Filipino American

Filipino Americans (Fil-Am for short), the second-largest Asian American community http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/c2kbr01-16.pdf, are Americans who trace their ancestry back to the Philippines, an archipelagic nation found in Southeast Asia south of Taiwan and east of the South China Sea, and have attained United States residency and/or citizenship. There are over 2 million Americans who identified their ancestry as Filipino. Most Filipino Americans reside in California and Hawai'i. In addition to California, Filipinos form the largest group of Asians in Alaska, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. And in addition to Hawai'i, they are the second largest group of Asians in Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Maine, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia.

History

• 1587, first Filipinos in North America landed in Morro Bay near San Luis Obispo, California
• 1763, first permanent Filipino settlements established in North America near Barataria Bay in southern Louisiana
• 1781, Antonio Miranda Rodriguez chosen a member of the first group of settlers to establish the City of Los Angeles, California
• 1898, United States annexes the Philippines
• 1899, Philippine-American War begins
• 1903, first Pensionados, Filipinos invited to attend college in the United States on American government scholarships, arrive
• 1906, first Filipino laborers migrate to the United States to work on the Hawaiian sugarcane and pineapple plantations, California and Washington asparagus farms, Washington lumber, Alaska salmon canneries
• 1920s, Filipino labor leaders organize unions and strategic strikes to improve working and living conditions
• 1930s, first Filipino women and children migrate to the United States
• 1936, Philippines becomes self-governing. Commonwealth of the Philippines inaugurated
• 1939, Washington Supreme Court rules unconstitutional the Anti-Alien Land Law of 1937 which banned Filipino Americans from owning land
• 1946, Philippines becomes independent. Republic of the Philippines inaugurated; America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan published
• 1955, Peter Aduja becomes first Filipino American elected to office becoming a member of the Hawai'i State House of Representatives
• 1965, Congress passes Immigration and Nationality Act to facilitate ease of entry for skilled Filipino laborers
• 1974, Benjamin Menor appointed first Filipino American in a state's highest judiciary office as Justice of the Hawai'i State Supreme Court
• 1975, Governor John A. Burns (D-HI) convinces Benjamin J. Cayetano to run and win a seat in the Hawai'i State Legislature, despite Cayetano's doubts about winning office in a white and Japanese American dominated district; Kauai's Eduardo E. Malapit elected first Filipino American mayor
• 1981. Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes were both assasinated on June 1, 1981 inside a Seattle downtown union hall. The late Philippine Dictator Ferdinand Marcos hired gunmen to murder both ILWU Local 37 officers to silence the growing movement in the United States opposing the dictatorship in the Philippines.
• 1987, Benjamin J. Cayetano becomes the first Filipino American and second Asian American elected Lt. Governor of a state of the Union
• 1990, David Mercado Valderrama becomes first Filipino American elected to a state legislature on the mainland United States serving Prince George's County in Maryland
• 1991, Seattle's Gene Canque Liddell becomes first Filipino American woman to be elected mayor serving the suburb of Lacey City
• 1992, Velma Viloria becomes first Filipino American and first Asian American elected to the Washington State Legislature
• 1993, Mario R. Ramil appointed Associate Justice to the Hawai'i Supreme Court, the second Filipino American to reach the court
• 1994, Benjamin J. Cayetano becomes the first Filipino American and second Asian American elected Governor of a state of the Union
• 1999, US Postal worker Joseph Ileto murdered in a hate crime by Aryan Nations member Buford Furrow
• 2000, Robert Bunda elected Hawai'i Senate President and Simeon R. Acoba, Jr. appointed Hawai'i State Supreme Court Justice
• 2003, Philippine Republic Act No. 9225, also known as the Citizenship Retention and Re-Acquisition Act of 2003 enacted, allowing natural-born Filipinos naturalized in the United States and their unmarried minor children to reclaim Filipino nationality and hold dual citizenship