Pablo Manlapit (January 17, 1891 – April 15, 1969) was a migrant

laborer A laborer (or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor types in the construction industry workforce. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries e ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

, labor organizer, and

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, California, and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

Life

Manlapit was born on January 17, 1891, in the

. He came to

in 1910 as a

migrant worker A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant worker ...

and was under contract to work as a

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

at Hamakua Mill Company in the sugarcane fields of the Hāmākua district of the

island of Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii ) is the largest island in the United States, located in the state of Hawaii. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the North Pacific Ocean. With an area of , it has 63% of th ...

. Manlapit got promoted quickly from fieldwork to foreman (luna), then timekeeper. In June, 1912, he married Annie Kasby, a German-American born in Hawaii and they started to raise a family. They had four children, three girls and one boy between 1913 and 1921. Sometime in 1914 they left the plantation and moved to Hilo, then eventually they moved to Honolulu on

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

before the year ended. After leaving the plantation Manlapit worked many different jobs, published a local Filipino newspaper, Ang Sandata, and studied law. In 1919 Manlapit passed the test for attorneys and was granted a license to practice law. Manlapit's first marriage did not survive his turmoils of being a leader in organizing the plantation workers, his expulsion to California, and his deportation to the Philippines in 1934. Manlapit and Annie became officially divorced in December 1939. Manlapit married Ponciana Calderon in the Philippines and they had a son. Manlapit became active in organizing in the Philippines. After WWII and defeating the Japanese who occupied the Philippines, Manlapit was part of the political circle. In 1949 he returned to Hawaii to visit his children, but due to the government's non-stop harassment his stay was short. He returned to the Philippines. Manlapit worked hard on getting his pardon from governors of Hawaii and eventually received one in 1952 from Governor Oren Long. Pablo Manlapit died of cancer on April 15, 1969.

Status of Filipino migrants

The Filipinos were the last large group of recruited sugarcane plantation workers to migrate to Hawaii. From 1907 to 1931, approximately 120,000 Filipino men came to Hawaii. When they came to Hawaii's plantations, they found that they had to buy everything at the plantation store, and often at highly inflated prices due to shipping and other costs. After living in Hawaii for a while, many began to resent the strict hand of the ''luna'' (foreman), and social

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

that they experienced. They were also not used to the commercial business system. Many believed the practice of fixed prices in the plantation stores to be a violation of their personal freedom because they were accustomed to bargaining in the Philippines. The oldest, poorest housing was given to the Filipinos because they were the lowest skilled and held the least prestigious jobs. They were also the most recent arrivals to Hawaii.

Immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

laws did not permit them to bring families, so the men lived in

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

Organizing

Manlapit became one of the few Filipino

s in the 1920s and distinguished himself as spokesman for the Filipino

labor movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

in Hawaii, spending most of his time organizing and fighting for the rights of plantation laborers. He helped organize the Filipino Labor Union in Hawaii and was a leading figure in the strikes in 1920 and 1924 that involved thousands of plantation workers. In October, 1919, the Japanese Federation of Labor and the Filipino Labor Union joined together to argue against the

Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Founded in 1895, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA) was an unincorporated, voluntary organization of sugarcane plantation owners in the Hawaiian Islands. Its objective was to promote the mutual benefits of its members and the developme ...

for a better working environment. They wanted to increase their salary from $0.72 to $1.25 and have 8 hour workdays. They wanted breaks for certain working conditions. On Oahu on January 19, 1920, 3,000 members of the Filipino Labor Union walked off their jobs. Manlapit led the strike and he believed that the Japanese and Filipinos workers should be united. The Japanese workers soon joined them. By early February 1920, 8300 plantation laborers were on strike, representing 77% of the work force. Filipino workers went on strike because they weren't paid equally for doing the same work as the Japanese workers. The Filipinos were paid $0.69 and the Japanese were paid $0.99. While they were on strike, plantation workers on other islands continued to work to raise about $600,000 in support of the strike. The 1920 Oahu strike lasted for two months and the strikers had to contend with a variety of methods utilized by the plantation owners: eviction of strikers from their homes, hiring of strikebreakers, and prosecution of leaders for conspiracies. Manlapit was not prosecuted but he was subjected to a smear campaign. He was accused of extorting money in exchange for calling off the strike. The plantation owners, assisted by the government, countered this with a "divide-and-counter" tactic. They charged the Japanese workers with attempting to make Hawaii an Asian province. Later in the year the Japanese changed the name of their union to the Hawaiian Federation of Labor, in an effort to counter

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

accusations. They invited all workers of every race to join.

Hanapēpē Massacre

So strong was his influence among his countrymen that Manlapit was implicated in the violent September, 1924 strike on

Kauai Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

—later known as the Hanapēpē Massacre—even though he wasn't there. Sixteen strikers were killed during the confrontation with police, as well as four policemen. This drew the ire of plantation owners and they persecuted him with various small charges. Manlapit was arrested with 60 other Filipinos, tried for conspiracy, and sentenced to 2 to 10 years at Oahu Prison. In order to prevent his involvement in future activities in Hawaii, Manlapit was

deported Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

to the U.S. mainland while bearing a conditional

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

judgment. Upon his parole, he went to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Expulsion

In California, Manlapit also went into labor organizing until he traveled back to Hawaii in 1933. Again, he dove into the fray of labor organizing and this eventually led to his permanent expulsion from Hawaii and deportation to the

in 1935. His family was broken because of this move. This ended his colorful but tragic career in the Hawaii

. Manlapit worked for the Philippine government in the pre-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and postwar years. He supported

Manuel Roxas Manuel Acuña Roxas (born Manuel Roxas y Acuña; ; January 1, 1892 – April 15, 1948) was a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the fifth president of the Philippines, who served from 1946 until his death due to heart attacks in 194 ...

in his presidency bid after World War II and served in some mid-level government positions before getting involved once more in labor matters which he mortgaged his family home to support Filipino workers on strike, and then becoming homeless and poor.

Notes

References

Kerkvliet, M.T. ''Unbending Cane: Pablo Manlapit, a Filipino Labor Leader in Hawai'i'', 2002.

External links

Biography
from the Center for Labor Education & Research University of Hawai'i - West O'ahu.

of "Unbending Cane." {{DEFAULTSORT:Manlapit, Pablo 1891 births 1969 deaths American trade union leaders 20th-century Filipino lawyers Deaths from cancer in the Philippines Filipino trade union leaders Exiles from Hawaii Trade unionists from Hawaii Filipino emigrants to the United States American trade unionists of Filipino descent