1929-Watsonville Riots

In 1930, the Watsonville Riots served as a turning point for Asian Americans.  Towns all across California experienced extreme violence and riots for a period of five days.  There were many causes for these riots, the intrusion of Asian laborers into California’s fields was a main reason.  However it was a combined mixture of horror and shock of the mixed racial relations between men and women.  Filipino’s were faced with terror as well as revulsion when they realized Filipino laborers showed interest in American women and the women reciprocated these feelings.  Californians were overwhelmed with fear, jealousy, and rage, and this was a big factor in the cause of the Watsonville Riots.  These riots instilled a new kind of fear for Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino agricultural workers.  White men viewed these little brown Filipino men as a threat to their reign of power and supremacy.  These Watsonville riots started in a pool hall in 1926 and this is what seemed to have brought on the “race war” that plagued Asian Americans for several years to come. It comes down to the white men being possessive and jealous.  The Filipino’s, in defense, said that they did not have too many female companions of their own race and were just wishing to escort some females for companionship with no thought to what race they were.  The first of these riots took place in a pool hall on New Years Eve when a couple of Filipinos boldly escorted white girls to a dance.  The men were beaten down and stoned.  Later on, the riots got more intense and more violent.  Shots were fired, men were killed, and buildings were burned down.  The real trouble started on January 20, 1930 when 200 enraged citizens came to the Filipino Club to disrupt the dance and take nine white women who were inside.  They came with clubs and weapons intending to burn the place down.    The owners retaliated by threatening to shoot if the rioters persisted.  Shots were fired, and cops showed up with gas bombs to break up the riot.  Two men were hit and severely injured.  The sad thing is that the violence didn’t stop.  Three days later a Filipino worker was shot and killed in his sleep.  Five days later, another camp of Filipnio workers was attacked while they slept.  This sort of terrorism on Filipino’s continued and did lasting damage to Filipino heritage and culture.  

Andi Long