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YouTube Channel FilAm U.S. History course Podcast: Global Archipelago
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Discover a place not held solely by where it sits in the world, nor the season you’ve found yourself in- but as it has always been, by the landscape of its people.

SUMMER MENU RESEARCH

Thank you for dining with us at Archipelago. Our menu is driven by FilAm history in place, here in the Pacific Northwest. Beyond the archives and books used to guide this research, we honor the stories of community members still active - fighting to make the world better for all of us. Further, we thank all of our producers and food systems workers who make this experience possible. Our actions today shape history tomorrow - may this summer bring you sweet rest.

Driving our menu forward this summer are the stories and places of ...

PORTAL TO THE PACIFIC, THE CABLE LAYERS, THE UW FILIPINO CLUB, THE HOOVERVILLE COOKS, THE LOCAL 7 STORY, MARIA LUISA DOMINGUEZ, GENE VIERNES & SILME DOMINGO, STRAWBERRY QUEENS, NOT YET VICTORIO.

While you read, we invite you to listen to the Summer Experience Soundtrack that was played during your dinner.

OUR RESEARCH PROCESSES 

Our research process is an ongoing, formal exploration of archives, the cutting edge of food- studies texts, collaborations with other cultural workers, and an exploration of the interpretations of FilAM food from our chefs. We read recently published academic articles in Filipino/a/x Studies, Geography, and food science. We build out research tools and repositories like digital maps, foraging guides, and library resources for our team to access. Current projects also include developing programming that can help us actively collect knowledge from our communities. Above all, we try our best to sit in the present-ness of our community's initiatives. Those publishing their own writing, hosting film-viewings, and asking for collaborators. Research is also to assess the state of the present, to come up with the right solutions and interventions to preserve the future. 

Thankfully, we have had the most incredible models. The Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) and their published texts including Filipinos in Puget Sound (2009), and Filipinos in the Willamette Valley (2010), have given us a running start. From experiments in growing rice at Kamayan Farm run by Ari de Leña, to the form-bending work of artisans like Lexa Luna and Jess Rene, we find ourselves continuously inspired. While we still have much to learn, like recipes, we are building out and collecting our own stories to live on in our services. 

 
 

Especially important to us are the conversations we are able to have with our farmers, foragers, butchers, and fisherfolk. Our agricultural system is so interconnected, yet resources don't flow as freely. As we hear about our partners' needs directly, we hope to continue to be in a position to purchase products, create value-added items, and volunteer where we can. This can look like lending our voice and reach in struggles for justice, such as the campaign with the United 6 right here in Seattle. 

When you dine with us, you are not just supporting the work of chefs. You directly support the quality of research, preservation, documentation, and development of new techniques that work to actively address the future of culturally relevant food in an era of increasing change. 

—

This resource was written by Hanover Vale. It was designed by Amber Manuguid. It reflects years of hard work and dedication from the entire Archipelago team.

COURSE 1

PORTAL TO THE PACIFIC

There have been many ways Seattle has been thought of as a portal to the Pacific. Westward expansion, and colonial ideas and practices, positioned Seattle as a place that could easily spread America’s influence further west - to East and Southeast Asia. This colonial legacy has defined Seattle, and so too have the colonial processes that positioned individuals as subjects themselves. This is especially true of the University of Washington, which hosted the Seattle Yukon Pacific Exposition in 1909 to celebrate and promote the region’s ties to an expansive western frontier.

Further, infrastructural projects that have crafted highways though mountains, cleared forests, reversed and carved out river flows, and built-up and created land masses for the Port of Seattle to sit upon in anticipating the region’s global influence. People too, immigrants of all kinds and here, as we will see especially Filipinos and Fil-Ams, all left their marks on the city and the peoples that share Seattle's land and waters. 

