Clemente Florendo Sr.'s Photograph Album

Mary Florendo Perry created this photograph album to display her father Clemente Florendo Sr.'s most treasured mementos. She made the album as a young girl in the 1960s and1970s. She remembers trying to organize the photographs by subject and size even though she did not know many of the people or places depicted in them. Making albums and getting photographs developed at Woolworth's was a fun activity that Mary did with her family. Presently, Mary keeps this album in her personal collection. It honors her father's life and migration experiences. The following are descriptions of each page of Clemente's photograph album as contextualized by Mary.

Page 1: The first page of the photograph album contains eight photographs of unknown children.
Page 2: The second page of the album includes eight photographs of various young men, women, and an unknown family.
Page 3: The third page also has eight photographs of unknown men, women, and children.
Page 4: The fourth page includes eight photographs of Clemente Florendo Sr. posed with an unknown family in front of a car in a field.
Page 5: Page five contains eight photographs. The bottom two images depict Clemente Florendo Sr. posed with an unknown family.
Page 6: The sixth page includes newspaper clippings of obituaries for Clemente Florendo Sr.'s friends and fellow manongs, Dionicio "Benny" Bargas and Alejandro Isidro Sr. It also features a newspaper clipping titled "Monsoons Trigger Pinatubo, explosions cause 200 quakes." The photograph on the top left depicts Clemente Florendo Sr. wearing a black suit.
Page 7: The seventh page contains four photographs of young men posing wearing suits. There is a photograph of an unknown young girl tucked between. The top right photograph is a studio portrait of Clemente Florendo Sr. wearing a white suit. The photograph was likely taken in the Philippines.
Page 8: The eighth page has eleven photographs. The photograph in the top row in the middle shows Ruth Abenojar and an unknown man in the Philippines. The photograph on the top right is a portrait of Crispino Estilong, Clemente Florendo Sr.'s cousin. The photograph in the middle of the page portrays from left to right Maria Quintero Florendo, an unknown man, and Ruth Abenojar, with Mary Florendo Perry, posed in the middle.
Page 9: The ninth page includes 5 photographs. The photographs on the top left and the bottom left are a group of pictures of young men at a high school in La Union, Philippines. Below it is a Christmas card sent from the Abenojar family; the image is of Ruth Abenojar. The photograph on the top right depicts two children in the Philippines who are Clemente Florendo Sr.'s niece and nephew. A note on the back of the photograph asks Clemente not to forget them.
Page 12: The twelfth page contains six photographs of unknown children and family members. The image on the bottom left is a postcard sent from Mission Street in Alaska—possibly sent from another manong working the Pacific Northwestern migrant circuit.
Page 13: The thirteenth page includes three photographs taken at the funerals of unidentified family members. It also contains a newspaper obituary about Gabriel Segura Jr. a family member through marriage.
Page 14: The fourteenth page includes four photographs. The top two are studio photographs of unknown women in the Philippines. The bottom left is an unknown couple on their wedding day. The bottom right depicts Ruth Abenojar sitting with Mary Florendo Perry.
Page 15: The fifteenth page has six photographs. The top right image is of Maria Quintero Florendo standing in the Florendo family kitchen at their home in Watsonville. The photograph in the middle row on the left is Clemente Florendo Sr. and his cousin, Crispino Estilong. The photograph in the middle on the right is Crispino Estilong and Clemente Florendo Sr. with Clemente Sr.'s children Clemente Jr. and Mary Florendo. The bottom image is a group photograph of students graduating from a high school in the Philippines in 1929.
Page 16: The sixteenth page includes a high school graduation portrait of Ruth Abenojar.
Page 17: The seventeenth page has a large photograph of Crispino Estilong at an airport.
Page 18: The eighteenth page includes six photographs. The photograph on the top right depicts Ruth Abenojar when she lived in Colorado.
Page 19: The nineteenth page includes a group of men at Doroteo Florendo's burial. The man on the right in a military uniform is Crispino Estilong. The man standing next to him in a suit is Clemente Florendo Sr.
Page 20: The final page of the album contains three photographs. The image on the top depicts a group of people at Doroteo Florendo's burial. The photographs on the bottom are studio photographs taken in the Philippines. The image on the bottom left depicts Clemente Florendo Sr.

Mary Florendo Perry

c. 1969-1970

Mary Florendo Perry

Watsonville is in the Heart (WIITH) is a community-driven public history initiative to preserve and uplift stories of Filipino migration and labor in the city of Watsonville and the greater Pajaro Valley. Images were donated and digitally reproduced from private collections of individuals and families. Copyright remains with the original owners. All images included herein are intended for personal or educational use only. Any reproduction, redistribution, publication, or other use, by any means, without prior written permission is prohibited. Please note that the images on this website are not included at their full resolution. For permission to publish or reproduce and for higher resolution files, please contact the project director at wiith@ucsc.edu. If you are the rightful copyright holder of this item and its use online constitutes an infringement of your copyright, please contact the project director to discuss its removal from the archive.

11.5x10 inches

Physical Object

FLO.2021.12

Jeff Tagami, "My Father Takes To The Road", The Poems of Jeff Tagami, on Good Times, accessed February 15th, 2024 https://www.goodtimes.sc/the-poems-of-jeff-tagami/ Jeff Tagami, "Song of The Pajaro", The Poems of Jeff Tagami, on Good Times, accessed February 15th, 2024 https://www.goodtimes.sc/the-poems-of-jeff-tagami/ Mette Sandbye, "Looking at the family photo album: a resumed theoretical discussion of why and how", in Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, no.6 (2014):1, accessed on February 15, 2024 https://doi.org/10.3402/jac.v6.25419 Jessica Nakamura, "Diaspora and Performance: Reenacting the Family Album", in Trans Asia Photography, no.9 (2018):1 accessed on February 15, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1215/215820251_9-1-105

Photograph Album