Table Of ContentThe Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies
The Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies
From a Three-Cornered World:New and Selected Poems
by james masao mitsui
Imprisoned Apart:The World War II Correspondence of an Issei Couple
by louis fiset
Storied Lives:Japanese American Students and
World War II by gary okihiro
Phoenix Eyes and Other Stories by russell charles leong
Paper Bullets:A Fictional Autobiography by kip fulbeck
Born in Seattle:The Campaign for Japanese American Redress
by robert sadamu shimabukuro
Confinement and Ethnicity:An Overview of World War II Japanese
American Relocation Sites by jeffery f. burton, mary m. farrell,
florence b. lord, and richard w. lord
Judgment without Trial:Japanese American Imprisonment
during World War II by tetsuden kashima
Shopping at Giant Foods:Chinese American Supermarkets
in Northern California by alfred yee
Altered Lives,Enduring Community:Japanese Americans Remember
Their World War II Incarceration
by stephen s. fugita and marilyn fernandez
Eat Everything Before You Die:A Chinaman in the Counterculture
by jeffery paul chan
For and Transformation in Asian American Literature,
edited by zhou xiaojing and samina najmi
Language of the Geckos and Other Stories by gary pak
Growing Up Brown:Memoirs of a Filipino American
by peter jamero
GROWING UP BROWN
Memoirs
of a
Filipino
American
PETER JAMERO
University of Washington Press p Seattle & London
This book is published with the assistance of a grant from
the Scott and Laurie Oki Endowed Fund for publications in
Asian American Studies,established through the generosity
of Scott and Laurie Oki.
© 2006 by the University of Washington Press
Designed by Ashley Saleeba
Typefaces:Aldus and Sistina
Printed in the United States of America
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All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means,electronic or mechanical,including photocopy,
recording,or any information storage or retrieval system,without permission
in writing from the publisher.
University of Washington Press
P.O.Box 50096,Seattle,WA 98145
www.washington.edu/uwpress
This book is printed on New Leaf Ecobook 50,which is 100% recycled,containing
50% post-consumer waste,and is processed chlorine free.Ecobook 50 is acid free and
meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39-48-1992 (r 1997) (Permanence
of Paper).8A
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at the back of this book.
Contents
FOREWORD by dorothy laigo cordova vii
INTRODUCTION by peter bacho ix
PREFACE xii
I CAMPO LIFE, 1930–1944
1 The Adventure Begins 3
2 Maeda’s Place 14
3 Amid the Almond Trees 28
4 Livingston 38
II LEARNING ABOUT THE REAL WORLD,
1944–1957
5 High School Years 61
6 Join the Navy and See the World 83
7 College Days 96
III EARLY CAREER, 1957–1970
8 My First Real Job 121
9 Moving Up 131
10 Washington,D.C. 142
11 A Stanford Man 156
IV THE ACTIVIST EXECUTIVE, 1970–1995
12 Region X 168
13 Umbrella Agency 193
14 The Professor 221
15 King County 234
16 United Way 246
17 Whose Human Rights? 272
18 Community Based 290
EPILOGUE 317
AFTERWORD by fred cordova 319
INDEX 321
Foreword
FOR ALL OF US THERE COMES A TIME WHEN A
chance encounter changes our lives. In 1969, one Peter Madelo
Jamero Sr.—who had just arrived from Washington,D.C.,to work
in the Region X office of the Department of Health,Education,and
Welfare—called to make my acquaintance.This began a friendship
and collaborative community endeavors with the Jamero family that
have spanned more than thirty-five years.
Peter,whom we fondly call “Pete,” and his wife,Terri,have six
children whose ages almost mirror the ages of our own eight chil-
dren.The initial reason for the phone call was to put their older
children in Filipino Youth Activities (FYA),especially the renowned
Princesa Drill Team,Cumbanchero Percussioneers,and Mandayan
Marchers.We were privileged to work with the Jamero family for
almost twenty years in many FYA activities.
Pete was the first federal bureaucrat we knew,and we were in
awe of his sophistication and ability to navigate the ins-and-outs
of government red tape.In 1971,FYA had the opportunity to tap
local Model City monies to expand our youth programs and create
a small office to meet the increasing needs of a fast-growing Filipino
American population in the state of Washington.An enthusiastic
group met in our home,and Pete guided us in writing the required
“proposal”—a bureaucratic term none of us knew at that time.
The late 1960s and 1970s were heady times.Society was chang-
ing,and long-silent Asian Americans had joined the civil rights bat-
tles begun by courageous African Americans and were challenging
entrenched racism in the forms of prejudices and biases.Qualified
American-born minorities who first broke into fields once denied
an early generation of immigrants found they had a special role.
They were expected to be superachievers but were often restricted
by the glass ceiling, which prevented them from being fully
rewarded for their hard work.Pete was one of these pioneers who
broke ground but often endured personal disappointments.
He has held more prestigious and diverse positions than any other
Filipino American: assistant secretary of the Washington State
Department of Social and Health Services and director of the Divi-
sion of Vocational Rehabilitation,assistant professor at the Univer-
sity of Washington, director of the King County Department of
Human Resources,vice president of United Way of King County,
executive director of the San Francisco City and County Civil Rights
Commission, and finally executive director of Asian American
Recovery Services.Through all these positions,he has been a good
role model for countless young people.
On a more personal note,Pete and Terri were among the first to
respond to my call for help in 1982.I hoped to form an historical
society that would continue to collect Filipino American history and
share materials already accumulated through a two-year National
Endowment for the Humanities project titled “Forgotten Asian
Americans:Filipinos and Koreans.” After two years of meetings,
we were ready to incorporate the society but needed a name that
would proclaim the group’s intent and at the same time be catchy
enough so that people would remember us.Pete won the contest
with Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS).
Thanks,Pete,for giving us a name that continues to grow in
national recognition. Thanks also for many years of pleasant
memories.
dr. dorothy laigo cordova
Executive Director,Filipino American National Historical Society
Seattle,August 2005
viii foreword
Introduction
THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY HISTORY OF FILIPINOS
in America is still an unfinished story.Academics in Asian Ameri-
can Studies programs,which began flourishing on American college
campuses in the 1970s,have done admirable work in recapturing
the histories of the early Chinese and Japanese communities.But
more than three decades later,comparatively little is known about
the manonggeneration,those intrepid pioneers who immigrated to
the United States when the Philippines was still an American colony.
Peter Jamero’s autobiography,Growing Up Brown in America:
Memoirs of a Filipino American,fills an important historic niche.
Carlos Bulosan’s classic work America Is in the Heart describes
pre–World War II anti-Filipino racism on the West Coast and the
Filipino response to the poverty and hostility of that era.How-
ever,Bulosan’s autobiography,which deftly combines elements of
history and literature,should not be read literally.Fred Cordova’s
Filipinos: Forgotten Asian Americans fills in many of the gaps.
Cordova succeeds in creating a sweeping vista of Filipino Ameri-
can life from the eighteenth century to modern times.Then there
is Philip Vera Cruz:A Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and
the Farmworkers Movement, by Craig Scharlin and Lilia Villa-
nueva.Their focus on the life and times of Vera Cruz, a former
United Farm Workers vice president,is a valuable contribution to
the history of Filipino efforts to organize strong agricultural
unions.Finally,there is Chris Friday’s authoritative history,Orga-
nizing Asian American Labor:The Pacific Coast Canned-Salmon
