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Pilipino Americans in Los Angeles
A brief history of L.A.'s newly named "Historic Filipinotown" district
By Susie Ling, CHSSC
According to the 2000 census,
there are 267,603 people of Pilipino descent in Los Angeles County with 110,096 in Los
Angeles City. Indeed, Los Angeles City Council designated the Temple and Alvarado
community to be "Historic Filipinotown" last year. However, this community is
but one concentration of Pilipino culture. Other pockets exist in Cerritos, Wilmington,
Carson, West Covina, and Eagle Rock. Just like Chinese Americans, Pilipinos have complex
historical and cultural roots in Southern California.
The first known presence of Pilipinos in Southern
California was in 1587, when eight "Luzones Indios" were part of a Spanish group
that explored Moro Bay in San Luis Obispo. Pilipinos served as sailors and crewmen on the
Spanish galleons of the Manila-Acapulco mercantile trade. The Philippines remained under
Spanish colonialism until the 1898 Spanish-American War. By then, Pilipinos were
officially designated "American nationals" and exempt from the 1924 Asian
Exclusion Act. Pilipinos served as a great source of replacement labor for the Japanese
Americans.
Many Pilipino pioneers came to Los Angeles in
the 1910s-1930s. In 1933, there were about 12,000 Pilipinos in LA County with 4000 in LA
City "year round." The ratio of men to women was near 14:1. Like the earlier
Chinese and Japanese, Pilipinos in California were mostly migratory farm workers. In Los
Angeles city, they were scattered as servants, "schoolboys", dishwashers,
janitors, hotel employees, etc. These menial laborers worked some seventy to eighty hours
a week.
There were some "fountain pen boys" who formed La
Filipina student club at Pasadena Junior College and studied with Emory Bogardus at USC.
Over a dozen students at California Christian College (now Chapman College) formed the
genesis of Filipino Christian Fellowship (now Filipino Christian Church designated a
California Historical Site).
As transportation was much more convenient in 1930s LA,
Pilipinos were able to congregate for social activities. Gambling in Old Chinatown was a
favorite pastime especially as the gambling houses offered free doughnuts, coffee, and
other sustenance. Pilipinos were also drawn to taxi-dance halls where they paid ten cents
for one-minute of dancing with a White woman. Pilipino musicians would often play some
three hundred one-minute tunes at Liberty Dance Palace, Hippodrome Dance Palace, and other
clubs near Third Street in LA. Pool halls certainly attracted the young bachelors. Another
favorite activity was boxing! Pilipino workers traveled over one hundred miles to watch
their favorites at the LA Olympic Auditorium and Main Street Gym. Pilipino boxers included
"Pancho Villa" Guilledo, "Speedy" Dano, "Small Montana" Gam,
and Ceferino Garcia.
CHSSC’s sister organization, Filipino American
National Historical Society – Los Angeles Chapter – was incorporated in 1990 to
help "promote understanding" of this rich history. For more information, see
www.fanhsla.org.
Other Readings of Interest
Susie Ling is Associate Professor of History and Asian
American Studies at Pasadena City College. This article originally appeared the Chinese
Historical Society of Southern California's monthly newsletter, News and Notes (www.chssc.org) and is posted here with the
author's permission.
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