By Lyla Moes and Skylar Bates
Atop the high shelves of El Presidio Research Center in downtown Santa Barbara sits a crisp white box containing a tattered photo album filled to the brim with stories, memories and photographs of Patti Van Tassel, a member of Santa Barbara’s Filipino American community.
Alone, these documents may seem like nothing more than pieces of a family photo album, but together they document the diverse and rich history of the Filipino American community. UC Santa Barbara doctoral student Shannon Toribio wants the stories of under-documented communities heard, seen, and actualized by collecting oral histories from the public and making them widely available.
Ph.D. student Shannon Toribio partnered with the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation to build the collection of Filipino American artifacts in El Presidio Research Center. Photo courtesy of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
Shannon Toribio is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Religious Studies at UC Santa Barbara, focusing on Asian and Asian American religion. As an Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Public Humanities Graduate Fellow, Toribio has launched an Oral History Project with the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation. He works closely with librarian and archivist Dez Alaniz to analyze and store these collections at El Presidio Research Center located in downtown Santa Barbara.
In collecting oral histories as a part of the Trust’s Oral History Project, Shannon Toribio has encountered many diverse and enriching stories of migration and community-building.
Document donor Patti Van Tassel as a young girl.
“This woman named Patti Van Tassel donated materials in 2014,” Toribio said. At El Presidio Research Center, Toribio flipped through several old documents and photographs, lingering on a single photo of Filipino Community Association members gathered around a table. “Her father is actually the founder and first president of the Filipino Community Association,” he pointed out.
Toribio said following up on leads from Patti’s stories and interviewing community members helped him envision oral histories as the foundation for a much larger and wider-reaching project.
“I thought, okay, we are going to be doing this for a while,” Shannon said. “A lot of times when an intern leaves, the project just stops, and that’s sad. I didn’t want that to happen. I thought, how can I ensure the security of this project? We need to document how we do this.”
With the current systems El Presidio has in place, anyone can view artifacts, archives, or photographs by scheduling an appointment with the research center. However, Toribio hopes to develop a more accessible website and greater social media outreach for not only the public, but for fellow collaborators as well. With funding from a possible grant, Toribio and Alaniz also envision an exhibit for people to view artifacts and transcripts.
Filipino Community Association members and guests. First FCA president and father of Patti Van Tassel, Jose Fuentes, far right.
Toribio has one main objective when considering where the Oral History Project is headed from this point forward. “More documents!” Toribio said, smiling over the prospect of the project’s future expansion. “I just want this project to get bigger.”
Future expansions of the project may include oral histories that have yet to be discovered. “Not just Filipino Americans but more of the under-documented communities,” Toribio explained. “That’s already happening.”
Old newspaper clipping featuring first FCA president and founder, Jose Fuentes, and grandchildren. The discusses the importance of remembering Filipino heritage.
Skylar Bates is a third-year Political Science major at UC Santa Barbara. Lyla Moes is a fourth-year Aquatic Biology major at UC Santa Barbara. They wrote this article for their Digital Journalism class.