FilAm writer of Belmont club asks where are the Pinoy mess servants in the film "The Butler"?
I don’t think it is a particularly edifying thing to note that Filipinos have been the mess staff through history. But it is the truth. Today, only a few days after the global commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima, almost no one remembers that more Filipinos died in the Battle of Manila than either atomic bombing.
Hollywood is often careless with the truth and perhaps one day the Hollywood version will be the only “truth” there is.
On the other hand, joining the US Navy allowed a lot of locals to become US citizens.
the bad news: For years, they could only serve in the mess (the US Navy slang for the kitchen).
and the USNavy ran the White House kitchen...despite that, only one photo on the WH webpage shows the face of one of the servants: it looks like a Filipino steward in the background...
another photo from the Kennedy era:
Taken at John F. Kennedy Jr.’s third birthday party, on December 6, 1963, this photograph reflects the racial diversity of the White House staff.
In the early days of the internet, I asked Lolo why the town webpage was based in San Diego, and he said it was because of all the Navy guys who retired there. And several of our relatives got citizenship that way.
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