Guide to the Chris D. Mensalvas Photograph Collection
1937-1956

Biographical Note

Between 1910 and 1930, a wave of Filipino immigrants came to the United States. Instead of better opportunities, many encountered discrimination, poor living conditions, and oppressive labor practices. Chris Delarna Mensalvas (1909-1978) immigrated to the United States from the Philippines in 1927. He became an important figure in the Filipino labor movements of the 1940s and '50s, organizing unions and initiating strikes for just working conditions and fair wages for farm and cannery workers.

Between the years 1949 and 1959, Mensalvas was president of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU) Local 37 in Seattle - the Filipino Alaska cannery workers union. He was publicity director of the local from 1948 to 1949, when it was Local 7 of the Cannery Workers' and Farm Laborers' Union. Mensalvas actively opposed the deportation of Filipinos under the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952. The noted Filipino author and activist Carlos Bulosan and fellow activist Philip Vera Cruz were among his friends. He was an inspiration for later Filipino activists Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes, who consulted him about his labor organizing experiences. Mensalvas died in 1978.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of three photographs relating to Filipino cannery workers and union members.

Restrictions on Access

Collection is open to the public.

Related Material

Carlos Bulosan Papers, Accesion no. 581-012.

Acquisition Info

Donor, Chris D. Mensalvas, 1974.

Processing Info

Processed by Paul Nasenbeny, 2004.

The photographs were relocated from the Chris D. Mensalvas Papers, Accession no. 2361-1, in the repository in 2002.

Processing Info

The photographs were relocated from the Chris D. Mensalvas Papers, Accession no. 2361-1, in the repository in 2002.

Other Finding Aids

These materials form part of the Chris D. Mensalvas Papers; a finding aid is available in the repository.

Inventory

Folder

Item

Date

1

1

Filipino cannery workers at harbor in Alitak, Alaska.

1937

Photographer: M.B. Pabillon

2

Filipino cannery workers with a Giant Pacific Octopus (probably at Alitak, Alaska)

undated

Photographer: M.B. Pabillon

Note on photograph: "Joy despite unsurmountable hardship."

3

Union delegate Dick Querubin and Secretary Mathias J. Lagunilla submitting donations for a strike in Lanai, Hawaii, at Seattle union office.

1956

Photographer: Broadway Photo, Seattle, WA

Subject Terms

Subjects:

Cannery workers--Alaska--Photographs.

Filipinos--Alaska--Photographs.

Labor unions--Washington (State)--Seattle--Officials and employees--Photographs.