Shirley Ancheta interviewed by Dr. Steven McKay

In this interview, originally conducted in person, Shirley Ancheta speaks with Dr. Steve McKay, a member of the Watsonville is in the Heart team. Shirley describes her father, Julio Ancheta’s immigration from the Philippines to Kauai, HI in 1927 to work on the sugar plantations and his subsequent move to California where he worked as a migrant agricultural laborer. She provides an overview of his military service in the First Filipino Regiment during World War II and discusses how Julio met and married a Filipina named Delfina Rivera. She speaks about her family’s small farm in Watsonville, her father’s career in construction, and his passionate involvement in the AFLO-CIO union. Shirley also shares memories of manong who she came to know by visiting the labor camps and participating in Filipino dances. Throughout the interview, Shirley also speaks about her relationship with her life long partner, Jeff Tagami. She describes how she and Jeff developed their political and intellectual consciousnesses through ethnic studies education as well as through participation in Third World liberation struggles and social justice activism. Additionally, she speaks about her and Jeff’s careers as writers, specifically their poetry inspired by their upbringing in Watsonville, stories of the manong, and the histories of working-class people of color in the Pajaro and Salinas Valleys.

Shirley Ancheta and Dr. Steven McKay

February 16, 2022

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 greater Pajaro Valley. All oral history interviews are donated to WIITH by the narrators. Copyright is held by WIITH. Oral history interview recordings and transcripts are available for unrestricted use and reproduction by educators and researchers. Please note that the recordings on this website are provided via Soundcloud. For access to oral history audio files, please contact the project director at wiith@ucsc.edu. If you are an oral history narrator and would like to remove your interview from the archive website, please contact the project director.

English

Oral History

Dr. Steven McKay

Shirley Ancheta

.wav

1:46:57

[4:11] Biographical information for Shirley, her father, Julio Ancheta, and her mother, Delfina Rivera Acheta
[5:23] Julio’s immigration to Hawai’i and California
[7:20] Julio’s experience in the First Filipino Regiment during WWII and how he met Delfina
[8:26] Julio’s experience working in the Hawaiian sugar plantations
[11:53] Ancheta family’s move from Mountain View to Pajaro
[12:36] Memories of growing up in a rural and racially diverse area
[15:35] Julio’s desire to own land as part of the American Dream
[17:09] Memories of going to Asian-owned businesses in downtown Watsonville
[18:38] Information about Shirley’s siblings
[19:48] Memories of going to the library with her mother and the stories her mother told about growing up in the Philippines
[22:17] Family’s involvement in a Filipino Presbyterian church in Salinas
[22:47] Discussion of visiting manong at labor camps in Santa Cruz county
[29:16] Discussion of mixed-race families in the Ancheta’s neighborhood, divorces, and struggles with identity
[35:23] Julio’s and Delifina’s strong support for unions which differed from most other Filipinos in the Watsonville area
[37:41] Discussion of Shirley’s godfather whose experience participating in agricultural strikes inspired her poem, “Strike: Salinas, 1933”
[37:58] Shirley’s and her husband, Jeff Tagami’s education and pursuit of ethnic studies
[39:16] Story about Jeff’s mother remembering Carlos Bulosan
[40:05] Discussion of Shirley’s godfather whose experience participating in agricultural strikes inspired her poem, “Strike: Salinas, 1933”
[41:35] Ethnic studies and Asian American studies education and writing about the histories and experiences of people of color
[43:19] Racism experienced by Julio and other manong
[46:41] Memories of Filipino “social box” dances
[56:43] How Shirley and Jeff met and began dating
[58:29] Jeff and Shirley going to Cabrillo College then San Francisco state were they studied literature, ethnic studies, and Third World scholars
[1:00:08] Development of Shirley’s and Jeff’s political and intellectual consciousnesses
[1:05:00] Watsonville and Salinas Filipino communities were conservative compared to Jeff and Shirley which influenced their move to San Francisco
[1:05:52] Developing a poetic voice
[1:07:14] Discussion of Shirley’s godfather whose experience participating in agricultural strikes inspired her poem, “Strike: Salinas, 1933”
[1:10:10] Finishing their degrees at UCSC
[1:13:54] Shirley and Steve speak about their children and Shirley asks Steve about his family background
[1:25:11] Watsonville Filipino Community Hall and divisions between the descendants of the manong and the post-1965 generation
[1:34:46] Remembering and honoring Filipino American history in the Pajaro Valley