Two historic Filipino American hotels connected by BLM marchers

KQED

Filipino American demonstrators marched in support of Black Lives Matter.

Two hotels that played roles in Filipino American history were connected June 10 by scores of demonstrators marching in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The march began at the Gran Oriente Filipino Hotel in the officially designated Filipino Town in the South of Market area of San Francisco. The hotel still house elderly members of the Gran Oriente, one of several fraternal organizations Filipinos created in the early 1900s for comradeship and self-protection.

The demonstrators then walked a mile and a half to the International Hotel in what used to be Manilatown. The I-Hotel was the last vestiges of Manilatown and served as the home of elderly Filipinos and Chinese up until 1977 when its tenants were violently evicted by the San Francisco Police.

The eviction was the culmination of a decade-long battle to save the I-hotel that provided low-rent housing for mostly Filipino and Chinese tenants.

The Singapore-based owners of low-income housing first tried to evict the tenants in 1968. Joining the protests against the eviction were hundreds of members of the Black community, including the Black Panthers and the congregations of several predominantly black churches. 

Blacks joined the human barricade of thousands of Asian Americans ringing the hotel five deep to prevent several attempts to evict the elderly tenants.

“They've had our backs for so long,” Gianni Magpantay told KQED. “In this event, we're sharing some history on the International Hotel that got raided by 400 riot police and our Black brothers sisters showed up for us,” Magpantay said on why it is now important for the Filipino community to show up for the Black community.

Eli Frances Abad, who is Filipino American, organized the event. He recalled the historical location and historical advocacy “They were there when they were being evicted and they formed a barricade around the hotel to protect the Filipinos, so it’s our duty and responsibility to protect, stand and fight with them.”

Abad said that the black and Filipino communities have more shared histories than cultural differences.

“The black community has a lot of historical connection with the Filipinos. We have black Filipinos. We have black roots.” referencing the indigenous Negritos, whom anthropologists say are the earliest inhabitants  of the Philippines.

A Year Later: Heroic Filipino American family recalls the California wildfire

COURTESY OF ROBLES FAMILY

The Robles family: Alica Tanael, Yoehan, Cristaly and Charlie.

A YEAR after the devastating wildfires that swept through northern California's wine country, neighborhoods are slowly starting to rebuild their homes from the ashes. 

Residents are also rebuilding their lives including the Robles family: Charlie, Cristalyn, their 7-year-old son, Yoehan, and his grandmother, Alicia Tanael. 

The heroism of the Filipino American family was recounted by a KQED podcast. The Robles family lived at a care facility where they cared for the four wheelchair-bound  elderly residents.

Charlie and Cristalyn Robles were awaken around 1 a.m. on Oct. 8, 2017. Charlie answered it and the only word he heard was "Evacuate!"

He and his wife looked outside of the home in the city of Santa Rosa, smack dab in the middle of the picturesque Sonoma Valley. "We saw the bright mountain, and we knew it was fire approaching,” recalls Charlie.

He loaded up each resident, and each family member -- including 7-year old Yoehan -- pushed a wheelchair out to the road.

Embers were flying everywhere, the wind whipping fast, the flames edging just feet from the assisted living home. Charlie loaded up each resident into their wheelchair and pushed the Robles wheelchairs out to the road.

With three residents on the roadside, there was still one more resident left inside: 76-year old retired CalFire Captain Ferrol Mead.

It never occurred to the Robles to just save themselves. The elderly residents were just as important to them.

“We wanted to save lives together,” Cristalyn says. “We would go together, alive.” 

Charlie went back inside.

Read the rest of the harrowing story or listen to the podcast by clicking here.

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