-
Frwt
Factianaliswt. to
"One Filipino Rnce"
BORN IN 1905 in the Ilocano region of the Philippines, Ponce Torwith a group of his schoolmates, emigrated to the United
States via Seatde lraL925. Within two weeks of his arrival, Torres had
signed on with a contractor recommended to him by tov"nmates who
had arrived in Seattle several months earlier. Seatde's Chinatown, he
explained, *was the center of job emplol'rnent to go to Alaska [because] . . . the offices of those |apanese, Chinese . . . , md Filipino
contractors" were there.r By the end of the decade, the continual circuit of summer work in Alaska salmon canneries and fall apple harvests
in Washington's Yakima Valley prevented him from consistendy attending college-a dream he had held from his earliest thoughts of
emigration. The onset of the Great Depression further exacerbated his
plight, and by l932the frustratedTorres plunged intounion organiz.ation as an alternative to his earlier endeavors. Mary of Torres's fellow
countrymen thought he'lvas crazt''to bring up unionization publicly
in Seatde's Chinatown, virarally in front of the contractors' offices.2
Torres responded: '"W"e are but [a] laboring family that would belong
to one class, that [we] are brothers rather than . . . Visayans or Ilocanos
or Thgalog[s] or Pangasinan[s] or any sectionalist feeling. That . . . [is]
the hardest part for us to do, to make ourselves understand that we are
one Filipino race.ns
Torres, like most Fitpinos, entered the cannery labor market relatively.late. Chinese and |apanese were so well entrenched in the labor
recruitment and management system that despite Filipinos'numerical
dominance in the cannery crews by the late L920s, very few found
positions as contractors. As a resuh, upward mobility was severely limited. Oppomrnities outside cannery employment were large$ in seasonal agriculture or domestic service, so the chances for the additional
schooling Filipinos believed would give them mobiliry seldom materiali?r;d. Ultimately, the depression curtailed remaining avenues to
which Filipinos had looked for advancement. The centrdity of cannery
work to Filipino
led some of them to fight for greater
representation in the industry's labor recruitrnent and management
res, along
ffi
pry
[+
telr
the
)ng
rcs-
oen
ons
ren.
9ase
lese
rctireat
t25
riil
ijil
I;ii i.ii
lr,l
ti
CHAPTER 6
126
Frwn Fasti.snslisrn to
system, particutarly through unionizationr By tr: mid--1930s, the
'Varming{ of organized labor toward Filipinos and other "ethniC'laborers, and ttre political climate of the New Deal, gave enough suPPort
to the unionization efficrts that Ponce Torres and other Filipino unionists achieved their goal of uniting most of their fellow immigrants behind their organizngefficrts.4 How Filipinos first approached cannery
work and then departed from established practices in the new labor
organizations illusuates the persistence of ethnic loyalties amid class-
mv to\Mn."ro
based activities.
L926
Lan Ennies
In the years before World War I, Filipinos who immigrated to the
United States and its territories most often went to Hawaii. Plantation
owners recruited them to supplement Chinese, ]apanese, and Korean
there.s Of the few Filipinos who ventured to the
laborers rlt
after Americans occupied the islands in 1898, most came
United States"dy
as students.6 Not until the end of World War I and the Passage of the
I92I and 1924 immigration acts that forbade Asian immigration and
restricted many Europeans did Filipinos begin to joruney to the
United States in significant numbers. Classified as United States nationals, they aaveled with United States passports and were not affected by the ban on Asians.T
Aftir their contracts with planters expired, Filipinos often migrated to the United States. Of those entering C{iQrnia in the 1920s'
56 percent came from Hawaii. Before mid-decade, that percentage ran
high; in 1923 alone,84.6 percent migrated frorin Hawail To p-lantation workers, the U.S. labor market promised greater choice and freedom of action.s
Direct migration from the Philippines took on a greater role by
the end of the decade. R.gol"t, direct steamer travel to Los Angeles,
San Francisco, and Seatde made available relatively inexPensive steerage rates for emigrants.e The steady commercialization of agriculture
