Great Filipinos in US History

When did the first Filipinos come to the US? 1587, Morro Bay, CA. 1587!That's a long time ago. A long time for these Luzon Indians to make their mark in history. It was only in 1763 though that the first permanent Filipino settlement was established in New Orleans. In 1781,a Filipino was chosen to be among the first settlers of Los Angeles. It was his misfortune that his daughter was stricken with smallpox and he was delayed in getting to Los Angeles. In the early 1900's, Filipino laborers migrated here to work in CA, Hawaii and Washington. These immigrants suffered from discrimination.They couldn't own property, operate a business, hold public office nor become American citizens. They were not even allowed to live in an American residential neighborhood. A law was even passed in California prohibiting marriage between white persons and Filipinos. But they did marry and that might have provoked some of the anti-Filipino riots of 1929. It was only in 1948 that CA ended it's racially based prohibition of marriage and only in 1967 that interracial marriage became legalized nationwide. Despite all these, the Filipino spirit remained undaunted and personalities started to shine. Pancho Villa became the World Flyweight Champion Boxer in 1924. The humble yo-yo became a national craze after Pedro Flores opened the first yo-yo factory in 1928 and started the yo-yo contest.In 1948, Victoria Manalo Davis became the first woman to win 2 Olympic gold medals in diving. Bobby Balcena became the first Filipino major league baseball player, a member of the 1955 PCL champion Seattle Rainiers who briefly played for the Cincinatti Red Lights. In 1962, Roman Gabriel of the Los Angeles Rams not only became the first Asian-American quarterback but also the first large quarterback in the NFL.
In 1965, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act. Skilled Filipino laborers came in droves and started to shine in their fields of endeavor. So I was right after all. There's now so many Filipino-American luminaries, the only reason I did not know of them was because I just was not looking.
I don't read Filipino newspapers aside from those occasional freebies I pick up at the Fil-Am stores. I don't watch Filipino TV channels. Just don't have the time. I do go to inq.7 and abs-cbn for news from the Philippines. How come I've never heard of apl.de.ap. before? I don't intentionally block out anything hip hop from my internal hard drive. It's just something generational, I think. I now know a lot about this young man and have yet to find another celebrity I can admire more. Next time. Apl.de.ap.

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