Victoria Wong (also known as Vicci Wong) grew up in Salinas, CA, and came from a farmworker family. When her parents lost their farm in Salinas, Wong worked in the fields starting at the age of 11. While she was in junior high, she co-founded the Salinas chapter of the farmworkers union with Lillian Fabros Bando. A mere 7 miles away was Fort Ord, the largest US Army base at the time and a shipping point to Vietnam. Her proximity to the base motivated Wong to get involved in the peace movement and stopping the draft. Additionally, Wong founded Salinas Vietnam Summer and worked with the California Rural Legal Assistance to support Monterey County migrant workers.
“I want folks to know we '60s activists led a colorful life not just in being Third World warriors. Much of it was full of laughter, music, art, magical moments of joyful and intense struggle and collaboration. I for one while a full-time student at Cal and working several part-time jobs, along with auditing classes just to hear interesting professors whose subjects weren't part of my approved curriculum. [I] also was going to all kinds of demonstrations around the Bay Area--from antiwar to supporting the Richmond oil workers strike.”
Wong entered UC Berkeley at the age of 17 in the fall of 1966. During her time at the university, she switched her major several times before ending her studies in Spring 1970. Wong attempted to graduate with an “Individual Major” in Asian Studies because neither the Ethnic Studies, Asian Studies, or Asian American Studies departments had been established yet. Many administrators were against the development of Ethnic Studies and for decades after its inception, students fought for the department’s security.
“UCB refused my request, so I appealed and had to meet with the then temporary Dean of the College of Letters & Science who controlled my major. That was now UCB Chancellor Carol Christ, who coldly and quickly turned me down in a few minutes. She had notoriously been against the TWLF Strike and said ES/AS was ‘irrelevant’ and didn't see any need for ES outside of what was then being taught under L&S via the separate History et al Depts. She said that with a straight face, even though more money and resources were being spent on things like her specialty, "Victorian literature" than in what this Victoria Wong was studying for--freedom from oppressive and exploitative white colonialism as aggrandized by the very Victorian imperialists Christ represents. So, my actual UCB graduation year was delayed to 1971 and cites "Comparative Literature" instead, as that was my minor at the time.”
While at UC Berkeley, Wong co-founded the Asian American Political Alliance. During our interview, she recounts that AAPA originated the concept and term “Asian American” in May of 1968 when a name to describe the shared socio-political experience of Asian people living in the United States did not previously exist. There were various turbulent political movements occurring at the time including the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, the Black Power Movement through the Black Panther Party, and the United Farm Workers Movement. The vibrant energy of activism made its way to campus and motivated students to pursue their right to relevant education.
APPA was among the first student groups to unite with the African American Student Union when they submitted their proposal for a Black Studies Department. The University and Chancellor Heyns rejected the BSU proposal in 1968 and attempted to implement a “watered-down version” of the proposal that eliminated any means of self-determination for Black Studies. “That was the guiding principle of our movement”, says Wong. In response, they officially went on strike on January 22nd united as the Third World Liberation Front.
Wong adds, “It doesn’t matter how big or small you start because everything important starts small. We were a minority of minorities.” She explains that there were very few Asian students on the UC campus, to begin with. There were even fewer students willing to join AAPA, and much less would support the strike. Wong would spend time at Sather Gate daily to pass out flyers to “anyone that looked Third World” to get them to join the strike.
While describing her experience as a woman in the Asian American Political Alliance, Wong explains that AAPA worked towards “propping up their men”. They were cognizant of the stereotype that Asian men were “wimps” and so they strove to rework that narrative. To reframe their representation, they placed their men in more leadership roles while simultaneously combatting the possibility of chauvinism. Whereas they could have had a woman representative in the TWLF Central Committee, they ultimately chose to have a man represent their group. Behind the scenes, AAPA women made sure they were up and ready to send the men to the front of the protest line at 6 AM. Afterward, the members of the group would spend time in the Asian communities in the surrounding areas such as Chinatown in Oakland where they would share information about TWLF and recruit new members. AAPA had nightly meetings where they would vote and discuss their next steps in a democratic fashion. According to Wong, the TWLF at UC Berkeley was collective in their leadership and shared representation in a horizontal fashion. They were as equal as they could be in their solidarity.
Wong says she felt the most liberated she had felt in her life. Though the general public had a malicious perception of the TWLF, she recalls the members being joyful and truly appreciating their time with one another. The women of AAPA and the women of AASU spent their mornings coming up with chants and dances together for their picket line. “We had so much fun together, and learning from each other and it was just liberating. The whole experience was the freedom we had never felt before. And I really have to say, I did not feel any kind of real macho superiority addressed to us. It definitely did not happen within AAPA, I can say that; cause [sic] we women were really strong in AAPA and spoke out.”
“Foremost in our minds was liberating our communities,” Wong explains that members had to let go of their egos when it came to participating in protests because Chancellor Heyns declared immediate suspension for anyone involved in the strikes following his cancelation of mass rallies on campus.
“That’s why we actually did the snake thing. We adapted what they gave us because they disallowed any mass activity. If you had two people of color getting together you could be suspended. I mean that’s how scared they were of people of color getting together. They didn't even do that during the Free Speech Movement! … They did not come down on them the same way they came down on people of color getting together.”
Wong is referencing the infamous serpentine marches, a tactic AAPA adopted from the Vietnam War’s guerrilla warfare and the Japanese student movement. This strategy included protestors breaking up into small, fast-moving mobile groups that didn’t fall under Heyn’s classification of a “mass rally”. “We let them know, there was not going to be any haven for racism on this campus.”
When the national guard arrived on campus, Wong says, “Every police force from Oakland to Marin, everywhere were welcomed in and it became an armed military camp. The weather report every day was teargas and mace. That was what you had to dress for if you dared to go on campus.” The Tact squad used mace against the protestors; this was the first time the chemical agent had been used in the country. Afterward, the climate towards the movement changed. Other student groups and professors acknowledged the unjust force and resistance used against the TWLF and decided to support the coalition. Ultimately, despite their demands for a Third World College, they compromised for the Department of Ethnic Studies and their demands for an Asian Studies Department turned into Asian American Studies Department which later evolved into Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies.
Wong’s involvement in community and organizing is vast. She founded and was the director of the Asian Film Festival 1969, the first of its kind in the world, which continued into the early 1970s. The profits from the festival went entirely to various Asian American Community groups. Upon graduating, Wong moved to SF Chinatown to work with the Asian Community Center (ACC) and I-Hotel. She organized restaurant, immigrant, electronics, clerical, and garment workers. She organized the first garment worker-owned cooperative in the world: Chinatown Co-op. She co-founded the May 4th Singers, the first Asian American anti-imperialist cultural group, the first Chinatown Workers Festival, and the Workers Chorus. Additionally, she wrote, directed, and acted in many theatrical skits for various causes. Wong held various positions at community newspapers and radical magazines including reporter, editor, and researcher. She moved to Chicago as an editor for the United Front Press and later got involved in progressive cultural work in the Midwest with the Chi-Town Fightin’ Machine. She was the lead singer for Thunder Road and toured with Rock Against Racism USA in the late 1970s. When her San Francisco band Repeat Offenders won City Arts’ 1st Demo Tape of the Year for “Somoza is Dead” and “So Long, Susie Wong”, she moved back to the Bay Area. Wong is the author of several publications such as Wei Min Bao, Pacific Imperialism Notebook, A Pictorial History of Chinese Working People, Stand Up: An Archive Collection of the Bay Area Asian American Movement 1968-1974, and Pacific Basin Reports: The Global Struggle for Oil.
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