Post-War Presidio by The Alvarado Project

See photos from The Alvarado Project documenting post-WWII Filipino-American life in the Presidio and hear a reading from Claiming Our Stories, an intergenerational anthology with historical accounts complementing the project’s images.

This pop-up exhibit from November 1 - 30 at Presidio Branch Library celebrates the lives and contributions of first-generation Filipino immigrants, as documented by photographer Ricardo Ocreto Alvarado (1914–1976)

Ricardo Alvarado arrived in California in 1928 as a 14-year-old in the first wave of Filipino immigrants. Working as a janitor and houseboy, he enlisted in the U.S. Army First Filipino Infantry Regiment in 1942. After serving in combat in the South Pacific during World War II as a medic, he became a civilian cook at San Francisco’s Letterman Army Hospital.

For 20 years he studied the city and nearby rural areas in his free time with his view camera in hand, recording Filipino community life at dances, banquets, baptisms, funerals, and other gatherings. In 1959, Alvarado ended his work in photography and returned to the Philippines to marry Norberta Magallanes. They had two children, Janet and Joseph Alvarado, who currently live in San Francisco.

When he died in 1976, Ricardo Ocreto Alvarado left an archive of nearly 3,000 rare photographs, a vital portrait of early Filipino Americans.

The Alvarado Project (TAP), a non-profit founded in 1998, is headed by Executive Director Janet Alvarado. It is a community-based volunteer organization of artists, students, and educators. The project seeks to foster multicultural understanding, strengthen the community through art, cultural programs, and collect historically significant artifacts and material about the Filipino American community.

Connect: The Alvarado Project - Website