SCR 58, as amended, Pan. Filipino American History Month.
This measure would recognize the month of October 2015 as Filipino American History Month and the 428th anniversary of the first presence of Filipinos in the continental United States.
Fiscal committee: no.
P1 1WHEREAS, Filipinos and Filipino Americans have been
2contributing to California and the United States for hundreds of
3years, ever since October 18, 1587, when the first “Luzones Indios”
4set foot in Morro Bay, California, on board the Nuestra Señora de
5Esperanza, a Manila-built galleon ship captained by Pedro de
6Unamuno of Spain; and
7WHEREAS, In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Filipinos helped
8Father Junípero Serra establish the California mission system; and
9WHEREAS, Since the late 1800s, Filipino communities have
10existed in southern Louisiana, according to oral histories recorded
11by Rhonda Richoux Fox; and
12WHEREAS, After the Philippines was colonized, Filipinos
13began immigrating to San Francisco, where they contributed to
P2 1the city both as military personnel and as service sector workers
2such as bellhops, dishwashers, servants, and cooks; established,
3by the 1920s, a thriving community around Kearny and Jackson
4Streets, which became known as “Manilatown”; and settled, during
5the post World War II era, into the Fillmore, South of Market, and
6Excelsior districts; and
7WHEREAS, Between 1906 and 1935, the first large wave of
8Filipino immigration to the United States began, as Filipinos were
9recruited to California, Alaska, and Hawaii to work in the
10agricultural industries, canneries, and sugarcane plantations,
11respectively; and
12WHEREAS, The Filipino contract workers in Hawaii, or
13“Sakadas,” became the largest group of Asians on the sugarcane
14plantations by the 1920s; and
15WHEREAS, At the turn of the 20th century, Filipino students,
16or “pensionados,”begin delete farm workers,end deletebegin insert farmworkers,end insert and laborers in
17manufacturing and in the service sector began settling in Stockton
18and the surrounding San Joaquin Delta area, where they built a
19community that became the largest concentration of Filipinos
20outside of the Philippines and established a thriving six-block
21ethnic neighborhood that became known as “Little Manila”; and
22WHEREAS, In 2000, the Stockton City Council designated this
23area, in downtown Stockton at the intersection of Lafayette and
24El Dorado Streets, as the “Little Manila Historical Site,” the first
25designation of this kind in the country; and
26WHEREAS, In the first decades of the 20th century, thousands
27of Filipinos in California worked in agricultural fields throughout
28the state, in cities and regions such as the Sacramento-San Joaquin
29Delta, the central coast, Imperial Valley, Orange County, the Inland
30Empire, Delano, Bakersfield, Coachella Valley, and the San
31Francisco Bay area, and became a critical element in the growth
32and political economy of the state, often enduring harsh labor
33conditions and poor wages, but persevering and creating a strong
34legacy of mutual support, strikes, and organization for farm labor
35unionization; and
36WHEREAS, In the 1920s, Filipinos in California also worked
37as laborers in the shipyards of Vallejo, where they established a
38Filipino American community and business center, and became
39so successful that there were thousands of Filipinos working as
40shipbuilders by the start of World War II; and
P3 1WHEREAS, During World War II, approximately 200,000
2Filipino soldiers battled under the command of the United States
3to preserve the liberty of our country and win back the liberty of
4the Philippines from the Japanese occupation; and
5WHEREAS, Thousands of these Filipino soldiers came from
6California, served in the First and Second Filipino Infantry
7Regiments, underwent training at Salinas and at Fort Ord,
8California, and were stationed at Camp Beale near Sacramento
9and Camp Cooke near Santa Maria; and
10WHEREAS, After World War II ended, many Filipinos who
11had served in the United States Navy settled in National City and
12elsewhere in the County of San Diego, as well as in the Cities of
13West Long Beach and Wilmington, where they worked in the Long
14Beach shipyards and Terminal Island canneries, served in the
15harbor area as nurses and medical workers, and created flourishing
16Filipino American communities numbering in the tens of
17thousands; and
18WHEREAS, Between 1941 and 1959, the second wave of
19Filipino immigration to the United States began, as nurses, students,
20“war brides” and fiancées of World War II military personnel and
21veterans, tourists, and Filipino members of the United States Navy
22came to the United States; and
23WHEREAS, In 1965, the third wave of Filipino immigration to
24the United States began, as the passing of the Immigration and
25Nationality Act abolished “national origins” as the basis for
26immigration, allowing for more immigration from Asia and Latin
27America and for much-needed Filipino medical professionals to
28come to the United States to fill United States labor shortages; and
29WHEREAS, On September 8, 1965, Filipino American
30agricultural labor leaders, including Larry Itliong and Philip Vera
31Cruz, organized more than 1,500begin delete farm workersend deletebegin insert farmworkersend insert from
32the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in the Delano
