Vandalism hits Little Manila Center in Stockton

THE LITTLE MANILA CENTER in Stockton was vandalized Monday (Oct. 10) sending an ugly reminder the bigotry the Filipino American community has had to endure.

Even though police have not labeled the incident hasn't been a hate crime, the fact it happened during Filipino American History Month only served to emphasize that the fight against ignorance and prejudice is still ongoing and may be growing in the Donald Trump era.

“At one point, Stockton was home to the largest Filipino population outside of the Philippines. However, attacks on immigrant communities isn’t anything new,” said Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs in a statement to KQED.

An incoherent racist message was scrawled onto the front windows of the center and banners were torn down. Damage estimate is around $800. The content of the graffiti is unclear, with some news sources reporting that it reads, “White property, you’re a brainwashed bigot.” Recordnet.com states that the graffiti reads, “You the prop whittie (sic) your (sic) a brain washed (sic) bigot (sic).”

The vandalism was done sometime before the center opened Monday. It was discovered by young students arriving for a dance rehearsal.

The Little Manila Board of Directors issued the following statement:

If you’ve ever been to our Little Manila Center in Downtown Stockton, you’d know that we have beautiful recreations of our historic banners surrounding the Little Manila Historic Site on our windows.

It is with a heavy heart to tell you that on Monday, someone defaced our windows and ripped our historic photographs that bore the words: Community, Culture, Empowerment, Arts, History, and Heritage. The first people to find our center in the condition it was in were our youth dance students who stood heartbroken in front of our center.

As we celebrate Filipino American History Month this October, we know that discrimination against Filipino Americans is nothing new. The street our Little Manila Center is on is Main St. in downtown Stockton which was the dividing line for people of color in this city in the 1920s and 1930s. People of color were not welcomed north of Main St. and signs saying “Positively no Filipinos allowed” were displayed openly. It was illegal for Filipino men to marry White women in California. Later on, state and local officials would decide to destroy the Little Manila and Chinatown neighborhood by the building of the Crosstown Freeway.

This event has reminded us about the importance of the work we do. Through the Little Manila After School Program and Us History program we teach ethnic studies to high schoolers. Our advocacy helped Stockton Unified School District to adopt Ethnic Studies at our high schools just this year. Our Little Manila Dance Collective and Kulintang Academy teaches the art and culture of the Philippines to new generations of young people seeking identity and a sense of belonging to our roots.

Little Manila was destroyed in the 1960s and 1970s by misguided policies. Our advocacy for the preservation of the Little Manila Historic Site is a result of the worst case scenarios of racist federal, state, and local public policies that prioritized freeway construction, urban redevelopment, and suburbanization over our communities.

Little Manila Foundation and our Little Manila Center will continue to be a space for understanding and love, bringing together diverse communities. This incident only strengthens our resolve and reaffirms the work that we are already doing.

If you would like to help us recover and continue the educational, arts, cultural, and community strengthening work we are doing, please support us by clicking here.

LITTLE MANILA CENTER

Filipino/American children learn about their culture in classes at the Little Manila Center.

Stockton's Little Manila used to be a bustling historic and cultural center for the Filipino American community throughout California. Most of it was torn down when Stockton built a freeway through the neighborhood.

Eventually, only three original buildings remain of what used to be a six-block district.

In the last ten years, an effort led by Dawn Mabalon, San Francisco State University professor, has brought new life to the area including the Little Manila Center.

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