From Pool Halls to Building Workers' Organizations: Lessons for Today's Activists

by Warren Mar
posted 8 /20/02

This article was printed in Asian Americans: The Movement and the Moment and is reprinted with the permission of the author.

I was born in 1953 in San Francisco and raised in the heart of Chinatown. Growing up at that time and place, I had the Asian Movement descend on me rather than my going out in search of it. I was part of the baby boomer generation, but in the Chinese American context we also became the first large generation of American-born Chinese. In the late 50s and early 60s, my primary school years, American-born Chinese kids actually outnumbered immigrants in all my classes. I went to the public schools around Chinatown. This was prior to school busing, and due to housing segregation the majority of my classmates were Chinese. This was my experience until I entered San Francisco State College in 1971.

My upbringing was typical for my generation. However, one of the things that made my family unique was that there were ten kids. This was big even for a Chinese family in the 60s. My parents were garment workers, my father having been one since he was 12; he was considered a very skilled worker. He did the first patterns or samples for the major companies, and upon approval of his work they would put in the order and he would teach the other workers the pattern. For most of my life at home he was a working foreman at the largest contract shop in Chinatown. It had over a hundred machines. My older sisters would eventually all work there. My brothers and I played there and we did very minimal work, like unraveling the garments that had been sewn incorrectly. My mother was also a garment worker trained by my father. She converted our garage into a small shop that subcontracted with my father's shop.

Segregation and Poverty (Part 2)