In this short bonus episode, TFAL presents a retelling of the short story, “The Filipino and the Drunkard.”  Written in 1935 by William Saroyan, this short story tells the tale of a young Filipino who is aboard a ferry boat in 1930s San Francisco.  While waiting to go across the Bay to visit his brother, he is suddenly finds himself followed and harassed by a drunk White bigot.  Truly relevant to today’s tense racial climate under the Orange Cheeto administration.

Anonymous letter send to the Chief of Police of Sunnyvale, CA in 1930.  Photo credit: http://www.personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/filfaqs.htm. (Original picture found at James Earl Wood Photograph Collection, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley).

This will hopefully be the first of a new series of audio short stories we will present on TFAL.  If you have a story (personal or otherwise) that touch upon the Filipino/Filipino American experience and you would like to produce it for the podcast, please email us at thisfilipinoamericanlife@gmail.com.

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