The book is divided into four parts, (the first three with several chapters in it):

Part I: Historical Background
Part II: Coming to America
Part III: Filipino Life, Customs, and Traditions; and
Part IV: Brief Profiles of Noted Filipino Americans
Part V: Filipinos in the American Revolution & Civil War.

Part I includes chapters on the Philippine Revolution (1896-1898) and the Philippine-American War (1899-1902) to give a historical backdrop for examining Philippine-American relations and for commemorating the centennials of these momentous events, including the Philippine Independence (1898). The Filipino Americans provides a vista by which others may view the Filipino community and its leaders about their history, values, customs, and traditions. The book gives a better understanding of the Filipino mind, attitude, and character. It also illustrates the significant contributions made by Filipino Americans to American culture, society, cuisine, economy, politics, sports, and entertainment.

It covers much more than you would expect from a history of Filipino Americans. After an introductory overview, there are five historical chapters on the Spanish colonization, the Revolution, the Philippine-American War, the U.S. colonial rule, and the World War II Japanese occupation. These chapters dealing with controversial subjects that are too often glossed over in other studies provide a substantial historical grounding for understanding some of the issues confronting Filipino Americans today.

Bautista continues with discussions of the Manilamen who landed in what is now Louisiana during the Manila Galleon trade with Mexico, a useful summary of later waves of immigration, and chapters devoted to Filipino experiences in Hawaii, the Mainland U.S., and Alaska. The three closing chapters assess changes in the Filipino American experience over time, describing enduring cultural traits and interactions, and provide biographical sketches of numerous “notable Filipino Americans.”

“ A great deal of historical research has gone into this volume, but it hardly reads like a dry listing of facts and statistics. More than 175 photographs help to flush out the stories of Filipinos who have immigrated to the United States.”
–Independent Publisher Magazine

“Laced with reproductions of paintings and photographs from various sources, this fact-filled volume provides readers, in the early chapters, with a fascinating view of the always exciting, sometimes poignant, and too often tragic history of the Philippine archipelago. For many Americans unfamiliar with the mercurial nature of United States policy towards the Philippines following the Spanish American War, there will be surprises. Read carefully the content of letters from foot soldiers to their schoolmates and families back home. The author’s many chapters on the distinct periods of Filipino immigration to Hawaii, Alaska, and the contiguous United States are colorful and informative. The reader discovers that it is the rich heritage of diverse customs and traditions that make the Filipino presence an especially welcome addition to the American scene. This is a book that everyone will enjoy.”
—William Rowan (Cgfix@aol.com) from Greensboro, NC (Amazon.com site)

“This is a great book (a must reading for all Fil-Ams). It looks like a time capsule with details. It will make a good gift to friends and the young Filipino Americans.”
–Nestor Palugod Enriquez, Jersey City, New Jersey

“I admire the exhaustive and authoritative historical contents, the substance, style and layout of The Filipino Americans. It’s fluid, easy to read, and above all very informative. It deserves to be in every home library of families who love history.”
–Philip Chua, M.D., Cardiac Surgeon, Munster, Indiana, and past president, Association of Philippine Physicians in America.

“The cover is beautiful, contents are educational.”
–Luz Sapin Micabalo, overall chairperson, Philippine Centennial Coordinating Council Northeast USA and president, PCM-New York Chapter

“It can provide Filipino Americans with a glimpse of their past, which can be valuable to those interested in knowing more about their cultural heritage.”
–Jose Z. Molano, Jr., executive director, Philippine Commission on Filipinos Overseas.

