The history of Filipino Americans begins in the 16th century when Filipinos first arrived in what is now the United States. The first Filipinos came to what is now the United States due to the Philippines being part of New Spain. Until the 19th century, the Philippines continued to be geographically isolated from the rest of New Spain in the Americas but maintained regular communication across the Pacific Ocean via the Manila galleon. Filipino seamen in the Americas settled in Louisiana, and Alta California, beginning in the 18th century. By the 19th century, Filipinos were living in the United States, fighting in the Battle of New Orleans and the American Civil War, with the first Filipino becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States before its end. In the final years of the 19th century, the United States went to war with Spain, ultimately annexing the Philippine Islands from Spain. Due to this, the history of the Philippines merged with that of the United States, beginning with the three-year-long Philippine–American War (1899–1902), which resulted in the defeat of the First Philippine Republic, and the attempted Americanization of the Philippines.
After World War II, the Philippines gained independence in 1946. Benefits for most Filipino veterans were rescinded with the Rescission Act of 1946. Filipinos, primarily war brides, immigrated to the United States; further immigration was set to 100 persons a year due to the Luce–Celler Act of 1946, this though did not limit the number of Filipinos able to enlist into the United States Navy. In 1965, Filipino agricultural laborers, including Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz, began the Delano grape strike. That same year the 100-person per year quota of Filipino immigrants was lifted, which began the current immigration wave; many of these immigrants were nurses. Filipino Americans began to become better integrated into American society, achieving many firsts. In 1992, the enlistment of Filipinos in the Philippines into the United States ended. By the early 21st century, Filipino American History Month was recognized.
Migration patterns of immigration of Filipinos to the U.S. have been recognized as occurring in four significant waves. The first was connected to the period when the Philippines was part of New Spain and later the Spanish East Indies; Filipinos, via the Manila galleons, would migrate to North America. The first permanent settlement of Filipinos in the U.S. is at Louisiana specifically the independent community of Saint Malo. In the late 19th century, the author Ramon Reyes Lala became the first Filipino to naturalize and become an American citizen, settling in La Jolla The 1910 United States census recorded only 406 people of Filipino descent in the mainland U.S., including 109 in Louisiana and 17 in Washington state.
The second wave was during the period when the Philippines were a territory of the United States; as U.S. nationals, Filipinos were unrestricted from immigrating to the U.S. by the Immigration Act of 1917 that restricted other Asians. This wave of immigration has been referred to as the manong generation. Filipinos of this wave came for different reasons, but the majority were laborers, predominantly Ilocano and Visayans. This wave of immigration was distinct from other Asian Americans, due to American influences, and education, in the Philippines; therefore they did not see themselves as aliens when they immigrated to the United States. By 1920, the Filipino population in the mainland U.S. rose from nearly 400 to over 5,600. Then in 1930, the Filipino American population exceeded 45,000, including over 30,000 in California and 3,400 in Washington. During the early 20th century, anti-miscegenation laws began to impact Filipino Americans attempting to marry non-Filipinos, with some able to legalize their unions, and others not; in 1933 California amended its laws to specify that Filipinos could not marry Whites.
During the Great Depression, Filipino Americans were also affected, losing jobs, and being the target of race-based violence. This wave of immigration ended due to the Philippine Independence Act in 1934, which restricted immigration to 50 persons a year.
Beginning in 1901, Filipinos were allowed to enlist in the U.S. Navy. While serving, Filipino sailors would bring over their spouse from the Philippines, or marry a spouse in the U.S., parenting and raising children who would be part of a distinct Navy-related Filipino American immigrant community. Before the end of World War I, Filipino sailors were allowed to serve in a number of ratings; however, due to a rules change during the interwar period, Filipino sailors were restricted to officers' stewards and mess attendants. Filipinos who immigrated to the United States, due to their military service, were exempt to quota restrictions placed on Filipino immigration at the time. This ended in 1946, following the independence of the Philippines from the U.S., but resumed in 1947 due to language inserted into the Military Base Agreement between the U.S. and the Republic of the Philippines. In 1973, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt removed the restrictions on Filipino sailors, allowing them to enter any rate they qualified for; in 1976 there were about 17,000 Filipinos serving in the U.S. Navy. Navy based immigration of Philippine citizens stopped with the expiration of the Military Bases Agreement in 1992.
