Pateros recognizes fifth anniversary of Filipino American History Month

PATEROS—At the August meeting of the city council, Mayor Kelly Hook read an official proclamation designating October 2024 as Filipino American History Month (FAHM). The proclamation commemorates the fifth anniversary of SB 5865, passed by the Washington State Senate in 2019, officially making October FAHM in honor of the state’s Filipino population, recognized as the fifth largest in the nation.

October is also the month when the first “Luzones Indios” (natives of Luzon) set foot in the U.S. in Morro Bay, California, near the present city of San Luis Obisbo on Oct. 18. 1587.

What does all this have to do with Pateros? Well, the city’s name for starters. 

Pateros was originally named Ive's Landing in the mid-1880s by pioneer Lee Ives after a roadhouse he established of the same name on the Columbia River. In 1900, along came Spanish-American War veteran Captain Charles Nosler, who acquired most of the townsite. Nosler noticed the numerous ducks in the area, which reminded him of his visit to a village in the Philippines named Pateros, derived from pato, the Spanish word for duck. 

So, the city could have been named “duck,” but just about everyone would agree that “Pateros” has a nicer ring to it.

In 2018 Rey Pascua, President of the Filipino American Community of the Yakima Valley, visited Pateros and addressed the council about the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal approved by Congress in December 2016, honoring Filipino WWII veterans. He delivered the federal and state proclamation and certificate relating to it, and the historical connection between the City of Pateros and Pateros in the Philippines.

Pascua also presented a certificate signed by Congressman Dan Newhouse for presentation to veterans who received bronze copies of the medal in his district.

Pascua explained that Filipinos not only helped the allied forces win World War II, but Filipino farmworkers also played a significant role in the Cesar Chavez union movement in California.

“This was a four-year effort to get Congress to pass the bill,” said Pascua during his 2018 visit. “One of my gifts to Pateros is a copy of that law, Public Law 114265.”

Pascua described how the U.S. gained possession of the Philippines as a colony in 1902 until the archipelago gained its independence in 1946. Five months before the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt brought all Philippine military troops under U.S. command.

“Over 260,000 Filipinos fought under the U.S. flag in World War II,” said Pascua and reminded the council that more than 1 million Filipinos out of a population of some 16 million died in the war.

Pascua presented a copy of Governor Inslee’s proclamation designating April as Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project Month. The medal Pascua passed around to councilmembers was the one awarded to his father-in-law, Arthur Anderson, from Silvana, Washington, who, as a Coast Guardsman, served on a Navy transport during WWII.

In the current proclamation, Hook said, “Pateros is the home of a unique historical tie to the Republic of the Philippines. It is imperative that Filipino and other youth of the State of Washington have positive role models to be studied, taught of, and…emulated.” 

Hook concluded, “This proclamation shall be forwarded to Rey Pascua, Emeritus Commissioner of CAPAA (Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs), and Maricres V. Castro, Commissioner of the City of Tacoma, for distribution to historical societies, public education, and civic organizations.”

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media