oir the archipelago until the mid-1920s also contributed to the number
of Filipinos seeking passage out of the islands because it created a corps
of wage laborers **g the peasantry. Displaced Peasants together
with urbanites extendedtheir search ficr employment to the American
West. Many Filipinos, influenced by American teachers in the islands,
migrated as laborers but had higher education in mind as the ultimate
puqpose of their relocation. For them, earning ryonlY in seasonal or
iomestic work was a means to attend American schools. Ramon Thnci*nottring to do in
oco, like many others, left simply because ttrere was
ccOne
Fihiyirto Raot"
1928, with well-established travel routes and plentifirl
encouragement to leave the Philippines, !f pelcen! gl rll Fili-p-inos arriving itiCtff"-ia had embarked from Manila, while only 35'4 percent came from Hawaii.rt
Whether they came from Hawaii or the Philip-pines, !{pi""-t tmmigrated with increasing frequency._In Califirrnia from 1920 to L922,
*i.r.r"g. of 618 attnoally enteredthe state from overseas. From 1923
to f925lthe average anttu1 number jumped to 2,535, and then from
In
it 6aped to 5,408'i2 Atthough ,h1$.1 reflect.Filipino
immigration only to califomia, the increase in Filipino employment
orr., ft. decade itt th. Alaska canneries can be taken as a sign of their
sreater presence in the United States. Ir_1192L, nearly a thousand FiliChr1e19 9y near]Y 1
fiitror #od ed in Alaska, where they outnumbered
to
L929,
hundred and fapanese by more than three hundred-r3 Filipinos had
*ne#' ethnics, including nearJy foury9n
competed with o^ther
lyndred
Mexicans and Mexican Americans, for those positions. The Mexican
presence in Alaska peaked :rrrL923 and then waned as Nisei and Filipiiros began to push ih.m out of the canneries. S_o many Filipinos found
work ii the industry that in 1925 theJaneadt Gateway apdy remarked:
.Very seldom wilI ybu meet a Filipino
who had
Sg Pacific Coast
"1"-"g
who
hands
cannery
Filipino
,r.u.i b".n to Alas"ka."ra The'Aliskeros,"
I,065
to
3'9.\6,compared
numbered
journey
north, by 1928
made the
rs
Chinese, 1,445 i apanese, and I,269 Mexicans.
Filipinb immigration to the United States thus supplied sufficient
workeri without any significant .PT
PTlgf canners or con"1..4e
friendship networks
and
familial
Instead,
tracrors ro recrut ov.tias.
the wesds migrant
into
them
integrate
helped
among the immigrants
in
the United Sates,
friends
and
Relativis
and se"asonal labo-r markets.
the newcomjob
greeted
oppornrnities,
about
rlr."dy knowledgeable
met
be
"right at the
would
friends
or
ers. Tirose with6ut relatives
Ii.they
"did not
contractors.
ambitious
more
docks" by some of the
when
of
incomd'
source
good
one
Alaska
realtzr that going to
[was]
it
meaht
that
learned
they
Tories,
ironCe
they first arli"ea] explained
*quich" though not "eas5" money.l6
' Cannery j"obs were a part of a-large migratgry circuitalong.which
Filipinos toi,tit a in the Far West. Work in lumber mills, for railroads,
*.f ott ranches and cash-crop farms of the West, as well as domestic
service positions, was availabie to Filipggs, as it had been to the chi.ro. *i fapanese before them. Bythe I920s, however, the continued
capitalist trinsformation of the entire American West forced Filipinos
inio far-flung searches for employment. M*y follo'rved the *gp;, taking seasonaljobs in Oregon, Washington,Idaho, Montana, California,
rii
.l!
'ii
i{
]r,i
i'l
r,,l
CHAPTER 6
I28
and
fuizona, and Texas' Transponation routes unavailable to Chinese
to
purchase
Taoanese and the availability of credit allowed Filipinos
very
.rir to follow that wide ciicuit. Some of the immigrants-were boys
.r."ai". in obtaining autos. Toribio M. Martin noted: "some
fr"tl1"rc . . . , but tf,..*. dort't even belong to th"T' ' ' -' T.h"y p-"y
."r, yoo know- When [they are] unable to te^eg. [uPJ. on the
;;;;
"rt"
;;*;
ii* dealershipl goo do*. there [to Califomia] and
-piiqst
it up."r7
'--- i.Til rti Filipinos defauked on loans but instead pooled.funds in
rn. n""ff g-"pt of family, friends, qd ftry*:ill"gitt,h *,Ttl-*Z
todgng'
traveled t"naf,meer car paym€nts an! PaV for fuel, fircd, and
of
il"lif;t""p ahfi"tion aid' cooperation rirarked,signrfcanl
-asPects
their
with
cope
them.
