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Chris Mensalvas and Silme Domingo family photograph collection, approximately 1920-1981
Overview of the Collection
- Collector
- Mensalvas, Chris D., -1977
- Title
- Chris Mensalvas and Silme Domingo family photograph collection
- Dates
- approximately 1920-1981 (inclusive)19201981
approximately 1952-1981 (bulk)19521981 - Quantity
- 22 photographic prints and 14 negatives, 2 contact sheets and 1 collage (1 box and 2 folders) ; sizes vary
- Collection Number
- PH1145
- Summary
- Photographs of Filipino-American president of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union Silme Domingo, workers of the union and their families and friends.
- Repository
-
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu - Access Restrictions
-
Entire collection can be viewed on the Libraries’ Digital Collections website. Permission of Visual Materials Curator required to view originals. Contact Special Collections for more information.
- Additional Reference Guides
- Languages
- English
Biographical NoteReturn to Top
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.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
Photographs of Chris Mensalvas, Silme Domingo, Gene Viernes and their families and friends.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Alternative Forms Available
View the digital version of the collection
Restrictions on Use
Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Custodial History
The collection was separated from the Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 7 photographs, PH Coll 1044. The photographs are personal in nature, and do not appear to relate to the union.
Acquisition Information
Donor: Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 7, December 1, 1987.
Processing Note
Processed by Erin Berg; processing completed in 2013.
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
Chris Mensalvas & FamilyReturn to Top
| Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/1 | 1 |
Chris Mensalvas and son Topper
Mensalvas
Chris Mensalvas was president of International Longshoremen's
and Warehousemen's Union, Local 37 (previously Cannery Workers' and Farm
Laborers' Union, Local 7) from 1949 to 1959 and served as publicity director of
Cannery Workers' and Farm Laborers' Union, Local 7 from 1948 to 1949.
|
1952 |
| 1/1 | 2 | 1952 | |
| 1/1 | 3 |
Mensalvas
Family
Contact sheet for 10 9x13cm negatives.
|
1952?-1953 |
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/1 | 3a-b | Boy and girl playing
indoors |
1952 |
| 1/1 | 3c | Two girls on woman's lap |
1952? |
| 1/1 | 3d | Man in plaid shirt and hat sitting at
dining room table |
1952? |
| 1/1 | 3e | Two boys and a girl sitting on man's
back on a lawn |
1952? |
| 1/1 | 3f | Man in suit touching wire with boy
crawling on grass behind him |
1952? |
| 1/1 | 3g-h | Man and woman sitting on a bench in
back yard |
1952? |
| 1/1 | 3i | Chris Mensalvas and wife Irene
Mensalvas deboarding United Airlines airplane in Washington, D.C. |
1953 |
| 1/1 | 3j | Chris Mensalvas and wife Irene
Mensalvas in front of the United States Capitol building in Washington,
D.C. |
1953 |
| 1/1 | 4 | circa 1956 | |
| 1/1 | 5 |
Punaluu
Ten photographs depicting the activities of the Mensalvas family
in Punaluu, Hawaii. Punaluu is a rural community in the Koʻolauloa District on
the Island of Oahu, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Photographs are bound in an album.
|
September 1961 |
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/1 | 5a |
Mensalvas family on lanai with sting ray
Typed on verso of photograph: Enlarged view of same lanai with
our home-grown hanging plants..the sting ray at our feet, 100 lbs. The Black
cat we tamed from the jungle, has a brother a yellow cutie we named Nicky...not
in picture.
|
September 1961 |
| 1/1 | 5b |
Tony wearing tabungao hat and palm
raincoat
Typed on verso of photograph: The "Wild man from Borneo"
himself, wearing my tabungao hat and palm raincoat / A natural without shirt
and pants- just a muffler between the legs. Tony forgot to wear my calasiao
bolo.
|
September 1961 |
| 1/1 | 5c |
Double exposed photograph depicting Mensalvas family
on lanai with Datsun station wagon, and Tony and Patsy Mensalvas
Typed on verso of photograph: This one is a puzzler..one shot
was taken in our front lanai, and one in my garden, Tony's ghost hiding in
front of my opu (belly) and Patsy's ghost peeping with her Philippine hat in
background...Little car is our Datsun station wagon
Handwritten on verso of photograph: double-exposure
|
September 1961 |
| 1/1 | 5d |
Mensalvas family under coconut tree
Typed on verso of photograph: Believe or not Coconut, fruits
reaching the ground. We have five trees of da kine [sic] in our yard.
Handwritten on verso of photograph: Same tree was in colored
picture
|
September 1961 |
| 1/1 | 5e |
Samoan coconut tree
Typed on verso of photograph: A taller Samoan coconut tree -
only 10 ft. high, bearing all year round fruit and heavy. Guess who is peeping
around the corner..did not make it on time!
|
September 1961 |
| 1/1 | 5f |
Topper Mensalvas climbing papaya tree
Typed on verso of photograph: A Prize shot of PAPAYA TREES
growing in abundance around our house. The mighty mountain is just 1,000 ft.
back of the house, where sugar cane, bread fruit, plumerias, and bananas
abound, Note the clouds gathering up in sky- when it rains here, it pours to
last at least five minutes, then sunshine. Topper, the expert climber of
papayas, mangoes, mabulos, coconuts, and guavas.
|
September 1961 |
| 1/1 | 5g |
Tony, Topper Mensalvas, and Patsy Mensalvas in living
room
Typed on verso of photograph: Taken in front of living room
door leading to the west lanai. One hat is anito hat made by Moros, the other a
regular women's nipa hat..below nipa hut is Topper's drawing of a fighting
chicken. Note coral in front of Tony, Patsy and Topper dug from the ocean...the
fruits, abis, caburao, guavas..and red giner in vase. Carved carabo Patsy
holding and Topper serenading.
