RSSWapato celebrates a century of diversity
Speakers will talk of the challenges faced by various settling ethnic groupsYakima Herald-Republic
The early Mexican family settlers came to the Yakima Valley as early as 1939. The family of Ambrosio Gonzalez Moreno, his wife Herminia Sarabia-Garza-Moreno and their family were one of the early settlers. Since their arrival 65 years ago , five generations of the Garza-Moreno family members now reside throughout the Yakima Valley.
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Since its incorporation a century ago, Wapato's repeated waves of migration created what is probably the most ethnically diverse city in the entire Yakima Valley.
Situated on the Yakama reservation, this Lower Valley city of roughly 4,540 residents includes Native Americans, whites, Japanese, Filipinos and Latinos.
With each migration came unique challenges.
As part of the city's 100th birthday this year, a series of speakers from each ethnic community will talk on various days over the course of a month about each migration.
An annual tamale festival Oct. 18 will also highlight the town's centennial.
Wapato is surrounded by the reservation. Initially, only tribal members were to live on the 1.2 million-acre reservation. But federal laws drafted during the late 1800s enabled white settlers to acquire tribal lands. As a result, Wapato was incorporated as a town in August 1908.
Japanese immigrants eventually followed to work in fields as well as Filipinos and Hispanics.
Filipinos have thrived in Wapato since arriving in 1918, said Rey Pascua, president of the Filipino-American Community of Yakima Valley.
"The early pioneers came because they wanted to get an education or they wanted to strike it rich in the land of milk and honey," he said.
But it wasn't easy going for Filipinos, who faced fierce prejudice and mobs who wanted them gone. The racial tensions forged a united Filipino community, and in 1948 it began raising money to build the Filipino Hall, which still serves the community today.
"They didn't really make enough money to be lucrative," Pascua said of Filipino immigrants who mostly worked in fields. "As years went by, they lost contact with relatives and weren't able to go back to the Philippines."
Pascua credits the Yakamas for opposing federal laws that would have kept Filipinos from leasing or owning land.
"That was the victory," he said. "That was what allowed Filipinos to be able to stay here and buy and lease lands."
In the 1890s, the first Japanese settlers came to the Yakima Valley, first working coal mines, railroads and lumber mills, then farming and opening businesses.
By December 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, there were about 925 people of Japanese ancestry living in Wapato.
Rounded up by the federal government, most were sent to an interment camp at Hart Mountain, Wyo. After the war, most moved to southeastern Oregon, where attitudes were friendlier than Wapato. The few that returned to the Valley were greeted by signs that read "No Jap Trade Wanted."
Not all whites felt that way, however, and they helped encourage some Japanese families to get a renewed start in Wapato.
Hispanics began coming to town in the late 1920s, said Alonzo Marquez, who wrote a series of articles chronicling the history of Hispanics in the area.
Roughly 10 Hispanic families from Colorado and Wyoming came to the area at that time, and were all sharecroppers with the now defunct U&I Sugar plant, he said.
"They were farmers, grew sugar beets," he said. "Most of the sugar beets in this Valley that went to the sugar plant were raised by these people."
Today, the Hispanic community makes up the largest ethnic group in town.
* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.
Legend speakers series
* Friday -- Pamela Fabela, Yakama Nation, 6 p.m., Wapato Community Center, 1009 Camas Ave.
* Oct. 18 -- Ricardo Garcia, retired executive director of Hispanic radio station KDNA, 4 p.m., Liberty Theater, 112 E. Third St.
* Oct. 24 -- Rey Pascua, Filipino community president, 6 p.m., Wapato Community Center.
* Nov. 7 -- Nibbs Menard, 70-year Wapato resident will speak on white settlement, 6 p.m., Wapato Community Center.
* Dec. 5 -- Lon Inaba, representing the Japanese community, 6 p.m., Wapato Community Center.
Fourth Annual Tamale Festival
What: Tamale cookoff, wine tasting event, car show, art show and ethnic dancing.
Where: Downtown Wapato.
When: Oct. 18, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
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