The third wave of immigration followed the events of World War II. Filipinos who had served in World War II were given the option of becoming U.S. citizens, and many took the opportunity, over 10,000 according to Barkan. Filipina war brides were allowed to immigrate to the U.S. due to the War Brides Act and Alien Fiancées and Fiancés Act, with approximately 16,000 Filipinas entering the U.S. in the years following the war. This immigration was not limited to Filipinas and children; between 1946 and 1950, one Filipino groom was granted immigration under the War Brides Act. A source of immigration was opened up with the Luce–Celler Act, that gave the Philippines a quota of 100 persons a year; yet records show that 32,201 Filipinos immigrated between 1953 and 1965. The laws prevented interracial marriage with Filipinos continued until 1948 in California; this extended nationally in 1967 when anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court by Loving v. Virginia. This wave ended in 1965.
The fourth and present wave of immigration began in 1965 with the passing of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. It ended national quotas, and provided an unlimited number of visas for family reunification. By the 1970s and 1980s, the immigration of Filipina wives of service members reached annual rates of five to eight thousand. The Philippines became the largest source of legal immigration to the U.S. from Asia. Many Filipinas of this new wave of migration have migrated here as professionals due to a shortage in qualified nurses; from 1966 until 1991, at least 35,000 Filipino nurses immigrated to the U.S. As of 2005, 55% of foreign-trained registered nurses taking the qualifying exam administered by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) were educated in the Philippines. Although Filipinos made up 24 percent of foreign physicians entering the U.S. in 1970, Filipino physicians experienced widespread underemployment in the 1970s due to the requirement of passing the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) exam to practice in the U.S. Some Filipino immigrants to the United States experience a culture shock once arriving, however many Filipinos who are already educated in English in the Philippines can efficiently communicate once in the United States.
In 2016, 50,609 Filipinos obtained their lawful permanent residency, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Of those Filipinos receiving their lawful permanent residency status in 2016, 66% were new arrivals, while 34% were immigrants who adjusted their status within the U.S. In 2016, data collected from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security found that the categories of admission for Filipino immigrants were composed mainly of immediate relatives, that is 57% of admissions. This makes the admission of immediate relatives for Filipinos higher than the overall average lawful permanent resident immigrants, which is composed of only 47.9%. Following immediate relative admission, family sponsored and employment-based admission make up the next highest means of entry for Philippine immigration, with 28% and 14% respectively. Like immediate relative admission, both of these categories are higher than that of the overall U.S. lawful permanent resident immigrants. Diversity, refugees and asylum, and other categories of admission make up less than one percent of Filipino immigrants granted lawful permanent resident status in 2016.
Timeline
1573–1811, Between roughly 1556 and 1813, Spain engaged in the galleon trade between Manila and Acapulco. The galleons were built in the shipyards of Cavite, outside Manila, by Filipino craftsmen. The trade was funded by Chinese traders, manned by Filipino sailors and "supervised" by Mexico City officials. During this time, Spain recruited Mexicans to serve as soldiers in Manila. Likewise, they drafted Filipinos to serve as soldiers in Mexico. Once drafted and posted to the Americas, Filipino soldiers were frequently not returned home.
1587, First Filipinos ("Luzonians") to set foot in North America arrive in Morro Bay (San Luis Obispo), California on board the galleon ship Nuestra Senora de Esperanza under the command of Spanish Captain Pedro de Unamuno; Filipinos become the first Asians in California.
