Pajaro the children who clean the mud from their father’s boots
They sleep They wake
to the smell of cauliflower growing
in fields that are not dreams
fields that begin under their bedroom windows
and end in a world they do not know
from the mountains to the river
from the river to the beach
— excerpt from The Song of Pajaro by Jeff Tagami

Despite the long history of Filipino farmworkers and families in the Pajaro Valley, and seminal historical events such as the 1930 anti-Filipino race riots that led the the murder of 22 year-old Fermin Tobera, there remains only a thin historical record. Nevertheless, children of the first Filipino migrants continue to live and work in the Pajaro Valley, and have organized to make their voices heard and remembered. This project seeks to expand Filipino American studies narratives that center male-migrant laborers and racial violence to include memories of community formation and leisure; interracial relationships and mixed race experiences; community conflicts and class dynamics; and women’s labor and migration.

The Watsonville is in the Heart Research Initiative is a partnership between the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and The Tobera Project, a Watsonville community organization founded by Dioscoro “Roy” Respino Recio, Jr. (b. April 19, 1968). The partnership is named after the novel America is the Heart by Filipino American immigrant poet and writer, Carlos Bulosan. The project team is composed of UCSC professors, UCSC undergraduate & graduate students, and community members. WIITH partners with community institutions including the Watsonville Public Library and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. The initiative is housed in The Humanities Institute at UCSC.

Thank you to The Humanities Institute and West Cliff Creative for producing this video on Watsonville is in the Heart!