‘Dear Watsonville’: Short film spotlights first generation of Filipino migrants

Filipinos first migrated to California’s Central Coast and settled in Watsonville in the 1920s and 1930s. A locally produced short film aims to explore their stories through the perspectives of their children, helping document a history they say has been overlooked. 

“Dear Watsonville” explores the lives of Johnny De Los Reyes, Max Bersamin and Mariano Fallorina through the perspectives of their children, Joanne De Los Reyes, Manuel Bersamin and Dan Fallorina. In celebration of Filipino American History Month, a screening of the film will be held at Pajaro Valley Arts’ Porter Building on Saturday at 6 p.m. 

The screening is part of the programming for the third annual Filipino American History Month festival held at Watsonville City Plaza, which will include food, music and additional entertainment. 

The three fathers featured in “Dear Watsonville” were part of the Manong Generation, young men who had left the Philippines for work. Filipinos in Watsonville, and along the Central Coast, were primarily farmworkers. 

“We knew that we wanted the film to focus on memory,” said producer Meleia Simon-Reynolds. “Second-generation kids’ memories of their parents in a way that captured their parents’ generation that was more expansive than just talking about them as laborers.” 

Most people aren’t aware of Manong history and Filipino American history in general, said director Sondy Lucille. Or they reduce that history locally to Filipinos’ part in farm labor, said Simon-Reynolds. And even then, Stockton and San Francisco are often the focus, with Watsonville overlooked. 

Watsonville has an infamous place in the history of Filipino farm labor. It was the site of 1930s race riots, said Lucille, in which a mob of hundreds of white men attacked farmworkers in Watsonville after Filipino men were seen dancing with white women. 

It’s important to also remember that these people are more than their labor, said Lucille. They are people who had children, built communities and are storytellers. They were chefs, gardeners and people who had hobbies, and it’s important to capture that, she said. 

Lucille used oral history and photo archives collected by Watsonville is in the Heart, a community and research initiative where Simon-Reynolds is a digital archive director, to create the short film. 

To emphasize the memories of Joanne De Los Reyes’, Manuel Bersamin’s and Dan Fallorina’s parents, Lucille combined illustrations by Lauren Song and archival images to show what their parents looked like and what emotions they felt. The illustrations bring life to memories of fishing trips and playing around in farm fields. 

“We were hoping the hand-drawn illustrations would kind of bring out those emotions and communicate that effectively with viewers and give it a unique texture,” said Lucille. 

As a Filipino American and an artist, Lucille said she felt responsible for telling the stories of the Manong because they were the first generation of Filipinos to come to the United States and establish the Filipino American community. 

“I feel like I owe it to them. It’s important for me as a Filipino American to know about this history and pay respect to that,” said Lucille. “Outside of just being drawn to it because it’s a Filipino American story, and this is a Filipino community in California, I just felt like we have to have solidarity with one another and uplift each other’s voices.”

Lucille and Simon-Reynolds say they hope that people walk away from watching “Dear Watsonville” with more knowledge of the Manong Generation and that it makes them more curious to learn about this generation of Filipino Americans. For those who know the history, Lucille hopes the film provides a new perspective and a new way to talk about it.

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