Filipino Americanse

For more information on Filipino history and culture, seeVol. 3: Filipinos.

OVERVIEW

The first Filipinos, people from the Philippines, to set foot in what is now the United States were crew members of the Spanish galleon, Nuestra Se–ora de Esperanza (Our Lady of Hope), which landed on the shore of present-day California on 18 October 1587. Filipinos were conscripted to work on Spanish ships in the Manila Galleon Trade between Mexico and the Philippines from 1565 to 1815. To escape the harsh treatment inflicted on them by their Spanish officers, many Filipinos jumped ship in New Orleans beginning around 1765 and settled there. By 1833, a significant Filipino community had developed in the fishing village of St. Malo in the Mississippi River delta area.

St. Malo was destroyed by a hurricane in 1893, and the survivors founded Manila Village, south of New Orleans. Forty years later, in 1933, Manila Village had a Filipino population of 1,500. The Manila Village Filipinos developed the process of sun drying shrimp to market outside Louisiana. Eventually, this first wave of Filipino immigrants moved on to the present-day states of California, Texas, and New Mexico.

In 1903, after the United States had defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the United States annexed the Philippines, which had been a Spanish colony for nearly 400 years. When the Filipinos revolted against American occupation, American forces crushed them, killing an estimated one million Filipinos. The Filipinos then became the only Asians ever colonized by the United States. As colonists, they were free to immigrate to the United States, and many did. This is considered the second wave of Filipino immigration.

Many Filipino students also came to the United States during this second wave, which lasted from about 1906 to 1934. The U.S. government gave scholarships, or "pensions," to young Filipinos (male and female) to study at American universities. These students were called pensionados. Pensionados were expected to return to the Philippines when they had finished their studies, but many stayed in the United States.

Filipino laborers were also "imported" during the early 1900s to provide cheap labor on the U.S. west coast, particularly in the agricultural industry, although some found work in salmon canning factories. Most of the laborers were young single men, between the ages of 16 and 22, with little formal education. Without family attachments, they were prime candidates for seasonal migrant work. As physically small people (in general), they were considered ideal for "stoop" labor— planting, and picking things that are close to the ground—a very demanding job. The young Filipinos were so eager for employment that they were willing to take jobs that were too harsh for others to consider.

Filipinos were then recruited for the Hawaiian sugar industry, when Japanese immigration was restricted. Between 1907 and 1929, Hawaiian employers imported 71,594 Filipino workers. About 15,000 of them later moved to California. Many stayed in Hawaii, however, eventually making up a significant percentage (18% by 1930) of Hawaii's resident population.

U.S. immigration laws in the 1920s prevented any Asians except Filipinos from immigrating to the United States. There-fore, Filipinos were in great demand as low-wage workers on the west coast. From 1920 to 1929, 51,875 Filipinos arrived in California, along with the 15,000 who moved there from Hawaii. Filipinos also found their way to the Alaskan salmon canneries, quickly becoming the largest immigrant group employed there. By 1930 the Filipino population on the U.S. mainland had reached 45,200. Thousands more were in Hawaii and Alaska. European Americans began to feel threatened by the Filipino presence, and the U.S. government decided to restrict any further Filipino immigration after 1934.

Those Filipinos already residing in the United States were subjected to brutal attacks and harsh laws restricting their access to government aid. Working at such low-wage, seasonal jobs, many found the winters particularly difficult. Antimiscegenation laws prevented Filipino men from marrying European American women, leaving them with little opportunity for family development, as Filipino men outnumbered Filipino women in the United States by 15 to 1 at that time.

The Third Wave of Filipino immigration occurred after World War II, lasting from 1945 to 1965. This wave was made up of military personnel and their families, students, and exchange workers. Foreign-born Filipinos became eligible for U.S. citizenship during this time, making life in the United States much easier for Filipino immigrants.

