Filipino Newspapers

The Filipino Pioneer was founded (1930s) by Juan C. Dionisio in Stockton, CA. Dionisio was a businessman, short-story writer, and labor organizer who later became the Consul General of the Philippines. Antonio Hamoy, who graduated from the University of Nebraska’s School of Journalism in 1937, became the editor in 1938. The Pioneer maintained a balance of reporting on labor, local, and international issues. It also briefly featured a column by a Filipina who was dubbed “L.A. Pinay.”

The Filipino Student’s Magazine was published in Berkeley (1905, 1906) and edited by Jaime Araneta, Ponciano Reyes, and manager Felipe Buencamino. Published in both English and Spanish, its articles, essays, and letters addressed the experiences of Filipino pensionado college students in the U.S. and also the crucial issue of Philippine independence. One of its primary backers was the American Anti-Imperialist League.

The Filipino Student (1912-1914) was also published in Berkeley, and edited by Canuto O. Borromeo and Tomas Confesor. Its editors and writers continued to write articles supporting Philippine independence, but they also promoted the modernization of industry in the Philippines, while expressing ambivalence about the modernization of Filipino women.

The Philippine Journal was founded (1930s) by Juan C. Dionisio as the organ of the Filipino Agricultural Laborer’s Association, which at one point had 30,000 members. Dionisio became the president of F.A.L.A. in 1941 (see also the Filipino Pioneer). Originally founded in Seattle, the Journal was later based in Stockton, CA.

The Philippine Commonwealth Times (mid 1930s) was published and edited by Mariano G. (M.G.) Alviar out of Santa Maria and Los Angeles. The brothers Carlos and Aurelio Bulosan were listed as City Editors, and were also frequent contributors. Essays and articles by the Bulosan brothers reveal that the newspaper had strong connections with Southern California’s progressive literary scene.

Philippine Independent News was founded by Luis Agudo in 1921. The newspaper, which went through several name changes, was an organ of the Caballeros de Dimas-Alang, an international Filipino fraternal organization. Agudo was a labor and civil rights activist, described by Alex Fabros Sr. as an “unsung hero” and the “brain-trust of the local Filipino Community …great organizer … spell-binding orator.”

The Philippines Mail was founded by Luis Agudo in 1930; Delfin Cruz became the editor in 1934; under Cruz’s direction, the Mail became one of the longest running Filipino newspapers in the U.S., ending its production in the mid-1980s. While the Mail was pro-labor, it featured a balance of local and Philippine news, and also published poems (many by members of the Juan Steinbeck Poetry Society”) and essays by local Filipina and Filipino writers.

The Three Stars was founded in Stockton in 1928 by Luis Agudo, D.L. Marcuelo, and N.C. Villanueva. The stars in its title and masthead represented the north, central, and southern Philippines. The newspaper was published in both English and Ilocano. Like the Philippines Mail, the Three Stars was pro-labor, but it differed from the Mail in its frequent use of politically progressive feature essays, and inclusion of articles by well-known white writers.

2 Replies to “Filipino Newspapers”

  1. Nov. 1, 2021
    Dear project personnel

    Please contact me to share more about your wonderful oral history project and to visit in Salinas. I am in San Francisco – my name is Janet Alvarado and my forebears have been based in the City since the 1910s -20s the men (US Navy WW1 and my uncle and dad WWII 1st Filipino Infantry).

    GOOGLE Ricardo Ocreto Alvarado

    Ricardo is my dad (ROA 1914 – 1976) . He arrived in 1928.

    Janet
    415-794-4037

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