For Meryendas, which people of Philippine ancestry know as “snacks” or light meals, we are exploring the way that Seattle became a destination for many Filipinos both coming from the Philippines and arriving from other parts of the world. Seattle touches many a family story, wether we know it or not, and is a place of historic coming together that can both be rooted in history and with enough density to be imagined. In this course, the team thought of ways to connect Seattle’s longstanding history with the Philippine community to places of origin where Filipino and Fil-Am individuals passed through. For this course we draw inspiration from the locales and connectivities below.

LOUISIANA: One of the first permanent and documented Filipino towns in the US was St. Malo in Louisiana, dating to around 1830. At this time, both Louisiana and the Philippines were colonies of Spain. Drawn to the fishing industry, Filipino fishermen constructed large wooden buildings on Cyprus pillars seeming to float over the wetlands. Here, Filipinos found community with Black, Native, and Creole individuals creating a dynamic culture entirely their own. Crab boil in your adobo, anyone?

HAWAII: From Seattle and the Philippines many Filipinos, known as Sakadas, or “barefoot workers” made their way to Hawaii between 1906-1946. Contracted to work on the sugar cane fields, they were put into direct relationship with Plantation owners, Kanaka Maoli, and Japanese immigrants who worked alongside them. Over the years, they fought powerfully for their rights and shaped the region today.

ALASKA: From the Philippines and Seattle, Filipinos defined and built the Alaskan Salmon Canning industry. Known as the Alaskeros, present in their ranks include individuals we talk about further in the menu - Victorio Velasco, and Maria Orosa. With their tenacity, they organized powerful Unions, wrote stinging newsletters full of drama and poetry, and faught to see historic desegregation in Alaska’s Stedman-Thomas disctrict.

CALIFORNIA: October 18th, 1587 marks the first landing of Filipinos at what is now known as Morro Bay in California. They departed from Macau on a Spanish Galleon Nuestra Senora de Buena Esparanza when the Spanish Galleon trade flourished between Spain’s colonies. Here, Filipinos landed on the historic lands of the Chumash peoples. (Fun fact, we did a whole dinner on this in 2022!)

At Meryendas, we frame this course as a collision of both the old and the new - layers and history of eating with one’s hand, cooking and transporting with leaves, and perhaps most importantly attempt to understand archipelagos of connectivity that go beyond what manifests often as a land acknowledgment - instead to try and tell stories of nuance and position highlighting assertions of sovereignty.

In this course we navigate the ways that Filipinos settled and moved across the US, forging solidarities and carving out histories of their own.

We encourage all guests to explore on their own and learn about Native history from Native scholars and community workers. Seattle has great examples, to start see:

Bird's-eye_View_of_Seattle,_Washington_Territory.jpg

COURSE 1

THE CABLE LAYERS

The C.S. Burnside, a Steamship with a crew of 80 Filipino Men

THE CABLE LAYERS

Our modern communication system is built on many intersecting layers. The telegram revolutionized communication during a time when information sharing was pivotal, and could determine the success or failure of entire countries during times of war, when people were traveling more than ever.

It is seldom known that the first ever telegram cables were laid in the Philippines in 1880.

Years later, it was The U.S. Burnside crewed by 80 Filipino men, their names and families still largely unknown. This industrial cable laying ship was tasked with laying the first ever US telegram communication cable from Seattle to Alaska. From here, our experience begins as an exercise in communication. The theme, of bringing places together that were previously disconnected also lends a forward-looking lens. We try and understand that we may not even know where the future takes us. Where the things we have built will be used. And it was this same cable network in 1925 that alerted communities in Alaska and Seattle to a growing epidemic of Diphtheria - which resulted in the antitoxin serum run to Nome, Alaska, saving an estimated 10,000 individuals from almost certain death.

This course, a composition of local seafood also pays homage to the Alaskeros mentioned in the section prior - to the ideas of thawing ice, and a place giving way to green and passage to brighter days.

COURSE 2

THE UW FILIPINO CLUB

Another reason why Seattle became a hub for the Fil-Am community was due to the UW pensionado program. The pensionado program was a program of the US government that funded students from the Philippines to earn their education in the US, with the goal of them going back to serve their country and own governments at the end. Many, but not all of the Filipinos who attended the University of Washington were a part of this program. Some had come from wealthy families and as such were expected to travel abroad for their studies. And many supported themselves through taking tough and thankless jobs usually in some form of service industry. 

