Watsonville is in the Heart: A Community Archive & Research Initiative
The “Watsonville is in the Heart” digital archive is dedicated to preserving and showcasing the stories of the “manong” generation, the initial Filipino migrant farmworkers who arrived in the United States in the early 20th century.
Focusing on the pioneering families of Watsonville and the broader Pajaro Valley, the archive immortalizes the experiences of the manong, their wives, and their descendants, covering themes of migration, labor, leisure, and community building. This digital archive comprises a rich collection of resources, including oral histories, family photographs, heirlooms, letters, and newspaper clippings.
The project’s key objectives are to bring to light the often-overlooked histories of Filipinos in the Pajaro Valley, employ community-based archiving and historical documentation methods in alignment with ethnic studies, decolonial, and public history principles, enhance accessibility for diverse audiences, including the local community, students, educators, researchers, and scholars, and emphasize visual sources, material culture, and oral accounts to deepen our understanding of manong history in California’s Central Coast.