UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Migrant Scribes and Poet-Advocates: U.S. Filipino Literary History in West Coast Periodicals, 1905 to 1941 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/90b4113c Author Vengua, Jean Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Migrant Scribes and Poet-Advocates: U.S. Filipino Literary History in West Coast Periodicals, 1905 to 1941 by Jean Vengua A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Genaro M. Padilla, Chair Professor Tom Leonard Professor Mitchell Breitwieser Fall 2010 1 Abstract Migrant Scribes and Poet-Advocates: U.S. Filipino Literary History in West Coast Periodicals, 1905 to 1941 by Jean Vengua Doctor of Philosophy in English University of California, Berkeley Professor Genaro Padilla, Chair Much of the earliest prose and poetry published by Filipinos in the United States appeared in the many periodicals published and edited by Filipinos from 1905 through the end of the Great Depression. Today, these periodicals function as historical "archives." However, they also document U.S. Filipino literary heritage from the first half of the twentieth century, especially in forms of persuasive writing such as editorials and feature essays, and also in poetry, short stories, reviews, and literary criticism. The periodicals nurtured Filipino writers as they struggled to find their voice in the foreign nation that employed them as non-citizen workers, and had colonized and exploited the material resources of their homeland, the Philippines. A study of these texts may help to add breadth and depth to our research and understanding of Filipino writing in the U.S., both its literary production and history, as well as its contemporary forms. This dissertation is a preliminary survey of writing found in eight U.S. Filipino periodicals in the Western U.S. during the early 20th century. It articulates several broad functions of these newspapers and magazines in relation to the production and support of U.S. Filipino writing. While U.S. Filipino periodicals constituted their own social spheres, providing venues and reading constituencies for writers, the work they published also narrated and thus reinforced the formation of Filipino communities—both migrating or localized—as well as group and individual identities, although the effects varied, in terms of the writer‘s gender. This study examines the historical and material contexts for this writing, exploring the lives of the writers themselves, as well as specific examples of texts that they produced. i Table of Contents Acknowledgements ______________________________________________________________________ ii Introduction ______________________________________________________________________ 1 Chapter I – The 19th and early 20th Century Press in the Philippines and the Filipino Student Magazines ______________________________________________________________________ 8 Chapter II – The Northwest: Victorio Acosta Velasco and the Philippine Advocate ______________________________________________________________________ 42 Chapter III – Central Coast: the Three Stars, Philippines Mail, and the Filipino Pioneer ______________________________________________________________________ 71 Chapter IV – War and the Irony of Unity: the Philippine Commonwealth Times and the Philippine-American News Digest ______________________________________________________________________ 120 Chapter V – Conclusion ______________________________________________________________________ 146 Bibliography ______________________________________________________________________ 154 Appendix ______________________________________________________________________ 163 ii Acknowledgements For their guidance and support, my thanks and appreciation to Genaro M. Padilla, Tom Leonard, Mitchell Breitwieser, José David Saldívar, Sue Schweik, and Oscar Campomanes. Independent researchers and archivists have been of great help; these include Alex Fabros, Jess Tabasa, the staff of the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, Allen Library at the University of Washington, the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA, Steinbeck Library in Salinas, Monterey County Historical Society, and Fred and Dorothy Cordova of the FANHS archives in Seattle. Friends and fellow scholars at Berkeley, including Elizabeth H. Pisares, Nerissa Balce, Gladys Nubla, and Margo Ponce Diaz, have inspired my research. Thanks also to Leny Mendoza Strobel, Eileen Tabios, Joselyn Ignacio, Dida Kutz, Mary Scherr, and my son, Dana Gier, for cheering me on. Special appreciation goes to Michael Fink for his technical expertise and unwavering support; and to Carla Alicia Tejeda, my friend and partner in the dissertation process. 