AAPI Heritage: Remembering the Watsonville Riots of 1930
AAPI Heritage: Remembering the Watsonville Riots of 1930 © Pajaro Valley Historical Association filipino farm workers in the salinas valley In the early part of the 20th century, Filipinos were U.S. nationals with a legal right to work on the Central Coast. But many of them still faced discrimination and hostility. It boiled over into violence on Jan. 19, 1930, in Watsonville, when Filipino field workers were attacked, beaten and even killed. "At one point the dance hall was over here somewhere," said Frank Malodora, while he points to an empty lot at the end of Beach Road in Pajaro outsi...