Alminiana Family Collection

Amando Ocampo Alminiana was born in the municipality of Bacnotan, in the province of La Union, in the Ilocos region of the Philippines on August 29, 1907. Amando immigrated to the United States in 1929, following his brother, Juan "Johnny" Alminiana, who immigrated to Stockton, California in the 1910s. Juan had first landed in Hawai‘i to work on a sugar plantation before migrating to California to work in agricultural fields. Upon arriving in Stockton after taking passage through San Francisco, Amando worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant. He later became a chef for the same restaurant after learning the trade. Shortly after, he moved to Beverly Hills to work as a houseboy and saved enough money to purchase a pool hall in Los Angeles. In 1934, he sold his pool hall and moved to Watsonville where he opened The Universal Barber Shop on 150 Main Street. The Universal Barbershop and its sister location in Santa Cruz remained open until his retirement in 1994.

In 1942, Amando was recruited to serve in World War II as a trained medic in the First Filipino Infantry. The regiment was assigned to Corregidor Island in the Philippines. It was there that Amando met Rosario “Nena” Nieva Cortes. Rosario was born on October 3, 1914 in Lucena, Quezon, Philippines. She moved to Manila where she received her degree in nursing and met her first husband, Alejandro Cortes, a trained doctor. They had a son named Angelo Anthony Cortes, who was born on August 2, 1941. While serving as medical staff during World War II, Alejandro passed away, leaving Rosario a widow and single mother. Amando met Rosario while stationed in Corregidor, and they later married in Lucena following the war. In 1947, Rosario and her son immigrated to Watsonville to join Amando.

Upon moving to California, Rosario sought to create a lively Filipino community in Watsonville and provide resources to newly arrived Filipinos. In 1951, she founded the Watsonville Filipino Women’s Club. She then later established the Filipino Catholic Association. By organizing events such as pageants, community picnics, resource presentations, and meet-and-greets with Watsonville officials, Rosario sought to raise social and cultural equity for Filipinos in the area.

Together, Amando and Rosario had three children: Angelo Anthony Cortes (b. August 2, 1941 - d. June 24, 2014), Eva Alminiana Monroe (b. 1949), and Rene Alminiana (b. 1951).

The Alminiana Family Collection was contributed to Watsonville is in the Heart by Amando and Rosario Alminiana's daughter, Eva Alminiana Monroe, in 2021. The collection contains a total of fifty-four items. It includes two oral history interviews with Eva during which she reflects on her parents' migration experiences and her own life growing up in Watsonville. The collection also includes individual photographs taken by Amando, Rosario, and their friends, as well as physical objects such as photograph albums, scrapbooks, and Amando's barbershop tools. The material culture items in the collection document the family's life in Watsonville, most notably The Universal Barbershop, Rosario's leadership in several community organizations including the Filipino Women's Club of Watsonville and the Filipino Catholic Association, and the family's leisure activities.

Eva Alminiana Monroe