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Watsonville is in the Heart: Community Digital Archive

Liz Tana's Scrapbook

Dublin Core

Title

Liz Tana's Scrapbook

Description

A green scrapbook made by Elizabeth "Liz" Taytayon Tana. It documents her family and childhood in Watsonville. The majority of the photographs were taken during the 1960s and 1970s. Liz created the scrapbook using photographs and ephemera from her parents' (Estelita Taytayon Tabios and Clemente Tana) personal collections when she was involved in a scrapbooking organization called Creative Memories. The scrapbook includes captions handwritten by Liz and features photographs of her parents, siblings (Clemente Taytayon Tana, Alberto Tana, and Alvin Tabios), and close relatives and family —including members of the Taytayon, Tejada, and Cawaling families.
Page 1: This page is dedicated to Liz Tana’s birth and is decorated with blue and pink construction paper, a paper cutout of a stork, and baby-themed stickers. There is also a cutout from Watsonville Community Hospital including Liz's birth date, time of birth, and weight. Photo 1: A black and white baby picture of Liz Tana. Photo 2 and Photo 4 are baby pictures of Liz Tana bundled in a floral blanket, next to them there is a handwritten caption "11/2 months." Photo 3: Estelita Taytayon Tabios holding baby Liz Tana, captioned "Liz and Mom." Photo 5: A woman holding baby Liz Tana next to a young boy, captioned "Liz and Jr. Tejada." Jr. Teda refers to Fred Tejada—a close family friend.
Page 2: The main subject of this page is Liz Tana’s father—Clemente Vargas Tana. Photo 1: A large watercolor drawing of a man, captioned "Clemente Vargas Tana (father).” The drawing is signed "Harris, 1957." According to Liz, the. image was kept in a frame at her family home when she was growing up. Photo 2: A photograph of Clemente and Liz Tana. It is captioned "Daddy and Liz Coconut Grove, Santa Cruz." Liz remembers her parents taking her and her brothers to Coconut Grove often, especially when relatives visited. It is dated 1957. Photo 3: Clemente and Liz Tana in a house. It is captioned "Liz + Daddy" and "May 1958." It was taken at the Tana family home Casserly Road in Watsonville.
Page 3: This page features Liz Tana as a young child with various family members. On the page, some of the captions refer to her as "Mary Beth"—a childhood nickname. Photo 1: A baby (Liz Tana) held up in front of a field. It is captioned "'Mary Beth 4 months." Photo 2: A watercolor drawing of a woman (Estelita Taytayon Tabios) holding two bags. It is captioned "Estelita Taytayon." According to Liz, the. image was kept in a frame at her family home when she was growing up. Photo 3: A baby (Liz Tana) in front of a car. Photo 4: A close-up of a baby (Liz Tana) smiling. Photo 5: A baby and a young girl. It is captioned “Liz and cousin Patricia Cezar.” Patricia was Liz's first cousin on her father’s side. Photo 6: A woman, a man, a baby, and an older man who is cut off in the picture. The caption on top reads “Auntie Dining, Liz, Uncle Encio" while the bottom caption reads “Aladina and Florencio Cawaling.” Florencio Cawaling was Clemente Tana's cousin. Photo 7: A man (Clemente Tana) and a woman (Estelita Tabios) holding a baby (Fred Tejada) in front of a house. The bottom caption reads “Dad and Mom Tana Jr. Tejeda,” about cousin Fred Tejeda. The side caption reads “Casserly Road” about the house in the background of the photograph.
Page 4: This page features Clemente Taytayon Tana's ( who is referred to as Jr) birthday and other moments with him, Liz Tana, and other family members at Tana's Tulsa Lane home in Watsonville. Photo 1: A toddler posed on a carousel horse at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. It is captioned “Liz and Mom. Coconut Grove.” Photo 2: A young boy (Clemente Tana Jr.) and a girl (Liz Tana) at a table with a birthday cake. The caption reads “Jr and Liz Tana.” Photo 3: A young girl (Liz Tana), an older man (Clemente Tana), and other two young girls (Patricia and Lolita Cezar) at a kitchen table. The captions read “Liz and Daddy- Pat and Lolita Cezar” and “Ah! Bubble up and Bagoong.” Liz remembers her family eating Filipino food often, however, she likes bagoong (a Filipino fermented shrimp paste). Photo 5: Four children at a kitchen table. The captions read “Jr’s 1st birthday” and “Liz and Jr Tana with cousins Pat and Lolita Cezar.” Photo 6: Liz Tana and Clemente Tana Jr. inside the Cezar family home standing next to a piano, the captions read “Liz and Jr” and “Little House at the ‘bookid’- Tulsa Lane.” Bookid/Bukid is the word for a mountain in Visayan.
Page 5: This page includes several photographs of Liz as a child. Photo 1: Three young girls posing in a "Santa Cruz Jail" backdrop at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. The photograph is captioned, "Pat, Lolita, and Liz"—referring to Patricia and Lolita Cezar and Liz Tana. Photo 2: Liz Tana as a toddler throwing a toy. It is captioned, "did I do that?" Photo 3: Liz Tana at home on Tulsa Lane. Photo 4: Liz as a young girl wearing a terno dress sitting next to a large doll. The photograph is captioned, "Liz's life size dolls' face was later marred by a felt tip marker." Liz recalls wearing the terno dress to Filipino community events. She also recalls that it was green, and its sleeves were itchy. Photo 5: a Christmas card with a photograph of a woman and child in a strawberry field. The photograph is captioned "Strawberry Ranch, Tulsa Lane." Liz shared that her family sharecropped strawberries with other Filipino and Japanese American families. Her father, Clemente Tana Sr., and his friends bought property on Tulsa Lane to farm strawberries and vegetables. Photo 6: This photograph is a pink fold-out with two pictures. The photograph on the outside is of five women wearing ternos and a man wearing a barong Tagalog standing in front of a band. The words, "Coconut Grove" are written on the front of the photograph. Pictured are Connie Ramirez, Rosita Tabasa, Estelita Tabios, Unknown, Ben Ragsac, and Mary Ragsac. The photograph inside the pink fold-out is of a young girl wearing a terno sitting on a couch in front of two women in formal clothing. Pictured is Liz, and two unknown women. Liz states that it was likely taken at a Filipino Women's Club event in 1962. Photo 7: Two kids with Christmas presents, captioned "Jr and a snotty nosed Kid." It shows Clemente Tana Jr. and Liz Tana at their home on Tulsa Lane.
