Identities and Places: On Writing the History of Filipinotown, Los Angeles

This article connects the official designation of an area northwest of downtown Los Angeles as “Historic Filipinotown” to other episodes that looked to places to reconfigure the social position of Filipinos. It argues for the need to examine places as historical representations that shaped the identity formation of Filipinos. Rather than an unmediated manifestation of the livelihood of those who inhabited a particular area, places document the conditions that made certain activities visible while suppressing others. This article examines how the desire to improve the social standing of Filipinos influenced how scholars mapped the distribution of Filipinos within Los Angeles.