by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon
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In the early twentieth century - not long after 1898, when the United States claimed the Philippines as an American colony - Filipina/is became a vital part of the agricultural economy of California's fertile San Joaquin Delta. In downtown Stockton, they created Little Manila, a vibrant community of hotels, pool halls, dance halls, restaurants, grocery stores, churches, union halls, and barbershops. Little Manila was home to the largest community of Filipina/is outside of the Philippines until the neighborhood was decimated by urban development in the 1960's. Narrating a history spanning much of the twentieth century, Dawn Bohulano Mabalon traces the growth of Stockton's Filipina/o American community, the birth and eventual destruction of Little Manila, and recent efforts to remember and preserve it.