Chapters:

Part I: Historical Background

1. The Philippines: Then & Now
2. The Spanish Colonization of the Philippines (1565-1898)
3. The Philippine Revolution (1896-1898)
4. The Philippine-American War (1899-1902)
5. The American Rule after the 1899-1902 War
6. The Japanese Occupation of the Philippines (1942-1945)

7. Manilamen: Filipino Roots in America (1763)
8. The Filipino Immigration to the United States
9. The Workers in Hawaii: The Life They Lived
10. The Mainland Journeys
11. The Alaska Pioneers

12: The Filipino Americans: Yesterday and Today
13. Life in These United States
14. Filipino Culture, Customs, and Traditions

Bibliography
Index

“My servant, who was a Manilla (sic) man, and spoke the language very well, was not permitted to come near me, for fear of discovering some of the…[Spanish] proceedings….” The Filipino spoke his native language, Spanish, a native American language, and, presumably, English. He was also heard “bargaining with the natives for some fish they had in their boat….”

I. SMALL FILIPINO GROUPS

Buchholdt also said the second and third groups of Filipinos to go to Alaska were 29 “Manilla men”: 24 of the 55 crew of the Eleanora, and five “Manilla men” assigned to the Fair American. That was in 1789. Both ships, Eleanora, commanded by Captain Simon Metcalfe, an American fur trader and the Fair American, commanded by his son, Thomas Metcalfe, came from Manila where the Filipino crew members were hired.

The Lone Arrival. Another Filipino, known again as a “Minilia (sic) man” who arrived aboard the Gustavus III in Alaska in 1789 and again in 1791 was identified as John Mando, according to the journal of John Bartlett of Boston, also a crew member of that ship. In 1791, Filipinos were also included in a Spanish expedition to Alaska.

Ship Crew Members. In the 1850s, Filipinos were crew members on whaling ships that operated off Alaska. At the New Bedford Whaling Museum, there was a listing, with full names, of Filipino crew members, identified as “Manilla men.” Some of them came from the Sulu Islands, Philippines. 80 Filipinos. After them came the 80 Filipinos who did the laying of underwater communications cables that linked Juneau, Alaska, and other Alaskan areas with Seattle, Washington. The Filipinos were on board the cableship Burnside.

Miners. In the early 1920s until the late 1930s, Filipinos also worked in Alaska gold mines. They worked mostly as ore sorters at the Alaska-Juneau (A-J Mine) Gold Mining Company, the largest of the gold mining companies, at Mount Roberts, south of Juneau, at the Treadwell Mine and Mills, Ready Bullion Mine and Mill, and at other mines. Most of the men who worked there met and married Indian natives.

II. ALASKEROS

In 1864, the first salmon-canning venture was launched on the Sacramento River in Alaska. Aggressive entrepreneurs built canned salmon factories to take advantage of the rich supply of salmon that abounded from the Monterey Peninsula to the Alaska coast along the Bering Sea. For instance, in 1910, the Columbia River Packers Association (CRPA) constructed a cannery at Chignik, Alaska. European Americans, Native Americans and Chinese worked in the cannery during the early part of the Pacific Coast canned-salmon industry. By the late 1920s and early 1930s, Filipino laborers on West Coast farms and college and university students, known as “schoolboys,” worked in the canneries, from two to four months in Alaska during the spring and summer. During the canning season, these men, later to be known as Alaskeros arrived there. Indeed, they went there every canning season of the year. “Want to Go to Alaska?” The laborers usually took their time off from their work on the farms on the West Coast to earn money in canneries.
On the other hand, the schoolboys would go there to raise money for their tuition, board, lodging, and other expenses in pursuing their education. During the school year, they studied in high school, colleges, and universities. In 1921, nearly 1,000 Filipinos were recruited by Chinese and Japanese contractors to work in Alaskan canneries. By 1928, there were 3,916 Filipinos in Alaska, comprising the majority of the work force. In comparison, there were 1,445 Japanese, 1,269 Mexicans, and 1,065 Chinese. By 1930, of the 45,280 Filipinos in the United States, about nine percent or 4,200 worked in Alaska. However, there were only a few Filipino contractors. Moreover, all the Filipinos could only work as unskilled laborers. The highest position Filipinos could hold was that of a foreman. In 1930, about 500 of the 4,200 Filipino workers who worked in Alaska were college students. Of the others, about 800 came from trade schools.
The workers came from ports in San Francisco and Seattle. The canning season was from April to August. But some of the workers, particularly the students who worked during their vacation, had to leave when classes started.

