Biography
Chris Mensalvas (also spelled Mensalvos) was a Filipino American labor leader and poet who in 1949 was elected president of Local 7 of the cannery workers' union — which soon became Local 37 of the ILWU, the Seattle-based Filipino cannery workers' union. Shortly after taking office he was arrested on anti-Communist and deportation charges, and he spent the McCarthy years fighting repeated attempts to deport him under the McCarran–Walter Act. He defeated the deportation drive and remained president of Local 37 throughout the 1950s. His case was part of the government's campaign to break militant, foreign-born trade unionists by deporting them for their labor and political activity.
De Vera distinguishes Mensalvas’s August 1949 Seattle arrest from his October 1950 arrest in Stockton and five-day detention in San Francisco. Note 49 describes a further arrest on February 19, 1953 for allegedly violating parole by refusing immigration demands that he dissociate from so-called subversive organizations and persons. He was actually released after six days when union attorneys secured release pending a new bail bond. No exact physical release day is derived. The existing five-day October 1950 total is preserved separately.
