Dawn Bohulano Mabalon
Mabalon in Paris, November 2015
Born	(1972-08-17)August 17, 1972 Stockton, California
Died	August 10, 2018(2018-08-10) (aged 45) Kauai, Hawaii
Occupation(s)	Professor, historian
Spouse	Jesus Perez Gonzales[1]
Academic background
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles Stanford University
Academic work
Discipline	American History[1]
Sub-discipline	Asian American Studies[1]

Dawn Bohulano Mabalon (August 17, 1972 – August 10, 2018) was an American academic who worked on documenting the history of Filipino Americans. Mabalon was born in Stockton, and earned her doctoral degree from Stanford University; she later taught at San Francisco State University.^[1] Mabalon was the co-founder of The Little Manila Foundation, which worked to preserve Little Manila in Stockton, California.^[2] During her life, her work elevated the topic of the history of Filipino Americans, in Central California in particular.^[3]

Mabalon was born on August 17, 1972, in Stockton, California, to Filipinos who had immigrated to the United States from the Philippines;^[2] her father was a guerrilla during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.^[4] Mabalon's grandfather, Pablo "Ambo" Mabalon, ran the Lafayette Lunch Counter,^[5] an important hub in the community and one of the longest surviving Filipino American businesses in Little Manila.^[6] Many Filipinos frequented the restaurant, including Carlos Bulosan.^[7][8] It remained in business until 1983, and the building it had occupied was torn down in 1999.^{[6][8][9][10]} Mabalon's maternal grandmother, Concepcion Moreno Bohulano, was the first school teacher of Filipina descent in the United States.^[9][11] Mabalon was also the niece of Fred and Dorothy Cordova;^[12] who were involved in the founding of the Filipino American National Historical Society.^[13]

During high school, Mabalon was involved in extracurricular activities, including leading her high school's Asian Club, student council, and editor of Hi-Lite.^[1] In 1991, Malabon was involved in a January issue of Sassy, being described as a "editor-in-chief".^[14] Graduating from Edison High School, her post-secondary education involved attending San Joaquin Delta College, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and earning her doctorate at Stanford University.^[4] Mabalon's master's thesis was titled "Filipina Pioneers: The Pinay in Stockton, California, 1929–1946", and was written at UCLA in 1997.^[15] Mabalon's doctoral dissertation was titled Life in Little Manila Filipinas/os in Stockton, California, 1917–1972, and published in 2003.^[16]

During her time at UCLA, Mabalon was active in the Filipino community on campus. She endorsed the effort to keep Tagalog as an available language taught at the university.^[17]

In 1999, Mabalon and Dillon Delvo co-founded The Little Manila Foundation in order to preserve what remained of the Little Manila neighborhood of Stockton, California.^[9]

In 2004, Mabalon became a faculty member at San Francisco State University;^[1][4] she was an associate professor of history.^[11][18] She focused her work on the history of Filipino Americans, Filipinos in Stockton, and Filipinos role in the 20th-century labor movement.^[4] In particular, she highlighted the often overlooked efforts of Filipino Americans in the 20th-century farm labor movement, which has been seen as primarily a Mexican American movement led by Cesar Chavez.^[19] Mabalon was also on the board of trustees of the Filipino American National Historical Society.^[9]

In 2010, photographs taken by Mabalon were published on SFGate about a Filipino American band Skyflakes.^[20] In 2015, Mabalon was interviewed about the November 2015 Paris attacks by Voice of America, as she and her husband were visiting the area at the time.^[21] In 2017, Mabalon, along with Gayle Romasanta, wrote a children's book about Larry Itliong called Journey for Justice: The Life of Larry Itliong; the book was published a year later.^[22] In 2018, Mabalon visited the Delano campus of Bakersfield College, which is in the area where the Delano grape strike began, for an event about archiving; at the event she spoke to encourage Filipino Americans to preserve their family histories, with the goal of expanding historical narratives.^[23]

In 2013, the Filipino Women's Network listed her among their "100 Most Influential Filipinas in the World".^[11] In 2014, she received an honorable mention for the Frederick Jackson Turner Award for her book Little Manila Is in the Heart;^[9] that same year Mabalon was profiled in the book Remarkable Women of Stockton.^[24]

In August 2018, Mabalon died while snorkeling off of Kauai.^[4] She had been vacationing with her family prior to her death.^[25] Mabalon had an asthma attack when she was out with her sister, and her inhaler did not alleviate her symptoms.^[26] She was brought out of the water and 9-1-1 was called.^[26] Paramedics attempted CPR and then transported her to an emergency room.^[26] She died at the hospital.^[27] Mabalon was buried at San Joaquin Catholic Cemetery.^[28] Mabalon was survived by her husband of ten years, Jesus Perez Gonzalez.^[1] In early October, Mabalon was memorialized at San Francisco State University.^[3][29]

Mabalon's work of documenting the history of Filipino Americans continued at the Little Manila Center that she had co-founded even after her death .^[30] Mabalon authored three books and was working on a fourth.^[3] Her works elevated the status of Little Manila in Stockton and helped lead to Little Manila being listed as one of America's Most Endangered Places.^[3][31] The San Francisco Chronicle described Mabalon as "a major figure to California's Filipino Americans".^[3]

• Dawn B. Mabalon, Ph.D.; Rico Reyes; Filipino American National Historical So (2008). Filipinos in Stockton. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-5624-6.
• Dawn Bohulano Mabalon (May 29, 2013). Little Manila Is in the Heart: The Making of the Filipina/o American Community in Stockton, California. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-9574-4.
• Dawn Bohulano Mabalon; Gayle Romasanta (October 2018). Journey for Justice: The Life of Larry Itliong. Bridge & Delta Publishing. ISBN 978-1-73219-932-3.

• Official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Dawn Bohulano Mabalon at IMDb
• "Community Remembers Dr. Dawn Bohulano Mabalon". Center for Asian American Media. August 13, 2018.
• Lawsin, Emily P. (August 17, 2018). "From the FANHS Family to the Mabalon Family: Remembering FANHS National Scholar and Trustee, Dr. Dawn Bohulano Mabalon (August 17, 1972-August 10, 2018)" (PDF). Filipino American National Historical Society.
• Rob Bonta (August 19, 2018). Bonta Adjourns Assembly in Memory of Filipino-American Historian Dawn Mabalon. Sacramento, California: California State Assembly Democratic Caucus. Archived from the original on November 3, 2018. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
• "Episode 28.5 – Stockton's Little Manila, Journey for Justice, and the Legacy of Dawn Mabalon". This Filipino American Life. October 1, 2018.