I Was and Still Am Not A Subordinate Racial Ambiguities, Politicized Invisibilities, and Locating Filipina American Identity in Chicago.

Drawing from the oral histories and personal archives of EstrellaAlamar (a former leading actor in the preservation and promotion of FilipinoAmerican history in Chicago), I showcase how she subverted assumptionsabout Asian American women’s (a)politi- cal and subservient identities tonavigate white supremacist spaces and gain a deeper understanding of herown political identity as a Filipina American woman. Reframing Estrella’sself-described invis- ibility during the 1960s Civil Rights Era and integrationmovement as a politicized invisibility makes way for new representations of:(1) How Filipino/Filipino Americans navigated ambiguous racial positioning intwentieth-century Chicago in ways that both upheld and challenged racialhierarchies; (2) the quotidian yet deeply transformative ways that AsianAmerican women engage in anti-racist political movement; and (3) the legacyof Chicago’s Filipino American community leaders who worked across andagainst racial lines. In doing so, I argue that Estrella’s memories of quietlycombatting anti-Blackness in her class- rooms, Catholic encounter groups,and interpersonal relationships during the 1960s and 1970s unveils the‘smaller’ yet impactful ways one can assert a political identity and combatsocial injustice outside of mainstream activist communities, even if suchefforts are rendered invisible by those very same groups