The Philippines-St. Louis Connection

How is St. Louis, MO even remotely connected to the Philippines? Carmina and Patch discover the answer in this episode. They discuss why St. Louis came to be known as the "Gateway to the West" and how it became home to approximately 1,200 Filipinos from April to December in 1904.  Learn about the haunting stories that echo across time in what is now known as the Philippine Village Historical site, championed by one individual whose singular efforts will ensure that none of the site's former residents 120 years ago are ever forgotten.

Learn more: The Broken Heart of America, The New York Times: Revisiting a World's Fair, Report of the Philippine Exposition Board to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and official list of awards granted by the Philippine International Jury at the Philippine Government Exposition World's Fair, St. Louis, Mo., Souvenir of the Philippine Exposition, World's Fair, St. Louis, 1904 [microform], Janna Añonuevo Langholz, Philippine Village Historical Site, 1904 World's Fair Revised: One Artist Memorializes Filipino And Indigenous People, YouTube: Revealing the Smithsonian’s ‘racial brain collection’, The Washington Post: Revealing the Smithsonian’s ‘racial brain collection’, How the Post Reported Maura’s Story, YouTube: Searching For Maura | An illustrated investigation, YouTube: At Home In the Philippine Village, Souvenir: Igorot Village, 1904 World’s Fair Revised: One Artist Memorializes Filipino and Indigenous People, A Brief History of St. Louis, A Daring Escape from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and Library of Congress: St. Louis World's Fair: Topics in Chronicling America.

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Episode Transcript

Carmina (00:06):
Welcome to Field Trip , a podcast where we explore
everything fun, weird, and inbetween about the Philippines.
Today's trip is to St . Louis.
Our listeners might be confusedwhy we're going to St . Louis
and not somewhere inthe Philippines.

Patch (00:25):
St . Louis, Missouri.

Carmina (00:27):
Exactly. St . Louis was the site of the 1904
World's Fair, which is alsoknown as the Louisiana Purchase
Centennial Exposition. Itopened on April 30th, 1904 and
lasted for seven months.

Patch (00:43):
Some articles are saying it lasted for eight months.

Carmina (00:46):
And this one I didn't know Patch, it also hosted the
1904 Summer Olympics, which wasthe first Olympic Games in the
United States. Right.

Patch (00:56):
So it really showed off the US as a global player.
Right.

Carmina (01:01):
In this World's Fair was a place or a site called
the Philippine Reservation,also called the Philippine
Village.

Patch (01:10):
Right. And it was one of the most, if not the most
popular attraction at the fair.

Carmina (01:17):
Apparently 99 out of 100 visitors.

Patch (01:20):
I think you have some information on the history of
St. Louis.

Carmina (01:23):
Yeah. So I never really knew, I mean, hardly
anything about St . Louisbefore researching this
episode. But I really didwonder why , why St . Louis?
Out of all the places in theUnited States,

Patch (01:38):
You have such an inquiring mind because I did
not, the question never crossedmy mind. ,

Carmina (01:47):
You didn't care .

Patch (01:47):
I just took it as fact .
Oh , that's where , thefair was . But so what
did you find out?

Carmina (01:56):
St . Louis is called the Gateway to the West and
their very famous monument, theGateway Arch, it's meant to
convey the important role thatSt . Louis and Missouri played
in the westward expansion ofthe United States. And that's
the reason why the LouisianaPurchase's Centennial was being

(02:16):
commemorated there. Do you knowabout the Louisiana purchase?

Patch (02:20):
Yeah.

Carmina (02:20):
Oh, good for you,

Patch (02:22):
. Well, if I remember, the US government at
the time was very interested inLouisiana. Mm-Hmm.
. 'cause it willbasically expand the empire, so
to speak.

Carmina (02:34):
Napoleon Bonaparte sale of Louisiana to America in
1803 doubled its territoryovernight, and Missouri was
part of the deal. If people arecurious, the states that were
part of that deal wereLouisiana, Missouri, Arkansas,
Iowa, North Dakota, SouthDakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.