The individuals we are highlighting in this course which is called “Anak ni Bet”, the child of pinakbet, a traditional filipino stew, were all contemporaries of each other and even friends at the University of Washington. 

Victorio Edades and Victorio Velasco were from the same region of the Philippines, but also from very different geographies. Edades grew up in a town by the ocean, where Velasco grew up in the valley surrounded by vegetable farms. Maria Orosa grew up in Bicol, around Taal Lake, an area known for beautiful local fish and a still-active volcano. One wonders if they could have anticipated the twists, turns, and crises that would come to define their lives in the 20th century - or the creativity, the beauty, and resilience that would mark their lives and spur innovations that we all today benefit from.

The UW Filipino Club at the University of Washington, circa 1926

Highlighting these three individuals lets us play with their stories and interactions in a new way. Edades wrote letters to Velasco through life as we found in the UW archives - though they may have fallen out of touch for small periods of time, it is a reminder that friendship can endure. 

Maria Orosa is a titan now in the heroes we remember of Philippine ancestry. She is listed as the Vice-President of the UW Filipino club too, alongside members Edades and Velasco. Not only are we exploring the legacies of these individuals and their formations of consciousness as they were students at the UW - one can imagine how their connections, conversations, and interests intersected at a time when so much of their own history was being struggled for. We have fragments of their relationships preserved, in letters and articles, and how they sat in relation to each other in certain places at the same time. For us to draw on the historical archives of their lives is a great responsibility. To imagine and honor their innovations as well as their personal struggles, their strivings, and the arcs of their lives is both a challenge and a creative dream.

For this course we draw on not only their lives as University of Washington students, but also the places that they called home prior. Where they grew up, how those places live on in our memory as Fil-Ams who may have never visited the Philippines.  For Maria Orosa’s hometown of Taal, the team looked at images of recent volcanic eruptions - of pineapple fields coated in ash in the countryside as a reference point. Of ash-clay/cement being created to rebuild from the destruction of that event. Of people coming together to restore, first growth pushing through the sand and silt of the earth. 

We looked to the farming region where Velasco grew up, nestled in between mountains in a valley close to the sea. Anak ni Bet, a celebration of seasonal vegetables, pays homage to the brilliance of farmers themselves and the work that is required to produce food of the highest quality. Pangasinan – literally the place where salt is made touches the lives of both Velasco and Edades, who knew each other when they were children. We explore cooking both in salt, and salt-processing some of the cornerstone fermentations. For this course, vegetable bagoong sits as a place of innovation and inspiration for both the team and the culture as it is. 

Edades explored the relationships between art and shared experiences resulting from discrimination though painting the only Black UW Football player, Hamilton L. Greene – who unfortunately passed too young when he was struck and killed by a Dairy Van driver here in Seattle in 1934.  The 1920s in the US were a time of opulence and extravagance for some, the economic boom gave way to bust during the great depression. Even before this moment though, Filipinos who came to the US were experiencing much discrimination and hardship from, specifically, other blue-collar workers and farmers who formed alliances with the Klan and other white supremacist organizations to drive fear and discrimination. Prior to these targeted acts of discrimination from white mobs, similar strategies were employed to push away Chinese agricultural workers in Washington.

Portrait of American Football Player, Hamilton L. Greene, Victorio Edades 1922

This course embodies a shared sense of what the past holds, and also how we are striving forward in the culture to innovate and embrace some of the culinary techniques and traditions that define Philippine cooking. Using the eyes of the individuals we draw inspiration from to look forward within this dish and imagine it helps ground us in the same dynamic progression that pulls forward our culture in the same way others have imagined it together.

