AirTalk is off this week, so we’ll be supplying our podcast listeners with reruns of our Southern California history segments. Today’s episode is on the SoCal’s Filipino population. If you’d like to suggest a topic for a future SoCal history segment, email it to atcomments@laist.com. 

Back in October was Filipino American History Month, and we dedicated an episode of our SoCal history segment to the tremendous contributions that Filipino communities have made here in Southern California. From when Filipino sailors landed in Morro Bay in 1587 to “Little Manila” in downtown LA in the first half of the 20th century to the rapidly gentrifying Historic Filipinotown, California has long felt the impact of the Filipino community. Today on AirTalk, we’ll dig into why migrants from the Philippines ended up in Southern California and the histories of the communities they formed. Joining us to discuss is Joy Sales, assistant professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, Joseph Bernardo, adjunct professor in the Asian and Asian Pacific American Studies Department at Loyola Marymount University and board member for the Filipino Workers Center, and James Zarsadiaz, associate professor of history and director of the Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. Author of ​​Resisting Change in Suburbia: Asian Immigrants and Frontier Nostalgia in L.A.