Page 7: This page includes two photographs of Liz and her siblings. Photo 1: A large black and white photograph of Clemente Jr., Liz, and Albert Tana as children, captioned, "Clemente Jr., Elizabeth, Albert Tana." Page 2: A photograph of Clemente Tana Sr. and Estelita Tabios with their three children, Jr., Liz, and Albert, in front of a Christmas tree at their family home on Calabasas Road. Next to the photograph, a sticky note reads, "Dec 1963?"
Page 8: This page includes five photographs of Liz and her family members. Photo 1: A photograph of four young girls at Liz Tana's birthday party wearing small hats, captioned, "9th birthday," and "Doering Lane." According to a caption, pictured from left to right is "Lucy and Frances Tejada- Liz and friend Sally." The caption on the left of the photograph reads, "February 1966." Photo 2: A photograph of a group of children posed in front of rocks, printed June 1966, and captioned, "Liz and Jr. with Tino, Beany, and Mario Ramos." This photograph was likely taken in Monterey or Carmel. Photo 3: A photograph of a young Liz standing outside their home on Green Valley Road. It is captioned, "Confirmation Day-1969," and "Green Valley Rd." Liz recalls attending St. Patrick's Church for her confirmation. Photo 4: A photograph of a large group of people gathered around a birthday cake circa 1969. Photo 5: A photograph of Liz holding sheet music, captioned, "I plucked my way through an awful piano solo at Elks Lodge." According to Liz, this piano recital was held at a Filipino Women's Club event circa 1969. Photo 6: A photograph of two women looking through cutouts of hula dancers at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, captioned, "Liz and Auntie Rose."
Page 9: This page of the scrapbook contains one photograph which is a large black and white photograph of Liz Tana standing in front of a Virgin Mary shrine outside of St. Patrick's Church. The grotto was in the middle of the church grounds. The photograph is captioned, "Communion-1965-St. Patricks Church."
Page 10: This scrapbook page contains one large black and white photograph of young Liz Tana being crowned Miss Philippines at a Caballeros de Dimas Alang Rizal Day Celebration. An event program is included on the following page. The man crowning Liz is Watsonville Mayor William Murphy. Liz remembers this event was at Veterans Hall in Watsonville and included a "social box" dance event. At these dances, several young women would sell tickets for people to dance with them. Whoever sold the most tickets would be crowned Queen. Liz remembers attending many of these events and recalls always being the youngest girl there. In this photograph, she is likely twelve years old. It was taken on December 20, 1969.
Page 11: This page includes an invitation from the Caballeros de Dimas Alang Rizal Day Celebration event that took place December 20, 1969, at Watsonville Veterans Hall. Inside of the program, it lists Elizabeth Tana as Miss Philippines. Photo 1: A photograph of the Tana family; Estelita Tabios, Clemente Tana Sr., Liz Tana, and Clemente Tana Jr. standing in front of a Christmas tree. The photograph is captioned, "December 1965," and "24 Doering Ln." Photo 2 and 3: Photographs of Liz blowing out candles at a birthday party on Sunny Hills Drive in 1972.
Page 12 of the scrapbook is blank.
Page 13: Two "pedigree charts" or family trees made by Clemente Tana Jr. who tried to capture the genealogy of family in the Philippines. Liz Tana remembers meeting some of these family members, including her father's parents and her mother's parents when they traveled to the Philippines when she was about 15. She remembers her mother wanting her children to meet their family in the Philippines. The family traveled to the Philippines several times; during those trips, Liz was able to meet her maternal and paternal grandparents.
Page 15: This page includes cut-out school photographs from Rolling Hills Jr. High. Each student's name is written underneath their picture. According to Liz, she acquired these photographs when close school friends gave them to her.
Page 16: This page is a continuation of page 15. It contains school photographs of Liz Tana's schoolmates from Watsonville High School.
Page 17: A large black and white photograph of Liz Tana on the day of her first communion in 1965. She is posed in front of a Virgin Mary shrine at St. Patrick's Church.

Creator

Elizabeth "Liz" Tana

Source

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

Date

c. 2000

Contributor

Elizabeth "Liz" Tana

Rights

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.

Format

13x12.5 inches

Language

English

Type

Physical Object

Identifier

TAB.2021.59 - TAB.2021.74

Coverage

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

Physical Object Item Type Metadata

Original Format

Scrapbook

Files

TAB.2021.59-74.combined.pdf

Citation

Elizabeth "Liz" Tana, “Liz Tana's Scrapbook,” Watsonville is in the Heart: Community Digital Archive, accessed November 29, 2024, https://wiith-archive.ucsc.edu/items/show/727.

Output Formats

Comments

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