(02:59):
It also included most of theland in Kansas, Colorado,
Wyoming, Montana, andMinnesota. And do you also
recall Lewis and Clark? Lewisand Clark were famously sent by
then President Thomas Jeffersonto survey the region that
covered the Louisiana purchaseand to document the passage to

(03:23):
the Pacific. And they weretasked with cataloging the
wildlife and terrain to gaugethe economic opportunities.
Because it turned out, to yourpoint earlier, this territory
contained rich mineralresources, productive land,
forests, and wildlife resourcesthat were so valuable that it

(03:46):
couldn't even be estimated atthe time. So you were right.
America was eyeing it becausethey knew that it was something
that could be, for lack of abetter word, exploited.

Patch (03:56):
Mm-Hmm. .

Carmina (03:57):
The other thing that these lands contained were the
original inhabitants. Right.
The Indians. And so one of theother most important objectives
of Lewis and Clark's missionwas to begin spreading the word
to the Indians. That they, theAmericans were now their
overlords and that the Indianswere subject to their rule. So

(04:22):
we can predict what happensnext. Right. Over the next few
decades and centuries began thesystematic dispossession of the
Indians. And in the course ofhistory, St . Louis became an
important trading and economichub, which included slave
trafficking, which made manywhite men rich St . Louis was

(04:45):
called the mourning star of USimperialism. And it flourished
to a point when there was eventalk of moving the US Capitol
from Washington DC to St .
Louis. And much of this wasbecause it was in a strategic
spot along the MississippiRiver, and then later the

(05:06):
building of the railroadsystems made it a hub again for
commerce in the West.

Patch (05:11):
During the time of the exhibition, was it still that
important place in trade?

Carmina (05:17):
Great question. So before I go into that, I was
also fascinated to learn thatSt . Louis was a supporter of
the Spanish American Warbecause they already had
business connections to Cubaand they saw it as an
opportunity to further expandtheir commerce all the way to
the Philippines.

Patch (05:38):
Okay.

Carmina (05:39):
St . Louis was already aware of the Philippines. In
fact, there was an editorial inthe St . Louis Star in 1898
that said, and I quote thestars and stripes should hence
forth float forever from thePhilippines. Isn't that
fascinating? St . Louisapparently also made very good
money after the SpanishAmerican War by shipping street

(06:03):
cars , freight cars andlocomotives to Manila, San
Juan, Mexico, and the otherparts of the Spanish Empire. So
here's where I get to yourquestion. On the surface, it
looked as if St . Louis was aplace of endless wealth and
opportunity, but it wasactually very corrupt and was

(06:24):
described as rotten to the corewhere you could apparently buy
the most deviant of experiencesif you had the money. I also
came across that it wasreferred to as the sporting
city because it was really aeuphemism for being
promiscuous. So as an example,even if prostitution had been

(06:47):
outlawed in other parts ofAmerica, it could continued in
Missouri for decadesafterwards. It was also famous
for gambling, which the policewere in on. And everybody in
the government in St. Louistook a big cut. It was also a
place where the rich took fulland unfair advantage of the
poor. The people who led thecity were imperialists and

(07:11):
proponents of white supremacy.
By the early 19 hundreds, St .
Louis developed a reputationfor being the worst governed
city in America. And it becamethe poster child for urban
decline. And so winning the bidfor the World's Fair was meant
to rehabilitate St . Louis'sreputation. The organizers

(07:33):
really made a good case, right?
Because they connected it toAmerica's history and I guess
it resonated with the decisionmakers , and so they secured
their spot. Yeah.

Patch (07:45):
Also, they, I guess one of the few who was able to
raise the funds to , um, host ,

Carmina (07:51):
Uh, undoubtedly from all that gambling

Patch (07:55):
.
Yeah. Yeah.

