Contributing Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz

Title: Watsonville is in the Heart oral history interviews

source: Ayson Plank, Christina (Christina Marie)

Identifier/Call Number: MS.389

Physical Description: 17.93 GB 48 digital audio files

Date (inclusive): 2021 May - 2023 August

Abstract: This collection contains oral history interviews collected by the Watsonville is in the Heart (WIITH) research team that chronicle the lives of the descendants of the manong (older brother) generation of Filipino agricultural workers who settled in the Pajaro Valley of Central California in the early twentieth century.

Language of Material: English .

Collection open for research. Digital files are available in the UCSC Special Collections and Archives reading room. Some files may require reformatting before they can be accessed. Technical limitations may hinder the Library's ability to provide access to some digital files. Access to digital files on original carriers is prohibited; users must request to view access copies. Contact Special Collections and Archives in advance to request access to digital files.

Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs. Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.

Watsonville is in the Heart oral history interviews. MS389. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Gift of the Watsonville is in the Heart project team, 2021-2023.

Founded in 2020, Watsonville is in the Heart (WIITH) is a community-driven public history initiative to preserve and uplift stories of Filipino migration and labor in the city of Watsonville and greater Pajaro Valley of Central California. The initiative seeks to create a new archive documenting the plight, struggles, vitality, and resilience of the manong (older brother) generation of Filipino migrants who first settled in the Pajaro Valley in the early twentieth century. The project is spearheaded by Dioscoro "Roy" Respino Recio, Jr. (b. April 19, 1968), the founder of the Watsonville community organization, The Tobera Project, in partnership with the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). The project team is composed of UCSC professors Dr. Kathleen "Kat" Cruz Gutierrez and Dr. Steven McKay; UCSC graduate and undergraduate students Christina Ayson Plank, Meleia Simon-Reynolds, Nicholas Nasser, and Toby Baylon; and community members Amanda Gamban and Olivia Sawi.

Recio, born on April 19, 1968 in Watsonville, California, founded The Tobera Project in 2019 after the death of his mother, Sally Ann Dalisay Recio on March 11, 2018. Her passing prompted Recio to collect and share stories of the earliest Filipino immigrants from the perspective of their descendants. The organization is named in honor of Fermin Tobera, a Filipino American who was murdered during the Watsonville Riots of 1930, when a white mob terrorized the Watsonville Filipino community for five days. In October 2019, Recio held the inaugural event of The Tobera Project at the Freedom branch of the Watsonville Public Library. He invited members of the local Filipino community to bring photographs, documents, and artifacts related to their family histories for inclusion in an exhibition at the library titled "Watsonville is in the Heart" that opened on April 1, 2020. It was during the exhibition opening that Recio met Dr. McKay, a UC Santa Cruz associate professor of sociology, who shared his vision for a large public archive of Filipino history housed locally. Those conversations grew into a partnership with the university that was officially announced in April 2021. The partnership is named after the novel America is the Heart by Filipino American immigrant poet and writer, Carlos Bulosan. The Pajaro Valley has functioned as the agricultural driver of Santa Cruz County since the nineteenth century. Today, it is the fifthmost agriculturally productive region in the state. Filipino migrant laborers in particular mostly came to the region at the beginning of the twentieth century. Known as the manong generation of migrant workers, thousands of primarily young and single Filipino men traveled to the central coast of California to develop its landscape. In Santa Cruz County, they were recruited into low-wage farm jobs. Their employment entailed picking and sorting crops such as strawberries, cucumbers, lettuce, and beans; hauling irrigation pipes; and tilling acres of land. They often worked eleven hour days, six days a week, with very little compensation. These workers traveled along California's central coast, following seasonal crops in search of employment opportunities.

At the time Filipino Americans faced many exclusionary and racist policies that attempted to prohibit Filipino Americans from raising families in California. Women and children were barred from making the journey from the Philippines because labor recruiters favored single men and anti-miscegenation laws made it largely illegal for Filipino men to marry white women. In addition, manongs faced constant threats from racial violence. Despite these exclusionary laws and racist acts, manongs in the Pajaro Valley created a sense of home and built families. Many manongs joined the First Filipino Infantry and fought in the Philippines during World War II. They later used their GI Bills to purchase land and start businesses. They also courted women in the Philippines who traveled to the U.S. after immigration laws eased after World War II. Others were involved in mixed-race relationships with white and Mexican American women despite anti-miscegenation laws. As a result, a prosperous and vital Filipino community was bred and nurtured in Watsonville and the greater Pajaro Valley. Members of the Filipino community created and participated in important community organizations including the Caballeros de Dimas-Alang, Filipino Community Organization, Filipino Women's Club of Watsonville, Filipino Catholic Association, and Filipino Visayans. As a result of their agricultural and cultural activities, the Filipino community in the Pajaro Valley has made a lasting impact on the vitality of Santa Cruz County and the California Bay Area.