COURSE 3

HOOVERVILLE COOKS

 

Racial animosity, economic downturn, and uneven government programs such as the New Deal, contributed to the discrimination felt by many different groups during the great Depression. One thing for certain though is that what was possible for Filipinos during the Pensionado program was now unattainable. Individuals who benefitted from gaining access to education in the US now found themselves barred from it. Turning inward in austerity, universities across the country began to offer less support and acceptance from students of color, let alone immigrants.

At this time during the depression, while Velasco already had some opportunities that he created for himself through his newspaper the Filipino Forum, Edades decided to go back to the Philippines to start his own Architecture firm and build up the Fine Arts department at the University of Saint Thomas in Manila. Further, many Filipinos found themselves questioning whether the America that they dreamed of even existed, and could let alone serve them. Carlos Bulosan in America is in the Heart, details the discrimination and hardship they encountered working on farms in America’s heartland. 

Carlos Bulosan, Circa 1940

“I will be a writer and make you live again in my words.”
— Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart: A Personal History

When we think of the depression era as a source of American gothic literature, John Stienbeck and other writers of the time too do not overlook the importance of Filipinos and the social fabrics and networks they create with one another.  It is not just Filipinos who write about the experiences they have, whether white Americans were concerned about the immigrant experience or not, Filipinos were there and hate was not enough to keep them out of the American fabric.

“It was to the advantage of most Filipinos who worked in the farms and ranches that there were plenty of edible food which were not available to most Americans. In butchering houses, they used to give away heads and innards of pigs, beef, and poultry for free. These were more than enough for the Filipino workers to make into delicious recipes for their meals.”
— Pamana (1986, p. 227)

The depression in Seattle resulted in colloquially as Hoovervilles named after the President Hoover of the time. We know from oral histories and conversations with elders that there were slaughterhouses near the water by the places where these Hoovervilles manifested in the CID, and near Westlake now. And, we also know that Hoovervilles had a very diverse population, where many of the men who lived there were of Filipino descent as documented in a census from the time.

Working with scraps and off-cuts is integral to cultural cooking in the Philippines - in our cuisine Dinuguan for example, is made with all parts of the pig. In thinking about offal, also, many elements of our cuisine including kinilaw include this. Further wee also know of famous Filipino cooks who came together to cook for their communities, socially - one of them being Frank Castilliano, of Ivar’s. In this way, Hoovervilles became somewhat of a melting pot - in a social and racial order that was somewhat different from the way society was structured outside of them. Realizing Filipinos had to band together to serve their own interests emerging from the Depression, historically we see an unprecedented era of labor organizing and coalition building across differences.

This course has sometimes gone by another name Mahabang Buhay, meaning “Long Life” as eating noodles in our culture is historic way we celebrate another year, and a tradition that spans many Asian cultures. This course, no matter where you are or where you find yourself, we hope that it finds you well. 


COURSE 4

LOCAL 7

The Board of Local 7, Circa 1937

The story of Local 7 is truly one borne from history. Attention to time and place specific initiatives that were possible through the formation of a labor consciousness by Filipino workers. Filipinos both in the canneries of Alaska and on farms across the Western US, were being both discriminated against and being overlooked for work contracts. Filipinos, comprising many of the workers in these places believed that if they banded together they could determine their own outcomes for contracts and win their own rights and labor. And this was truly a radical idea that built a legacy and tradition of organizing.

Those who worked in the canneries in Alaska, the Alaskeros (as we know) were comprised of many individuals from the Washington and Seattle region. Especially students who could take shifts in the summer working for a cannery, did so to earn extra money. Alaskeros lived in segregated housing, with segregated kitchens and bathrooms. Further, Filipino workers noted that they were often overlooked for jobs with mobility in the canneries. These positions, where an individual could work up to a management level were seldom awarded to Filipino workers.

However, this did not stop Filipinos from finding other ways to assert their power. Often taking the form of cannery newsletters such as The Chomly Spectator and the Alaskero.  These periodicals would circulate, talking about everything from new arrivals to the cannery scene to poetry written by cannery workers. It was a coming together of ideas which reflected the sentiments of Filipinos and Filipino-Americans both forming a community and discussing their collective shared future, in Alaska, the broader US, and in the Philippines itself.  For the first time, this Union worked to represent individuals from all industries along the Western corridor. From the sea to the fields, Filipino workers were brought together in a way that seeded incredible power and conversations across sectors of our food system that were traditionally siloed.

