikes from San Mateo to San Benito count

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