My Inspiration to Organize and Mobilize: Aurora Victoria David

Aurora Victoria (a.k.a "AV") David is a Filipino-American community organizer from Daly City, California who continues to inspire many individuals as she fights for migrant workers' rights and spread awareness of the local and national issues that the U.S. and Philippines encounter today.

Table of Contents:

I. Moving to America

II. Adapting to the Culture

IV. Finding Support & My Identity

IV. Community Work & Migrant Workers

V. Immigration

Moving to America

In AV's introduction, she talks about the various reasons why her family decided to move in the United States. She describes their previous situation in the Philippines before migrating at the bay area and the difficult decision that her mother had to make to find better opportunities in America.

"I was sad to leave the people who were closest to me, the relatives who raised me. But I think I overcame that by my excitement to see my mom. I was sad but I was also happy"

Adapting to the Culture in the Bay Area

The excitement AV had when she first came to the U.S. did not last long as she struggled to adapt to the new life she had in the bay area. She experienced discrimination in school but used this as her motivation to focus in her education and volunteer work. 

Just like Yen Le Espiritu's academic journal article on Family, Culture, and Gender in Filipina American Lives, AV David's story reflects the lives of other young Filipinas that experienced discrimination when they first migrated in the United States. In one of the interviews Yen Le did, the respondent said, 

"When I was in the tenth grade, our English teacher asked us what our nationality was, and she goes how many of you are Mexican, how many of you are Filipino, and how many of you are Samoan and things like that. And when she asked how many of you are American, just the white people raised their hands." (page 420)

Such discrimination have happened to many Filipinos as early as the 1900s. In Competing Visions: A California History, the authors explain the anti-immigrant sentiments that happened during a riot that broke out in Watsonville: "Several Filipinos were injured, and two were killed. Other violence followed, spawned by fears that Filipinos were competing for jobs or by anxieties over Filipino men socializing with white women." (page 256, Ch. 8)

Finding Support & My Identity

                      

Community Work & Migrant Workers

Through her active involvement in the community, she was able to discover her voice and purpose to serve migrant workers who had the same struggles she had.

"When I think about the conditions of immigrants, that's what kind of makes me sad and heartbroken. Knowing that they left their country out of love for family, but coming here, they face another level of exploitation and harassment. I think it's unjust and wrong. That's what keeps me with community organizing, knowing that there's a lot of things that needs to change."

Immigration

In this segment, AV explains the issue of immigration or forced migration. She closes her story as she gives advice to the incoming immigrants who could hopefully find their own community in wherever they go, and use their stories to contribute to the larger issues in the community.

As the Filipino community continue to grow as "California's largest Asian group"(page 402, Competing Visions), they still struggle to fight for their rights and many of their contributions are erased in history until today. We hope that these interviews and insights shed light and added information to the many struggles and stories of Filipino immigrants.

Sources:

Signs, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Winter, 2001), pp. 415-440

Cherny, Robert W., Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, and Richard Griswold Del Castillo. Competing Visions: A History of California. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Print.