History Professor Dawn Mabalon: 'Filipina/o Immigrants Lived in Limbo'

ASIAN JOURNAL -- Before 1946, federal laws preventing access to citizenship for non-whites and state laws denying Filipinos from owning land left them adrift and unheard in the U.S., according to Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) historians. “Filipina/o immigrants lived in limbo — neither citizen or national, barred from citizenship and the vote, yet deeply committed to living in the United States,” writes associate professor of History at San Francisco State University, Dawn B. Mabalon, in an article published by the FANHS titled “The significance of 1946 for Filipina/o Americans.”