I owe a great debt of gratitude or utang ng loob to the organizers of the “Palimpsests 2 Conference on Filipino Studies: Filipinos and the Philippines,” organized in October 2016 by Nerissa Balce, Joi Barrios, Jody Blanco, Rick Bonus, Josen Diaz, Martin Manalansan, Edward Nadurata, Joseph Ramirez and Sarita See. Their commitment to showcasing the cutting-edge scholarship of “junior” scholars of Filipino Studies (i.e. graduate students, newly minted PhDs and assistant professors) introduced me to many of the scholars featured in this anthology. Maraming salamat!
Most of the papers in this volume were workshopped after they were initially presented at the Palimpsests 2 Conference at the annual meetings of the American Studies Association and the Association for Asian American Studies. On behalf of the chapter authors, I want to extend our gratitude to those who listened to the papers at those meetings and offered generous feedback.
I am also very grateful to the various editors at Brill including Jason Prevost, Gerda Coe and Chunyan Shu for their support in getting this anthology to press. Special thanks is due to Angel Truong, an Asian American Studies undergraduate student at UC Davis, who was instrumental in getting the final draft of this anthology ready for submission as well as Angela Alejandro and Wesley Sosa, undergraduate interns with the newly established Bulosan Center for Filipinx Studies who helped get the pieces together to get this book into production.
This book is dedicated to the graduate students, Nicholas Garcia, Wayne Jopanda, Katherine Nasol, Stacey Salinas, and Roy Taggueg, as well as archivist Jason Sarmiento, along with Filipino Studies You Tube sensation, Kirby Araullo, as well as filmmaker Glenn Aquino who helped launch the Bulosan Center for Filipinx Studies at UC Davis in September 2018. I hope that this anthology helps to sustain your passion for Filipino Studies as you progress through your professional, political and personal endeavors.
This book is also dedicated to the late, great Dr. Dawn Mabalon, an incredibly important historian of the Filipino American experience who we lost too suddenly and too soon in August 2018. Your commitment to uplifting the stories of Filipino American labor activists is something I hope this book sparks in new generations of scholars.
Finally, I dedicate this book to my eldest son, Amado Rodriguez Canham, a true exemplar of diasporic Filipino American activism.