Carmina (07:57):
So anyway, to describe its organizers, let me quote
from a book that we're going tolink in our show notes. It's
called The Broken Heart ofAmerica, which really is a
great book for anybody whowants to do a deep dive into St
. Louis history. And I quote,seldom and the history of the
world had there been, and inparentheses and rarely has

(08:19):
there been since such agathering of professional
racists, keepers of human zoosand western civilization
luminaries as there was inForest Park and on the campus
of nearby Washington Universityduring the summer and fall of

(08:39):
1904. I mean, that pretendswhat we're about to talk about
, right? About the PhilippineVillage.

Patch (08:46):
Mm-Hmm.

Carmina (08:48):
It was the largest human zoo in world history, and
about 10,000 people playedtheir role in the propaganda
about white supremacy. Thehuman beings were assembled in
a way that showed how thewhites were in an advanced
position in human progress. SoI think we need to have a

(09:11):
trigger warning from this pointforward because we will be
saying things and quotingthings that are not our views,
but just from a historicalperspective, we thought it was
important to preserve theactual words that people use
during that time to drive homethe gravity of the experiences

(09:35):
of the Filipinos during thattime.

Patch (09:37):
As we mentioned, the Louisiana purchase exposition
are also called the St . LouisWorld Fair happened in 1904 in
St . Louis, Missouri. And itmarked the 100th anniversary of
the Louisiana Purchase. And italso overlapped with the 1904
Olympic Games. And , um, over aperiod of seven to eight months

(10:02):
, uh, 20 million people from 62countries, 43 states and five
territories visited. So it washugely popular and successful,
quote unquote , the fairdisplayed new technology and
introduced foods like hot dogs, cotton candy, and even the

(10:25):
ice cream cone. Mmm. Mypersonal favorite. And it
celebrated American progress.
But the fair also put people indisplay like the IOTs from the
Philippines, instead offocusing on their products,
visitors were more drawn totheir quote and unquote dog

(10:47):
eating and headhuntingdisplayed.

Carmina (10:50):
Oh, about that dog eating . Dog eating was not
really an everyday custom. Itwas just done on special
rituals and no doubt, maybe ithad special meaning. But the
fair organizers apparentlyforced them to eat this in
front of the visitors.

Patch (11:09):
And also their headhunting culture, quote
unquote , was also very much indisplay.

Carmina (11:16):
But it illustrates that fake news can propagate
through the centuries, becauseup until today there's a
neighborhood where thefairgrounds used to be called
Dog Town .

Patch (11:28):
Yes.

Carmina (11:28):
Because it was supposedly the place where the
Filipinos got their dogs toeat. Can you imagine it's been
perpetuated over the centuries?

Patch (11:37):
Not all of those who traveled to St. Louis from the
Philippines were all IOTs .
Right?

Carmina (11:42):
Yeah, you're right.
Patch of this human zoo, therewas an assemblage of the
Philippine reservation. And itwas also very strategic to
support the propaganda. So letme quote again from the book,
the Broken Heart of America,visitors to the Philippine
reservation entered through awalled city, meant to recall

(12:04):
the fortification of theConcord City of Manila. A raid
around the grounds werevillages populated by various
officially designated ethnictypes who were themselves
categorized according to theirsupposed level of civilization.
The quote unquote intelligent,the science , the quote unquote

(12:27):
fiercely Islamic Moros, thequote unquote savage Bagobo,
the quote unquote monkey likenegritos, one of whom came to
be known as missing ly . Andthe picturesque Igorots camped
around the edges of thereservation beyond the earth
SATs . Ethnic enclaves were thescouts who were charged with

(12:51):
keeping order inside thereservation and exemplifying
the final stages of thecivilizing process. So apart
from the indigenous Filipinos,there were also about 700
Philippines scouts who werebasically military personnel
who reported to whitecommanders or leaders. So

(13:13):
that's how they arranged it.
Keep in mind that the timing ofthe fair, if you recall, the
Philippine American War wasdeclared over right in 1902,
but it was actually still goingon in 1904 when the fair was
happening under the guise ofinsurrection. So that's why
they were staged in that way,to depict us as savages that

(13:34):
needed to be saved to justifythe ongoing conflict.

