Watsonville is in the Heart (WIITH) is a community-driven public history initiative to preserve and uplift stories of Filipino migration and labor in the city of Watsonville and greater Pajaro Valley. Presently, the WIITH team is creating a new archive documenting the plight, struggles, vitality, and resilience of the manong generation of Filipino migrants who first settled in the Pajaro Valley in the early twentieth century. The archive features manong experiences and those of their families through oral history accounts, photos, personal records, and material culture objects.
The initiative will include the launch of an interactive digital platform featuring the archive, the creation of a California K-12 curriculum component responsive to Ethnic Studies guidelines, and the mounting of a culminating art exhibit that brings together the WIITH archive and the Bay Area and Central Coast artist communities.
View the Watsonville is in the Heart Digital Archive here: https://wiith.ucsc.edu/
The project is spearheaded by Dioscoro Recio, Jr. (The Tobera Project) in partnership with UC Santa Cruz faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students:
- Co-PI’s: Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez, Assistant Professor of History; Steve McKay, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Labor Studies
- Doctoral Candidate Researchers: Christina Ayson Plank (HAVC) and Meleia Simon-Reynolds (History)
- Undergraduate Researchers: Markus Faye Portacio, Katrina Mitsuko Pagaduan, Gracie Mendoza, David Mlynski, and Eva Mcbride
- Community Research Assistants: Olivia Sawi, Amanda Gamban
- Organizational Partners: Watsonville Public Library, Asian Cultural Experience
This project has received support from The Humanities Institute, the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, the Ow Family Foundation, the Filipino Community Center of Watsonville, California Humanities, the UCSC Committee on Research New Faculty Research Grant, and the UCSC Arts Research Institute.
Publications
- Christina Ayson Plank, Meleia Simon-Reynolds, Kathleen Gutierriez, Steve McKay and Olivia Sawi (forthcoming 2023). Building a Community Archive: Preserving and Uplifting Stories of Filipino Labor and Migration," co-authored with Filipino American National Historical Society Journal volume 11
- Ayson Plank, C., & Simon-Reynolds, M. (2022). Watsonville is in the Heart: Documenting Histories of Transpacific Filipino Migration in the Pajaro Valley. Pacific Arts: The Journal of the Pacific Arts Association, 22(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.5070/
PC222156851
Recent News
- UCSC News - National Endowment for the Humanities honors Watsonville Is In The Heart with a prestigious $75,000 project grant
- Campus+Community - Watsonville is in the Heart: A Partnership with the Tobera Project to Preserve Filipino History in Pajaro Valley, CA
- KION 46 News Channel - Making their mark, keeping the Filipino American history alive on the Central Coast
- Re:Work, Labor Radio UCLA Labor Center - Episode 34 - The Tractor Princess
- Good News Pilipinas - Watsonville digital archive honors 1st filipino immigrants in California.
- The Pajaronian - Watsonville is in the Heart launches Digital Archive
- California Humanities - “Watsonville Is in the Heart” Sharing & Archiving the History of Migrant Filipino Labor
- Positively Filipino - Storytellers of the Pajaro Valley
- Pajaro Valley Magazine - History with a Heart - Watsonville’s Filipino community celebrates launch of historical archive
- Inquiry - UC Santa Cruz Research Magazine Fall 2022
- City on a Hill Press – Watsonville is in the Heart: Honoring the Manong Generation in California’s Central Coast
- KSBW 8 news video – UC Santa Cruz debuts digital archive of the first Filipinos in Watsonville
- INQUIRER.net news – California museum launches digital archive on Filipino pioneers
- The Pajaronian news – Watsonville in the Heart to launch digital archive
- KION news video – Filipino history digital archive is unveiled at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History
- KSQD community radio – New Archive Celebrates Filipino Heritage
- Good Times event information – Things To Do in Santa Cruz and Good Work: Digital Restoration
- UCSC news – Watsonville Filipino History Archive Set To Launch At April 9th Public Event
- UCSC news – Preserving the legacy of Watsonville’s first Filipino immigrants
- KSBW 8 news video – Project CommUNITY special: AAPI Heritage on the Central Coast
Events
Watsonville is in the Heart: Digital Archive Launch & Community Talk Story
April 9th, 2022, 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Online Screening: Talk Story II: Dollar a Day, Ten Cents a Dance
January 30th, 2022, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Watsonville is in the Heart: Oral History Project Panel
June 17th, 2021, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
