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Introduction Filipino Settlem.ents in the United States Although a majority of Filipinos have come to the United States only since the liberalization ofimmigration laws in 1965, the history of Filipinos in this country dates back to the middle of the 1700s. As early as 1765, Filipinos lived along the southeastern coast of Louisiana. Congregated in the marshlands of Louisiana's Barataria Bay (about thirty miles south of New Orleans), these Filipinos were believed to be descendants of Filipino seamen who had escaped Spanish galleons---ships that carried cargoes of luxury goods between the Philippines and Mexico from 1565 to 1815.' Today, with a total population of more than 1.4 million in 1990, Filipinos compose the second largest immigrant group as well as the second largest Asian American group in the United States. Despite the long history of the immigration and settlement of Filipinos in the United States, very little sound research has been published about either their past or their contemporary life. As E. San Juan, Jr., maintains, the existing studies on the historical development ofthe Filipino community in the United States "have been sketchy, superficial, and flawed in their methodology and philosophical assumptions."2Lamenting the neglect ofFilipino Americans in the literature on U.S. immigration, ethnicity, and communities , others have declared that Filipinos are the "forgotten Asian Americans"; that "not much is known about them"; and that on this group there is " no history. No published literature. No nothing."3 However, most scholars and writers stop short ofasking why this is the case. In a rare analysis, Oscar Campomanes argues that the institutional invisibility of the Philippines and Filipino Americans is connected to the historical amnesia and selferasure regarding the U.S. colonization of the Philippines in particular and U.S. imperialism in general.4 Employing a cultural perspective, Cecile Cruz asserts that the academic neglect of Filipinos stems from the erroneous assumption that the Philippines lacks an "authentic" 'indigenous culture. This perspective echoes Renato Rosaldo's contention that most anthropologists have ignored the Philippines because they perceived it as "too Westernized," Copyrighted Material 1 2 • Introduction with "no culture" of its own.s These observations suggest that recent Filipino American history can best be understood within the context of the colonial and postcolonial association between the Philippines and the United States. The Impact ofthe U.S. Colonization ofthe Philippines In 1898, following the Spanish American War, the United States assumed colonial rule of the Philippines, thereby extending its "Manifest Destiny" to the Pacific. After intense debate, Congress finally decided to retain the Philippines as a U.S. possession-ostensibly to prepare the archipelago for eventual independence. Battling to oust their new overlords, Filipino nationalists held ofrU.S. rule for several years.6 From the very beginning, superior American fire power put Filipino troops at a dreadful disadvantage. In the opening battle in Manila, "dead Filipinos were piled so high that the Americans used the bodies for breastworks." After this initial rout, the Philippine Army quickly resorted to mobile warfare, whereby they took advantage of their superior knowledge of the terrain and the ardent support of many Filipinos. Harassed and attacked throughout the islands by determined peasants, the Americans slowly realized that the major foe of U. S. imperialism was not the Philippine Army but rather the Filipino people. A series of bloody "pacification" campaigns ensued. Unable to penetrate the guerrillas, the Americans began to attack the population at large, burning barrios, destroying storehouses and crops, poisoning wells, slaughtering farm animals, and killing noncombatants. In the notorious Samar campaign in late September 1901 , General "Howlin' Jake" Smith ordered his troops to ravage the province and to kill "everything over ten." Three months later, in another brutal campaign, Major General J. Franklin Bell set out to destroy Batangas. According to statistics compiled by U.S. government officials, by the time Bell was finished, at least one hundred thousand people had been killed or had died as a direct result of the scorched-earth policies. In 1902, through superior military force and the collaboration ofthe conservative and moneyed Filipinos, the Americans finally put an end to the armed nationalist resistance. Although it is difficult to determine how many Filipinos died resisting American aggression, estimates of the combined death toll from fighting, disease, and starvation ranged from several hundred thousand to one million. According to Sucheng Chan, many of the brutal facets of the Philippine American War remain largely hidden from the public.7 Although guerrilla warfare continued for several...

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