Patch (13:38):
It's also interesting to note that there were a number
of Filipino carpenters who helpbuilt the exhibits and also
some . Those arescholarship students who
traveled to St. Louis. And inthis process, 17 people died
during the fair, mainly frompneumonia as well as
malnutrition and even suicide.

(14:00):
I know. And can we alsomentioned Carmina, that they
were expecting death. So I readsomewhere that prior to the
Filipino people arriving to thefair, they had already built
cemeteries with fullexpectation that they will be
Filipinos who will die.

Carmina (14:21):
You know, I also wondered how these Filipinos
were convinced to come. Therewere apparently brokers all
over the world, and many of thepeople who were there did not
understand why they were beingbrought to St. Louis

Patch (14:37):
Carmina. I came across a copy of the actual souvenir
flyer that was distributedduring the World Fair . I
wanted to read some parts ofthe description of the Igorot
Village. So it says, the Igorotis one of the most conspicuous
races of Northern Luzon.

(14:58):
Scientists have declared thatwith the proper training, they
are susceptible to a high stateof development. And unlike the
American Indian will accept,rather than defy the advance of
American civilization, they arebarbarians. They have a kind of

(15:20):
spirit worship, and all tribesgive ceremonial dances. As a
rule, they are head hunters .
This particular section on theIgorot Village ended with how
they collected pennies andnickels and dimes thrown into
the copper receptacle. And theIgorots would sing after

(15:41):
finishing the weird dance oftheir tribe. This is part of
their marketing flyer. Wow. Sothis is all worded to attract
visitors. And if you thinkabout what is attractive as an
exhibit, this really gave megoosebumps.

Carmina (16:00):
But we were human spectacles. So a person named
Mr. Hunt, who was apparentlythe broker in the Philippines.
Even after the World's Fair, hetoured the Igorots.

Patch (16:14):
Yeah. TK Hunt, a former Lieutenant governor of the
province of Bontoc. There wasanother person who created
these tours, quote unquote . Soafter the World Fair ended TK
Hunt, and this other guy,Richard Schneiderwind, decided
to create these tours that werevery profitable. This Filipino

(16:37):
Igorot tours around the countryand actually even around the
world. But the livingconditions of these Igorots
were deplorable. Also, theywere not paid appropriately or
as promised. So it didn't endin 1904 when the fair ended. In
fact, it continued for about 10more years. And not just in the

(17:01):
US but also in other parts ofthe world. So when you were
talking about the clothing ofthe Igorots, apparently when
they were in the train on routeto St. Louis, they were denied
heat. So if you can imagine,they were freezing, they
weren't appropriately clothed,even if they lived in the

(17:24):
coldest parts of our country,that's nothing compared to the
freezing temperatures that theywere , uh, met with when they
arrived. So really all theconditions, it was deplorable.
And I just, I'm so saddened tolearn about this part of , uh,
history.

Carmina (17:42):
So we're going to link a graphical illustration of
this experience, and it's partof an investigation that the
Washington Post launched thatlooked into a brain collection
that a man named Ales Hrdlickastarted. So Hrdlicka was seen

(18:03):
as one of the country's expertson race governments and members
of the public actuallyconsulted him to prove that
people's race determinedphysical characteristics and
intelligence. He startedcollecting body parts. So not
just brains, but actual humanremains to support his theories

(18:23):
about race. And he did sowithout proper procedures or
consents. So according to thearticle, the Smithsonian has at
least 30,700 human bones andother body parts. And there are
268 brains collected by themuseum, and only four have been
sent back to their originalcountries. The Smithsonian will

