Estella Habal and San Francisco’s International Hotel

From 1968 until 1977 the International Hotel in San Francisco resisted numerous attempts of eviction. For years the I-hotel had provided many Filipino immigrants with low income housing. It was the gathering place of the first manongs who had arrived to work in the canneries and fields during the 1920’s and 30’s. It had become the center of what was then known to be a massive Manilatown full of Filipino shops, restaurants and businesses. While technically, the Filipino people at the time could not own their own properties or businesses, they were considerably well off and appeared to be thriving. So once word had come about that such a marvelous place of community to so many people, was going to be torn down and replaced with a parking lot, it is no surprise that many went through drastic measures to keep it standing. A human barricade consisting of thousands of students, and other civilians (not only Filipino or Asian American) surrounded the entire block where the International Hotel stood.

Estella Habal, a professor at San Jose State University, writes a memoir of the decade long protest in support of the International Hotel. She , who worked as an organizer for the I-Hotel Tenants Association during the mid-70’s describes the importance of not only the structure of the hotel itself, but its influence on the community as a whole how it was the root of the numerous Filipinos in Manilatown during that time. Maniltown in San Francisco by then had grown to be about 10 blocks beginning for Kearny and California Street and stretching to Columbus Avenue. The I-hotel, even during the years of protest against its eviction, had become a community center, and was not only remembered for providing homes for the low-income working class, but also for the retired Filipino workers and war veterans. Sadly regardless of the amount of effort that so many people put through to keep the I-Hotel standing, it’s remaining tenants were evicted by force and the structure torn down. The grand Manilatown of San Francisco had gradually disintegrated along with the fall of the I-hotel. Through her book San Francisco’s International Hotel: mobilizing the Filipino American community in the anti-eviction movement and her current position on the Board of Directors of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, she hopes to keep the legacy of the International Hotel and Historic Manilatown alive through various projects on the former I-Hotel’s grounds. By keeping their legacy alive, it emphasizes its impact and importance in Filipino American history.