1 Introduction Migrant Scribes and Poet-Advocates: U.S. Filipino Literary History in West Coast Periodicals, 1905 to 1941 When I entered graduate school in the 1990s, there seemed to be a consensus in Asian American studies that Filipino American writing had its genesis primarily in the early writings of Carlos Bulosan; America is in the Heart was the most often cited of his works. It was first published in 1943, and resurrected in 1973 by Carey McWilliams during the beginning of the Third World Strikes of the 1970s. Among writers or academics unfamiliar with Filipino American literature in the 1990s, the genre seemed barely to exist, or was thought to be in its earliest stages. We now know that Filipinos have been writing and publishing in the United States since at least January 24, 1899, with Felipe Agoncillo‘s Memorials to the U.S. Secretary of State and the U.S. Senate, published by the American Anti-Imperialist League.1 In ―Filipino American Literature,‖ Oscar Campomanes has pointed out that prose written by Filipinos can be found ―from 1905 onward,‖ including the work of ―Juan Salazar, Juan Collas, and Marcelo de Gracia Concepcion in the 1910s–1920s, Greg San Diego and the brothers Jose and Teofilo del Castillo in the 1930s– 1940s.‖2 Much of the earliest prose and poetry published by Filipinos in the United States appeared in periodicals published and edited by Filipinos from 1905 through the end of the Great Depression. In his study of "The Filipino Press in the United States," sociologist Emory Bogardus took note of "the prolific nature of the Filipino press" in the 1930s, noting ―six or eight newspaper- magazines in Los Angeles…‖ alone.3 Enya P. Flores-Meiser has estimated twenty newspapers published by Filipinos from 1931-1940, although she does not specify region.4 I have found either microfilm copies or reference to at least forty-four periodicals published during the period 1905 to 1941. During that period, these publications were examined by sociologists in order to understand and report on the migratory and social patterns of Filipinos. Today, these periodicals function as historical "archives."5 But, as I argue here, they also document U.S. Filipino literary heritage6 from the first half of the twentieth century, especially in forms of persuasive writing such as editorials and feature essays, but also in poetry, short stories, and literary criticism. A study of these texts may help to add breadth and depth to our research and understanding of Filipino writing in the U.S., both its literary production and history, as well as its contemporary forms. Filipino writing on the West Coast was fueled by a group of writers who were community leaders, intellectuals, and labor organizers. To Oscar Campomanes‘ list of writers we can add Victorio Acosta Velasco, J.C. Dionisio, P.C. Morantte, Simeon Doria Arroyo, D.L. Marcuelo, and many others. Together they formed a collaborative network of ―traveling‖ editors and writers, or ―scribes‖ as more than one reporter called them, many of whom were migrant workers for at least part of each year, and students for the rest of the year, who paid their tuition and lodging through service work or agricultural and kitchen labor. A few were lucky enough to have the funds to start businesses, or were saavy at social networking and able to find patrons. Their newspapers and magazines provided a reading constituency for emerging U.S. Filipino writers 2 who were rarely published in the mainstream media. The periodicals also provided the beginnings of a critical dialogue about Filipino literature written in the U.S. This dissertation is a preliminary survey of writing found in eight U.S. Filipino periodicals in the Western U.S. during the early 20th century.1 This study articulates several broad functions of these newspapers and magazines in relation to the production and support of U.S. Filipino writing. These functions include providing writers with venues and readers, helping to unite communities and to cohere group and individual identities through various types of reports, narratives, and poems. In the process, I examine the historical and material contexts for this writing, exploring the lives of the writers themselves, as well as specific examples of texts that they produced. The writing samples include essays, editorials and op-eds, testimonials, short stories, poems, reviews of books, film, and dramatic performances, and literary criticism. The newspaper or magazine setting—comprised of reportage, ads, juxtaposition with articles, number and placement of columns, and typography—are important indicators of meaning and emphasis in the writings by Filipinos of this era. The study is necessarily limited by time and geographic constraints, and the apparent dearth of legible originals and copies in California. In some cases, print or microfilm copies were incomplete, ―mutilated‖ or otherwise only partly legible. In one university library, copies of the Philippine Advocate listed in the library catalogue were found after a two-week search, rubber-banded and rolled in the corner of a shelf. As I made photocopies of the dry, browned pages, they began to crumble