1781, Antonio Miranda Rodriguez was chosen as a member of the first group of settlers to establish the City of Los Angeles, California. He and his daughter fell sick with smallpox while en route, and remained in Baja California for an extended period to recuperate. When they finally arrived in Alta California, it was realised that Miranda Rodriguez was a skilled gunsmith and he was reassigned in 1782 to the Presidio of Santa Barbara as an armorer. When he died, he was buried at the presidio's chapel.
1796, The first American trading ship reaches Manila, the Astrea, under the command of Captain Henry Prince.
1870, Filipinos mestizos studying in New Orleans form the first Filipino Association in the United States, the "Sociedad de Beneficencia de los Hispanos Filipinos".
1888, José Rizal arrives at the port of San Francisco for his trip through the United States.
1903, First Pensionados, Filipinos invited to attend college in the United States on American government scholarships, arrive.
1906, First Filipino laborers migrate to the United States to work on the Hawaiian sugarcane and pineapple plantations, California and Washington asparagus farms, Washington lumbercamps and Alaska salmon canneries. About 200 Filipino "pensionados" are brought to the U.S. to get an American education.
1911, José B. Nísperos becomes the first Asian American to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Nevada became the first state to include Filipinos, referring to them as "Malays", in their miscegenation law.
1912, Filipino Association of Philadelphia (now known as Filipino American Association of Philadelphia, Inc., or FAAPI) is founded by Agripino Jaucian; it is perhaps the oldest Filipino organization in continuous existence in the United States. The name change came about to include the growing number of American wives.
1919, USS Rizal is commissioned into the United States Navy. On August 31 lawyer and community leader Pablo Manlapit organizes the Filipino Labor Federation to demand higher wages and better working conditions for sakadas.
1920s, Filipino labor leaders organize unions and strategic strikes to improve working and living conditions. Among the union organizers there were individuals who had harbored communist sentiments, as well as those who were nationalistic and anti-communist.
1924, during a labor strike in Hawaii, as a result of violence by Visayans strikers against Ilocano non-strikers, 16 strikers and four law enforcement officials were killed during the Hanapepe massacre.
1928, Filipino Businessman Pedro Flores opens Flores yo-yos, which is credited with starting the yo-yo craze in the United States. He came up with and copyrighted the word "yo-yo". He also applied for and received a trademark for the Flores Yo-yo, which was registered on July 22, 1930. His company went on to become the foundation of the later Duncan yo-yo company. Anti-Filipino riots occur in the Wenatchee Valley.
1930, Anti-Filipino riots break out in Watsonville and other California rural communities, in part because of Filipino men having intimate relations with white women, which was in violation of the California anti-miscegenation laws of the time. The Filipino Federation of America building in Stockton was bombed. A Filipino labor camp was bombed in the Imperial Valley.
1933, After the Supreme Court of California found in Roldan v. Los Angeles County that existing laws against marriage between white persons and "Mongoloids" did not bar a Filipino man from marrying a white woman, California's anti-miscegenation law, Civil Code Section 60 was amended to prohibit marriages between white persons and members of the "Malay race" (e.g. Filipinos).
1934, The Tydings–McDuffie Act, known as the Philippine Independence Act, limited Filipino immigration to the U.S. to 50 persons a year (not to apply to persons coming or seeking to come to the Territory of Hawaii); A Filipino Labor Union Incorporated camp was attacked in Salinas after a failed strike.
May 1942, After the fall of Bataan and Coregidor to the Japanese, the U.S. Congress passes a law which grants U.S. citizenship to Filipinos and other aliens who served under the U.S. Armed Forces.
1948, Vicki Draves wins two Olympic gold medals; as of 2010 is the only Filipino to have won a gold medal. California Supreme Court rules California's anti-miscegenation law unconstitutional in the case of Perez v. Sharp, ending racially based prohibitions on marriage in the state (although it wasn't until Loving v. Virginia in 1967 that interracial marriages were legalized nationwide). Celestino Alfafara wins California Supreme Court decision allowing aliens the right to own property.
