I Was and Still Am Not A Subordinate Racial Ambiguities, Politicized Invisibilities, and Locating Filipina American Identity in Chicago.
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Drawing from the oral histories and personal archives of EstrellaAlamar (a former leading actor in the preservation and promotion of FilipinoAmerican history in Chicago), I showcase how she subverted assumptionsabout Asian American women’s (a)politi- cal and subservient identities tonavigate white supremacist spaces and gain a deeper understanding of herown political identity as a Filipina American woman. Reframing Estrella’sself-described invis- ibility during the 1960s Civil Rights Era and integrationmovement as a politicized invisibility makes way for new representations of:(1) How Filipino/Filipino Americans navigated ambiguous racial positioning intwentieth-century Chicago in ways that both upheld and challenged racialhierarchies; (2) the quotidian yet deeply transformative ways that AsianAmerican women engage in anti-racist political movement; and (3) the legacyof Chicago’s Filipino American community leaders who worked across andagainst racial lines. In doing so, I argue that Estrella’s memories of quietlycombatting anti-Blackness in her class- rooms, Catholic encounter groups,and interpersonal relationships during the 1960s and 1970s unveils the‘smaller’ yet impactful ways one can assert a political identity and combatsocial injustice outside of mainstream activist communities, even if suchefforts are rendered invisible by those very same groups
Author: Andi Remoquillo
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7082271704
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