Handwritten on verso of photograph: Stuffed birds with nest
from the Phil. below Topper.
|
September 1961 |
| 1/1 | 5h |
Tony playing ukelele
Typed on verso of photograph: THE OLD DON JUAN HIMSELF with
his OOkulele...note our floor cement is covered with woven palm mats- hala
leaves, very durable- instead of rugs. We have a few small rugs- mostly hala
mats for our floors, mostly rattan chairs including our couch.
Handwritten on verso of photograph: Punee couch in picture /
Hybiscus flower (state flower) on Home-made coconut vase- back of me.
|
September 1961 |
| 1/1 | 5i |
Mensalvas family and Tony sitting at kitchen
table
Typed on verso of photograph: Lomboy party with Tony taken in
one corner of our kitchen. Broom in background is Igorot made from wild grass
in Philippines...we have two. Tony says they are from the Trino or tanubong
grass...very soft, just for inside. Topper wearing Diego Silang hat. Tony ate a
lots of Lomboy swallowing seeds.
Handwritten on verso of photograph: Igorot [?] hanging on
mirror
|
September 1961 |
| 1/1 | 5j |
Chris Mensalvas and Tony in front of Ala Moana
Building in Honolulu, Hawaii
Typed on verso of photograph: Tallest building in Honolulu- 25
stories high, right in downtown Honolulu- Only building in the world with a
revolving restaurant on top. Adjacent is the Alamoana Shopping Center biggest
in US. Irene works on the 14th floor in said building, afew blocks from ILWU
Building and close to Waikiki. Tony and I are standing on top of the Shopping
Center up and down.
Handwritten on verso of photograph: (2 levels of shops &
parking) / Seattle will be second soon, we hear.
|
September 1961 |
| 1/1 | 6 | 1970? | |
| 1/1 | 7 | 1980? | |
| 1/1 | 8 | 1980? |
Silme Domingo & FamilyReturn to Top
| Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/2 | 9 | 1972? | |
| 1/2 | 10 |
Sue Williams (center), Terri Mast
(right) and an unidentified woman (left) walking on King Street in Seattle,
Washington
Terri Mast was the wife of Silme Domingo until his death.
|
1980? |
| 1/2 | 11 | 1980? | |
| 1/2 | 12 | 1980? | |
| 1/2 | 13 |
Ricky Farinas, Jr.
Ricky Farinas, Jr. was probably a friend of Terri Mast.
|
1980? |
| 1/2 | 14 | 1981? | |
| 1/2 | 15 |
Terri Mast and Nemesio Domingo sharing
a toast
John Stamets
(photographer)
Nemesio Domingo was the father of Silme Domingo.
This photo was likely taken at either the gathering for the
recall election of Baruso or a special election.
UW 27683
|
September 30, 1982 |
Gene Viernes & FamilyReturn to Top
| Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/3 | 16 | 1981? | |
| 1/3 | 17 |
Portraits of Gene Viernes and Greg Della.
Contact sheet for 6 photographs. Items 17.1A, 17.2A, 17.3A,
17.4A and 17.5A are Gene Viernes. Item 17.6A is Greg Della.
|
between 1960-1979? |
| 1/3 | 18 |
Men preparing for pig roast in backyard
Man in second photo from left of second row is Eddie Daba,
Seattle activist. Woman in second row, right photo is Betty Viernes, Gene
Viernes' mother.
Contact sheet for 12 photographs.
|
between 1960-1979? |
Unidentified PeopleReturn to Top
| Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/4 | 19 | between 1920-1949? | |
| 1/4 | 20 | between 1920-1949? | |
| 1/4 | 21 | 1980? | |
| 1/4 | 22 |
Group of young Filipino women on
benches outdoors at Seattle University
This photo was possibly taken at the Far West Convention at
Seattle University. The woman in the center holding a purse is possibly Becky
Cordona.
|
1980? |
| 1/4 | 23 | 1980? | |
| 1/4 | 24 | 1980? | |
| 1/4 | 25 | 1980? | |
| 1/4 | 26 |
Four negatives depicting outdoor scenes
in Rosemead, California
Items 26.12A and 26.13A depict a highway. Items 26.14A and
26.15A depict three men standing outside.
|
1980? |
| 1/4 | 27 |
Passport photographs of young Asian man
with moustache
DeAsis Studio, Seattle, Washington
(photographer)
|
1980? |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington)
Personal Names
- Domingo, Silme, -1981--Family--Photographs
- Domingo, Silme, -1981--Photographs
- Mensalvas, Chris D., -1977--Family--Photographs
- Mensalvas, Chris D., -1977--Photographs
- Viernes, Gene, -1981--Family--Photographs
- Viernes, Gene, -1981--Photographs
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