Noted Filipina American historian passes away

DAWN BOHULANO MABALON, 1972-2018

ONE OF FOREMOST HISTORIANS and advocates for Filipino Americans died Friday (Aug. 10) while vacationing in Kauai.

Dr. Dawn Bohulano Mabalon passed away while vacationing in Hawaii with her family. She would have celebrated her 46th birthday on Aug. 17.

“Dawn had represented the best of Stockton and she will be missed very much,” said Lange Luntao said Filipino American community leader to the Stockton Record. “Her research on the Filipino/a neighborhoods and community members in Stockton inspired scholars from around the world and put on the map in a positive way. There’s a lot of work to do to continue her legacy and highlight Stockton’s rich and diverse history.”

Dr. Mabalon was a professor at San Francisco State University where she taught history and U.S.-Philippines relations.  She received an M.A. in Asian American Studies from UCLA and a Ph.D. in history from Stanford University. Her research focuses on Filipina/o American history, historic and cultural preservation, and the Filipina/o American food traditions. 

In 2013, she wrote the book, "Little Manila Is in the Heart: The Making of the Filipina/o American Community in Stockton, California," which was awarded an honorable mention for the Frederick Jackson Turner Award (best first book) by the Organization of American Historians. 

Her research for the book led to a movement to preserve and restore parts of what was the Little Manila neighborhood in her native Stockton, which once was the largest Filipino American community in the U.S.

For her work and advocacy, she was named to the list of the Filipina Women’s Network's 100 Most Influential Filipinas in the World in 2013.

“We connected as academics, activists, family centered, food loving women, and most significantly; dedicated believers of Stockton,” said Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman on Facebook post. “She lived her life with purpose and richness. Her impact will be felt for generation to come.”

Details of any services or celebrations of life are pending.

A GoFundMe account has been made can be found online to plan and pay for celebrations of her life in San Francisco, Los Angeles and her hometown of Stockton.

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Young family of three killed in Mothers' Day shooting

THE LOR/XIONG FAMILY

ASAM NEWS

MOTHER'S DAY turned to tragedy for a Hmong/American family of three in Stockton, California.
Fox 40 reports 5-year-old Kayleen and her 22-year-old parents, Joe Lor and Gina Xiong, were gunned down and killed inside a home during a Mother’s Day celebration.

Police have no motive on this case. Investigators say the shots came from outside the home.

KCRA reports the father died at the scene and the two others at the hospital. Two others were injured.

“This type of case, the circumstances we are aware of are extremely rare, extremely heartbreaking,” said Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones to Fox 40. Jones vowed to get justice for the family.

Police assigned a surveillance vehicle to the neighborhood to prevent any sort of retaliation.

A Go Fund Me campaign for the family set up by Gina Xiong's sister had raised nearly $13,000 toward the $30,000 goal as  of Tuesday afternoon.

"Gina and Joe were young parents who worked hard to provide the best for their beautiful daughter by working multiple jobs," wrote the sister. "Together, they had come a long way from being young parents to being the best role model to their only child. Their little family was filled with love, care, and compassion for everyone."

“This crime has really impacted our entire community and the Police Department," said Chief Jones to the Stockton Record. "We will be working diligently with the Hmong community in general so the family gets justice."

(Additional reporting by Views From the Edge.)

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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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