In No Man's Shadow: The Life of Filipina Businesswoman Apolonia Dangzalan

One of the major characteristics of pre-1965 period of Filipino immigration history to the is the dominance of male migrants.  How would the contours of this history to the change if we placed the experiences of Filipino women at the center of the narrative?  This paper utilizes the life history of Filipina businesswoman Apolonia Dangzalan as a window to view female immigration from the to and then to the mainland United States in the 1920s.  It highlights the themes of Filipino women’s mobility—both spatial and socio-economic—in the contexts of changing gender norms and labor opportunities under U.S. colonialism in the Philippines and the rise of a multiracial labor force for U.S. agribusiness in Hawaii and California.

Dangzalan was born in 1896 in San Nicolas, Ilocos Sur on the largest of the Philippine islands.  She migrated to, with her husband in 1924.  While her husband worked in the sugar cane fields, she began a small sewing business for the Filipino community.  In 1925, she moved again with her husband to and then,, but then divorced him in 1926.  Dangzalan went on to own and manage a pool hall and a restaurant in Marysville.  She then joined a nephew in, opened two boarding houses for Filipino agricultural workers, and also worked in the male-dominated field of agricultural labor contracting.  In addition to the Filipino community, Anglo Americans and Mexican Americans also frequented Dangzalan’s businesses.

This paper is largely based on oral interviews conducted in 1977 by Meria Knaster for the UCSC Library's Regional History Project series focusing on the ethnic and agricultural history of.  One of these interviews featured Dangzalan and another focused on her nephew, Frank Barbra.