(18:47):
only return them if people witha personal interest or legal
right issues a formal request.
But the problem is, before thisWashington Post investigation,
it was not in the public'sawareness. So anyone who had a
claim or had these rights mightnot even know that they have
it. This federal law mandatesthat the Smithsonian only

(19:08):
proactively inform NativeAmerican Alaskan natives or
native Hawaiian communitiesabout any of these remains. So
there's an estimated 15,000body parts that are unclaimed.
And again, we'll link to thisfull article in our show notes.
People should really read it.
It is so hair raising . Imentioned this because one of

(19:32):
the people that we came acrossduring our research, Janna
Añonuevo Langholz inspiredthese Washington Post
journalists to investigate thestory about her racial brain
collection because she claimedthat one of the brains in the
collection belonged to Maura,who was an 18-year-old woman

(19:53):
from the community,which is one of the tribes
within the Igorots, Patch. Whatmakes Maura significant as
well, in the course of Janabeing acquainted with Mara and
trying to find her grave siteand committing to returning her
remains to her family in thePhilippines, she found 16

(20:13):
others who had died, includingthe names of the 1,204 people
who participated in the fair.

Patch (20:22):
I did wanna mention, first of all, who Janna is. She
is an interdisciplinary artistwho resides and conducts
research at the PhilippineVillage historical site in
Clayton.

Carmina (20:33):
So basically what I read was she was born and
raised at the original site ofthe fair. Right.

Patch (20:42):
It was , uh, once part of the world's fairgrounds.
That's correct. And soconsidered as the site
caretaker, thanks to her work ,uh, she delved into the
personal stories of theindividuals who quote and
unquote participated or wereforced to participate.

Carmina (20:59):
And she really considers herself not just the
caretaker of the site, but ascaretakers of these Filipinos.
We don't wanna spoil it forpeople who really haven't
discovered it because it'sreally something else to go on
this journey with Janna. We'reeven going to link a talk that
she did at the Bard GraduateCenter very recently in March,

(21:22):
where she talks extensivelyabout her life, about how she
took up this advocacy and whatshe plans to do next, because
she is actually in the processof working with the city of St.
Louis to officially make thePhilippine Village historical
site a living monument. Can youimagine Patch one person's

(21:43):
efforts will ensure that wenever forget what happened to
the Filipinos. There

Patch (21:49):
One person's efforts affects all of us Filipino
Americans and Filipinos,because, well, we didn't even
realize any of this. So reallyher work is very important to
all of us. Imagine she was ableto find all the names and there
are barely any records. So wereally appreciate her.

Carmina (22:12):
We're going to link to her bio in the show notes and
how people can support thePhilippine Village historical
site. So I hope that we allkeep Janna's work top of mind.
So Patch , how do you feelabout learning all these
things?

Patch (22:28):
Honestly, I was shocked.
I always knew about the humanzoos, and I've seen pictures of
the Igorots, but I didn'treally delve too much on the
history of it, and I didn'trealize the impact it would
have on me now, which is, Ieven honestly, after
researching this, I searchedonline for like flights to St.

(22:50):
Louis, Missouri. Mm-Hmm .
, because I, Iwould be considering going
there, taking my daughter thereto see where the site is, to
visit the Philippine Village,to visit the work that Janna
did after the shock. Now I justwant to support this effort.
That's the process that I wentthrough.

Carmina (23:08):
Yeah, same here. And Janna is very open, apparently,
so anyone can reach out to herand request for a tour that she
herself gives.

Patch (23:19):
Hopefully, fingers crossed, we do get to visit
there and meet her, you know,hear all the wonderful work
that she has done.

Carmina (23:27):
So, Janna, if you're listening, we're coming.
. That's our episode. Wehope you join us on our next
trip, o siya, siay.

Patch (23:40):
Ingat. Thanks for listening to FilTrip with
Carmina and Patch. SupportFilTrip through Patreon or
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Subscribe at Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or wherever all
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Carmina (23:59):
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Visit the soulpack .com formore details.

Patch (24:08):
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