The Three Stars

Yesterday, at a planning meeting for the Filipino “exposition” project at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, one of those wonderful moments of archival discovery happened. Wellington Lee, one of the guiding forces behind the Salinas Chinatown Cultural Center & Museum project produced a copy of The Three Stars, which his father had kept boxed up with other old newspapers. It was a 1933 edition, and Lee allowed me to photograph it.

Notice the focus on labor issues on the front page.

With editor-in-chief D.L. Marcuelo and N.C. Villanueva, Luis Agudo co-founded the “semi-monthly” Three Stars in Stockton in 1928. The stars in its title referred to the three stars in the flag of the Philippine republic, which represented the north, central, and southern sections of the Philippines. Agudo was also founder and editor of the Philippine Independent News (later the Philippines Mail), which he founded in Salinas in 1921.

The newspaper highlighted global politics and related them to local issues. The editors were especially interested in pointing out the problems of imperialist exploitation of natural as well as labor resources. D.L. Marcuelo was a former pensionado and an ardent Philippine nationalist. An outspoken and articulate attorney, he was a respected and important community figure. An active member of the Filipino businessmen’s association, he also—with Luis Agudo, and the support of many Filipino workers— founded the Filipino Labor Union (F.L.U.), as promoted by Pablo Manlapit, in 1933—not an easy project, since those involved with the project were often subject to attacks.

On a back page, there were photos of beauty queen candidates. Filipinas involved in the “popularity” contests raised money for subscriptions to the newspapers. In fact, the contests were subscription drives, and provided important financial support for the newspapers. Since newspapers like The Three Stars and the Philippines Mail were important voices for the Filipino labor movement, and provided venues for Filipino writers, the popularity contests also supported the movement and the writers.

Check out the article about the three Filipinos who attempt to leave New York harbor for the Philippines on a small boat. I wonder whatever happened to them?

Thanks again to Wellington Lee for hanging on to those old newspapers, and allowing me to photograph The Three Stars! Although I have seen some microfilmed copies of this newspaper, nothing compares to seeing it in print. Now if I could get proper fixed, archival quality, overhead camera shots of the newspapers in decent lighting, I’d really be happy.