Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Unsung Hero: Woman who battled ban on Mixed-Race Marriages

Cynthetiq · 05-08-2008, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willravel

Nothing in this world is as good as real lumpia, and Mildred Loving helped to make that experience possible for me. Had it not been for efforts like hers, dating pinay women would have been more difficult, and I may have still thought that lumpia was just another burrito knock-off.

You are not to far from the truth. It's only recently that I have learned of the anti-miscegenation specifically stating that Filipinos were not allowed to marry white women. If you are a Black Eyed Peas fan you may have seen it in the http://youtube.com/watch?v=p0tNIwgo_Uc

Quote:

A time when manongs loved and lost (Philippine News)
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
by Lemery Reyes, Correspondent
SAN FRANCISCO — Today, many Filipino parents joke about wanting mestiza grandchildren to show off, but 60 years ago, that very idea was illegal and banned for our “manongs.”

Ricardo Alvarado was there to capture that era when Filipino men were barred from dating American women or engaging in interracial relationships. They were also prohibited from entering bars, hotels or clubs in California. Alvarado’s photographs are on display at the Hiram Johnson State Building in San Francisco throughout October to celebrate Filipino American history month. Sen. Leland Yee is the sponsor of the exhibit, “Through My Father’s Eyes: The Filipino American Photographs of Ricardo Ocreto Alvarado (1914-1976)” which is free and open to the public before the photographs are returned to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. by Alvarado’s daughter, Janet.

From 1850-1948, many Asians — including Filipinos — and African Americans were specifically not allowed in California to have interracial marriages or relationships. As a result of the anti-miscegenation laws, many Filipino elders, or manongs, were discriminated against and were forced to have secret relationships and to socialize only within their own circles.

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, triggering incidents of race riots in the 1920s and 1930s. One such incident is the Watsonville Riot of 1930 where about 400 white men stormed into a dance club frequented by Filipinos and attacked every “manong” they could find. The assault left one Filipino dead and dozens seriously wounded, prompting the California state legislature in 1933 to amend the interracial law to include Filipino-American marriages. The law was lenient, though, on Filipinos marrying fellow Asians, such as Japanese women. Other U.S. states also had similar anti-miscegenation laws, which were all overturned in the late 1960s. California became the first state to repeal the law in 1948.

Many of the public audience members who attended the exhibit’s opening night on Oct. 3, were impressed by the photographs of Alvarado, but were also shocked with how the elder Filipinos were treated.

Ellen Magallanes couldn’t believe how the Filipinos were treated during the 1950s. “It is a little bit shocking,” said Magallanes, who attended the exhibit with her husband Alan Arnold and their son. The couple later joked that if the anti-miscegenation laws existed today, they would not be married.

“From my perspective, the 50s was a smaller world,” said Arnold. “People didn’t understand tolerance back then.”

For Tiffany Leung, she believes interracial marriages must have been challenging in the earlier days. “I am sure it was definitely hard, especially with the language barriers,” said Leung as she looked at a photo of a Caucasian bride and her bridesmaids preparing for a wedding.

Janet Alvarado, then 17, found the photographs shortly after her father’s death in 1976. According to Janet, her father immigrated to the United States in 1928 and enlisted with the U.S. Army’s First Filipino Regiment. After World War II, Alvarado started photographing the lives of Filipino Americans in San Francisco and nearby communities. His photographs also captured smiling Filipinos lindy-hopping, going to service at a Methodist church, children hitting piñatas and farmers working in the fields of Stockton. The exhibit was first displayed at Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in 2002. Since then, the exhibit went on a 15-city U.S. tour and will return to Washington, D.C. after its last display this month in San Francisco.

“To have my father’s photographs displayed in their ‘hometown’ in a fitting public space provided by the State of California is a special acknowledgement of Filipinos and their earlier San Francisco life, and culture celebrating the presence of Filipino Americans and their legacy in San Francisco,” said Janet. Currently, she also serves as the executive director of The Alvarado Project and possesses 1,000s of photographs and negatives taken by her father which have not yet been displayed.

Rudy Asercion, an executive director for a Filipino non-profit organization in San Francisco, said the 1950s was a dark period for the Filipinos. “It’s a sad part of history,” said Asercion. “At that time, it was very pitiful because Filipinos were not able to marry. Filipinos were put in a difficult situation because they needed to get married and have a family.”

Sen. Yee grew up in San Francisco and recalled the days when he experienced discrimination with his Filipino friends. He said sponsoring the exhibit was a “great responsibility” for him because of his lifelong ties to the Filipino community. “Many of the pictures bring back memories of my childhood,” said Yee, who encourages the youth to learn more about their history. “This project is about family. What is most important about the history are the individuals who have been neglected.”

Veny Zamora, 69, spoke with Philippine News about her uncles, who lived in California during the 1950s. According to Zamora, her uncles would write back to her in the Philippines about the discrimination they faced and how they were not able to marry Caucasians.

“We progressed a lot from then to now,” said Zamora, who said people in the Philippines were aware of life in the U.S. during the 50s. “They paved the way for us.”

re: Halx's experience, from time to time, we see looks from Asians. I don't really notice them as I'm not looking for them nor care to focus on them. If I do see them, I find them funny.