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There are many ways to search the collections of the Freedom Archives. Below is a brief guide that will help you conduct effective searches. Note, anytime you search for anything in the Freedom Archives, the first results that appear will be our digitized items. Information for items that have yet to be scanned or yet to be digitized can still be viewed, but only by clicking on the show link that will display the hidden (non-digitized) items. If you are interested in accessing these non-digitized materials, please email info@freedomarchives.org.
Exploring the Collections without the Search Bar
Under the heading Browse By Collection, you’ll notice most of the Freedom Archives’ major collections. These collections have an image as well as a short description of what you’ll find in that collection. Click on that image to instantly explore that specific collection.
Basic Searching
You can always type what you’re looking for into the search bar. Certain searches may generate hundreds of results, so sometimes it will help to use quotation marks to help narrow down your results. For instance, searching for the phrase Black Liberation will generate all of our holdings that contain the words Black and Liberation, while searching for “Black Liberation” (in quotation marks) will only generate our records that have those two words next to each other.
Advanced Searching
The Freedom Archives search site also understands Boolean search logic. Click on this link for a brief tutorial on how to use Boolean search logic. Our search function also understands “fuzzy searches.” Fuzzy searches utilize the (*) and will find matches even when users misspell words or enter in only partial words for the search. For example, searching for liber* will produce results for liberation/liberate/liberates/etc.
Keyword Searches
You’ll notice that under the heading KEYWORDS, there are a number of words, phrases or names that describe content. Sometimes these are also called “tags.” Clicking on these words is essentially the same as conducting a basic search.

Search Results

Informal Conversation with Frank Celada [Part 1] (EH) Informal Conversation with Frank Celada [Part 1] (EH)
Date: 12/1/1997Call Number: IH 017Format: CassetteCollection: The International Hotel struggle and the Filipino community
Estella Habal and Harvey Dong have an informal discussion with Frank Celada over a meal in a restaurant. Celada's family came to United States from the Philippines in 1953. Growing up in the projects of Alameda, his father supported the family as a cook. With the Filipino American community being divided by class, Kearny Street was often looked at as a "rowdy area" that was not for respectable people. Celada got involved in the I-Hotel through his involvement in student activism at Berkeley. The student activist energy at Berkeley was strong and a lot of people wanted to fight for the I-Hotel. Celada reminisces about his activism at Berkeley, and how it led him to become the community liaison with the United Filipino Alliance (UFA) in 1969-70. Talks a lot about group dynamics within the UFA, identifying key players (Mark Batista, Ness Aquino, Tony Ubaldi), and the groups relationship to I-Hotel tenants.
Informal Conversation with Frank Celada [Part 2] (EH) Informal Conversation with Frank Celada [Part 2] (EH)
Date: 12/21/1997Call Number: IH 018Format: CassetteCollection: The International Hotel struggle and the Filipino community
Discussion between Estella Habal, Frank Celada, and Harvey Dong about various student groups and movement building organizations that were involved with the I-Hotel. Focus on the organization AAPA, Asian American Political Alliance. This student organization had connections with the antiwar movement, SNCC and the farm worker movement. All three participants concluded that they got involved with activism due to the third world strike and the I-hotel. They ended the conversation by discussing some of the failures of the struggle to save the I-Hotel. The inclusion of non-Asians is a point of discussion as well as the lack of support from local Filipinos. Estella then talks about Peter Bacho, who taught at Davis, and said that the radicals and disunity ruined the movement, because each emphasized the flaws, and not the larger picture. Finally, the impact of the FBI's counterintelligence program COINTELPRO is discussed with focus on divisions, attacks and infiltration by the FBI which created disillusion and mistrust.
Jeanette Lazan Interview [part 1] (EH) Jeanette Lazan Interview [part 1] (EH)
Date: 5/2/1989Call Number: IH 022Format: Cass A & BCollection: The International Hotel struggle and the Filipino community
Estella Habal interviews Jeanette Lazam on her background, development as an activist, and involvement with the I-Hotel. Once living in Manhattan, she experienced living in a predominantly Black and Puerto Rican neighborhood. Growing up as a product of the civil rights movement, she developed her social consciousness as a person of color and gained a antiracist framework. It wasn't until she moved to California she began to identify proudly as Filipino. She learned in college that there was more to being Asian than just food and dance. They discussed the generation gap of political awareness. While the third generation was more working class, greater economic hardships surpassed the second. Consequently, the third generation tended to have a greater class-consciousness, which tended to aspire towards assimilation and economic mobility. In result of the I-hotel's history and struggle, generations were brought together, even though there were language barriers. As Jeanette worked with the UFA, she provided social services and companionship to the tenants.
Bruce Occena Interview [Tape 1] (EH) Bruce Occena Interview [Tape 1] (EH)
Date: 11/16/1990Call Number: IH 025Format: Cass A & BCollection: The International Hotel struggle and the Filipino community
Estella Habal interviews Bruce Occena, a former U.C. Berkeley student activist and volunteer of the International Hotel (60s-70s). Bruce Occena talks about his interactions with prominent figures in the struggle for residents to keep their homes. Occena also describes the issues facing the Filipino American student activists of UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University. Issues such as the inter-ethnic tension between activists groups such as Filipino Americans, Chinese Americans, and Japanese American activists. Finally Occena touches on the relationship between the Shorenstein corporation and United Filipino Association (UFA) and the appointment of a UFA supporter as property manager.