GALLERY
COURTESY RICARDO ALVARADO
"Tractor, California, 1950s" illustrates how farm work was a way of life for many Filipino bachelors. Extremely low wages often meant that the men could not afford to marry until their 50s, if at all.
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Community
Photographer Ricardo Ocreto Alvarado captured the lifestyle of Filipino-Americans in 1940s and ’50s San Francisco
It was in 1928 that Ricardo Ocreto Alvarado stepped onto American soil to start a new life away from his homeland in the Philippines. Alvarado and contemporaries, who came to the United States in a wave of immigration, were known as the Manong generation.
After serving the United States in World War II (Alvarado served with the Army's First Filipino Regiment), he began to explore his love of photography.
On Exhibit
"Through My Father's Eyes: the Filipino American Photographs of Ricardo Ocreto Alvarado (1914-1976)
Place: Academy Art Center, 1111 Victoria St.
Times: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, through Jan. 29
Admission: Free
Call: 532-8741
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This passion led Alvarado to chronicle the evolution of the Filipino-American community from a bachelor society to one that centered on family life, for some 20 years following the war.
After Alvarado died in 1976, his daughter Janet stumbled upon his more than 3,000 images, packed in boxes in the basement of their home.
"It was the first solid clue ... that what he did was not just a hobby," she says.
Today, Janet Alvarado heads up The Alvarado Project, which created the exhibition along with the help of the Smith- sonian's Asian Pacific American Program.
She calls the selection of the 50 pieces for "Through My Father's Eyes" "an excruciating process." Yet, "it was a labor of love for everybody involved," she says.
COURTESY RICARDO ALVARADO
"Migrant Farmer with Child,1950s" shows that even after marrying, many Filipino men continued on as farm workers long after World War II.
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COURTESY RICARDO ALVARADO
"Interior, Telephone Market, San Francisco, 1950s": A Filipino family owned this neighborhood store on Pine Street in San Francisco.
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COURTESY RICARDO ALVARADO
Ricardo Alvarado photographed many weddings. This one, "Madeline and Bridesmaids, San Francisco, 1950s," chronicles the wedding of a close family friend.
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COURTESY RICARDO ALVARADO
"Little Lindy Hoppers, San Francisco, 1950s" shows the American cultural influence on second-generation Filipino children.
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