Right on the Dock. Some cannery job seekers gathered in Seattle, the converging point for workers bound for Alaska. Workers came from different states who temporarily left their farm or domestic work to work in canneries. There were those who left San Francisco, directly to Alaska.
The trip from Seattle to Alaska usually took one week. Per trip, a few hundred workers (for example 200 to 400) usually were shipped in steerage down at the bottom or “basement” of steamboats going to Alaska.
Many became seasick during their voyage to the Last Frontier. Alaska-bound men squeezed themselves into bunks with their suitcases, sea bags, and blankets. Meals in steamships would usually include rice, pig’s feet and tails, and fried fish. But in the boats, workers played cards, played music, and even danced with some first-class women passengers to while away the time. In later years, the workers were transported to Alaska by commercial aircraft.

III. THE CANNING SEASON

Usually, the canning season was from April to August. But a number of people worked only for two months. Some of the workers, particularly the students, were there during their vacation. But some workers arrived there earlier to make fish boxes and other things. The Filipinos held unskilled jobs in fishhouses and warehouses, such as box maker, butcher, slimer, egg puller, slicer, and others. They used the jitney, a small tractor-like vehicle, to pull flatbed gurneys of canned salmon. The jitney was later replaced by the forklift. Filipino laborers also worked in the summertime as temporary crew members of fishing boats. In the late 1920s mechanization was introduced in canneries. In 1930, closing machines operated 120 to 125 cans per minute, whereas they previously could operate only 60 cans per minute. At that time, all “filling” previously were done by hand was already being done by machine. In three or four years, the speed of this operation was hiked from 60 to 125 cans a minute. A new rapid cutting machine was also used to replace two older types.

Under Contract. The Alaska workers were hired by Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino contractors. In the early years of cannery operations, all hiring was done by contractors. It was a common practice that Filipino crews were headed by Filipino foremen. However, there were also Filipino laborers who worked with Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, and natives.

Flat Rate. In the contract system, a contractor would make a deal with the cannery owner to form his crew of workers at a flat rate. He would then figure out his profit and then set the wages for the workers. The Filipinos, as well as other workers such as Japanese and Chinese, lived in bunkhouses. The Filipinos who predominated the work force in Alaska worked in canneries such as those in Alitak, Kodiak Island, Ward’s Cove, Petersburg, Unalaska in Dutch Harbor, Naknek, Red Salmon, Ketchikan, Bumble Bee, Cook Inlet, Georgetown, Cordova, Egegik, Yakutak, Anchorage, and Moser Bay.

IV. CONTRACTORS

The Filipinos were usually taken advantage of by contractors. Even before the salmon canning season, some contractors forced workers to buy food, clothes, and other things at high prices from their stores. At that time, all loud complainers were fired the next day. Work was hard and life was boring in canneries.

V. THEIR WAYS OF LIFE

Their ways of life in Seattle and Alaska were different. In Seattle. Usually, Alaskeros lived in Seattle and waited for the canning season. Most of them stayed in hotels and boarding houses. Those workers were dependent on their contractors for advances; that’s why they accumulated a large amount of debt even before the canning season started.

Life in Alaska. The Alaskeros lived in bunkhouses, where workers provided their own bedding for the bunks. The bunks were made of planks nailed together. They had no springs and mattresses. Actually, the bunkhouse was just a big empty room, according to one Alaskero. If you were an Alaskero, you had to make your own partition to have privacy. Since life was boring in canneries, Filipino workers engaged in card games, ping-pong, volleyball, and other games. Early in the morning, the workers ate their breakfast, which was no good. Others were served biscuits, with no jelly or butter, and black coffee. Others ate rice and eggs. The early average wage was $25.00 a month. It reached $35.00 by the year 1910. Eventually it increased to $45 a month. There was a time that the pay increased to $47 and then to over $50.00 a month. In some canneries, work started early in the morning, about 4 a.m. In others, the schedule might be from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. In general, they worked up to 12 or 18 hours a day. Some worked until midnight. Have Music, We’ll Dance. The Filipinos solicited prostitutes. Some of them returned to the mainland empty-handed. The Filipinos were lovers of music. The workers brought their guitars and other musical instruments. Then sometimes first-class women passengers would go to the laborers’ quarters and dance with them.

