[Sample Chapter]

M	ore than 1.4 million Filipino-Americans, currently the 10th largest immigrant group by nation of origin, live in the U.S.; they are one of the largest Asian-American ethnic groups, and certainly the fastest-growing.

Early immigration began in 1899, when the United States took possession of the Philippines from Spain after the Spanish-American War. For 35 years, Filipinos traveled under American passports and could come to the United States without restrictions, this at a time when Chinese immigration was banned and Japanese immigrants were increasingly prevented from becoming citizens or buying land. However, anti-Asian attitudes extended to Filipinos, and half of the 133,000 contract workers in Hawaii during this period returned home (sometimes with amounts of money that made them substantial landowners back in the Philippines). The mainland population grew later and more slowly; they were mostly agricultural and cannery workers in California and Alaska, with a small but important group of college students and another of Navy employees in Chicago and other shipyard ports.

In 1934 the United States granted the Philippines commonwealth status, and effectively ended large-scale immigration until the 1965 immigration reform acts. The Hawaiian community remained predominantly plantation workers through the 1950s. About 169,000 Filipino-Americans live in Hawaii, the second-largest Asian-American minority there. On the mainland, Filipino-American farm workers in California organized the first grape strikes, and united with Mexican-Americans in the 1960s United Farm Workers’ Organizing Committee. When Filipino immigration expanded in the 1960s, professional employment opened up. English-speaking Filipino nurses who had trained in an American curriculum were able to get licensed for nursing in the U.S., and appeared on the staffs of big city hospitals.

Prior to Spanish and American colonization, the 7,000 islands of the Philippines were already home to a multi-ethnic society, with perhaps 60 dialects. Tagalog has been the national language since independence in 1948, and is also the home language of people from around Manila. Ilocanos from northern Luzon are thought to be the majority of Filipino-Americans, and Visayan-speakers from the central islands are the next-largest sub-ethnic group. Filipino-Americans have sometimes settled by language groups, so regional cooking differences may appear in American cities.

Filipino-American cooking partakes of many influences, with some Chinese-Spanish dishes that are the original “Pacific Rim fusion food.” So far, the most apparent Americanization has been the emphasis of chicken and pork adobo over the other 11 variations in The Philippine Cookbook by Reynaldo Alejandro! Some other common Filipino-American dishes are pansit (a noodle dish), lumpia (egg rolls), and beef pochero.