ttre fifrpin6 immigrant experieice that helped
American West. In the
*riri-ir "r ittt"ntitiomt tiUor migrants in ihewas
both an asset and a
.norr"ties, the imall group
["i""i^6""
"irh"
hindrance, as we discuss later'r8
Can'nery EmPloYment
jobs
The agricultural labor circuit, zupplemented with various urban
enough
only
immigrantswith
tfuouihout the year, provided Filibi""
*You
make
i*"-? r" ,o*i*. As'Toribio P. Madayag explainedt * can't
ex€€Ptlol'
no money in Catifomia."re Cannery.employm3nt
^qt"fq
"W. ..ia depend on one jo!, arid thit ii the Alaska lgg.urery]toigbs
Selsicl," remarrca Jonn Castillo.2o Those ProsPects drew Filipinos
..Intemational' District, which housed a variety ot mmrgrant
"rtfJs
*J"rfrni. groups. There they waited out the months of deepest winter
of that
b"f";;-.d.ry"ttipr sailed north. The Alaskeros lived most
contracof
friends
or
contractors
time in Seattli in iooms owned by
atr. C."tg" Nishimura, who had started off as one of Goon Dip's
himIananese .ibcor,u".to^ in Seattle and later became a contractor
Ma;*.0
Zacarias
Alaskeros,,"
to hire a house for the
l.if,
-*Pl"i":q
stroUa
Alaska
to
go
[stay]_free'"21
those that will
"Jgr*;S"pp"sedly
Nisf,imura dil ttot ieduct rent from-workers'wages, but the Fili.pino
Filii"i"-* he put in charge of running the boardinghouse.charged
..sfot'
a
like
"big
acted
and
airs
pino residens a fee. HJdso put on
r-;
-u"zz Nishimura made'no effirrt to develop the same oybaru-hnw" (pii"r_.hild or superior_inferior) relationships yi.+ his boarders
*i;'il ,hared with his fellow )apanese. Neither did his Filipino
foreman.23
-- - -
hotel and boardinghouse beds and dependent
oa job
on advances doled out by chinese and |apanese contractors for
o""ur.d up in their
Frmn Faaionalisru to
(One
Filipino
Ra,ee"
L29
in prospect,'Filipino workers often accumulated considerable debt before the curning setrson b"g*.^ Aside from cash and credit advances
for rooms, Chinese and |apanese contractors issued meal tickets redeemable at the restaurants they owned. While the extension of credit
helped workers short on cash, who for a 15- or 20-cent ticket got a
meal and dessert, it also put them in debt for as much as a month's
wages. Coffractors also forced workers to buy clothes, bedding and
rubber boots at inflated prices from their stores. Workers had no particular use for some items, such as the dress clothes, and sold them to
pawnbrokers to get some cash. |ose Acena commented that Seatde's
iapanese pawnbrokers did well because'?inoys [Filipino immigtants]
w6uta go there in the pawn shop to get lmoney] . . . to gamble,"zs but
many did so to redeem part of their advances in cash to spend or save
as they saw fit. Aware that the workers had funds, the proprietors of
Chinese gambling houses offered free meals to attract hungry and
bored Filipinos waitrng to go norrh.a The entrepreneruial success of
Seattle's Chinese and fapanese communities depended heavily on Filipino clientele, coerced or not. Like business enterprises in the_Chinaiowns in Sacramento and in the San |oaquin River deka area, Seattle's
*parasites" feeding off these
Chinese and |apanese businesses were
workers'incomes. Local contractors were also deeply involved in these
businesses. If a Filipino complained too loudly about the circumstances) he found it difficult to land a cannery job in subsequent
-
yetrs.27
Such practices created much resentment.
M*y
Filipinos retaliated
by flocking to the pool halls, restaurants) and boardinghouses run by
oiher Filipinos, who had scraped up the capital to open small businesses. Even though the few Filipino contractors were involved in
these small businesses, ethnic ties to the workers prevented extreme
exploitation. Bibtiana Castillano recalled no coercion in her husbands
contracting and merchant activities. FIe was "so charitable he almost
supporteilthe whole town," she contended. When Alaskeros b"oght
goods from him, they purchased only '\rhat they want and can
affcrd.tt28
Filipino workers felt litde animosiry, panicularly in the 1920s,
toward their countrymen who had established themselves as contractors and businessmen. The contractors admitted that they made "a little money'' in the affangement, but workers like |ohn MendoT'a can'
curred that the three oi four Filipino contractors in Seatde 'lvere all
pretty good' to their Filipino crews.2e Like Chinese and Iapalese before'them, Filipino contractors, subcontractors, and most foremen
gave favored triatrnent to members of their own ethnic group. Each
ir
:
ij !l
'I
i''.iii
f30
CHAPTER 6
..boss," Teodolo A. Ranjo explained, gave special treattment to certain
people, who in tum remained loyal to him.
