It Begins with Lola Marina (A Hxstory of Renting)
My grandaunt, Lola Marina, turned 98 years of age last month. Photo taken on March 31, 2018, in front of her beloved (now passed) lemon tree.
It Begins with Lola Marina (A Hxstory of Renting)
By Erina Alejo
Lola Marina turned 98.
Lola Marina (lola - grandmother, in Tagalog) turned 98 last month. She has lived through and is part of nearly a century’s worth of hxstory. Radio Marina, as my late Lolo— grandpa— would call her, because she remains astute and lucid as our family circle keeper. She is our oldest matriarch and remaining manghihilot, or healer. Sometimes, I wish she can live for many more years; that’s up to her and the universe. In the meantime, I’ll finally begin writing about archives I’ve collected of Lola Marina for the past few years. A portion of my project exploring anti-displacement narratives, A Hxstory of Renting, traces my family’s immigration story and how I became a third generation renter in San Francisco— on my mom’s side, it began with Lola Marina.
How wondrous to realize that Lola Marina has lived through nearly a century’s worth of hxstory.
Lola Marina is my late Lola Nelly’s oldest sister of five siblings to Andang Maria and Andang Iliong Chioco. She was born in Talavera, Nueva Ecija, Philippines to a farming family and community whose main agricultural vein was rice. Lola Marina was a young teen during WWII, particularly during the Japanese Occupation of the country. After the war, Lola Marina and her estranged late husband, Tata Loreng AKA The Old Man, were the first in my mom’s side to immigrate to the U.S. from the Philippines in the 1960s due to Tata Loreng being part of USAFE (United States Army Forces Far East). [1]
Image description: sepia-toned circa 1940s/50s photographs of Tata Loreng AKA The Old Man, Lola Marina and their kin. Taken on December 2019 at Cousin Sherlyn’s house.
Hence, on December 31, 1959, Lola Marina and the late Old Man began their new life in Pittsburg, California after moving about various U.S. military bases, including in Okinawa, Japan. [2] While the Old Man performed his military duties, Lola Marina connected with the sole Filipinos in the area and found work as a seasonal farmer picking asparagus, cherries, and other produce. During the winter seasons she canned fruits and veggies at local canneries. “Wala namang masyadong tao at trabaho dito,” (few jobs and people) she’d tell me.
Hard, hard work. Eventually, through more Filipino friends, Lola Marina found work at See’s Candies, 50 miles southwest in South San Francisco. A little less of being hunched over all day, just as labor-intensive; standing all day with the same amount of dexterity required to wrap and package tiny candies at the pulse and jut of the conveyor belt.
Image description: Lola Marina’s See’s Candies trophy and holiday ornaments, December 30, 2015.
“Wala namang masyadong trabaho at tao dito,” (few people and jobs here) she’d tell me.
When she worked for See’s, Lola Marina awoke at 3AM to get ready for work and to carpool with coworkers. They usually returned home to the East Bay in the early evening. Lola likely made more money packing chocolates at See’s than working in the farms. In 1961, her starting hourly wage of $1.65 was above the federal hourly minimum wage of $1.00. (I’d have to ask her more about the cost of living in Pittsburg/ Bay Area in 1961, in comparison to her wages.) [3]
Can you believe that the cost of commuting was already a financial burden, even back then, and especially for low-wage workers? Despite carpooling, gas and the Bay Bridge toll combined, totaling $7 a week per passenger, depleted most of their full weekday’s wages.
Thirty years later by her retirement in 1991, Lola Marina earned $14 an hour due to her seniority and diverse skillset (federal hourly minimum wage by then increased to $4.25). "Kung hindi ka matiyaga sa trabaho, at agad kang aalis— aba!”(If you can’t persevere at work, and you quit immediately— well, well!) (My late Lola tried working at See’s with her older sister/Ate, but only lasted one day! She eventually found a clerical job in San Francisco).
Anyway, Lola Marina filed an immigration petition for my grandparents Lola Nelly, Lolo Jesus and my mom back in the mid 1960s. The petition took fourteen years to process, at the peak of Martial Law in the Philippines. Like Lola Marina, my grandparents had to drop everything, leave behind their life, and move. Or else, they’d have to wait a long time again for a chance at a different life; maybe better, closer to reaching their dreams, as what others claimed. Labor and immigration, attached at the hip. [4] [5]
Gratefully, Lola Marina is the reason why my family, relatives and I are all here today, struggling and flourishing— perhaps, as we would have done so, anyway, if my immediate family had remained in the Philippines. Who knows.
- to be continued -
Signed,
Erina Alejo (A Hxstory of Renting)
Image description: Auntie Lil texted my mom this picture Cousin Sherlyn sent her of Lola Marina’s social distance-themed 98th birthday party. April 23, 2020.
Maligayang bati, Lola Marina!
Maligayang bati, Lola Marina! Happy birthday! We wish we could be with you in person across the bay. Your phone line was busy — both sustained with phone calls and the dial tone likely kept on, because you may have forgotten to hang up— we were able to talk with you at the end of the day. It looked and sounded like a well-planned and joyful social distance-themed 98th birthday party organized by your children, grandkids, great-grandkids and great-great-grandkids.
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