33Grape Strike of 1965, in partnership with César Chávez, Dolores
34Huerta, and other Mexican American labor leaders of the National
35Farm Workers Association, sparking one of the greatest social,
36economic, and racial justice movements in the history of California
37and the United States, andbegin delete ledend deletebegin insert
leadingend insert to the establishment of the
38United Farm Workers of America; and
39WHEREAS, These agricultural workers, along with other
40volunteers, also built Agbayani Village, a retirement facility for
P4 1elderly Filipino farmworkers, or “Manongs,” located at Forty Acres
2in Delano in the County of Kern; and
3WHEREAS, In 1968, Filipino student organizers were
4instrumental in the leadership of the Third World Liberation Front
5that led to the founding of our nation’s first Third World College
6at the University of California, Berkeley, and the first College of
7Ethnic Studies, at California State University, San Francisco,begin delete thatend delete
8begin insert whichend insert was part of the larger effort to democratize higher education
9for all; and
10WHEREAS, From 1968 to 1977, Filipino American activists
11and residents of San Francisco’s International Hotel organized a
12popular, multiracial campaign that challenged local authorities and
13private development to place people and the public good ahead of
14profit, and support affordable housing for Filipino and Chinese
15immigrants and community members; and
16WHEREAS, From 1972 to 1986, Filipino American activists
17organized massive educational and political campaigns to restore
18civil liberties in the Philippines during the period of martial law
19in that country, creating dynamic local responses to international
20politics and placing pressure on the United States government to
21end its support of the Marcos dictatorship; and
22WHEREAS, In 1973, the fourth wave of Filipino immigration
23to the United States began, as political exiles and refugees from
24the Marcos era, intellectuals, tourists, students, student activists,
25professionals, semiprofessionals, and families came to the United
26States; and
27WHEREAS, In 2002, the City of Los Angeles, home to over
28120,000 Filipinos, designated part of the city as the “Historic
29Filipinotown” district, the largest designation of this kind in the
30country; and
31WHEREAS, The Filipino Communitybegin delete Centerend delete ofbegin delete theend delete Los Angeles
32Harborbegin delete areaend deletebegin insert Area, Inc.,end insert in the City of Wilmington continues to
33serve as a model organization, facilitating community events such
34as weddings, baptisms, pageants, and fiestas; and
35WHEREAS, On November 8, 2013, Super Typhoon
36Haiyan/Yolanda, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in
37human history, struck the Philippines and devastated the lives of
38millions of people throughout the Philippines and the world; and
39WHEREAS, Today, numerous other community-based
40institutions that take responsibility for the services, advocacy, and
P5 1civic engagement needs of the Filipino American community exist
2throughout the state; and
3WHEREAS, The Filipino American population is currently the
4largest Asian American and Pacific Islander group in California
5and the third largest Asian American and Pacific Islander group
6in the United States; and
7WHEREAS, Nine Filipino Americans have received the
8Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor in
9action against an enemy force that can be bestowed upon an
10individual serving in the United States Armed Forces; and
11WHEREAS, Filipino Americans have served the public in a
12wide range of capacities, including, but not limited to, Chief Justice
13of the California Supreme Court, representatives to the United
14States Congress, legislators in the state legislatures of California
15and other states, and other city, state, and federal leaders of the
16United States; and
17WHEREAS, Throughout the history of the United States,
18Filipino Americans have made cultural, economic, political, social,
19and other contributions to our country that have become a vital
20part of the rich, diverse, and vibrant tapestry of our nation; and
21WHEREAS, Since World War II, federal, state, and local
22redevelopment projects, freeway and highway construction, urban
23decay, private development, demographic shifts, and poor city
24planning have destroyed a significant number of Filipino American
25historic sites and ethnic neighborhoods, and many of the remaining
26Filipino American communities and historic sites are in danger of
27being lost; and
28WHEREAS, Preserving our Filipino communities throughout
29California and the United States is critical to the preservation of
30Filipino culture, history, traditions, and heritage and to the
31preservation of our state and national history as well as our state
32and national future; now, therefore, be it
33Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
34thereof concurring, That the Legislature recognizes the month of
35October 2015 as Filipino American History Month and the 428th
36anniversary of the first presence of Filipinos in the continental
37United States; and be it further
P6 1Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
2this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
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