Navy Captain Eleanor Connie Mariano was promoted to Rear Admiral, the highest military rank occupied by a Filipino-American, circa 2000. A historic traveling exhibit called Singgalot The Ties that Bind: Filipinos in America from Colonial Subjects to Citizens, will be open to the public from Feb. 12 to April 22 at the Charles B. Wang Center, Room 201, Stony Brook, NY 11794 (Exit 62 off the Long Island Expressway). 1 / 5
A community opening program is slated on March 3 (at 3 p.m.), with campus opening reception on March 8 (at 6 p.m.). Admission is free. Developed by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, Singgalot tells of the lives, culture, community and achievements of Filipino-Americans. After tracing the first trans-oceanic trade mission between Manila and Acapulco in the 1500s, the exhibit explores the tenuous political relationship between the United States and the Philippines, when Spain ceded the Pacific island following the Spanish American War. "Singgalot" provides plenty of facts and trivia from early Filipino sailors landing on American soil in the 1600s and the first Filipino settlements in America traced in the bayous and marshes of Louisiana, to some 700 Filipinos in U.S. who fought in World War II, and the more than 2.7 million people of Filipino descent now thriving in various states. The public will be treated to rarely seen historical images detailing Filipino migration between 1906 and 1935 as workers at Hawaii sugar plantations, West Coast farms, and Alaskan canneries. When the U.S. Government sounded the call to arms in the 1940s, Filipino immigrants answered, serving as infantrymen and earning respect from a grateful nation. Nearly 20 years later, the 1965 Immigration Act hastened a third major wave of Filipinos, who would champion major changes in gender equality and class in the Filipino-American community and make significant contributions to the fight for civil rights. 2 / 5
"Singgalot" is presented in cooperation with Collaborative Opportunities for Raising Empowerment (CORE), Filipino Children s Fund, Inc.; Filipino American Human Services, Inc. (FAHSI), Filipino American Unity for Progress (UniPro), Philippine Consulate General of New York, Philippine United Organization (PUSO) of Stony Brook, Silliman University Gratitude Goodwill Ambassadors, Dumaguete City, Philippines; Stony Brook University s Asian and Asian American Studies Department; and Suffolk County s Asian American Advisory Board. The Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University initiates and collaborates with academic departments, student groups, community organizations and individuals in presenting the public with a multifaceted, intellectually sound, and humane understanding of Asia and Asian-American cultures, and their relationship to other cultures. For more information about "Singgalot," call Jennifer Iacona of Charles B. Wang Center at 631.632.4400 or e-mail wangcenter@stonybrook.edu 3 / 5
Filipino workers fill agricultural demands of the West Coast and Hawaii in the 1800s. Florentino 1920. Ravelo and three other Filipino workers on railroad tracks in Montana, circa 4 / 5
Early Filipino-Americans in Chicago convene to commemorate Rizal Day. Hawaii s sugar cane and pineapple workers, circa 1900s. 5 / 5