I was not really discriminated upon by the conuactor. . . . Pedro Santos,
we call him Panyell, he used to hvor the students. He would hire [Filipino] students 6efore he gets some6y else because he knew we were
,t*ggli"g for better eduJation and he beliwe[d] we were goodworkers.
I haf,'a nice job from Pedro Santos every time I went to Alaska'3o
Whether contractors favored students because they admired their aspirations for a better life or because they considered them more pliant
workers is not clear. But what is clear is that Filipino contractors tried
to protect at least some of their countrymen working for them, just as
Chinese and fapanese had done.3r
Not many Filipinos became contractors, however, because-of the
oligarchy of Chinese and |apanese. Owners tended to retain Chinese
*iJ"p*oe contracrors with whom they had d9a-lt fier years, and that
practicie contributed to a minority rule in the labor market. Filipino
ivorkers believed that Chinese and fapanese contractors did not rePresent their interests and even set them against each other, as the boarders in George Nishimura's boardinghouse testified. Nonethelest, q"I
persisted in"their attempts to gain iccess to_cannery jobs. Some tried
io break into the industry byplaying on the owners' prejydices' In
I93I a group of Filipinos represented by ke P. Root, a'\vhite" contractor,lubmitted i bid to the Fidalgo Island Packing Company
(FIPC) for the 1932 season in which Root promised "an ample slPPly
of Filipino labor headed by competent foremen."32 Root differed from
Asian^contracrors by telling the owners that dealing wrth him yould
mean doing "business witha reliable wltite marr."3] Filipinos in RooCs
crew may not have known the language he used in communi.lfug
wirh the tomp"ny, but they must have hoped that the colnmon ethnicity' shared by Root and the owners mrght bring them i"b:. .
Even those favored by the existing system at times tried to bypas,s
the contracrors. When thb FIPC's main Chinese contractor Seid Back
died in 1932, members of the Filipino students' Association at the
University of Washington hoped to take _advanlage of the.situation
by negotiating with tle company themselves without the he$ of a
contrtcbr. The students submitted a bid that was 5 cents Per case
lower than the industry average and assured the company $1"[we
are] blessed with two very capable foremen . . . ["td have]- just the
.ight *.tt for your canneiies.o-* The company prompdy and politely
nined down the request the nexr day. Company managers preferred
to select workers from established contractors rather than from up-
From. Faaional.isnt' to "Onc Filipina
Rard'
13l
srarts like the students.3s Their failure aside, the students'decision
act through a small group was in line with their cukural noffns.
to
Filipiios ordinaiily broke into the rgks of contractors only under
special'.ir.o*rt*..s. When, in the -i9*. of negotiations. yr$ the
t'fpC fo,. the L932 season, Seid Back died, the company hired 1*'o
separate contractors, dividing its business between another Chinese, a
reiative of Seid Baclq and a Filipino, Pio De Cano, who ran the most
extensive Filipino contracting and subcontrTti"g bu{nery in the Pacific Northwdst and had previously supplied Filipinos for th9 comPany
and
as a subcontractor. Discrission about iliattget in labor recruitment
the
since
company
in
t!eway
under
been
had
practices
management
that
hoped
Managers
prices.
product
declining
of
because
late I920s
the move would save them money and make the handling of- crews
."*i"r. They also avoided the plobli:mof relying on-untried parties like
those represented by Root or the Filipino-students. The managers were
,rot r.rdy to break new ground in their labor recruitrnent and management Dractices.36
while a few Filipinos,like De cano, managed to become co.ntracaorr, .*rr..s, prefeiences for experienced labor.provisioners allowed
mosi "aspirant'" Filipinos to rise only to the position of.foremen Own.rs, arrd'Chinese -d ;"p*.*e contractors, believed that Filipinos
worked best under "bossei" from the islands. They thus delegated the
responsibilities of recruitment and management to Filipino foremen,
wtio in rurn received relatively high remuneration and special treatment. sylvesue A. Tangalan's-experience reveals just how much be."-l"g i for.-* -.anito Filipino immigrants. Tirngalan had worked
during"the 1930s in the canneri.s to finance his education in architec*r.1?.fr. University of Washington. When he.graduated, he received
nvo job offers, o.t" an architect in Manila and the other as a foreman
"r
he reported, the position in Manil-a'fuas a
in Alaska. unfornrnately,
little d,ismal compared to what i could Bjj is a foreman in Alaska."37
He took the Alasi
Purchase answer to see full
attachment