Soundscape in Old Pinoytown (Under Construction)

LOCATION: West side of 6th Street. (AR Installation currently Under Construction)

DESCRIPTION: This piece is an emulation of the bustling, multi-cultural cacophony of languages, commerce, cultural events, and family/social life that took place, especially during the heyday of Pinoytown, nestled between Heinlenville Chinatown on the east and Japantown (or Nihonmachi) on the west. The Ken Ying Low restaurant was a pivotal place, popular with all three communities, and only down the street from the Filipino Community Center, the African American-founded Church of God in Christ, and the historic building that was once the Ideal Laundry and also the Nishioka Brothers Fish Market. As you walk down the street, details of past architecture reveal themselves, triggered by the app’s recognition of the building’s iconic profiles. Listen to moments made timeless as communities experience life in a mix of Cantonese, Japanese, Ilokano, and English, much as the generations before us did.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT: My work will draw parallels between the major events and everyday lives of the inhabitants of the area known as Heinlenville Chinatown, Japantown, and Pinoytown during various points in history. The 6th Street block was the center of activity during Pinoytown’s years of activity (1930s-1960s), and features a number of buildings that provided space for the various ethnic minority groups of San Jose, away from discrimination. Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and African Americans gathered here to shop, eat, do their laundry, worship, and celebrate as a diverse community.

While there continues to be a large Filipino American population in San Jose that continues to grow as more families immigrate here and settle, not many are aware of the fact that our presence here dates back to the early 1900s.

The “First Wave” Filipinos immigrated to the United States in the 1920s and 1930s in search of work on farms and canneries. Major destinations included Alaska, Seattle, San Francisco, Stockton, San Jose, and Los Angeles. The nearby locations of San Francisco and Stockton have been officialized as historic Filipino enclaves, Manilatown and Little Manila respectively, but San Jose has yet to be recognized as a site, despite the fact that it was a major destination for Filipino farm laborers in the Central Valley. In San Jose Pinoytown, they found comfort and familiarity. Pinoytown was a place to rest, relax, and stock up supplies between jobs. Here they would be able to buy groceries to cook traditional dishes or enjoy the meals offered at Filipino restaurants, get a haircut, gamble or go dancing with friends, or attend mass. Many settled here in San Jose and had children, known as the “Second Wave” or “Bridge Generation”. These children grew up as many of the youth in San Jose are growing up today — as Asian Americans immigrants or children of immigrants, trying to figure out their mixed identity between the two cultures they are raised in, that of the homeland and that of the US. With this project I hope to inform the local community of this forgotten Pinoytown, and emulate this history using modern recordings and historic photographs. I want the buildings and stories in this piece to blend with the modern environment, allowing the viewer to see parallels between today and this not-so-distant past, and feel that regardless of where they came from or how this country may treat them, they belong here.

PROFILE: Rochelle Mae Gatus is a Filipina American artist and designer raised in San Jose working mainly in sculpture and wearables. Through her involvement in the project she hopes to connect with her Ilocano roots, increase Fil-Am representation in academia as well as art, and aid in the preservation of her culture and history.