Gene’s Surf Riders.  Filipino-American musicians playing at the Crown Cafe,

Gene’s Surf Riders.  Filipino-American musicians playing at the Crown Cafe, East Hennepin, Minneapolis. Photograph Collection 1937-1938.

Minnestoa’s Filipino community had its beginnings in a small group of 25 to 30 Filipino students – predominately males – who enrolled at the University of Minnesota and other colleges during the late 1910s and early 1920s. It was not until the late 1920s that systematic recruitment brought 150 to 200 Filipino laborers each spring and summer to Minnesota’s sugar beet fields, truck farms, and canneries. (Mason, S. R. (2003). They Chose Minnesota: A Survey Of The States Ethnic Groups. Minnesota Historical Society Press.)