1955, Peter Aduja becomes first Filipino American elected to office as a member of the Hawaii Territorial House of Representatives.
1956, Bobby Balcena becomes first Asian American to play Major League baseball, playing for the Cincinnati Reds.
1965, Congress passes the Immigration and Nationality Act which facilitates entry for skilled Filipino workers. Delano grape strike begins when members of Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee led by Philip Vera Cruz, Larry Dulay Itliong, Benjamin Gines, Mariano Armington, Andy Imutan and Pete Velasco with mostly Filipino farm workers. The last Filipino village, Manila Village, in the Louisiana Bayou is destroyed by Hurricane Betsy.
1967, The Philippine (now Pilipino) American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE) founded at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University).
1969, Filipino Students Association (FSA) founded by Filipino American students at University of California, Berkeley during the Third World Movement; later renamed the Pilipino American Alliance. Dr. Antonio Ragadio, President of the Filipino Dental Association of Northern California, and Estrella Salaver, President and Founder of the Philippine American Cultural Foundation, work with Assemblyman Willie Brown and Senator Milton Marks to pass bill allowing Filipino and other foreign dentists to take the California qualifying examinations to practice in California.
1981, Filipino American labor activists Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes are both assassinated June 1, 1981, inside a Seattle downtown union hall. International Hotel in Manilatown, San Francisco is demolished.
1983, California Governor Jerry Brown appoints Ronald Quidachay as first Filipino-American judge to the San Francisco Municipal Court.
1990, David Mercado Valderrama becomes first Filipino American elected to a state legislature in the Continental United States, serving Prince George's County in Maryland. Immigration reform Act of 1990 is passed by the U.S. Congress granting U.S. citizenship to Filipino World War II veterans; more than 20,000 veterans naturalized due to the act.
1994, Benjamin J. Cayetano becomes the first Filipino American governor in the United States.
1995, The nation's largest Filipino mural, Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana (Filipino Americans: A Glorious History, A Golden Legacy) in Los Angeles is unveiled and dedicated with over 600 people attending. Edward Soriano becomes the first Filipino American general officer.
1999, U.S. postal worker Joseph Ileto was murdered in a hate crime in Chatsworth, California, and whose death is often overlooked outside of the Filipino American community. The Carlos Bulosan Memorial Exhibit opens in Seattle's Eastern Hotel in the International District, honoring the Filipino novelist and poet Carlos Bulosan. A street on Fort Sam Houston is named after Medal of Honor recipient Jose Calugas.
2003, Philippine Republic Act No. 9225, also known as the Citizenship Retention and Re-Acquisition Act of 2003 enacted, allowing natural-born Filipinos naturalized in the United States and their unmarried minor children to reclaim Filipino nationality and hold dual citizenship.
2005, Hurricane Katrina impacts New Orleans, damaging or destroying the work of Marina Espina, research of Filipino history in New Orleans dating back to the 18th century; it also displaced many Filipino American families that lived in the area for over 7 generations.
2006, first monument dedicated to Filipino soldiers who fought for the United States in World War II unveiled in Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles, California. A portion of California State Route 54 is named the Filipino-American Highway. Congress passes legislation that commemorates 100 Years of Filipino Migration to the United States. Hawaii celebrates the centennial of Filipinos in Hawaii.
2007, First American public park built with Filipino themed design features unveiled in LA's Historic Filipinotown.
2009, Filipino American History Month is recognized in California. Steve Austria becomes "the first, first-generation Filipino to be elected to the United States Congress." Mona Pasquil becomes first Filipino American, and first Asian American, lieutenant governor of California.
2011, Amado Gabriel Esteban becomes the first Filipino American president of a university, Seton Hall University, in the United States.