and fall apart on the glass. Nevertheless, in other parts of the U.S. where Filipinos migrated in large numbers, there are collections of their periodicals in both public and private collections, which may provide sources for further historical and literary study.7 The survey moves away from the topic of Filipinos as objects of purely historical or sociological study (which may contribute to viewpoints such as the one that begins this chapter), toward a consideration of —not if, but how—the Filipino literary arts and letters flourished during a period in which the existence of Filipinos on the West Coast became increasingly embattled. Chapter I begins with an introduction and summary of the historical development of the Philippine press and the relationship between the American press in Manila, and the development of Philippine literature in English. It is important to present a historical background of the Philippine press since many of the U.S. Filipino editors were trained as editors and writers while working for newspapers in the Philippines, and literary criticism by Filipinos in the U.S. was tied to specific developments in literature in the Philippines during the 1930s and early 1940s. Furthermore, the status of the Philippines as a colonial ―dependency‖ greatly affected the status and experiences of Filipinos in the U.S. during that period. I relate this background to the emerging Filipino print publications in the United States with the the earliest student magazines: The Filipino Students’ Magazine, and The Filipino Student, published in Berkeley, California. These were edited by pensionado students attending American universities and initially subsidized by the Philippine government and the American Anti- Imperialist League. 3 Chapters II through IV examine the historical and material contexts for the production of five newspapers and one magazine, giving examples of editorials, essays, poems, reviews, and short fiction (the latter published only in the Philippine Commonwealth News) that appear in their pages. These periodicals were published during the 1920s and 1930s, beginning with The Philippine Independent in 1921 in Salinas, California, ending in 1941 with the Philippine- American News Digest just prior to the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor and the Philippines. The latter period marked a change in editorial outlook calling for a ―unifying‖ trend among Filipinos in U.S., nationally, as new legislation was introduced affecting the citizenship status of Filipinos. As the American public began to perceive differences among Asians, and to view Filipinos as allies against the Japanese, there was a shift from critical to positive—if troubled— attention from the mainstream media toward Filipino writers. The periodicals under consideration—five newspapers and three magazines—were published in Seattle (Washington), and Berkeley, Stockton, Salinas, Los Angeles, and Santa Maria, (California). They reflect a geographic range from urban to suburban and rural; a political range from mildly conservative to progressive and radical; the education and class of editors and writers range from working class (high school education only, with training in the newspaper business) to Ph.D., with financial support from government, family, or business ventures. During the mid 20th century, several studies were written about Filipino newspapers in the U.S. Most were sociological studies. In 1934, sociologist Emory S. Bogardus characterized the U.S. Filipino community of that period, claiming that "what differentiated each [newspaper] from the other was a "distinctly ...leadership phenomenon."8 He suggested a more democratic approach, citing the need for Filipinos of apparently disparate concerns to "unite their interests and resources, and find a common ground for sharing the responsibility of a newspaper-magazine." Trinidad Rojo in 1941 summarized nine of what he thought were some of the outstanding or interesting U.S. Filipino newspapers, including The Philippine Interpretor, edited by a Filipino and Filipina, Pat Megino and Estela Romualdez de Sulit.9 Larry A. Lawcock‘s PhD dissertation, ―Filipino Students in the United States and the Philippine Independence Movement, 1900— 1935,‖ (1975) provides valuable information about the earliest student periodicals published by Filipinos in the United States, and the political context for their creation. Howard A. DeWitt‘s ―Anti-Filipino Movements in California‖ (1975) discusses U.S. Filipino newspapers within the context of the labor and civil rights struggles of Filipinos in California. 1977 saw the publication of Donn V. Hart‘s ―The Filipino-American Press in the United States: A Neglected Resource‖10 and ―A History and a Contemporary Survey of Filipino-American Periodicals, 1900-1976,‖ (Master‘s thesis) by Amelita Besa.11 Hart‘s article comprised a brief survey of Filipino newspapers up to the 1970s; Besa‘s thesis was an in-depth study characterizing the Filipino press as ―in constant flux.