For two days, the attendees discussed the history of their academic field, the cultures of the diaspora and the future of the field, among other things. Because so many universities have — at most — only one or two Filipino scholars, they network with each other primarily at large-scale annual gatherings such as those convened by the Association for Asian Studies and the Association for Asian American Studies.
Leading up to the UIUC event, “there was a lot of excitement” among the attendees, Espiritu says.
“Many of them feel isolated academically,” he adds. “Some of them are not just the only Filipino in their departments, but they’re the only Asian.”
A Later Ascendancy
More than 2.3 million people of Filipino descent live in this country, making up more than 17 percent of Asian Pacific Americans here, according to the 2000 Census. By comparison, about 2.7 million of Chinese descent and 1.1 million Japanese were counted in the Census. One-third of Filipino Americans are U.S.-born. Two-thirds work in management, sales and professional or office occupations, according to the 2004 American Community Survey. Ninety-one percent were high school graduates and 48 percent held at least a bachelor’s, the survey showed.
More than 86,000 Filipinos live in Illinois, Census figures show, mainly in Chicago and its surrounding area. Illinois’ Filipino population trails only California and Hawaii in number.
UIUC has longstanding academic significance for Filipinos, scholars say. During the early 20th century, the U.S. colonial government in the Philippines sent government scholars known as “pensionados” to the West for higher education. The pensionados — typically young, upper-class Filipino men — would return to their homeland and occupy key social and political positions. UIUC was among the few universities in the Midwest to receive the pensionados, the first ones arriving in 1903. Not surprisingly, Illinois, especially Chicago, became synonymous in the Philippines with students and academics while the West Coast and Hawaii became known for Filipino laborers in canneries, fields and on plantations.
