All the success of the fertile land did not keep the depression away from disrupting the economy and the decline of Chinese laborers due to age and returning to China. Farmers would rely on the Japanese laborers, and by the 1930s would see an influx of Filipino immigrants arrive looking for work. Filipino immigrants were led by Filipino contractors who would negotiate terms for the workers that followed the crops for harvest throughout California, leading many to the Santa Clara Valley, where they would pick orchard fruits and vegetables. By 1930, over 30,000 Filipinos would reside in California, and an estimated 857 Filipinos would live in Santa Clara County. According to the 1930 federal census, 97 percent were male, and 78 percent were between the age of eighteen and thirty, younger than the Chinese and Japanese men in the County at the time.

Filipino workers kept quiet and to themselves. The white growers did not have ill feelings towards Filipino laborers because of their willingness to work long days and not respond to their poor board and terrible lodging facilities. Filipinos were viewed as courteous and polite when they did not have their heads down and were quiet. The Filipino contractors did not typically charge fees to farm owners and instead would take fees by charging laborers for room and board and transportation. Filipino laborers found work not only with white farmers but with Japanese farmers as well. Japanese farmers that created established operations would connect with Filipino contractors who would gather hired help for the labor-intensive berry and vegetable crops. Employing the Filipino laborer would help the Japanese farmer during the depression years when crops were considered less desired than the orchard farms.

This photograph was taken at the Forth and Bayshore Farms, leased by Florentino Magno. Pictured from left to right are John Quilindrino, Helen Ragsac, Dolores Escalante, Adeline Quibela, and Dorothy Quibela. Photo courtesy of Robert Ragsac.

Three women working on the Fourth and Bayshore Farm, leased by Florentino Magno, with string bean plants behind them. From left to right are Diaga Quibelan, Mercedes Raras, and María (Mary) Ragsac. Courtesy of Robert Ragsac.

Jacinto Siquig was born in the Philippines in 1905 and traveled to America to study agriculture and planned to return back to the Philippines to teach college. However, he did not get to realize his dream but became an important man in the local community. He helped found the Northside Community Center and worked to better the lives of Filipino immigrants. Here Jacinto recalls his arrival in Santa Clara Valley.

“I was about twenty-six years old when I first came here. I was first living in Mountain View. We picked some prunes in the Santa Clara Valley. At that time, there were no other workers except Filipinos. There were, occasionally, other groups like the Mexicans, but there were not very many of them. For a single person, picking prunes was not a very lucrative work, as far as money is concerned. Picking prunes is meant for a family or a group of families. Their earnings are put together in one hand. They make quite a few dollars for a group of families. If you are by yourself at $1.50 or $2.00 a ton, you can barely make out a dollar a day. To pick a ton of prunes for two dollars was rather hard. But, at the same time, you had to get some kind of work to keep you going. I went and lived in the hayloft of a barn in Sunnyvale. There were some other Filipinos there that I happened to know. When I arrived here by Greyhound Bus in the San Jose station, my uncle met me. He just happened to go to the bus station. He took me to where he was living in that hayloft barn in Sunnyvale. They cooked downstairs over three big stones. We stayed there for the whole summer.”

Growing AgriCultural Roots

Filipino Farmworkers

Veggielution