During the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program designed to uplift workers did so for the white working class, but left people of color behind. Unable to find support - Filipinos in multi-ethnic and racial coalitions decided to start their own union. Further, racist violence and anti-Filipino race riots in the late 20’s in Yakima and Kashmere, which resulted in deaths and bunkhouse burnings galvanized men in these careers to protect themselves. 

The intense social fabric created by the FilAm community in the canneries and outside of them, in pool and dance halls, and restaurants, as well as Filipino owned publications, allowed for the news of the union to spread. Virgil Duyungan, one of the union’s key founders, was seen as a charismatic and convincing organizer. From 1933 - 1926, the union grew from 200 to 2000 members strong. (Fresco, 1999)


In 1938, the union unanimously, and formally, transitioned from the American Federation of Labor to the Congress of Industrial Organizations. This transition allowed the union to work beyond the canneries, and to focus on industries where Filipino workers dominated. The United Cannery, Agricultural, Packinghouse and Allied Workers of America was formed.  While winning rights for workers for decades, so too has the union been rocked by violence and crisis.


The key figures that made this possible were Virgil Duyungan, Tony Rodrigo, CB Mislang, and Espiritu pictured above. And, all of the figures we highlighted in the UW Filipino Club found themselves in one way or another as Alaskeros themselves. Velasco was represented by this union and held positions within it, while others had departed to the Philippines before they found themselves represented. 

COURSE 5

MARIA LUISA DOMINGUEZ


In this course we highlight two extraordinary women who have gone on to change the course of history. Both war heroes in their own rights, we find ourselves at a moment of bifurcation. One Maria, remembered. Another Maria, her history not yet fully uncovered and shared. Maria Louisa Dominguez was the daughter of a famous revolutionary fighter, turned ally/accomplice to the Japanese, Artemo Ricarte.

While many argue that this alignment was instrumental in securing the independence of the Philippines as its own Nation against the US (at the time it was still a colony) one quickly understands how this becomes deeply complicated. Independent of her grandfather’s actions, Maria used her power and influence and fluency in Japanese, English, and Filipino free prisoners of war from mistreatment and abuse at the hands of the Japanese.

After the Philippine-American war, Ricarte fled to Japan where he was being sheltered by the Japanese. At the time, the Philippines and Japan aligned philosophically against the United States - seeing the nation as another imperialist force. While in Japan, Artemo Ricarte opened the first Filipino Restaurant in Japan called Karihan Luvimin, pictured below, where Maria worked.

Their family became expat-diplomats, and they entertained all kinds of important people as well as served travelers. Maria Luisa grew up between worlds, similarly to Maria Orosa who spent formative years at the University of Washington as one of the only women in the chemistry department. Maria Luisa felt passionately about telling the story of her family and of her grandfather as his story was being recalled as if he was living in exile by choice. She takes a sympathetic gloss toward her grandfather, and many Filipinos and non-Filipinos to this day disagree. 

Maria Luisa’s story as a covert operative working her political connections to ensure the safety of others is admirable and still not fully examined. Her feature in the Filipino Forum, relationship with Velasco, and connections to her grandfather’s complicated legacy inform how she is remembered or is not, today. 

Maria Orosa was a war hero in her own right. And her story is much more neatly told. After earning her degrees in chemistry and working as a pharmacist, she went on to support American and Filipino soldiers during WWII with inventions that would go on to save countless lives. She used her knowledge to invent nutrient-dense life saving foods that prevented illness and starvation even in small quantities. Things that could be easily transported, or even smuggled, into prisons and army camps. Tragically, her death was not at the hands of enemy soldiers, but from an American bomb.

