Gonzalo Garcia attended the University of Michigan from 1912-1915 and obtained an engineering degree from the School of Engineering and Architecture. After graduation he went back to his home country and obtained a job as a civil engineer. There is no evidence that he returned to the United States after obtaining his degree.
Gonzalo Garcia’s narrative does not stray far from the typical narrative of an international student at the time. International students, typically from more affluent backgrounds, would attend university in the United States, gain further status, and immediately return to their respective countries where they were more connected.
From what I could gather from his necrology, enrollment, and other alumni files, Gonzalo Garcia did not leave behind a lot of evidence of his life as a student at UM.
What did surprise me however, was that despite my interpretation of his last name, Gonzalo Garcia was not from Puerto Rico, Mexico, or any South American country. He was from the Philippines. Understanding the history of 300 years of spanish colonization in the Philippines can explain Garcia’s last name, however, it led me to question if it had further implications.
Did Gonzalo Garcia consider himself Hispanic? Did the United States consider Garcia and other FIlipinos Hispanic? Are Filipinos Hispanic? What “label” was the norm of the time? Did this change his experience on campus at all from other Asian/Hispanic students?
My 11th grade world history teacher once racially profiled me and asked me to give a presentation to the rest of the class on the difference between Latinx and Hispanic. Ultimately this was a ploy to facilitate the labeling of myself and other Latinx/Brown/Hispanic students.
For some context, the term Hispanic in the U.S. originates from the federal government’s desperate need to discern the Latinx population from the otherwise default label of “caucasian” on the U.S. census. Globally, the word stems from the descendants of Spaniards who resided in Latin America during colonial times who used the word to differentiate themselves from the indigenous people of the land, claiming only their roots from Spain. Over time, the word has come to be perceived as synonymous with the word Latino/Latina/Latinx – probably due to the fact that the U.S. census currently and for the last various decades has used them interchangeably. Nonetheless, the word has long had a history of oppressive purpose and a need to “whiten” the history and origin of the Latinx people.
I included this anecdote to identify two things. Firstly, there is a desperate need for people to be able to classify and differentiate groups of people based on one or a few characteristics. Secondly and most importantly, no academic or cultural briefing on any identity will ever replace or be as sufficient as the question “what do you identify as?” Ultimately, it is up to the individual to choose the term they most relate and identify with, not other third parties.
Keeping this in mind, I tried to find data on what other Filipinos at the time identified themselves as and only found that in the 1980 US Census, one eighth of Filipinos in the US considered themselves Hispanic. Since then, the percentage has decreased (Pew Research Center, Hispanic Trends 2009). While I attempted to find similar data from 1910 to 1920 , I could not.
Spanish was the official language of the Philippines until 1973, and in 1916 it was reportedly “the language of business and social intercourse.” Perhaps Garcia spoke spanish and while nor the census nor Gonzalo Garcia himself may have considered Garcia or other Filipinos to be Hispanic, he could have found it easier to relate and build camaraderie with those from Latin America who also spoke spanish.
As member of the Cosmopolitan Club, Gonzalo Garcia must have had a drawing to be with those who shared similar experiences as him and promoted his values. The Cosmopolitan club was a national organization for international- and domestic – students on college campuses that promoted the idea of cosmopolitanism, which referred to all of humanity as members of one community.
In an attempt to understand the culture surrounding Garcia, I found references to the organization in the Michigan daily during his years on campus. As a general overview, the Latin American countries of the Cosmopolitan Club were rarely mentioned, if at all. In an April 27th, 1915 edition of the Michigan Daily the Cosmopolitan Club is mentioned to be hosting an event celebrating most of the nationalities of its members but only mentions Hawaii, Japan, France. Another Cosmopolitan Club event was mentioned in a May 29, 1915 edition that included “Hawaiian music and Talks.” Based on a yearbook photographs from 1913, the Cosmopolitan Club at UM was composed of students from a variety of different nationalities with about a third being from Porto Rico (Puerto Rico), Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, or Cuba. The rarity in which any of these cultures and nationalities are mentioned can contribute to a history of erasure of these communities.
One article to note was the May 10th and October 23rd, 1912 edition, where the club is mentioned in regards to its rapidly growing size especially when compared to that of other universities – being named the largest of the Corda Fratres Association Cosmopolitan Clubs. The rapidly growing international population as a result of student efforts to push for “cosmopolitanism”- with support of faculty- were able to rapidly increase enrollment numbers. I would not rush to contend that the University partook in this propaganda, but I can see how it benefits to be seen as a “liberal” institution that is “welcoming” to all people.