Transcript:

In front of you is a display case filled with scrapbooks made by members of the Pajaro Valley’s Filipino American community. As family heirlooms, they showcase family gatherings and important milestones. Considering the marginalization of Filipino American stories in wider histories of the United States, these scrapbooks should also be treated as important historical documents. We understand scrapbooking and photo documentation as acts of community-generated historical preservation. In this clip, Elizabeth Tana discusses her motivation to create scrapbooks. 

I just got interested in doing like Creative Memories. I don’t know where I was, but I got involved in doing Creative Memories. I met a lady that sold the merchandise […] You know, it’s like anywhere—you know, like the Tupperware kind of, or Mary Kay kind of things […] I always just wanted to get all of my pictures out of a shoebox. And right now, I’ve got so many photos that I’m just collecting them and giving them to the people that should have them. […] So, I just want to be able to chronologically put them in something so that my kids would have something, and you know, a lot of times you’re looking at pictures, and there’s no– you don’t know who’s in the picture. […] I’m trying to put names so that later on generations will know exactly who’s in the photos and where the event was held.

Thank you for listening to this audio guide. This exhibition would not have been possible without the dedication of members of the Filipino American Pajaro Valley community to record their family stories. We encourage you to visit the Watsonville is in the Heart website to listen to more of their oral history interviews. Our website also includes resources to help you collect your family and community history. We hope this exhibition plants a seed for future generations to preserve, share, and celebrate local stories.  This audio guide was produced by Christina Ayson Plank and me, Dr. Kathleen Gutierrez. Our audio guide directors are Ben Goldstein and Daniel Story. We would like to thank Phoebe Rettberg, our sound engineer, and Ryan Pate, our musician. Thank you to our designers Mia Perez and Derrick Valencia-Murillo. Lastly, thank you for tuning in.