2013, California passed legislation that required that Filipino contributions to the state's history be included in the curriculum.
2014, an overpass on the Filipino-American Highway is named Itliong-Vera Cruz Memorial Bridge, named for two prominent Filipino American leaders of the Delano Grape Strike, Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz
2015, Ralph Deleon, who was later highlighted in a 2016 speech about immigration by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, is convicted of provide material support to terrorists. Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School, in Union City, California becomes the first school in the United States named for a Filipino American.
2017, Oscar A. Solis becomes the first Filipino American Catholicdiocesan bishop in the United States; he was elevated to a bishop in Los Angeles in 2004, being the first Filipino American bishop.
2020, Dozens of Filipino American healthcare workers have died due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the New Jersey-New York area, and elsewhere. Of all nurses who died with a COVID-19 infection nationally in 2020, almost a third were Filipino Americans.
^ Welch, Michael Patrick (October 27, 2014). "NOLA Filipino History Stretches for Centuries". New Orleans & Me. The Arts Council of New Orleans. Archived from the original on September 19, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ Boyd, Monica (1971). "Oriental Immigration: The Experience of the Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino Populations in the United States". The International Migration Review. 5 (1): 48–61. doi:10.2307/3002046. JSTOR3002046.
^"Filipino American History". Northern California Pilipino American Student Organization. California State University, Chico. January 29, 1998. Archived from the original on October 12, 1999. Retrieved June 7, 2011. These Filipino pioneers were known as the "manong generation" since most of them came from Ilokos Sur, Iloilo, and Cavite in the Philippines. "Learn about our culture". Filipino Student Association. Saint Louis University. Archived from the original on September 12, 2007. Retrieved June 7, 2011. These Filipino pioneers were known as the "manong generation" since most of them came from Ilokos Sur, Iloilo, and Cavite in the Philippines. Jackson, Yo (2006). Encyclopedia of multicultural psychology. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE. p. 216. ISBN978-1-4129-0948-8. Retrieved June 7, 2011. Included in this group were Pensionados, Sakadas, Alaskeros, and Manongs primarily from the Illocos and Visayas regions.
^Starr, Kevin (2009). Golden dreams: California in an age of abundance, 1950–1963. New York: Oxford University Press US. p. 450. ISBN978-0-19-515377-4. Retrieved April 27, 2011. They were, however, officially under the protection of the United States, which governed the Philippines, and herein they took a distinctive characteristics. First of all, they had been inculcated in the Philippines, through the American-sponsored education system and through the general point of view of a colonial society strongly under American influence, in the belief that all men were created equal, in fact and under the law, and that included them. Second, they spoke English, excellently in many cases, thanks once again to the American sponsored educational system in the Philippines. Filipino migrant workers did not see themselves as aliens.
^ Arnold, Fred; Cariño, Benjamin V.; Fawcett, James T.; Park, Insook Han (1989). "Estimating the Immigration Multiplier: An Analysis of Recent Korean and Filipino Immigration to the United States". The International Migration Review. 23 (4): 813–838. doi:10.2307/2546463. JSTOR2546463. PMID12282604.
^Posadas, Barbara Mercedes (1999). The Filipino Americans. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 26. ISBN978-0-313-29742-7. Retrieved May 19, 2011. Leyte 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment.
^Barkman, Elliot R. (1983). "Whom Shall We Integrate?: A Comparative Analysis of the Immigration and Naturalization Trends of Asians Before and After the 1965 Immigration Act (1951–1978)". Journal of American Ethnic History. 3 (1): 29–57. JSTOR27500294.
