734 Marin Street, Vallejo, Ca 94590
Telephone: (707) 643-0077
e-mail: valmuse@pacbell.net
Museum Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12-4pm
Research Library Hours: by appointment
 
Admission Fees: $5 adults; $3 seniors & students; children under 12 free
Filipino American Historic Photos
"Absolutely No Filipinos Allowed"
"Dad and Buddies"
"Absolutely No Filipinos Allowed"
"Dad and Buddies"
"30's Mom and Daughter"
"50's Youth"
The Frank Verano Orchestra 1953
Members of Frank Verano and his orchestra:  
Front Row:   Lena Tanzo, Antonia Galiste
Back Row:   Frank Verano, Simeon LaCosta,
Victor Enderiz, Enrique Bascones (1953)
The Frank Verano Orchresta has been together since the 1940’s.  They played for various organizations and private parties.  The band formed in the 1940's and  performed in Stockton, Oakland, San Francisco, and here in Vallejo.  My mom joined the combo in 1953.
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    Friends and Family Celebrating 
Charlita Balolong’s Baptism 1953
  This photo taken at the residents of Frank & Salud Verano’s Apartment on Virginia  and  Sacramento St.,Vallejo  
Those attending were families from the island of Bohol, Siquior, Mindanao, and Manila.
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Photos #1-5 Courtesy of Joseph Galiste
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Fellow Filipino Vallejoans celebrate Christmas at a Bohol Circle event in Alameda, CA.  1951
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1955 Vallejo
Filipino American Catholic Club
St. Vincent’s Memorial Center
Photos #6-9 courtesy of Mel Orpilla
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Antonia Galiste singing at the Casa De Vallejo 1953.
Mom was one of the singers for Frank Verano’s orchresta.  She enjoyed singing.  She can be remembered singing for the Filipino Radio Station in Vallejo and for the Filipino Community.
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The  Tinikling is the national dance of the Philippines. 
In this  August 1969 photo are Marian Marana, Dorothy Galiste, Emily Ancheta and Charity Vita. The photo was take at the Legionarios de Trabajo Fraternal Organazation annual ball. Veterans Memorial Hall, Vallejo.
The First Filipino War Bride in Vallejo
 Petrona 'Toni' Spencer and her husband, William in 2009
The First Filipino War Bride in Vallejo
   William Spencer met and marriedToni Daz in Manila in 1945  while he was part of a GI unit in the battle to liberate Manila. In the same year, Congress passed the  War Brides Act, allowing soldiers to bring their foreign-born wives home.
Eventually, the two found jobs at the Mare Island Navy Shipyard and moved to Vallejo in 1950. Toni Spencer became the first Filipina war bride to come to Vallejo.
The Spencer family lived first in the Carquinez Heights neighborhood, but moved around constantly as they tried to buy a home.
"I couldn't buy a house because she's a Filipina," said William Spencer, visibly angry decades after the racial housing restrictions of the era that created neighborhoods such as the Country Club Crest.
-From an article in the Vallejo Times Herald 10-16-09
The Spencers  and their 
children in 1950