VI. THE ALASKEROS’ UNION AND THE FILIPINO COMMUNITY

Due to the Great Depression, wages for unskilled jobs dropped by 40 percent from 1929 to 1933. Working and living conditions were so poor that Filipinos started to form unions in the 1930s. In June 1933, they formed the Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union (CWFLU). The union was headquartered in Seattle’s Colonial Cafe. Union organizers were harassed and threatened. Violence took place between union organizers and people hired by contractors to harass them.

Working and Living Conditions. The unions succeeded in uplifting the working and living conditions of the Alaskeros. But on December 1, 1936, union president Virgil Duyungan and his secretary, Aurelio Simon, were shot to death by a contractor’s nephew during a meeting in a Japanese restaurant in Seattle. Union members continued their struggle but extended their negotiations with the contractors. In the end, they were able to get a monthly wage of $60.00. Two years after the union president’s death, the union had from 6,000 to 7,000 members. Finally, in 1938, the contractor system in canneries was abolished. The Filipinos and other workers had their bargaining negotiations and agreements with the management. They had better working conditions and higher pay.

Population. In 1910, 246 Filipinos lived in Alaska. At the height of the salmon and canning industry, they were about 9,000 Filipino workers there. Today. the Filipino community, numbers more than 8,000.

1. The Philippines, north of the Equator, is located in the southern portion of Asia. Its immediate neighbor on the north is the Republic of China, popularly known as Formosa, while on the west is Communist Vietnam. Further west is Thailand and southwest are Malaysia and Singapore. The Philippines is known as “Pearl of the Orient Seas,” and “The Only Christian Nation in Asia.”

2. It is an archipelago of 7,107 islands and islets. The Philippines has a rugged land mass. Similarly, it has an irregular coastline, which is twice as long as that of the continental USA. It is populated by about 70 million people. The Filipinos as composed of different ethnic groups: Tagalogs, Kapampangan, Ilocanos, Visayans, and others. The Philippines has over 60 cultural minorities who have maintained their culture and traditions. Some of these minorities live in the mountains and in reservation areas. The Filipinos speak about 87 dialects and Tagalog or Filipino is the national language.

3. The first inhabitants of the Philippines came from the Malay Peninsula; the Malays now constitute the largest portion of the populace and what is known is a Malayan culture.

4. Why Spain came, conquered and colonized the Philippines (1565-1898) began with the great demand of Europe for spices such as pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and other similar food flavorings.

5. The Philippines was colonized by Spain for more 333 years, until they day that Philippine revolution took place and the Filipinos declared their independence from Spain in 1898.

6. The United States bought the Philippines from Spain for $20 million as provided for in the Treaty of Paris of December 28, 1898. The Philippine-American War started on February 4, 1899 and ended in 1902.

7. The U.S. ruled the Philippines for 48 years (1898-1946). It gave the Philippines her “independence” on July 4, 1946. However, former Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal revoked this date of independence and set June 12, 1898, as the true date of the country’s independence from Spain.

8. The Filipinos started to immigrate to the Philippines in 1763 when Filipino seamen, later known as Manilamen, jumped ship off Acapulco, Mexico during the Galleon trade era and settled in the bayous of Louisiana. They comprised the first wave of Filipino migration to the United States. Then came other waves of migration.

The Filipino Americans now constitute the second fastest-growing Asian American ethnic group in the United States.