The Filipino American Experience

Lecture on the International Hotel Struggle. Corresponds with Weeks 8 and 9 reading.

This lecture starts with a guest presentation by Angelica Cabande, Organizational Director of the South of Market Action Network (SOMCAN) who discusses current issues of gentrification facing Filipino communities in San Francisco. Prof. Rodriguez then transitions to a discussion of "cultural citizenship." Corresponds with Week 9 readings.

Discusses contemporary transnational Filipino migrant activism. The lecture connects to the discussion of Professor Rodriguez's text Migrants for Export. While the text (and lecture) looked at why and how Filipino migrants have become the world's workers, this lecture examines the kinds of activist work Filipino migrants have engaged in globally to contest their export as workers. Corresponds with week 7 readings.

Begins discussion of Professor Rodriguez's book, Migrants for Export. The text examines why and how the Philippines has emerged as the largest labor-exporting country in the world. Corresponds to readings for weeks 6 and 7 under the topic of "How did we get everywhere and what our experiences?"

This track provides an overview of the lecture on Race, Empire and Citizenship (see part 2 for full lecture); also discusses Carter Woodson, the father of Black History Month and his connection to the Philippines.

In this quick discussion of contemporary Filipino immigrant issues, Rodriguez explains how the "three basic problems" as discussed in Bulosan, explain emigration from the Philippines. The class transitions from a focus on the Philippines to Filipinos' early experiences in the U.S. Rodriguez discusses how race has shaped who is able to claim formal membership (i.e. citizenship in the United States) and begins to sketch out how this impacted Filipinos as U.S. "nationals" (neither quite citizens, and neither quite foreigners).

Professor Rodriguez discusses Campomanes' work, including his interview in "Positively No Filipinos Allowed" (2006) in analyzing "imperial amnesia," that is, the United States' failure to recognize and narrate its history and trajectory as one of empire.

Professor Rodriguez gives an overview of the Balce's chapter in "Positively No Filipinos Allowed" (2006) titled "Filipino Bodies, Lynching and the Language of Empire." She examines the relations and connections between African Americans and Filipinos during the colonial period.

Professor Rodriguez provides an overview of the ways that U.S. capital has depended on racialized labor for particular kinds of work from the enslavement of African to the importation of Asian labor. She situates U.S. Filipinos within this context and history.

Professor Rodriguez examines "Manifest Destiny" and the rise of U.S. imperialism. She discusses the Philippine-American War and the colonization of the Philippines.

This is an overview of the "sociological imagination" and how to use it to understand Filipino American immigration historically and in the contemporary period. Overview of the rise of capitalism in the U.S. and its dependence on racialized labor as the context for understanding immigration.

Emphasizing a sociological approach to the Filipino American experience (specifically the intersection of biography and history), this lecture overviews key historical moments in the rise of U.S. imperialism and its role in producing emigration from the Philippines. The aim of the lecture is to complicate the idea that immigration to the U.S. is merely the outcome of individual choices.

This class is an overview of Professor Rodriguez's sociological (i.e.historical, structural, critical) approach to understanding Filipino community formation in the U.S. In addition, it provides a description of the course requirements. Drawing inspiration from the original demands of Ethnic Studies student activists from which Asian American Studies emerges, Professor Rodriguez insists, "the more you know, the more you owe," hence, all assignments for the course have a community-service orientation.