Discussion Questions

When looking at the 1930 Watsonville Anti-Filipino Race Riots Map, students may consider:

• What kinds of stereotypes were used to characterize Filipinos in the United States in the 1930s?
• How did Filipinos respond to the 1930 Watsonville anti-Filipino race riot?
• Looking at the map, where were the most instances of mob violence? Why do you think mobs targeted those locations?
• For those familiar with Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley: find one point on the map at an intersection or street that you know well. What stands at that intersection or on that street today?

When looking at the Watsonville Filipino American Community Counter-Map, students may consider:

• What social and environmental changes occurred in the Pajaro Valley from 1930 to the present?
• What are some ways that Filipino Americans formed community in the Pajaro Valley?
• Looking at the map, what parts of Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley were popular for Filipinos to come together? What do you think made these parts popular?

Overarching discussion questions:

• Why do you think that the histories of the 1930 Watsonville anti-Filipino race riot are not well-known?
• How do you think communities should remember their history?
• What’s the difference between reading about sites of historical importance and seeing sites of historical importance on a map?

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Bibliography

Archival Collections

Abraham Ignacio Collection, Asian Cultural Experience

The Torch

National Pinoy Archives, Filipino American National Historical Association

Video/Film Dollar a Day, Dime a Dance 101-4029

Newspapers and Microforms Library, University of California, Berkeley

Three Stars

Pajaro Valley Historical Association

Watsonville Ports and Wharfs

Special Collections, University of Washington, Seattle 

Filipino Forum

Suzallo and Allen Libraries, University of Washington

The Philippines Herald

Watsonville Historical Newspaper Archive, Watsonville Public Library

Periodicals

(1903-1937) Evening Pajaronian

Watsonville is in the Heart: Community Digital Archive

Alminiana Family Collection

Asuncion Family Collection

Bersamin Family Collection

DeOcampo Family Collection

Fallorina Family Collection

Lopez Family Collection

Millares Family Collection

Recio Family Collection

Sales Family Collection

Sulay Family Collection

Secondary Sources

Baldoz, Rick. The Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and Migration in Filipino America, 1898-1946. New York: New York University Press, 2011.

De Witt, Howard. “The Watsonville Anti-Filipino Race Riot of 1930: A Case Study of the Great Depression and Ethnic Conflict in California.” Southern California Quarterly 61, no. 3 (1979): 291-301.