^Loni Ding (2001). "Part 1. COOLIES, SAILORS AND SETTLERS". NAATA. PBS. Archived from the original on May 16, 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2011. Some of the Filipinos who left their ships in Mexico ultimately found their way to the bayous of Louisiana, where they settled in the 1760s. The film shows the remains of Filipino shrimping villages in Louisiana, where, eight to ten generations later, their descendants still reside, making them the oldest continuous settlement of Asians in America. Loni Ding (2001). "1763 FILIPINOS IN LOUISIANA". NAATA. PBS. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2011. These are the "Louisiana Manila men" with presence recorded as early as 1763. Mercene, Floro L. (2007). Manila Men in the New World: Filipino Migration to Mexico and the Americas from the Sixteenth Century. UP Press. p. 106. ISBN978-971-542-529-2.
^ "Asian American and Pacific Islander Fact Sheet"(PDF). Center for Minority Veterans. United States Department of Veterans Affairs. March 17, 2016. Archived(PDF) from the original on April 28, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
^Floro L. Mercene (2007). "Filipinos in the US Civil War". Manila Men in the New World: Filipino Migration to Mexico and the Americas from the Sixteenth Century. Diliman, Quezon City: UP Press. pp. 43–50. ISBN978-971-542-529-2. Foenander, Terry; Milligan, Edward (March 2015). "Asian and Pacific Islanders in the Civil War"(PDF). The Civil War. National Park Service. Archived(PDF) from the original on May 7, 2017. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
^"Ramon Reyes Lala, Only Filipino in America". Los Angeles Herald. September 11, 1898. Archived from the original on March 30, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection, University of California, Riverside.
^Bureau of Naval Personnel (October 1976). "Filipinos in the United States Navy". Naval History & Heritage Command. United States Navy. Archived from the original on August 20, 2006. Retrieved October 23, 2012. David M. Reimers (2005). "Asians in Hawaii and the United States". Other Immigrants: The Global Origins of the American People. NYU Press. p. 68. ISBN978-0-8147-7535-6. United States; United States. Judge-advocate-general's dept. (Navy); United States. Navy. Office of the Judge Advocate General (1922). "General Order No. 40". Compilation of navy: annotated. [Letters from the acting secretary of the navy transmitting pursuant to Senate resolution no. 262, Sixty-third Congress, a compilation of laws relating to the navy, Navy department, and Marine corps, in force March 4, 1921, with annotations, showing how such laws have been construed and applied by the Navy department, the comptroller of the Treasury, the attorney general, or the courts ... ]. Govt. print. off. p. 856.
^Fisher, Max (July 4, 2012). "The One Other Country That Celebrates the Fourth of July (Sort Of)". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on April 28, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2018. Though American forces effectively defeated the Filipinos in April 1902, President Teddy Roosevelt waited until July 4, 1902, to declare victory.
^Orosa, Mario E. "The Philippine Pensionado Story"(PDF). Orosa Family. Archived(PDF) from the original on July 13, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2018. Roces, Mina (December 9, 2014). "Filipina/o Migration to the United States and the Remaking of Gender Narratives, 1906–2010". Gender & History. 27 (1): 190–206. doi:10.1111/1468-0424.12097. 2005 Congressional Record, Vol. 151, Page S13594 (14 December 2005)
^Marc Lawrence. "Filipino Martial Arts in the United States"(PDF). South Bay Filipino Martial Arts Club. Archived(PDF) from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved April 27, 2011. In 1910 the U.S. began sending one outstanding Filipino soldier per year to West Point, and by 1941 some of these men had risen to the rank of senior officers.
^"Filipino-American Association of Philadelphia Inc". Asian Journal. February 1, 2012. Archived from the original on March 7, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2012. The organization drafted its constitution and by-laws and became charted in the city of Philadelphia and incorporated in the State of Pennsylvania in 1917. FAAPI is the oldest ongoing organization of Filipinos and Filipino-Americans in the Delaware Valley and perhaps in the U.S.
