Bridge Generation News

(Today’s Bridge Generation – now in their 70s, 80s, and 90s – are a rapidly declining population. Over the years, most members of these American born children of the first wave of Filipino immigrants have passed away. To remember their contributions to the history of Filipinos in America, a deceased BG individual is a recurring feature of this blog. This month features Joe Oriarte: A Free Spirit, 1926-2013 from my June 2008 interview with Joe and excerpted from my book “Vanishing Filipino Americans: The Bridge Generation.)

As long as I can remember, Joe has been a fixture at Bridge Generation events. During the late 1940s through the 1950s heyday of Filipino American youth club athletic tournaments, he was a perennial All-Star on the basketball court. In more recent years, he has been to all the BG old timer reunions. Friendly, gregarious, and good looking, Joe seemed to know everyone and was popular among guys and girls alike. He also seemed to be always wearing a perpetual, infectious, and maldito (mischievous) smile. More than fifty years later, that smile was still there.

Jose Valentino Oriarte was born on December 7, 1926 in Vallejo CA to Guillermo and Soledad Oriarte, immigrants from the Visayan province of Leyte, the Philippines. His mestizo father was a strong influence from the very beginning of Joe’s birth, having given him the middle name of “Valentino” after Rudolph Valentino, the “Latin Lover” of silent movies. Joe mischievously commented, “He was a dancer and womanizer. I’m just like my father.” Joe was from a family of five children – a girl and four boys. His growing up years were spent largely with his younger brother Burt since his three older siblings were already living on their own.

His father, a physically imposing, light-skinned Filipino-Spanish mestizo was employed at the Mare Island Naval shipyard. He had other business pursuits as a bartender and bouncer in the evenings as well. According to Joe, however, his father’s most interesting business was running “a little whorehouse in our basement for lonely Filipino sailors.” (Vallejo was a bustling port during World War II. Busy Georgia Street where his father worked nights, was a popular hangout for the many Filipino sailors stationed on navy ships at nearby piers.)

Joe’s parents divorced after twenty years of marriage when Joe was eight – the beginning of years of a back and forth existence. At first, he remained in Vallejo with his father while Burt went to live with their mother, who had remarried, in Salinas – the “Salad Bowl of America.” His mother missed Joe so much, however, that he often lived in Salinas for short periods of time. His time in Salinas was nevertheless significant. It was when he joined the Filipino American Youth Cub of Sacred Heart and met other Bridge Generation Filipinos. Athletically gifted, Joe played on the club’s basketball and softball teams. He also was skilled as a volleyball slammer at Filipino farm worker campo competitions that always drew cries of boomba from manongs whenever he would jump high in scoring spikes.

At the outset of World War II Joe dropped out of high school and tried to join the armed services, but at sixteen was too young. Ever resourceful, he lied about his age and joined the Merchant Marines, which was less strict in its scrutiny. Aboard ship, he learned to gamble from manongs – Chinese pai que, Filipino rummy, and other games of chance. Among his shipmates were other young BG Filipino Americans from Stockton CA who persuaded him to move to their hometown after their contracts with the Merchant Marines were over. For years, Stockton young men, such as Ray Paular and Terry Rosal, had been going to Alaska during the summer to work in the salmon canneries. Working conditions were hard but the money was good and helped to support their families. They convinced Joe to go to Alaska. So, for three summers, Joe became an Alaskero. There, he experienced racial discrimination for the first time. As a fair-skinned mestizo, he was not always seen as a minority by White society. The ten years since he left home were carefree years for Joe. The money he made in Alaska would usually carry him for most of the year. And while he never appeared to have difficulty in finding work, he seldom worked at the same job for long or stayed in the same line of work.

Stockton had become his main base of operations. There were “many guys to hang around with and girls to date.” Dancing had long been one of his passions. He often frequented the taxi dance hall in Little Manila. In a twist of fate, it was where Joe first met his future mother-in-law — a taxi dancer who was married to a Filipino manong. Except he didn’t know it at the time — he had yet to meet her daughter, his future wife! His subsequent marriage to the taxi dancer’s daughter was the first in what would eventually be six unions. It was also the only time Joe would marry a pinay; the five others were Caucasian. Except for his last marriage, all were of a short duration.