This collection contains oral history interviews collected by the Watsonville is in the Heart (WIITH) research team that chronicle the lives of the descendants of the manong (older brother) generation of Filipino agricultural workers who settled in the Pajaro Valley of Central California in the early twentieth century. The collection includes interviews conducted by University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) professors Dr. Kathleen "Kat" Cruz Gutierrez and Dr. Steven McKay; UCSC graduate and undergraduate students Christina Ayson Plank, Meleia Simon-Reynolds, Nicholas Nasser, Toby Baylon, Markus Faye Portacio, Katrina Pagaduan, Ian Hunte Doyle, Una Lynch, Hana Yamamoto, and Maia Mislang; and community members Dioscoro "Roy" Respino Recio, Jr., Amanda Gamban, and Olivia Sawi. The interviews are organized by family last name. They include: Alminiana (Eva Alminiana Monroe), Ancheta (Shirley Ancheta), Asunción(Anastacio "Stosh" Asunción), Baniaga (Tony Baniaga and Ruby Baniaga Kaldonis), Bersamin (Manuel Bersamin), Bongolan (Lorraine "Rain" Bongolan), Carrillo (Maurice Carillo), Castillo (Fred "Freddie" Leo Castillo), Cawaling (Loren Cawaling), Deocampo (Veronica Hernandez, Antoinette Deocampo-Lechtenberg, and Paul Phillip Deocampo), Fallorina (Daniel "Dan" Kerubin Fallorina, Florendo (Mary Grace Florendo Perry), Irao-de los Reyes and Ibao (Joanne de los Reyes-Hilario), Lopez (Rosario "Rose" Lopez and Anthony "Tony" Bernard Tapiz Jr.), Madalora (Frank Madalora), Mariano (Bobby Mariano), Marquez (John Marquez and Evelyn Marquez), Nabor (Albert "Bert" Thomas Nabor), Nerona-Sanchez (Raymond "Ray" Gonzalez), Ragsac (Ben "Raggy" Ragsac, John "Sibby" Quenga Ragsac, Letecia "Tisha" Remedios Ragsac, and Francisco "Frisco" Quenga Ragsac), Recio (Dioscoro "Roy" Respino Recio, Jr.), Sales (Dana Sales), Sulay (Juanita Sulay Wilson and Mariano "Mario" Sulay), Tabancay (Ruth Tabancay), Tabasa (Greg Tabasa and Francine Lorraine Tabasa Lopes), Tabios and Tana (Estelita Tabios), Taytayon (Erlinda Taytayon Heebner), Tejada (Fred Tejada), Tumbaga (Lydia Tumbaga Brumblay), Tuzon (Modesto Orlando Tuzon and Rita Louise Tuzon), and Yoro (Samuel "Sammy" Yoro). These interviews cover family immigration histories to the Pajaro Valley in the 1920s-1930s; their memories of the manongs; stories they heard about working in the agricultural fields and canneries; labor organizing and strikes, including United Farm Workers strikes in the 1970s; race relations in Watsonville, California, including the Watsonville Race Riots in January 1930; growing up in the Pajaro Valley from the 1940s-1990s; mixed-race experiences; Filipino owned- businesses; their involvement in community organizations including the Caballeros de Dimas-Alang, Filipino Community Organization, Filipino Women's Club of Watsonville, Filipino Catholic Association, and Filipino Visayans Association of America; popular leisure activities including community barbeques and parties, picnics, fishing, cockfighting, gardening, and travel; and their experience with creating a community archive. Interviews were conducted both in-person and using Zoom video conferencing software from May 2021 to August 2023.

This collection is arranged in thirty-one series, with each series containing interviews from one family:

• Series 1: DeOcampo Family Interviews
• Series 2: Sulay Family Interviews
• Series 3: Alminiana Family Interviews
• Series 4: Recio Family Interviews
• Series 5: Ibao and de los Reyes Family Interviews
• Series 6: Florendo Family Interviews
• Series 7: Bersamin Family Interviews
• Series 8: Fallorina Family Interviews
• Series 9: Nabor Family Interviews
• Series 10: Tuzon Family Interviews
• Series 11: Carrillo Family Interviews
• Series 12: Ragsac Family Interviews
• Series 13: Tumbaga Family Interviews
• Series 14: Taytayon Family Interviews
• Series 15: Tana and Tabios Family Interviews
• Series 16: Sales Family Interviews
• Series 17: Mariano Family Interviews
• Series 18: Madalora Family Interviews
• Series 19: Cawaling Family Interviews
• Series 20: Ancheta Family Interviews
• Series 21: Asuncion Family Interviews
• Series 22: Baniaga Family Interviews
• Series 23: Bongolon Family Interviews
• Series 24: Castillo Family Interviews
• Series 25: Lopez Family Interviews
• Series 26: Marquez Family Interviews
• Series 27: Nerona-Sanchez Family Interviews
• Series 28: Tabancay Family Interviews
• Series 29: Tabasa Family Interviews
• Series 30: Tejada Family Interviews
• Series 31: Yoro Family Interviews

Materials within each series are arranged chronologically by date created.

This collection was processed by Christina Ayson Plank in 2021 and Meleia Simon-Reynolds in 2024 in the Center for Archival Research of Training (CART), with assistance from Alix Norton. Descriptions of digital files were created during processing and offer a summary of each interview. The interviews in the collection were originally recorded to digital audio and video files, with some being conducted in person and some conducted via the Zoom video conferencing software. The original digital files were received from the Watsonville is in the Heart project team via Google Drive. Files were not reformatted, and file names are original to the creators. Formats represented are mp3, m4a, mp4, and wav. Additional accruals to this collection are expected from the Watsonville is in the Heart project team.