Filipino communities have a deep and rich history in Southern California — dating back centuries.
To learn more about that story during Filipino American History Month this October, we talked to historians on our daily news show AirTalk with Larry Mantle. And we learned some key takeaways:
All the way back to 1587
“The first recorded landing of Filipinos in what we now know in the United States was in Morro Bay, California, in 1587,” said Joy Sales, assistant professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles.
According to Sales, they were part of a crew that came to scout the land and make contact with the indigenous people of California. At the time, the Philippines was a colony of Spain.
“There’s actually a longer history of Filipinos coming to Spanish colonial America, to California, to what we now know as Louisiana, to colonial Mexico…It goes far back, even before the founding of the United States,” Sales said.
A legacy of working the land
Spain sold the Philippines to the United States at the turn of the 20th century, a decision that was made without input of Filipinos.
Americans saw their new colony as a source…
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