We would like to share a Southeast Asian American timeline to highlight narratives within mainstream Asian American history that are not usually discussed.
1600s
Filipinos reach Mexico on ships of the Manila galleon.
1898
U.S. annexes the Philippines.
1903
Filipino students (pensionados) arrive in the U.S. for higher education.
1907
First group of Filipino laborers arrives in Hawaii.
1911
Pablo Manlapit forms Filipino Higher Wages Association in Hawaii.
1913
Pablo Manlapit forms Filipino Unemployed Association in Hawaii.
1920
10,000 Japanese and Filipino plantation workers go on strike.
1921
Filipinos establish a branch of the Caballeros Dimas Alang in San Francisco and a branch of the Legionarios del Trabajo in Honolulu.
1924
1600 Filipino plantation workers strike for eight months in Hawaii.
1925
Hilario Moncado founds Filipino Federation of America.
1928
Filipinos in Los Angeles form Filipino American Christian Fellowship.
1930
Anti-Filipino riot in Watsonville, California.
1934
Tydings – McDuffie Act spells out procedure for eventual Philippine independence and reduces Filipino immigration to 50 persons a year. Filipino lettuce pickers in the Slinas Valley, California, go on strike.
1936
American Federation of Labor grants charter to a Filipino – Mexican union of fieldworkers.
1940
AFL charters the Filipino Federated Agricultural Laborers Association.
1946
Luce – Celler bill grants right of naturalization and small immigration quotas to Asian Indians and Filipinos.
1975
More than 130,000 refugees enter the U.S. from Vietnam, Kampuchea, and Laos as Communist governments are established there.
1978
Massive exodus of “boat people” from Vietnam.
1980
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees set up an Orderly Departure Program to enable Vietnamese to emigrate legally.
1988
American Homecoming Act allows children in Vietnam born of American fathers to emigrate to the U.S.
1989
President George Bush signs into law an entitlement program to pay each surviving Japanese American internee $20,000. U.S. reaches agreement with Vietnam to allow political prisoners to emigrate to the U.S.
1992
Looting and fires destroy over 2,000 Korean-owned businesses during the Los Angeles Riots. The Thai community is also hit as Thai-owned businesses sustain nearly $3 million in damages.
2002
Mee Moua, a Hmong American, is elected to the Minnesota Senate for District 67.
2005
In the wake of Hurrican Katrina, Father Nguyen The Vien organizes residents in the New Orleans East community to help residents return to their homes and rebuild their lives. His work especially impacts Versailles, a neighborhood in New Orleans whose residents are a tight knit group of Vietnamese Americans. Their story is documented in a film entitled, A Village Called Versailles, which becomes an a award-winning documentary.
2008
Anh Cao wins a special election for a seat in the House of Representatives, representing New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the first Vietnamese American to serve in Congress.
Sources:
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/angel/chrono.htm
http://www.advancingjustice-chicago.org/sites/chicago/files/compas_aahistoricaltimeline_0.pdf
The Asian American Resource Center 