The Filipino historical presence in America

During my research for various ethnic groups in America, I discovered an interesting website called "Anchorage Daily News" with an article titled "Filipinos helped shape America of today"
This particular article was published recently, (within the last month) as it attempts to make known the importance of other cultural groups in America when it comes to the elections as their votes are equally as significant as those of any other American citizen.
It opens with a brief history of Filipino presence in the United States. A particular quote interested me concerning the settlement of Filipinos: "The first Filipinos landed on the continent in 1587, several decades before the Pilgrims arrived. Before our Founding Fathers declared independence from the Brits, a group of Filipinos had already settled in Louisiana. More than a century before Alaska became a state, Filipinos had already made it here, engaging in fur trade with Alaska Natives."
It then goes on to talk about how Filipinos have helped to build America through the ages, and how their contributions can be recognised throughout history from the very earliest periods as this quote reveals: "In the early 1920s, many Filipinos, called the manongs, left their native country and their family to work in the plantations of Hawaii and California and the fisheries of Washington and Alaska."
And interestingly how they fought both as a separate colony and a unified country "During WWII, Filipinos, both here and in the Philippines, fought with and for the U.S. to help protect our freedom and secure peace in our world."
And more recently the increased opportunity of work available to Filipinos that America presented to them encouraged more people to go to live there, quoting the website: "In the late '60s and '70s, many Filipino professionals left their native country to help fill the workforce of our rapidly growing technology and health industry. As the families of the manongs, veterans and professionals grew, their family members took on the critical jobs that helped in the development of our nation's health and economy. Filipino-Americans worked in the health field, service industry, hospitality, technology, education, government, armed forces and construction, among many others."

Despite perhaps enjoying a more prosperous lifestyle in America, the site goes on to say that "The manongs faced much discrimination and injustice. In the 1930s in California, they were not allowed to marry Caucasians. It was also not uncommon for them to see the sign, "No Filipinos Allowed," on the windows and doors of some business establishments in parts of California. Those who worked in plantations and fisheries faced poor working conditions and did not receive decent pay."
(For reference, the name "Manong" is generally given to the first-born Filipino male in a nuclear family)
Having looked into the reasoning for this, I managed to find that, according to another website under the name of Senator Leland Yee, Ph.D. of California state senate, "The Filipinos were specifically targeted in California because they were known to be romantic bachelors, and were accused of taking away American women from the American farm workers"
This law was amended, however, following a serious raid by radical white men on a dance club, whereby many Filipinos were assaulted, and by the end, one Filipino had been killed. The law then allowed them to marry with people of other Asian background. California was also the first US state to eventually overturn the law and allow Filipinos the right to free marriage in 1948.

I feel that a final quote from the "Anchorage Daily News" website sums up Filipino attitudes in a modern day American society: "Although such blatant forms of discrimination and injustice do not seem to exist today, discrimination and injustice are still problems faced by Filipino Americans. In my recent research study with my colleagues among Filipino-American youth and adults in Anchorage, many still express that they have been subjects of negative stereotypes, racism and discrimination in their schools and workplaces."

I found it very informative to look into the history of Filipinos as I think that we can learn a great deal from the ethical backgrounds of the individual cultures that make up America and how their own fundamental ethos has contributed to the United States' own cultivation from which we can use to look at each individual group to piece together an idea of how their views and perspectives cohere with one another.


Websites used: http://www.adn.com/2010/10/06/1489766/filipinos-helped-shape-america.html

http://dist08.casen.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC={DA377F1D-8DF2-4AE6-B3A0-7909404FC1D1}&DE={09B4D711-EC4C-4B55-B9FF-EB671F34F3E0}