Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Aradanas family papers
- Dates:
- 1925-2017
- Creators:
- Aradanas, Pedro, 1905-1998, Aradanas, Angeles "Lily", 1924-2017, and Aradanas, Clarito
- Abstract:
- This collection includes papers generated by members of the Aradanas family from 1925 through 2017. They tell the immigration stories of Pedro and Angeles "Lily" Aradanas when they migrated, separately, from the Philippines to the United States and the life they established with their four children in Lompoc, California. Their son, Clarito "Bing" Aradanas, conducted research on the Filipino community in Lompoc and throughout the west coast. That research is included along with photographs, correspondence, negatives, ephemera, books, articles, and biographical materials.
- Extent:
- 12 Linear Feet (3 cartons, 5 document boxes, 7 audiocassettes, 5 8MM, 10 S-VHS, 8 VHS, 13 MiniDVDs, 7 DVDs, 1 CD, 2 zip discs, 11 3.5 inch floppies)
- Language:
- English , Spanish; Castilian .
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of Item], Aradanas family papers, CEMA 212. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection includes papers generated by members of the Aradanas family from 1925 through 2017. They tell the immigration stories of Pedro and Angeles "Lily" Aradanas when they migrated, separately, from the Philippines to the United States and the life they established with their four children in Lompoc, California. Their youngest child, Clarito "Bing" Aradanas, conducted research on the Filipino community in Lompoc and throughout the west coast. That research is included along with photographs, correspondence, negatives, ephemera, books, articles, audiovisual and biographical materials. There are eight series organized alphabetically and chronologically thereunder with the exception of Series IV which lists books and artcles alphabetically by title.
Of note: Bing conducted and recorded interviews of both his parents and Filipino elders (Manongs) from 1995-2003. Those interviews are included as subseries of series I, II and III.
- Biographical / historical:
-
The following is derived from a family history written by Clarito "Bing" Aradanas:
Pedro Dua Dua Aradanas (1905-1998) was born in the Philippine province of Pangasinan. He migrated to the United States in 1925 with the intention of only remaining in the country for several years. He arrived in Seattle at the age of 20 and lived there for 6 years. He struggled to find work due to the insecure nature of the manual labor he was limited to due to his race. He lived in various places in California from 1931-1936, studied in Los Angeles from 1936-1938 and arrived on the Central California Coast in 1945 where he lived in various communities with his family until his death at age 93 in Lompoc, California.
Angeles "Lily" Aradanas (1924-2017) was born in Tigao, a then remote fishing village in what is now the Surigao del Sur, a southern Philippine province. She migrated to the United States in 1958, five years after her marriage to Pedro. Lily attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. She worked as a teacher in local Catholic elementary schools and taught a stand-alone catechism class on Sundays from 1977-1994. She was a life-long Catholic, while still maintaining Filipino indigenous beliefs, until her death at the age of 92 in Lompoc, California.
Both Lily and Pedro were active in the Fil-Am (Filipino American) community on the Central California Coast, participating in the Lompoc Filipino American Club and congregating at the La Purisima Catholic Church throughout their lives. They had four children, the youngest of which is Clarito "Bing" Aradanas (1963- ), who grew up in Lompoc and attended various California universities prior to becoming an Ethnic Studies lecturer at Cal Poly. Bing specializes in Western colonialism in the Middle East and the Asian American Experience. He has played a central role in recording and preserving Filipino history on the Central Coast.
The following is taken from a family history written by Clarito "Bing" Aradanas and provides historical context for the immigration stories of Pedro and Lily Aradanas in the first half of the twentieth century.
1898:The U.S. defeats Spain during the Spanish-American War at a decisive battle in Spain's longtime and long-Christianized (Roman Catholic) colony, the Philippines.
1899:Against the aspirations of independence by the Philippine people, the U.S. commences a war of imperial conquest against them, which ends in total U.S. victory in 1913. An estimated one million natives perish; the vast majority die in U.S. Army-built concentration camps.
1900:The U.S. declares all Philippine natives under its rule not full U.S. citizens, rather "U.S. nationals" and "citizens of U.S. insular territories," which is basically second-class citizenship. Until 1935, they are ruled on their native land by unelected U.S. Governors General, their economy is dominated by U.S.-based capitalism, Americanized English becomes their language of education, and the imposition of American cultural norms begins. Natives can migrate freely to the mainland U.S. but they may not vote, practice law, or run for public office there. And depending on the individual U.S. state or territory, it could be illegal for them to own land, property or businesses, to marry interracially, and often racial segregation was legal in public institutions like schools or at privately owned facilities like restaurants, cinemas and lodging (and this included parts of West Coast states).
1900:Upon the desire of U.S. businessmen to actively recruit cheap manual labor in the islands for U.S. industries – especially in agriculture – in 1900 the U.S. slowly begins allowing tiny trickles of Philippine natives (primarily male, young, single, poor, and from rural areas) to migrate to U.S. territories and West Coast states. Such tiny trickles last until 1924.
1924:After outlawing, on purely racial grounds, immigration of common laborers – women from China (1875), men from China (1882), both sexes from Japan (1907) and the rest of Asia from Palestine to the Pacific Ocean (1917), and then most of the rest of the planet except Northern and Western Europe (1924), the U.S. in 1924 begins allowing the first major wave of migration from the Philippines to the mainland U.S., primarily for cheap manual labor in various industries: agriculture, fish canneries, timber, railroads. Only 1 in 16 are Filipinas.
1935:As a result of widespread anti-Filipino racism up and down the U.S. West Coast since the late 1920's, the U.S. outlaws free im/migration of common laborers from the Philippines.Philippine natives on both sides of the Pacific Ocean are still U.S. colonial subjects, but their legal status is now as foreign "aliens" who are racially "ineligible to citizenship" (except for the relatively tiny number of children subsequently born in the U.S. mainland).
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Clarito "Bing" Aradanas, 2023 and 2024.
- Arrangement:
-
- Series 1, Aradanas, Angeles "Lily"
- Series 2, Aradanas, Clarito "Bing"
- Series 3, Aradanas, Pedro
- Series 4, Books and articles
- Series 5, Lompoc Filipino American Club
- Series 6, Audio recordings
- Series 7, Born digital
- Series 8, Video recordings
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-06-09 14:30:39 -0700 .
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Audiovisual materials must be reformatted for access. Please contact the Department of Special Research Collections in advance to request access.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the collection and physical objects belong to the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. All applicable literary rights, including copyright to the collection and physical objects, are protected under Chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code and are retained by the creator and the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns.
All requests to reproduce, quote from, or otherwise reuse collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB at special@ucsb.edu. Consent is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or their assigns for permission to publish where the UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of Item], Aradanas family papers, CEMA 212. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Location of this collection:
-
UC Santa Barbara LibrarySanta Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
- Contact:
- (805) 893-3062