Little Manila Is in the Heart

The Making of the Filipina/o American Community in Stockton, California

Bibliographic Data

ID19974030
AuthorsDawn Bohulano Mabalon (corresponding author)
Year2013
Pages458
Publication date2013-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueLittle Manila Is in the Heart (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/9780822395744
OpenAlexW4255237683
Open LibraryOL29675312M
ISBN9780822395744
LanguageEN
Citations received15

i was born and raised in Stockton, California, the daughter and granddaughter of Filipina/o immigrants who called Stockton home for much of the twentieth century.In my earliest memory of Stockton's Little Manila neighborhood, it was 1977, and I was a precocious five-year-old.My tatay-my father, Ernesto Mabalon-led me across busy El Dorado Street to the corner of Lafayette and El Dorado and nodded greetings to the elderly Filipinos standing there, surrounded by the din and fumes from the Crosstown Freeway.The uncles stuffed dollar bills and quarters into my hands, and they greeted my father effusively in Tagalog, Illonggo, Aklanon, and English."Anong balita?" (What's the news?) was my father's smiling response.Within minutes, I was balanced on a stool at the counter of my grandfather's diner, the Lafayette Lunch Counter, the tips of my toes brushing the footrest.My white-haired, dimpled lolo, Pablo "Ambo" Mabalon, set a plate of my favorite steaming hotcakes in front of me.As I ate, I listened to the elders around me, who were making kuwento-telling stories-and roaring with laughter.This was not history to me, at least not then.This was just another morning, my father's day off from work in the fields, with my favorite breakfast.Almost two decades later, I was a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, and was home for the weekend.I had just read a riveting book, America Is in the Heart, by a Filipino author, Carlos Bulosan, which was required reading in my Filipino American history course.I asked my father about Bulosan, and the story he told me continues to intrigue and astound me.

Archaeology · Downtown · Economic history · Ethnology · Geography · Immigration · Sociology · Asian American and Pacific Histories · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Medicine · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Philippine History and Culture · California · Filipinos · Immigrants · united states

Tools

Open DOILibgenOpen Access