We know her today as the inventor of Banana Ketchup, or as we call it at Archipelago in her honor - Orosa Sauce. Thinking about these Marias as somewhat twinned, as two sides to a similar coin, tracing the currents of the 20th century connected to key individuals and leveraging their skills and power as women in all the ways that they knew how.

Maria Luisa, in Japan early in her life, then in the Philippines and Seattle.

Maria Orosa, in the Philippines, Seattle, and then the Philippines. 

As we continue to learn more about their lives and uncover stories of more women and heroes whose stories are not entirely told, we also hope to make sure to try and connect with these individuals whenever and wherever possible. They offer competing yet similar processes when it comes to understanding difference and just treatment during times of unprecedented violence and upheaval. 

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COURSE 7

SILME DOMINGO & GENE VIERNES

In this course, we memorialize the lives of Gene Viernes and Silme Domingo, who in organizing for the reform of Local 37 (the legacy of local 7), were murdered in their Pioneer Square Union Hall.  They viewed the organization’s power as becoming too centralized and wanted a return to democratic values and practices within it. Their dreams of coalition also took them to the Philippines, where they worked to organize abroad with other Filipino workers. This was seen as a subversion of the Marcos Dictatorship and a threat to their tight control. Tragically, on June 1st 1981 they were slain by Marcos hired hitmen here in Seattle.

The 1980s were a tumultuous period in the Philippines’ history. There was dictatorship and Martial Law, and in effect a red-scare as a legacy of McCarthyism that carried through to the Philippines. This political repression went hand in hand with political corruption, where the administration would go on to embezzle the equivalent of hundreds of millions of USD from the people. Dissidents were disappeared, and democratic ideals that built the fabric of Filipino struggle crumbled away. Writing and speaking to this time is also a challenging feat, with many stories and exhibits on the period of Martial Law at risk of fading into the background.

After their deaths, Cindy Domingo, Silme’s sister, would continue to organize for justice on their behalf. Doing so would also inspire people’s right to protest and gather in the Philippines, and restore democracy to the Philippines once again. Silme and Domingo’s legacy in Seattle and abroad is not forgotten, memorialized through conferences, anniversaries, and gatherings as well as place markers. Further, Cindy Domingo continues to work for change within the government of Seattle and as a long-time activist on many labor campaigns. The strength of unions in Seattle is alive and is felt everyday, and this rich history can be traced directly to Filipino workers in Canneries, Farms, and in Packing Houses. It can be felt in the stories of international organizers and organizations that understand local currents can shift global tides.

Silme Domingo (January 25th, 1952 - June 2nd, 1981) was born in Kileen, Texas. He moved to Seattle with his family in 1960, and attended Ballard High School and the University of Washington. He was elected an officer of Local 37 on an anti-corruption, union democracy platform. He survived the gunshot wound he sustained to chase down his attackers and name them.

Gene Viernes (August 16, 1951 - June 1, 1981) was born in Wapato, Washington. His father was a Filipino immigrant, and his mother was white. He worked seasonally as an Alaskero in the canneries as well as was a farmer.

Their legacy has inspired many movements, protests, and demonstrations over the years. Their work as organizers, and their deaths as martyrs for the movement helped to galvanize the People Power Protests that toppled the Marcos Dictatorship and restored democracy to the Philippines.

COURSE 7

THE STRAWBERRY QUEEN

Bainbridge Island and Washington in general became a favorable climate for strawberry growing as both the winters and the summers were relatively mild. Japanese American farm workers made their way to Bainbridge Island, and eventually ended up owning their own farms outright. One of these farms are still Japanese owned and operated today, namely Sakuma Farms. Other Japanese owned and operated berry farms can still be found around Washington as well, such as Shinta Kawahara Farms. 

