Dapper hairstyles. Crisp creased lines. Proud collars. It was a common practice for manong to buy suits exactly like the stars or get them custom made. These suits were much more than just handsome pieces of apparel. They were ways in which these manong signaled success to people back home in the Philippines, to the women they fancied in the dance halls, to the white men who dominated the cities they worked in, and even to each other.

Philippine studies scholar Mina Roces argues that manong evoked the “Hollywood leading man” look through what they chose to wear. The Hollywood leading man was someone who was typically depicted as suave and stylish. Though material conditions restricted the manong from becoming these “leading men,” they could look the part–even in the face of discriminatory laws, labor inequities, and financial pressures. This ideal image that they carefully crafted was also expressed through their mannerisms and spending habits. They tried to emulate a Hollywood bachelor lifestyle and were frequently found at taxi dance halls or gambling events. They owned cars and posed frequently by vehicles in photographs, as in the photo Unknown Man In Front of a Car in the Bosque Family Collection.

These photographs that were sent to families back in the Philippines were meant to cloak the hard labor and hardships many manong endured. Such as photographs like Studio Photograph of Eight Men from the Sulay collection and Group Photograph of Manongs in Suits in the Millares collection, whether taken in a studio or more casually the look of prestige was well broadcasted. The successful broadcasting cloaked difficulties with contractors, the long travels for work, and events like the Watsonville race riots, all of which are discussed in Juanita Sulay Wilson’s interview. The photographs communicated comfortable living and the oft-repeated narrative of America as a place of opportunity.