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KPFA talk with Emil De Guzman, Norman Jayo, and Shiree Tang EH)
Date: 8/7/1997Call Number: IH 015Format: CassetteCollection: The International Hotel struggle and the Filipino community
Two radio hosts talk with Emil De Guzman, Norman Jayo and Shiree Tang (on the phone) about the I-Hotel. Issues relate to housing struggles, and gentrification in San Francisco. Emil explains about the hotel previously being a community for bachelor Filipinos unable to marry. Due to immigration laws disallowing Filipina women from entering the country, anti-miscegenation laws disallowed interracial couples. Shiree Tang talks about how the I-hotel was also a home to Asian American leftist organizations such as Kearny Street Workshop and Chinese Progressive Association. The struggle over the I-Hotel was a fight for the community's entitlement to that land. "Paving new roads", the energy of that moment remains through the people, old and young. Norman and Emil explain how gentrification destroyed communities such as Yerba Buena, Tenderloin, and the Fillmore. With no city plan, tenants had no choice but to stay in the hotel and resist all they could. For everyone involved in the struggle, the mission eventually was not to save the hotel, but to show the world that the city was evicting the elderly from their homes.
Interview with Luisa Castro (EH)
Date: 10/8/1997Call Number: IH 016AFormat: Cass ACollection: The International Hotel struggle and the Filipino community
Short, informal interview of writer/journalist/activist Luisa Castro conducted by Estella Habal. Luisa explains her background as a mixed Black and Filipina woman who grew up in Portland, Oregon with her mother. Growing up, she never belonged in the white community and knew from an early age that she had no place in the white race. She identifies Lloyd Wake and Ron Takaki as two professors who actively supported the third world strike.
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)
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.
Mrs. De la Cruz Oral History (1) [Part 1] (EH)
Date: 3/8/1993Call Number: IH 019Format: Cass A & BCollection: The International Hotel struggle and the Filipino community
Informal oral history interview of Mrs. de la Cruz conducted by Estella Habal. During the interview, Mrs. de la Cruz recalls her family history and her experience living in the I-Hotel. Part 1 of the interview contains Mrs. de la Cruz recollecting her family history, which includes their experience during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II. Mrs. de la Cruz also recalls how she became involved with the I-Hotel and the relations amongst the tenants and the volunteers or activists of the I-Hotel. One highlight of the interview is her recollection of the fire that broke out at the I-Hotel.
Mrs. De la Cruz Oral History (2) [Part 2] (EH)
Date: 3/8/1993Call Number: IH 020AFormat: Cass ACollection: The International Hotel struggle and the Filipino community
Estella Habal's interview of Mrs. de la Cruz covers the tenants and volunteers of the International Hotel. Issues such as their past and current status of the tenants and activists are raised.
Conversation with Emil De Guzman (EH)
Date: 5/2/1989Call Number: IH 021Format: Cass A & BCollection: The International Hotel struggle and the Filipino community
Estella Habal and Emil de Guzman discuss politics and social dynamics of activism around the I-Hotel. [D]e Guzman explains how he first got involved through a sociology community fieldwork class (SF State '69). In order to assist the struggle, his class would go to work at the I-Hotel every day of the semester. Bringing the Asian American community together, it fostering a deep sense of political identity. With few Filipino Americans involved in the struggle, de Guzman makes a connection to class background. Unlike the Chinese, Filipinos didn't have as much community resources to fund community events. There were also generational gaps within the Filipino community between first, second, and third "waves". Emil explains the working relationship between the young students and elder manongs. In result, the media falsely assumed that the young activists were manipulating the old. Finally he and Estella explore various political aspects that divided the movement and the support alliances that were formed from it.
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.
Jeanette Lazan Interview [part 2] (EH)
Date: 11/13/1990Call Number: IH 023Format: Cass A & BCollection: The International Hotel struggle and the Filipino community
Part 2 of interview between Estella Habal and Jeanette Lazam begins with the internal dynamics of the I-Hotel struggle. Lazam started with the UFA, which got her involved with the IH. Still a student at SF state, Lazan participated in a program that connected students with social service agencies. At that time, the UFA represented the tenants of IH as well as all housing issues in Manilatown. After spending a year Philippines, Lazan returned to San Francisco with a greater sense of cultural sensitivity. With motivation to continue activist work, she joined the KDP in '74. As her work became more politicized, Lazam moved into the hotel and befriended many of the tenants. With age and gender differences between her and the tenants, Lazan and the tenants still shared a working class identity that provided unity. Lazam describes the Roosevelt Hotel plan to pressure Moscone's declaration for eminent domain, and the plan for a buyback. Lazam ends with saying Cultural nationalism and its role in the movement creates tension between seeing the goal of saving the ethnic community of Manilatown and protecting all people's right to obtain housing.
Jeanette Lazan Interview [part 3] (EH)
Date: 11/13/1990Call Number: IH 024Format: CassetteCollection: The International Hotel struggle and the Filipino community
Interview between Estella Habal and Jeanette Lazam on social-political forces relating to the I-Hotel. Lazan examines white solidarity with the I-Hotel struggle as well as coalitions with artists, working class folks and farm workers, all of whom united around affordable housing. Within the left, Lazam analyzes the political spectrum which ranged from "radical/ultra-extreme left" to liberal. These groups often clashed and made it difficult to work together. Lack of movement and coalition building experience was a major weakness of activists supporting the I-Hotel struggle. Finally, she looks into the city forces, specifically Sheriff Hongisto.