To remember the story of the Strawberry Queen is almost like reciting a parable. Filipino Americans worked side-by-side with Japanese-Americans for many years prior to the start of WWII. Some, had even longer histories of working side-by-side on the sugarcane fields in Hawaii, where this story begins in some ways. When the US signed executive order 9066, it determined in an act of widespread discrimination and violence, all Japanese-American individuals to be “suspicious/suspect.” Over 120,000 Japanese Americans were wrongfully incarcerated - removed from their homes and communities without due process. We know this from stories our elders tell us, and from oral histories, that Filipino Americans felt this too. Knowing the sting of racial discrimination, and being marked by their “otherness” made the case for solidarity stronger than the case for hate.

On Bainbridge, Filipino Farmers noted that their Japanese friends and their farms were no longer operating due to their incarceration. Beautiful strawberries that would otherwise have been wasted, were salvaged and farms were stewarded by Filipino workers. Bitter enemies in Manila and in the Philippines during WWII, they were friends and found solidarity in Bainbridge. 

After the end of WWII, the first Filipina Strawberry Queen, Lila Sidley Lawson, was nominated and celebrated at the Annual Strawberry Festival. A tradition and cultural festival that continues to this day on Bainbridge Island. Bainbridge Island also continues to be a source of cultural-coming togethers. Recently, a documentary highlighting the unique Indipino community of Bainbridge Island was produced by the Bainbridge Island Filipino Historical Society. Further, the Bainbridge Museum offers its visitors a deeper dive into the history of the Fil-Am community on Bainbridge. 

NOT YET VICTORIO, NOT YET.

While Victorio Velasco is best known for being the creator and editor in chief of the Filipino Forum. He was also a creative, a poet, and someone deeply connected to and involved with community affairs and issues of justice. Among his collections in the archives are papers that demonstrate his interest in housing and racial justice through the urban league, his previous work in the canneries as an Alaskero made him acutely aware of differences in treatment and value of his labor and white counterparts. His newsletters circulating in the canneries helped build community around issues of justice and injustice and are a track record of his steadfast commitment to improving the conditions and connectivity of Filipino communities everywhere. 

His experience, arguably made him somewhat of a passionate idealist. One of the most well known Filipino Americans in Seattle, he also drew criticism and pause for it. And the poet Benjamin Domingo in 1968, helps us bring into question if his ideals have come to fruition. He asks us to consider the work of Velasco and his dreams being incomplete - and to contemplate the repercussions thereof.

“Who shall write history for them -
A Bainbridge wedding, a picnic at Seward Park
A trophy for the Seafair princess
A son born at Saint Francis Cabrini’s
A baptism at Sacred Heart Chapel,
Or a barbecue party at Beacon Hill?”
— Benjamin Domingo

To this point, we agree and wish to respond. We want and so desperately need the story of Filipino Americans and Filipinos here in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest to live on. To be documented. To be a resource for all of us when we need to find our way and our spark. To find value in the everyday.

Thank you for dining with us this evening at Archipelago. May light, blossoms, and ease find your spirit Chelidonian.  

COURSE 9

OUR OWN ARCHIVE

Above an Image of the Golden Agers, a group of Elders from Vancouver WA who united to preserve their cultural history.

If you couldn’t already tell, we come from a culture that deeply respects their elders. In our community, we are constantly reminded of their power and agency. When greeting elders, one often does the gesture of “mano-po” - with the younger lifting the hand of the elder, and the elder touching their hand to the younger’s forehead. This gesture, while deeply personal to all of us, is almost a literal understanding of the skills, life, and knowledge contained in the hands of the elder, now transmitted, to the mind of the younger. 

With communities constantly in change, and the spatial character of neighborhoods shifting, we need the voices and contributions of ALL OF US in order to help shape our understanding of our collective history. Of what is precious to us, even if it does not seem that way at the time. Our stories are deeply valuable. While we have already discussed FANHS, we want to do more for us and them. We want to build our own archive, connect to our communities and make lasting impact.

Do you have a story you would like to share with the team?

Do you know more about the stories we have shared?

Do you have a family member you would like to reach out to and conduct an oral history?

Do you have family history you need assistance sorting through?

If so, please contact han@archipelagoseattle.com for a personal consultation, or fill out this form!

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Questions or thoughts?