The 1965 Immigration Reform Act, which lifted discriminatory restrictions on all Asian immigration, opened up the Fourth Wave of Filipino migration to the United States. In the first two decades after the passage of the Act, 668,870 Filipino immigrants arrived in the United States. From 1960 to 1980, the Filipino population in the United States more than quadrupled from 176,130 to 781,894. Filipinos continue to flow into the United States in this Fourth Wave, many of them well-educated professionals and highly skilled workers, creating what is known as a "brain drain" in the Philippines.

According to the U.S. Census, the Filipino American population was 2,364,815 in 2000. At 18% of all Asians in the United States, Filipino Americans are the second-largest group among Asian/Pacific Americans (Chinese Americans are the largest). About two-thirds of Filipino Americans in 2000 were foreign-born, but the majority are naturalized citizens; Filipino Americans have the lowest percentage (26%) of noncitizens among all Asian American groups.

Most Filipino Americans live in the West; California had the highest number in 2000 at over one million, and Hawaii had the largest concentration at almost one-quarter of the state's population. Other states with large numbers of Filipino Americans include Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Washington. Florida and Texas also host large numbers of Filipino Americans, as does Nevada. Although early Filipino immigrants tended to settle in rural agricultural areas, today's Filipino Americans, generally better educated than earlier immigrants, are choosing large urban centers and suburbs as their homes.

Filipinos speak more than 70 dialects, most of which belong to eight major language groups. The most common of these groups are Tagalog, Visayan, and Ilocano. About two-thirds of Filipino Americans speak a dialect from one of these three groups, with the majority speaking forms of Tagalog. A few Filipino words have become standard in English usage, such as yo-yo and boondocks.

Many Filipinos speak English before arriving in the United States, due to their years as a U.S. colony in the early 20th century. Filipino Americans have a very high rate of English language proficiency (75%), the second-highest of any Asian/ Pacific American group after Asian Indian Americans. Despite these promising statistics, however, foreign-born Filipino Americans still experience language barriers. Over 50% of foreign-born Filipino Americans speak a native Filipino language at home, making it more difficult to become truly fluent in English.

Most Filipino Americans are Roman Catholic, the predominant religion of the Philippines, dating to 400 years as a Spanish colony before the United States took over in 1903. A few Filipino Americans are Protestant, and there is a minority Muslim population. Rites of passage celebrations center around Christian (or Muslim) traditions.

Along with Christian or Muslim religious holidays, Filipino Americans continue to celebrate Philippine Independence Day on June 12 with parades, cultural fairs, folk dances, and traditional foods. Rizal Day on December 30 commemorates the martyrdom of Jose Rizal, a Philippine national hero. Philippine–American Friendship Day is added to the American Independence Day celebration on July 4.

Although early Filipino immigrants to the United States worked at low-paying, seasonal jobs and therefore lived in poor, often harsh conditions, later waves of Filipino immigration have brought well-educated, highly skilled Filipinos who have been fairly successful in the American work world. The majority of Filipino Americans now have comparable incomes to the rest of the U.S. population and enjoy a moderate to high standard of living.

The number of Filipino women migrating to the United States has increased to the point where Filipino American women now outnumber Filipino American men (54% women; 46% men). This fact, combined with the repeal of antimiscege-nation laws and the shift from single male to family migration,
has led to a sharp rise in the number of Filipino American family households. Because of their traditional cultural and religious (Roman Catholic) values, most Filipino Americans have large families; in 2000, the average Filipino American family consisted of 4 persons, as compared to 3 persons for all U.S. families.

The large majority of Filipino American families are headed by a married couple. Less than 14% are headed by a woman alone, and less than 5% by a man alone. Though extended family groups are traditional in the Philippines, Filipino Americans generally live in nuclear family units. This lack of available support can prove difficult for those used to turning to other family members for help. Also, because children usually attend public schools, they are exposed to European American culture and values without the balancing force of an extended Filipino community at home. Filipino American parents struggle to keep Filipino traditions alive in their Americanized children.