Joe grew sentimental when he began talking about June, his sixth and last wife. Originally from England, she was tall, Irish, and redheaded. Given Joe’s passion for dancing, it was not surprising they met at a dance. Dancing was an activity they both shared and participated in regularly. Their compatibility on the dance floor was reflected in their successful marriage of twenty four years, during which time Joe refrained from the carefree ways of his past. A high-ranking union official in Oakland, June had invested well. By the time of her passing, she had paid-off their condo, cars, and bills. A grateful Joe, through misty eyes, said, “I’m comfortable.”

Joe had a successful career as a supervisor with the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART). In 1996 he retired after 27 years of employment. Joe winked as he admitted, “When they were applying for a job, I helped more Filipinos than puti (Whites).

In reflecting back on his life, Joe talked about the values he learned from his parents – “be proud of being Filipino, be respectful, learn to cook, keep yourself clean, be a good housekeeper, work hard, eat lots of vegetables, and dress neatly.” Well said, Joe! He died at home in San Leandro CA on November 11, 2013.

Happy October Birthdays:

Abe Amen, Helen (Galanida) Agraviador, Luna Jamero, Barbara Posadas, Delia Rapolla, Art Suguitan, Andres “Sonny” Tangalin, Jo (Tenio) Canion, Don Velez, Connie (Viernes) Pasquil.

Pinakbet — News Across America

Filipino American Historical Tidbits:

On May 16, 1929, the California State Senate passed without opposition a resolution by Assemblyman E.G. Adams of Livingston, memorializing Congress to restrict Filipino immigration into the United States. His resolution was because “Filipinos are undesirable as citizens and offer a menace morally and hygienically to California.” The basic intent of Adams’ anti-Filipino resolution was ultimately incorporated into the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934.

Did You Know:

Despite a low batting average, Anthony Volpe, rookie shortstop of the New York Yankees, is drawing raves for hitting 21 home runs, 60 runs batted in, and stealing 24 bases………….. Aisha Ibraham, 37, chef at Seattle’s storied Canlis Hotel, was named among “best new chefs in America” by the editors of Food & Wine magazine. She is the second Seattle chef to make the prestigious list. Melissa Miranda of Musang’s made the list in 2022.

Musings

From White Supremacy in America, (to) It has Always been about People of Color, (to) Equitable Justice for People of Color, (to) Multi-racial Democracy Weakened, (to) Political/Gun Violence) Part XXXIX:

For the past few issues, this column has discussed gun violence. The last issue identified the U.S. Senate’s flagrant use of its filibuster to regularly defeat passage of common sense gun control legislation. Today’s issue shares the State of California’s record on gun control. On September 4, Governor Gavin Newsom reported on the state’s following record on gun control and safety.

Fact: California is ranked as the No. 1 site for gun safety by the Giffords Law Center.
Fact: California has a 43% lower gun death rate than the rest of the U.S. according to data from the CDC.
Fact: California’s gun homicide rate for youth was nearly 50% lower in 2022 than it was in 2006.
Fact: The next two most populous states after California — Florida and Texas — experienced larger increases in youth homicide with rates rising by 24% in Florida and 49% in Texas.
Fact: If the firearm mortality rate in the rest of the U.S. matched California’s over the same period, there would have been nearly 140,000 fewer firearm-related deaths across the nation in that decade alone, and potentially hundreds of thousands fewer gun shot injuries.
Fact: In 2001, just over half (50.4%) of the firearms recovered by law enforcement in California and successfully traced to a final dealer of record were traced to dealers located in other states.

On September 14, California lawmakers approved Governor Gavin Newsom’s resolution calling for a Constitutional Convention of the states to consider a new amendment on gun control