White men asserted that these new young immigrants, who were recruited to build the regions fertile and budding multi-billion-dollar agricultural business, were stealing their jobs – jobs they did not want to do themselves. The work was tedious, demanding and took skill. Filipinos were willing to work for low wages and endure poor working conditions. Filipinos, largely young men, came after the Spanish- American War where the United States was awarded the Philippines as a Colony. They came under the guise of seeking better opportunities. Little did they know that they would have to persevere through very difficult working conditions and turbulent racial unrest, prejudice and discrimination. As young immigrants, these Filipinos had minimal funds and had to survive through their own conviction and determination. They were also very suave, handsome, dapper and polite, especially to the young ladies in town. For every 30 Filipino males there was one Filipina.

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Filipino’s organized “taxi dances” mostly at Palm Beach, where local white women would dance with Filipino men as a source of generating money in the Depression Era. This propagated the term “A Dollar A Day, A Dime a Dance.” This also fueled the ire of local white men who may have felt disgraced and rejected knowing that these “little brown men” were mingling with their own ethnic group that added to the tension and unrest.

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