
09/08/2025
Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay (Historical novel)
The dark side of California history. The Filipino immigrant experience. From the Spanish-American War to farm laborers to World War II allies to anti-Asian sentiments in the 21st century, the US relationship with the Philippines has been difficult.
Over the centuries, immigrants came to California for work. There were the 19th-century Chinese who came for mining and railroad work. The Okies during the Depression for farm labor. Mexican guest-workers in the 1960s. This book is about the Filipino experience. Each Filipino generation faced its own challenges: “Manong Generation, the Watsonville riots, Stockton’s Little Manila, the Delano grape strike, the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship, the assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr., and the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic.”