Roadtrip

After reading Carlos Bulosan's book, "America is in the Heart," I was encouraged to know more about the history of my people in the U.S. and in the Philippines. It was only the right thing to do! I think that knowing my history gives me a better understanding of why and how things are today. Join me as I travel around the Bay Area and learn about its history in relation to the U.S.-Philippines war.

So on April 24, 2008, we drove (my wife and I) to our first stop in San Francisco, Union Square. Getting there was pretty easy. Living in Dublin, we took 580 west and then paid the $4 toll to cross the Bay bridge. It was a clear, sunny day in the city. The bay water was as blue as the sky. Getting to Union Square was the easy part, finding parking around there was a lot more difficult considering I didn't really want to pay $10 to park. So I decided to park in the No Parking zone and ran towards the Dewey memorial to take pictures of each side of the column quickly.

The first picture on my blog shows a Chicago Chronicle cartoon from January 1900 featuring President McKinley preventing Uncle Sam from reading the “Forbidden Book” about the “true history of the war in the Philippines.” Most Americans know nothing about a 15–year war with the Philippines that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos. It still remains like a small blip on the radar screen in U.S. history and culture.

Here is a brief summary: On Feb. 4, 1899, the United States went to war based on a false claim that Filipinos were attacking American soldiers in Manila. The first shots were actually fired by an American soldier as Filipinos crossed a bridge, and historians would later discover a “prearranged plan” by the U.S. military to precipitate a war as soon as an incident was provoked. Misled by false reports, the Senate passed (by one vote) a treaty to annex the Philippines. President McKinley would later justify the war by claiming that God had counseled him to take the Philippines in order to civilize and Christianize the Filipinos.

Say what? Christianized? Civilize? I doubt God would tell anybody to kill. Wouldn't that be against the 10 Commandments? How can Pres. Mckinley say the Filipinos needed to be Christianize when the Filipinos were under the Spanish rule for over 300 years-meaning there were Missions all over the place? They were converting people by the boat load. The real reason behind the annexation was the need for overseas markets and raw materials for American industry.

Who was he fooling? Not all U.S. citizens were for the war. Opposition to the war was led by the Anti–Imperialist League whose members included many prominent Americans including presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, suffragist Jane Addams, labor leader Samuel Gompers, African American activist Ida Wells Barnett, and writer Mark Twain. The “anti–imperialists” were branded as traitors by “pro–expansionists” and Filipinos were depicted as savages in order to de–legitimize their resistance to American occupation. American opposition to the war grew as more and more American soldiers died and as revelations of military atrocities, torture of prisoners, killing of Filipino children, and concentration camps surfaced in media reports, military trials, and a senate hearing. President Roosevelt prematurely declared the war over on July 4, 1902 but the last major battle was fought in 1913 and hostilities did not cease until 1914.

From Union Square, we travelled north towards the North Beach area to the Presidio. The Presidio played an important role as a staging point and housing on the west coast for the thousands of troops that served in the Philippines. Most Presidio troops got to the islands too late to fight the Spanish in the brief war. But Philippine rebels had been waging guerrilla warfare against Spanish colonialism long before the U.S. became involved. Their exiled leader, Emilio Aquinaldo (he was also the 1st president), quickly made contact with the attacking force already on its way to the Philippines, in the belief that the United States would help the "Insurrectos" gain independence from Spain. But the U.S. government had other plans- After the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, which ended the war against Spain, the United States opted to give Cuba its independence but keep the Philippines, to the dismay of the Philippine nationalists. Although the war was declared over in 1902, it went on for 15 more years and far exceeded the war with Spain.

The Ordonez Gun. An artillery piece developed by Spanish Captain Salvador Diaz Ordonez in 1880, used to defend Spanish harbors, military installations and overseas possessions. This particular weapon was supposedly damaged at Subic Bay in the Philippines by shellfire from the U.S.S. Charleston in September of 1899. Publisher William Randolph Hearst brought the gun to San Francisco by the time of the 1906 earthquake and the Army acquired it in 1973 to exhibit at the Presidio.

Street dedicated to General Funston in The Presidio. On March 23, 1901, Colonel Frederick Funston, commander of the 20th Kansas Infantry Regiment which had been stationed at the Presidio, captured the nationalist leader Emilio Aquinaldo. Funston’s daring actions in the Philippines earned him the Medal of Honor and a promotion to Brigadier General. The fighting diminished after Aquinaldo’s capture.

Fort Funston. 20 minutes south of the Presidio is Fort Funston. The place (and the street sign above in the Presidio) is dedicated to him. The fort was used in WWII as a "Base end station." You would find 2-4 soldiers watching for enemy ships, ready to relay the position of the hostile vessels to nearby gun batteries. Today, its a beautiful park where you can see hang gliders and hikers.







The International Hotel before demolition

The International House is the last stop of this roadtrip. Here is a little history. Shortly after the Philippine-American War, Filipino immigrants began arriving in America as government-sponsored scholars, U.S. military personnel or farm and cannery workers.In the years between 1920-1935 there was a filipino male population of 39,328. Laws forbade Filipinos from owning land or setting up businesses. They were to be kept moving, remaining transient just like their jobs. They stayed in rooming houses, labor camps, and hotels. The International Hotel was one of these. "Manilatown," the Kearny/Jackson Street area of San Francisco, became a permanent settlement, a convenient culture contact. It was the home field-workers returned to, where merchant marines lived while in port, where distant relatives and friends could be contacted, where they could enjoy the security of a common culture. The International Hotel became a symbol for an entire minority community. During the redevelopment movement of the mid-1960s, the hotel was targeted for demolition, and eviction notices were issued to the Manongs(older Filipino men) and other residents. However, nine years of litigation, public protests, and disagreements between and among activists and public officials ensued. At one point, San Francisco Sheriff Hongisto refused to enforce the eviction order, and was imprisoned. He later reversed his position.
The building stood empty while the fate of the site continued to be debated, but was finally demolished in 1981. It sat there as a huge hole until 2003, when construction began on the new I-Hotel, and the building was completed on 2005.

The new 37-story International Hotel

Taking a picture at Manilatown with Isaac ( Dang! where the heck did the elec. cord come from?)

Interview w/ Isaac:

Q:What's Manilatown's mission?

A:Basically to increase the awareness of the social and economic justice for Filipinos in America by preserving our history

Q:It seems like the center is used for exhibits. Does the display change often?

A: Yeah, it ranges from exhibits, performances, and film showings to classes and informal encounters where community members can share stories, teach and learn

Q:What can I do to help the cause?

A: You can donate or volunteer

Q:How much for that 2008 Little Manila Calendar?

A: $15

Q:Dang! thats a lot considering we are almost halfway through the year. How about $10 plus $10 for the I-Hotel poster (You are not Filipino if you dont bargain for a discount:->).

A: Ok

Well, I guess that will be my donation:-)

Today, about 2 million Filipinos and Filipino Americans live in the United States. In California, they make up the largest Asian community, and within 10 years, they are expected to become the largest Asian community in the country.

I now realize why our parents and grandparents felt the need to immigrate, their experiences as a racially defined people in America and how this all was effected by the United States military occupation in the Philippines.