Filipino American History, 1587 to Today: A Timeline
Filipino American History Month is celebrated every October. Here's why our history here is older and deeper than most people think.
1587 — Morro Bay, California
On October 18, 1587, "Luzones Indios" — Filipinos sailing on the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Esperanza — came ashore at Morro Bay. It's the first documented presence of Filipinos in what is now the United States, and the reason FAHM is in October.
1763 — Saint Malo, Louisiana
Filipino sailors who escaped the Manila galleons settled in the Louisiana bayous, building fishing villages like Saint Malo. Read more: The Manila Men.
1904 — St. Louis World's Fair
More than a thousand Filipinos were put on display as "exhibits" to justify American colonial rule. Read more: The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
1906 — The first sakadas
Filipino workers began arriving in Hawaiʻi to work the sugar plantations. Read more: The Sakadas.
1924 — Hanapēpē, Kauaʻi
During a strike led by Filipino plantation workers, police opened fire. Sixteen strikers and four police officers were killed.
1930 — Watsonville and Stockton
Mobs attacked Filipino farmworkers in Watsonville, and Fermin Tobera was killed. Later that year, a bomb exploded at a Filipino Federation of America building in Stockton. Read more: The Watsonville Riots.
1933 — The Alaskeros
Filipino cannery workers in Seattle formed their own union. Read more: The Alaskeros.
1934 — Salinas and Tydings-McDuffie
Filipino lettuce workers struck in Salinas. The same year, the Tydings-McDuffie Act reclassified Filipinos as aliens and capped immigration at 50 a year. Read more: The Tydings-McDuffie Act.
1946 — Carlos Bulosan and the broken promise
Carlos Bulosan published America Is in the Heart. That year, the Rescission Act denied benefits to Filipino WWII veterans. Read more: The Broken Promise.
1965 — The Delano Grape Strike
On September 8, 1965, Filipino farmworkers led by Larry Itliong walked out of the vineyards, starting the strike that built the United Farm Workers. Read more: Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz.
1977 — The International Hotel
Hundreds of police evicted Filipino elders from San Francisco's I-Hotel. Read more: The International Hotel.
1982 — FANHS
Dorothy and Fred Cordova founded the Filipino American National Historical Society in Seattle. In 1992, FANHS designated October as Filipino American History Month; Congress recognized it in 2009. Read more: Why FAHM Is in October.
2002 — Airport screeners
After 9/11, a new federal citizenship requirement pushed thousands of non-citizen airport screeners — many of them Filipino — out of their jobs, and Filipino workers in the Bay Area organized to fight back.
2013 — AB 123
California passed AB 123, by Assemblymember Rob Bonta, encouraging schools to teach the role of Filipino Americans in the farm labor movement.
Today
The story keeps going — and every one of us is part of it. Know History, Know Self.
Sources
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Know History, Know Self. No History, No Self.
Ugat means root. We design Filipino streetwear rooted in our history, from Baybayin tees to our oversized barong-style jerseys. Follow us on Instagram at @ugatclothing.
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