Stockton’s Filipino American National Historical Society unites community with the past
By Charlie Lapastora, Irene Gonzalez
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SACRAMENTO (KOVR) — It is Filipino American Heritage Month, and CBS Sacramento is celebrating the rich culture and prominent leaders.
In downtown Stockton, the Filipino American National Historical Society remains a pillar in the community.
“The museum is here to kind of let them recognize and discover themselves, and discover the strength that their parents, parents’ parents, all the way down to the time that we first came here,” said Erwin Mina, the museum’s board president.
Among the many historical artifacts are items and photographs of the late labor leader Larry Itliong.
Through his work, Itliong led the 1965 Delano Grape Strike that sparked the farm labor movement.
Itliong’s leadership would be pivotal in forming the United Farm Workers, along with Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.
It’s one of many historical events defining what it means to be Filipino.
“We are stewards of the land and stewards of culture,” Mina said. “Ours isn’t about conquest. Ours is about copwah, mahneehan, where a community is uplifting an individual and an individual in turn uplifts the community.”
It’s places like this where so many Filipino elders, affectionately known as manongs and manangs, want to ensure the next generation understands their own history.
“It’s really helped me to learn about myself and I want other people to have that experience also,” said June Bond, a retired educator at the Stockton Unified School District.
Bond is the vice president of the museum and a long-time educator. She says her motivation comes from the elders who paved the way.
“They took their dreams and put them on my shoulders,” Bond said. “The question was never, ‘Are you going to college?’ The question was, ‘What college are you going to?'”
Even though she’s retired, Bond is constantly teaching others about culture and unity.
“It’s about caring about others and making sure that everybody is pulled upward, along the way,” Bond said.
For the first time ever, Stockton’s Filipino history will be on display in our nation’s capital.
“What’s so exciting for us, those of us here in this area, is the story centers around Little Manila in Stockton,” Bond said.
A few years ago, 26 steamer trunks were discovered at a lodge in Stockton that once housed Filipino farmworkers.
“What’s going to be exhibited in the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington, D.C., are three of the trunks that have belongings of this generation of Filipinos,” said Marissa Aroy, an award-winning documentarian and filmmaker.
Aroy’s documentary, “The Delano Manongs,” will be featured alongside the exhibit, showcasing items from those time capsules.
“Their letters, their photographs, their really cool suits, everything from the farm tools that they used,” Aroy said.
“This museum is not our museum, it’s yours and everybody else’s,” Erwin said.
The Filipino American National Historical Society is open Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
And the Filipino exhibit titled, “How Can You Forget Me” will run Nov. 20 through Nov. 28 at the Smithsonian American History Museum.
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