The story of Fermina “Manang” Toribo, an American-Filipino restaurant owner who resided in Annapolis in the 1920s, was one of many uncovered by graduate student Kathrina Aben this summer.
When new immigrants Pegi and Fermina Mariano first opened a Filipino restaurant in Annapolis in 1920, they were forced to keep their business a secret for their own safety.
The restaurant was meant to provide a safe haven for other Filipinos in the city, but fearing retribution from their non-Filipino neighbors, the Marianos only advertised through word of mouth and labeled their menu as “Hawaiian” in case an outsider found their way inside.
This was just one of the many stories that anthropology graduate student Kathrina Aben uncovered this summer as she worked to reconstruct the forgotten history of Filipinos who lived in early 20th century Annapolis. As she visited the descendants of these Filipino residents to learn their ancestors’ stories, documents and traditions, she discovered tales of systematic discrimination and racism largely absent from history books.
Aben, who is a Filipino-American herself, conducted her research over the course of six weeks through the university’s Archaeology in Annapolis field school. She said many Filipinos she spoke to were eager to share their family histories, which they felt had been long overlooked.
“They just don’t think that people are interested,” Aben said. “They would say to me, ‘No one has ever asked us about this, we thought no one cared.’”
Following the Spanish-American War, Annapolis saw a flood of Filipino immigrants looking to work various jobs in and around the Naval Academy. However, although the Philippines was then a U.S. territory, Filipinos were not permitted to be U.S. citizens. Moreover, Filipinos often found themselves treated as social and legal outcasts by whites and blacks alike, especially because they took many jobs from the existing black residents of the city.
“It wasn’t even a question of color,” Aben said. “It was about political status. Were you an American or not?”
Kate Deeley, an associate director of Archaelogy in Annapolis, said Aben’s work has shed new light on a forgotten part of the city’s history.
“We see the project as very successful,” Deeley said. “There have been oral histories conducted in Annapolis before, but Kat has the ability to reach the community and people are interested in talking to her.”
Program director Mark Leone added that members of the Filipino community want their history to not only be discovered, but shared.
“Filipinos want to know how they survived the racism directed at them, and Filipinos want other Americans to know about the racism that was directed at them,” Leone said. “The job of Archaeology in Annapolis is to work with Filipino descendants to discover the answers to their questions.”
For the next step, researchers with Archaeology in Annapolis are searching for excavation sites in the city and elsewhere in the state in hopes of uncovering more of the puzzle that is Filipino history in the area. In the early 20th century, it was commonplace to throw trash or objects out the back door, and researchers said those artifacts can be found today about 5 feet below the surface.
Leone said he and his associate directors will use census data to find sites such as backyards and set up dig units there. One site of interest is the clubhouse for the Filipino-American Friendly Association, which was formed in the 1920s.
In the past, the program had mostly focused on uncovering African-American artifacts, and very little archaeology on Filipino-Americans currently exists in the U.S.
“The project is incredibly ambitious. We hope it leads to future work for archaeologists to find out more about Filipinos in Annapolis,” Deeley said. “Kat’s the first person to really tackle this.”
Marcella Stranieri, a sophomore art history and classical languages and literatures major, participated in the field school last summer and has applied to participate in archaeological digs this coming summer. Regardless of where she ends up, Stranieri said she is interested to see what Aben and next year’s students can uncover.
“It’s real history, it’s their [Filipino] experience. It isn’t tainted,” Stranieri said of Aben’s research. “She’s finding all the primary sources herself.”
