Archival photographs featured in Filipinos in the San Fernando Valley capture the community’s vibrant cultural life, from music and family gatherings to youth activities and civic activism, highlighting how generations of Filipino Americans have shaped “America’s Suburb.”
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – A new book highlights the story of how generations of Filipino immigrants have helped transform Los Angeles County’s San Fernando Valley. Filipinos in the San Fernando Valley by Dr. Joseph Bernardo, published by Arcadia Publishing, traces the cultural and demographic shifts that reshaped “America’s Suburb” through the lens of Filipino life.
Suburbia through a Filipino lens
Dr. Bernardo, a native and current resident of the Valley, draws on personal and professional experience to document this story.
“I wanted to focus this book on the experience of Filipinos in suburbia, where the majority of Filipino Americans live,”Bernardo said. “In Greater Los Angeles, 85% of Filipino Americans reside in suburban communities, yet this particular history has been largely absent from both academic and popular narratives. This book documents how suburbia shaped Filipinos, and how Filipinos, in turn, shaped suburbia in their own unique way.”
Tracing a community’s transformation
The book offers a rare visual and narrative glimpse into Filipino American life in the Valley (also known as the 818), from early farm laborers in the 1920s to the post-1965 wave that redefined the suburban experience in Southern California. Many of the photographs and anecdotes spotlight how the community navigated the transformations of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
Filipinos are now the largest Asian American community in the San Fernando Valley, a place described by authors such as Kevin Roderick as “America’s Suburb.” While early Filipino farm workers lived in the Valley during its agribusiness era, most settled there after World War II as the area developed into a suburban bedroom community. Integration accelerated through the 1970s and 1980s.
As of 2020, nearly 80,000 Filipinos lived in the San Fernando Valley. The book asks a larger question often overlooked in mainstream histories: What does it mean to be Filipino in suburbia?
About the author
Joseph Bernardo is the son of Filipino immigrants who was raised in the San Fernando Valley. He earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Washington, where he wrote his dissertation on Little Manila/Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles. He currently works at the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Loyola Marymount University and teaches the Filipino American Experience class at LMU. Dr. Bernardo also co-hosts the podcast This Filipino American Life.
About the publisher
For more than 30 years, Arcadia Publishing has helped reconnect people to their communities by presenting hometown history in a unique pictorial format. With over 200 vintage images and captions, Arcadia titles bring to life the cherished memories, people, places, and events that define a community.
Availability
Filipinos in the San Fernando Valley is available from Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com/
