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To depict the "Manong Generation", I cull photographs from the “Watsonville Is In Heart” digital archive which “preserves and uplifts the stories of the manong generation (Ilokano/Tagalog for "older brother" - the first wave of Filipino migrant farmworkers to arrive in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Focused on the pioneering families of Watsonville and the greater Pajaro Valley, the archive enshrines the manong, the women who married the manong, and their descendents’ memories of migration, labor, leisure, and community formation. The digital archive includes oral histories, family photographs, family heirlooms, letters and correspondences, and newspaper clippings.” (https://wiith.ucsc.edu/about)
Filipino Workers In A Sugar Cane Plantation in Hawaii
54 x 72 in, oil on canvas. 2023
I envisioned political figures stuck in Capitol Hill like fruit in a gelatin mold.