Studio Photograph of DeOcampo Cousins in the Philippines

This studio photograph of two DeOcampo cousins contains an inscription on the back of the photograph that reads,

Dear Uncle + Auntie and cousin, Just a simple remembrance from your loving [indecipherable] Always, Francisco R. DeOcampo

These “simple remembrances” allowed extended families to remain connected across borders and oceans. According to his daughters, Paul had many transnational correspondences with family in the Philippines. Paul sent money to family in the Philippines and sponsored many family members to migrate to the US. It is unclear if these DeOcampo cousins were eventually sponsored to immigrate to the US.

Letter from Adelina and Fedencio Madrid to Clemente Florendo Sr., 1984

This two-part letter was sent from Adelina and Fedencio Madrid in Barrio Callao, Alicia, Isabela, Philippines to Clemente Florendo, Sr. in Watsonville, California. In the first letter dated September 8, 1984 Adelina expresses her longing to see her brother, Clemente. She writes, 

You know brod, sis + kids we dream of you in our hearts, But sad to say we could only talk to you by dreams for you are so far away from us in the Philippines.

These emotions of yearning for family continue in the second letter written by Adelina, who had not seen her brother Clemente since he left the Philippines for the States when she was an infant. In the second letter dated October 18, 1984 she writes, 

My children like also to visit you there in California but it is impossible cause we are so poor and had not money to spend.

Adelina’s letters to Clemente touch on the difficulty of travel and how costly it was to visit family living abroad. This is the only object in the exhibition that openly discusses the financial toll it took for kin to be reunited with one another, although you will find other oral histories in the collections that remark on the difficulties of returning to the Philippines and the cost of reunification. Adelina’s words offer comfort but also serve as a reminder of how sorrowful it was to be so far from family. Such words prompt us to reflect on the relationships the manong and their families had to nurture from a distance.

Paul "Skippy" Tabalan DeOcampo Arriving Home from the Philippines

This photograph shows Paul “Skippy” Tabalan DeOcampo posing on the tarmac in front of a Philippines Air Lines plane. According to his daughters, Antoinette Yvonne DeOcampo-Lechtenburg and Veronica Hernandez, he had just returned from a trip to the Philippines to manage his visa paperwork. Manong faced bureaucratic hurdles when immigrating to the United States. Often, these obstacles were expensive for many manong and their families to shoulder on their own.

Filipina Relative of Marcel Bosque

This studio photograph of a Filipina relative of Marcel Bosque was sent to Marcel Bosque from the Philippines. The note on the back indicates that the woman pictured graduated from fashion school. Updating family abroad through the writing of recent accomplishments was a common form of communicating big life events that took place.