IRISH HERALD, July, 2019
Norman
Ten with Pat Goggins at the ceremony. Norman grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown,
is a working member of SEIU and President of APALA. Norman co-ordinated the
First Prize Railroad Worker unit in the SF Chinese New Year’s Parade.
Thank you for your front page coverage of the May 10 Gold Spike Ceremony at the
150th Anniversary of the Completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in
the U.S. It was significant for Irish Ambassador Daniel Mulhall to applaud all
who labored and sacrificed to build the railroad. This inclusiveness is so
important because the past reporting emphasized the business financiers and
left out the thousands of workers, especially non-whites.
The various worker groups included an estimated 20,000 Chinese who constituted
approximately 90% of the work force coming from California to the East on the
Central Pacific, the estimated 10,000 Irish who constituted approximately half
of the workers coming west on the Union Pacific (and considerable numbers on
the Central Pacific too), many recently emancipated African Americans, Mormons,
Italians, American Indians and others.
There were 35 official photographs taken at the original 1869 ceremonies and
only one included Chinese. For example, Chinese were missing in the universally
distributed original iconic photo, shown as recreated in your Herald article,
even though the original photo had over a hundred people in it. History has
been misrepresented. We can, and should, imagine the insult and hurt. We must
also remember the discriminations against the Chinese who were paid less for
the same work and assigned the critical and most dangerous work. Over 1200
Chinese died in powder blasting and avalanches.
Incredibly, the May 10 re-enactment ceremonies over the 15 decades have focused
on the capitalists, Leland Stanford et al.
At the 100th Gold Spike anniversary in 1969 respected Chinese-American Philip
Choy of the Chinese Historical Society of America, San Francisco, was invited
via telegraph to attend and speak – yet when Phil arrived he was bumped so that
another could speak. Believe it or not, the favored speaker was John Wayne.
Further xenophobia was exhibited in 1969 by Keynote speaker John Volpe, U.S.
Secretary of Interior, who bragged, “Who else but Americans could drill tunnels
in mountains 30 feet deep in snow?” Of course, the Chinese were not allowed to
be citizens. This infamous statement was unforgettably witnessed by Carl Nolte
of the San Francisco Chronicle.
The overriding reality of political awareness among Chinese in the U.S. is
derivative of the extreme prejudice against Chinese that unfolded during the
economic strife following the waning of the gold mining and railroad jobs and
culminating in the 1870s and 80s with the deplorable 1882 Chinese Exclusion
Act. The working class competition between Chinese and Irish which was greatly
fomented by sand lot labor demagogue Denis Kearney in San Francisco needs to be
acknowledged and understood. History is always still in the making. We Irish
can help our Chinese brothers and sisters tell their story by recognizing our
roles, having simpatico today and sharing mutual concerns. We had a contingent
of Irish from California, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Kansas who celebrated the
accomplishments of all workers and showed solidarity with Chinese at the 150th
Golden Spike activities in Utah. Let’s do it everywhere. The Chinese community
supporters who won first place with their fabulous railroad workers unit in the
recent San Francisco Chinese New Year’s Parade are interested in participating
in our St. Patrick’s Parade of 2020. Let’s welcome them with Caed Mille Failte.
Several developments in recent years have raised consciousness about the
forgotten Chinese railroad workers, including the formation of the Chinese
Railroad Workers Descendants Association in Salt Lake City, whose President
Michael Kwan organized an influential 8 day Golden Spike Conference regarding
the 150th Transcontinental Anniversary and the Chinese Railroad Workers in
America Project at Stanford University co-directed by Gordon Chang whose new
book “Ghosts of Gold Mountain – the Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the
Transcontinental Railroad” is prominent among the exploding plethora of
publications on the subject. This transformative scholarly attention and
community activist lobbying created a cultural and social force compelling the
current inclusive nature of the 150th anniversary activities.
In the spirit of collaboration and inclusiveness,
as demonstrated at Promontory Point by Keynote Speaker & historian Jon
Meacham, Secretary Elaine Chao U.S. Dept. of Transportation and
Daniel Mulhall, Ambassador of Ireland,
Patrick Goggins
ps – The Last Tie, into which was tapped
the Gold Spike, was harvested from a California Laurel Tree on Mount Tamalpais
in Marin County and fabricated by a professional billiard table maker in San
Francisco.
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