^A. F. Hinriehs (1945). Labor Unionism in American Agriculture (Report). United States Department of Labor. p. 129. Archived from the original on September 14, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2018 – via Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
^Min, Pyong-Gap (2006), Asian Americans: contemporary trends and issues, Pine Forge Press, p. 189, ISBN978-1-4129-0556-5
^Irving G. Tragen (September 1944). "Statutory Prohibitions against Interracial Marriage". California Law Review. 32 (3): 269–280. doi:10.2307/3476961. JSTOR3476961., citing Cal. Stats. 1933, p. 561. Association of American Law Schools (1950). Selected essays on family law. Foundation Press. pp. 279. Archived from the original on June 27, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2016. The second disttinct change came in 1933 when the word "Malay" was added to the prohibited class,. Cal. Stats. 1933, p. 561. University of California, Berkeley. School of Law; University of California, Berkeley School of Jurisprudence (1944). California law review. School of Jurisprudence of the University of California. pp. 272. Archived from the original on June 27, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2016. All marriages of white persons with Negros, Mongolians, members of the Malay race, of mulattos are illegal and void.
^Takaki, Ronald (1998). Strangers from a different shore: a history of Asian Americans. Little, Brown. p. 363. ISBN978-0-316-83130-7. Retrieved October 12, 2021. Liz Megino recalled how Filipinos had to distinguish themselves from Japanese shortly after the beginning of the war: "My mother told me to make sure you say you're not Japanese if they ask you who you are. Filipinos wore buttons saying, 'I am Filipino'."
^"An Untold Triumph". Asian American Studies. California State University, Sacramento. Archived from the original on July 1, 2011. Retrieved April 27, 2011. Facing discrimination and hard times here in California and all along the west coast, thousands of Filipinos worked in agricultural fields, in the service industry, and in other low paying jobs. The war provided the opportunity for Filipinos to fight for the United States and prove their loyalty as Americans.
^"8 FAM 302.5 Special Citizenship Provisions Regarding the Philippines". Foreign Affairs Manual and Handbook. United States Department of State. May 15, 2020. Archived from the original on June 10, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2020. Not until August, 1946, did the INS designate a new section 702 official for the Philippines, who naturalized approximately 4,000 Filipinos before the December 31, 1946, expiration date of the 1940 act.
^"20th Century – Post WWII". Asian American Studies. Dartmouth College. Archived from the original on October 30, 2011. Retrieved April 27, 2011. Filipino Naturalization Act grants US citizenship to filipinos who had arrived before March 24, 1943.
^Filipino Memorial Project (April 25, 2011). Remembering the Leadership of Filipino Farmworkers in the 1965 Delano Grape Strike: A Memorial to their Dedication and Legacy(PDF) (Report). City of Milpitas. Archived(PDF) from the original on February 21, 2017. Retrieved April 25, 2018. Galila, Wilfred (November 16, 2017). "Children's book on Fil-Am labor hero Larry Itliong is in the works". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on April 26, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2017. "Historical society pans 'Cesar Chavez' film for inaccuracies". Philippine Daily Inquirer. April 1, 2014. Archived from the original on April 26, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018. Ardis, Kelly (September 1, 2015). "Filipino-Americans: The forgotten leaders of '65 grape strike". The Bakersfield Californian. TBC Media. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018. Berestein Rojas, Leslie (April 1, 2011). "The forgotten history of the Filipino laborers who worked with Cesar Chavez". SCPR. Pasadena. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved February 19, 2020. Armington, John L. (Edit added 6/19/2024) My family and I were part of the Filipino led 1965 AWOC Grape Strike in Delano, CA. My father, Mariano Laya Armington, the George A. Lucas & Sons Vineyards managing foreman, and President of the Filipino Community of Delano, made the motion to strike at the 2nd AWOC pre-strike meeting at the Filipino Community Hall before the Strike on September 8, 1965. I was present during meetings of AWOC in our home and at the Filipino Community Hall on Glendale Street in Delano during these pre-strike meetings. I am a retired Professor of Law, Attorney and Judge from California. [For contact purposes I can be reached at: (714) 356 4570].