‖12 In 1987, Enya P. Flores-Meiser‘s essay, "The Filipino-American Press" provided an overview of the U.S. Filipino Press, outlining some of the editors and periodicals. Flores-Meiser points out that the U.S. Filipino newspapers were "linked together through multiple editorships for various newspapers, [displaying] more unity in cause and style than the many Filipino-American groups it continually sought to integrate. [A] reciprocal pattern of serving on each other's newspapers solidified a network of individuals who exercised a major role in the integration of Filipino- American communities, particularly in the states of California and Washington."13 Her observation suggests—not just an arbitrary coming together of writers and editors—but ongoing attempts to forge a ―network‖ of interaction to support publishing and distribution. These 4 newspapers did not just report the news; groups of writers and thinkers formed around the production and distribution of the newspapers, and these communities in turn nurtured Filipino writers, and helped develop local reading constituencies for their work. In 1998, The Filipino American Experience Research Project, edited by Alex Fabros, Jr., published on CD selected articles from the Philippines Mail, and collected poems from the ―Juan Steinbeck Poetry Society‖ (associated with the newspaper), for the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), adding to our knowledge of the importance of the Philippines Mail as a locus of both labor and civil rights activism and early Filipino writing that was outspoken and courageous, given the violence experienced by Filipinos during the Depression Era. During the 1990s to the present, scholars in social history such as Donald L. Guimary,14 Erik Luthy,15 Mark Mabanag,16 and Michael S. Brown,17 have contributed to our understanding of the role that the U.S. Filipino newspapers have played in shaping Filipino communities in the first half of the 20th century. Their studies have been in the fields of sociology and social history. Studies on U.S. Hispanic literatures of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century have been especially helpful in delineating strategies for recovery of early U.S. Filipino literature, in particular, Edna Acosta-Belén‘s ―The Building of a Community: Puerto Rican Writers and Activists in New York City (1890s—1960s)‖ in Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, edited by Ramón Gutiérrez and Genaro Padilla, and A. Gabriel Meléndez‘ So All Is Not Lost: The Poetics of Print in Nuevomexicano Communities, 1834—1958, which examines the history of newspapers in the Mexicano communities of the Southwest. The larger Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project strongly suggests to me the continuing importance of archival research and recovery of early U.S. Filipino texts in order to present a larger, more in-depth view of the history and literature of Filipinos in the United States. The idea of ―community‖ comes up often in this study. In using the term, I stress that U.S. Filipino writing during the early 20th century was not an anomaly (as Carlos Bulosan‘s early writings often seem to be characterized), nor a series of disparate individual projects, but rather a mutual endeavor nurtured within the social sphere of the periodicals, with their influence and support. The Filipino newspapers were the voice of a migratory community. It struggled to make itself heard within the larger fabric of American society that characterized the Filipino community, in many cases, as null or defective. Indirectly, some Asian Americanists have effectively characterized the Filipino American community similarly to the sociologist Emory Bogardus, through its critique of only a limited number of texts, and a failure to encourage archival research. The emphasis has been on Bulosan, Santos, and more recently, Garcia Villa. Citing Carlos Bulosan‘s novel, America is in the Heart, and Bienvenido Santos‘s short story, ―The Day the Dancers Came‖ (1967), Sau Ling Cynthia Wong points to a ―sense of terminal stranding and paralysis‖ where the migrant‘s mobility is ―deprived‖ of any sense of ―epic adventure‖ or ―spiritual invigoration,‖ noting that the ―endless looping‖ of his narrative suggests both ―inability to sustain a home and achieve a communal culture.‖18 She rightly links this sense of alienated mobility to the disruption of the formation of the fledgling Philippine Republic by American imperialism, to the migratory nature of the work available for Filipino ―nationals‖19 in the U.S., and the racist policies that forced Filipinos into marginal status. However, if we delve into the Filipino social, material and literary matrix within which Bulosan, Santos and other U.S. Filipino writers existed during the early 20th century, we see that, despite a sense of alienation within the American society at large, a ―communal culture‖