Sulay Family Collection

Mamerto Agustin “Max” Sulay was born in 1907 and raised by his siblings in the municipality of Licab, in the province of Nueva Ecija, in the Philippines. He went to school in Guimba, Nueva Ecija, and obtained a sixth-grade education. In September 1928, he immigrated to Honolulu with his father-in-law and nephew-in-law from his first marriage. The three traveled to Hawai‘i on a ship called the Sandviken. In 1930, Mamerto and his nephew-in-law left Hawai‘i to work in California, arriving first in Wilmington. Mamerto's father-in-law returned to Ilocos Sur in the Philippines.

In the continental United States, Mamerto worked as a farm laborer, crew boss, and contractor. He traveled along the west coast following seasonal crop rotations. Census data first documents Mamerto in Union, California where he resided in Camp 5 of the Canal Ranch on Peltier Road. In the summer of 1939, while working as a laborer in a pea field in Arroyo Grande, he met Virginia Alice Viner.

Virginia was born in Shed, Oregon in 1922. Her parents traveled extensively throughout the United States but briefly settled in San Luis Obispo County. The Viners lived behind a church where her father worked as a groundskeeper. On August 5, 1940, Mamerto and Virginia traveled to Vancouver, Washington to marry to evade anti-miscegenation laws in California.

After their marriage, the two settled in the Pajaro Valley at Rowe Ranch in a Filipino labor camp. The Pajaro Valley was a frequent stop along the agricultural circuit, and many of Mamerto's friends also settled in the area. In 1944, the couple purchased a one-bedroom house on Broadis Street in Watsonville next to a member of the Crosetti family, which had been a long-time employer of Mamerto and his friends. The property was placed in Virginia’s name due to exclusionary property laws that barred Filipinos from owning land. In the 1950s, the house was remodeled by fellow manong, Eddie and Ray Castro.

Mamerto and Virginia had six children: Juanita Sulay Wilson, Manzanita Garcia, Mamerto “Sonny” Sulay, Cristine “Cris” Sulay, Alberto “Bert” Sulay, and Mariano “Mario” Telodro Sulay. Mamerto also had a son, Quirino Sulay, in the Philippines, who immigrated to the United States and settled in Watsonville with his family in the 1970s. The Sulay children attended the gatherings, picnics, parties, and celebrations of the organizations to which their parents belonged including the Aglipay Lodge #26 of the Caballeros de Dimas-Alang, the Filipino Community of Watsonville, and the Filipino Women’s Club of Watsonville.

Virginia passed in 1988, and Mamerto in 1995.

The Sulay Family Collection was contributed to Watsonville is in the Heart by Mamerto and Virginia Sulay's children, Juanita Sulay Wilson and Mariano "Mario" Telodro Sulay, in 2021 and 2022. The collection contains four hundred and twenty-eight items total. It includes two oral history interviews conducted with Juanita and Mario. In the interviews, they reflect on their fathers' migration and labor histories, their parents' marriage, and their experiences growing up mixed-race in Watsonville. In her interview, Juanita also discusses her dedication to researching and archiving her family history. The collection also contains ninety photographs documenting Mamerto's early life as a migrant worker during the 1930s, the family's life in Watsonville, and Mamerto and Virginia's participation in community organizations such as Caballeros de Dimas-Alang and the Filipino Women's Club of Watsonville.

Juanita Sulay Wilson

Mariano "Mario" Telodro Sulay