^The Filipino American National Historical Society, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, and Pin@y Educational Partnership at San Francisco State University (2011). Filipinos in San Francisco (Images of America). Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN978-0738581316.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Pilipino American Alliance ~ UC BerkeleyArchived March 23, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Gonzalves, Theodore S. (2009). The Day the Dancers Stayed: Performing in the Filipino/American Diaspora. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University Press. p. 114. ISBN978-1-59213-729-9. Retrieved April 30, 2011. Many Filipino student organizations have histories that coincide with the political awakenings of students on college campuses in the late 1960s and early 1970s, For example, San Francisco Statue University's Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE) was founded in 1967; the Pilipino American Alliance (PAA) at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, was funded in 1969; Samahang Pilipino at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), was founded in 1972; and Kababayan at the University of California, Irvine, was founded in 1974.
^Almazol, Susan (February 23, 1969). "Change Comes to S.F. Filipino Community". S.F. Chronicle & Examiner. S.F. Chronicle & Examiner.
^"The Judge". News. Fordham Law. September 24, 2019. Retrieved February 8, 2020. In June 1978, Laureta was confirmed as the first federal judge of Filipino ancestry in U.S. history. Fujimoto, Dennis (June 23, 2017). "This judge still rules". The Garden Island. Kauai. Retrieved February 8, 2020. Bernardo, Rosemarie (November 22, 2005). "Far from home, nursing course offers chance for a new life". Star Bulletin. Honolulu. Retrieved February 8, 2020. Rueda, Nimfa U. (December 14, 2012). "US Senate confirms first Fil-Am federal judge". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Philippines. Retrieved February 8, 2020. Schofield shares a place in history with Judge Alfred Laureta, a Filipino-American who served as judge for the District of the Northern Mariana Islands from 1978 to 1988.
^Fortuna, Julius F. (August 23, 2007). "Yano takes over Philippine Army". The Manila Times. Archived from the original on December 15, 2019. Retrieved January 17, 2013. "Lieutenant General EDWARD SORIANO". Fort Riley. United States Army. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013. Hackett, Gerald A. (September 23, 1994). "Executive Calendar"(PDF). United States Senate. Archived(PDF) from the original on September 27, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
^"Bataan Death March Memorial". las-cruces-media.org. Visit Las Cruces. Retrieved February 6, 2020. The country's first federally funded monument honoring American and Filipino veterans of the Bataan Death March is on display at Veteran's Park in Las Cruces, NM. The monument was dedicated on April 13, 2002, marking the 60th anniversary of the march.
^Trinidad, Elson (August 2, 2012). "L.A.'s Historic Filipinotown Turns Ten: What's Changed?". KCET. Burbank. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019. Kiang, Jazz; Mora, Andrea; Tran, Samantha; Nak, Katie; Damian Rodriguez, Julio; Cole, Sophia; Lucero, Thania; Park, Joyce; Cheeks, Constance (May 29, 2014). "Historic Filipinotown". Scalar. Charlie Kim, Anne Cong-Huyen. University of Southern California. Archived from the original on December 14, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019. Cole, Marena (September 21, 2017). "Historic Filipinotown". In Reed Ueda Ph.D (ed.). America's Changing Neighborhoods: An Exploration of Diversity through Places [3 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. pp. 574–578. ISBN978-1-4408-2865-2.
^"The Filipino Century Beyond Hawaii". Center for Philippine Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa. December 13–17, 2006. Archived from the original on March 30, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
^Srikrishnan, Maya (December 6, 2021). "The First Year of COVID: Filipinos Were Among Hardest Hit, But Hidden by Data". Voice of San Diego. Retrieved December 10, 2021. This reflected a nationwide trend. A September 2020 report from National Nurses United, the country's largest nursing union, found that even though Filipino nurses make up only 4 percent of the nursing population nationwide, nearly a third of nurses who have died from the coronavirus in the country are Filipino.