Abagond

Thu 21 May 2015

The Watsonville Riot

by abagond

The Watsonville Riot (1930) was an anti-Filipino riot in Watsonville, California. The violence lasted five days and led to violence in nearby Stockton, Salinas, Gilroy and San Francisco. There were protests in the Philippines. The body of Fermin Tobera, who was killed during the riot, was sent back to the Philippines for his funeral, where he became a martyr. The Philippines was then under US rule.

By 1909 California grew half the fruits and vegetables in the US. With refrigerated railway cars crossing the nation, California growers stood to make a ton of MONEY.

California news editors and politicians, on the other hand, found they could sell newspapers or WINvotes by fanning the flames of White hatred against Asians, hatred that often turned violent. They were so successful that by 1882 Congress had all but shut off immigration from China and, in 1917, from the rest of Asia – with one exception: the Philippines.

The US had taken over the Philippines in the Philippine American War (1899-1902). Congress was too racist to make the Philippines into states or its people into citizens, but Filipinos did become US nationals. While they could not vote or serve on juries, they could live and work anywhere in the US and its territories.

So by the 1920s, Filipinos had become the cheapest farm workers in California. Growers used them as strikebreakers. White people (aka voters) were being thrown out of work. Then in 1929 the stock market crashed in New York and the country sank into the Great DEPRESSION.

It gets worse: Most Filipinos in California were young, single men. That put them in direct competition with White men for White women. California had outlawed marriage between Whites and “negros”, “mulattos”, or “Mongolians”, but it was not clear to everyone whether Filipinos counted as “Mongolians”. Some said they were “Malay” instead.

Some Filipino men went to taxi dance halls where, for ten cents, they could get a dance with a White woman. A dance hall like that with nine White women OPENED in Watsonville. On January 18th 1930, hundreds of White men gathered and threatened to take the White women and burn down the dance hall. The owner shot on them. A fight broke out. The police restored ORDER.

Two days later hundreds of men met at the Pajaro River bridge: Filipino men on one side, White and Mexican men on the other. Five days of violence followed. Over 200 White men ranged through Watsonville looking for Filipinos to beat up, dragging them out of their homes or labour camps. They shot up houses and destroyed the Filipino part of town. One person was killed: Fermin Tobera.

At least some of the police tried to protect Filipinos, but they did not restore order till five days later.

In 1933, California outlawed marriage between Whites and Malays.

In 1934, the US, in the Tydings-McDuffie Act, limited the NUMBER of Filipinos who could move to the mainland US to 50 a year. That made Mexicans the cheapest farm workers.

In 2011, after 81 years, California apologized for the riot.

>via: https://abagond.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/the-watsonville-riot/