In keeping with the fact that many Filipinos came to the United States as students, Filipino Americans place a high value on education. In 2000, over 87% of Filipino Americans 25 years old or older were high school graduates, compared to about 80% of all Asian/Pacific Americans and of the total U.S. population. Of the same age group, 43.8% were college graduates, just slightly under the 44.1% rate for all Asian/Pacific Americans, but well above the total U.S. population rate of 24.4%.

Despite their high levels of education, however, Filipino Americans educated outside of the United States often find it difficult to obtain employment in the United States that is in keeping with their educational qualifications. Strict licensing requirements for certain occupations in the United States (such as doctors, lawyers, dentists, and pharmacists) prevent some Filipino Americans from practicing their professions in the United States, even though they may have been fully qualified, practicing professionals in the Philippines.

The rich cultural heritage of Filipinos and Filipino Americans is only recently being made available to the wider public. There are many successful Filipino American writers, including Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn, Jose Garcia Villa, and Carlos Bulosan. Bulosan's autobiography, American Is in the Heart, has been named one of the 50 most important American books ever published.

Successful Filipino American singers, actors, and entertainers include Tia Carrere, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Nia Peeples. A well-known Filipino American ballet dancer is Maniya Barredo, who was the first Filipina to give a solo dance concert in the United States at Carnegie Hall in May 1972. Bar-redo served as the prima ballerina of the Atlanta Ballet and became its dance coach in 1983. Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Alex Tizon and Byron Acohido are Filipino American, as is the significant innovator and inventor in the computer chip industry, Diosdado Banatao. Among the many Filipino American sports figures are baseball players Benny Agbayani and Bobby Chouinard, and U.S. and World Championship figure skater Tai Babilonia.

Filipino Americans had a higher rate of participation (71%) in the American workforce in 2000 than that of all U.S. citizens (64%). Filipino American women had a higher rate (65%) of participation in the labor force than that of all U.S. citizens and well above the rate of all Asian American women (56%).
Over half of employed Filipino Americans work at white-collar jobs, while the rest work in service, labor, or agricultural (farming, fishing, forestry) occupations.

The medical profession has a particularly high number of Filipino American workers. Nearly every hospital in New York and New Jersey has Filipino American doctors and nurses on staff. Filipino Americans are also well represented in government and military posts, including Benjamin N. Cayetano who served as governor of Hawaii from 1994 to 2002.

Filipino Americans have largely overcome their bleak beginnings in the United States, transforming themselves from a population of uneducated seasonal laborers to one of the more successful ethnic groups in America. Racial prejudice still afflicts these moderately dark-skinned people, and the legacy of discrimination and exclusion from the rest of American society still shows its scars. For the most part, however, Filipino Americans are creating better and better futures for themselves in America.

The strongly Catholic culture, with its emphasis on heterosexuality, of most Filipino Americans makes life for gays and lesbians difficult. The majority wait years before coming out to their families, and many never reveal their sexuality to their families at all. This need for secrecy combined with a generaltendency for Filipino Americans to be overlooked in pan-Asian American outreach efforts has led to a very high rate of HIV/AIDS cases among Filipino American gays. In 2001 HIV/ AIDS was the leading cause of death among American-born Filipino American men between the ages of 25 and 34 in California and the second-leading cause of death among all Filipino Americans in California. Filipino Americans also had the highest rate of HIV/AIDS cases among Asian/Pacific Islanders in California.

Filipino American gays and lesbians have begun to band together across the United States to address these and other issues that plague their community. New York City is the home base for Kambal sa Lusog ("Pilipinas Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Gays for Progress") and Kilawin Kolektibo (a group for Filipino lesbian and bisexual women), two groups specifically for Filipinos; and Asian Lesbians of the East Coast (ALOEC) as well as Gay Asian and Pacific Islander Men of New York (GAPIMNY), both of which include Filipinos among their membership. These groups and others work to promote education, justice, and social support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Filipino Americans.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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—by D. K. Daeg de Mott