City Council to vote Nov. 10 on an apology for the anti-Filipino Watsonville Riots

A local newspaper headlined the Watsonville Riots.

A resolution apologizing for the infamous anti-Filipino Watsonville Riots that occurred 90 years ago is being heard by the Watsonville City Council today.

The riots began Jan. 19, 1930 in California and lasted about a week. One of the violent incidents was a frenzied mob of white men shot indiscriminately at farmworkers' living quarters  wounding several of the Filipinos and killing 22-year old Fermin Tobera.

The Watsonville City Council moved the apology resolution to the top of it's agenda to receive public comment during which members of the community can speak supporting or against the item. The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m.

A Filipino American, Roy Recio, wrote in a Facebook page, "Watsonville is in the Heart," that descendants of the farmworkers are hoping that the city will do something more substantial than a resolution to memorialize the riots.

"The apology is welcome and long-overdue. However, the Filipino community, particularly we descendants of the Manong generation feel strongly that this is just a start. If the City of Watsonville is sincere in their effort, we would like to advocate for a more substantial historical marker in the city like a street, building or school named after a Filipino and / or a plaque or statue in the city’s plaza that truly depicts our history and our vital role and contributions in the Pajaro Valley," Recio posted on Facebook.

During the Great Depression, Filipinos were recruited to provide cheap labor for Hawaii's plantations and the farm fields of California. The vast majority of the workers were young men, who outnumbered Filipinas 30 to 1, wrote Recio.

Beginning on Jan. 19, 1930, mobs of up to 500 white people roamed Watsonville and the surrounding towns and farms, attacking Filipino farmworkers and their property after Filipino men were seen dancing with white women at a newly opened local dance hall.

In the days and weeks local newspapers and politicians ramped up the anti-Filipino sentiment before the rioting, calling the farmworkers “a menace,” and demanding that Filipino residents be deported so “white people who have inherited this country for themselves and their offspring could live.” 

“The worst part of [the Filipino man] being here is his mixing with young white girls from thirteen to seventeen,"said a local judge to reporters. "He gives them silk underwear and makes them pregnant and crowds whites out of jobs in the bargain.”

According to the Equal Justice Initiative, a mob of white men was initially turned away from a Watsonville dance hall by security guards, but returned in full force to beat dozens of Filipino farmworkers. The beatings continued elsewhere in the area, and on the night of Jan. 22, a mob ransacked Filipino farmworkers’ homes and shot into the dwellings, killing Tobera. No one was ever charged with that murder. Seven men were later convicted of rioting, but received either probation or 30 days in jail.

The anti-Filipino frenzy continued in California in the months after the Watsonville riots, with violence breaking out in Stockton, Salinas, San Francisco, and San Jose.

In 1933, California enacted a law to prohibit marriages between Filipino and white residents. Prior to that change in the law, the anti-mesegination laws applied intermarriage between Blacks and Whites. That was amended to include members of the "Mongolian" race to include East Asians. 

In 1934, answering in part to pressure coming from California's government led by prominent citiens and leading newspapers, Congress reduced Filipino immigration to the United States to just 50 people per year. 

In September 2011, the California legislature officially expressed regret and apologized for these events and actions. This pending apology is the first time the City of Watsonville addressed this shameful chapter in its history.