Taxi Dancer
“Welcome to the electrifying underworld of California’s Depression-era taxi dance halls, where a dance could cost you a dime, a chance at romance, or a bullet in your back. Filipinos dressed to the nines, vying for ‘the prettiest girls you’ve ever seen,’ this page-turner from Marivi Soliven conjures the circumstances of living at the seams of pleasure, folly, hard edginess, and danger. What a breathtaking ride to read through it!”
—Rick Bonus, Professor and Chair of the Dept. of American Ethnic Studies at the Univ. of Washington
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Taxi Dancer is available September 29, 2026
Tara: So Marivi, I would love to hear your Meet Cue for Taxi Dancer. When, where, and how did inspiration first strike?
Marivi: When we first moved to San Diego in 2001, while hunting for a job, I volunteered at the San Diego Historical Center’s archives. They didn’t have a Filipino collection and the archivist asked me to create one. So I spent a year scouring newspaper files on microfilm and microfiche for any articles about the Filipino community. A hundred years of beauty pageants. One murder.
Tara: Wow! So this story was inspired by that murder! When I was reading Taxi Dancer, I was delighted to learn so many new things that I was not aware of in the history of San Diego, the dance halls, the amalgamation of culture and a whole way of life for immigrants. The details you brought to life are surely the product of a vast amount of research that went into the story. What was the most fascinating research rabbit hole you went down while drafting Taxi Dancer?
Marivi: Taxi dance halls, which were such a phenomenon across the country that Paul G. Cressey produced a comprehensive sociological research study that was published by the University of Chicago in 1932.
I eventually read over 800 pages of court transcripts of the murder trial that I ordered from state archives in Sacramento; watched all Fred Astaire and James Cagney’s films; film noir, Bonnie and Clyde and innumerable books about the Depression, including an autobiography by the prison warden at San Quentin Penitentiary.
Tara: That's impressive! You've drawn from all kinds of media. I know that when I write, I often find inspiration from books I’ve read—especially classic texts. One of my favorite books is Steinbeck’s East of Eden, and since Taxi Dancer takes place during a similar time period in California, it came to mind immediately. Something about it gave of a similar vibe. In fact, Mamie instantly reminded me of Steinbeck’s character Cathy Ames. Beautiful, but controlling and manipulative. I’m curious what some of your favorite authors are, and how they influence your writing.
Marivi: I read everything Steinbeck wrote about the Depression - Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, East of Eden. Cathy Ames did in fact serve as one of the inspirations for the Mamie Savage character, but so did Jessica Rabbit! My favorite authors include Edith Wharton, Isak Dinesan, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Milan Kundera, MFK Fisher, Chimamande Ngozi Adichie, Edwidge Danticat - there are too many to list.
Tara: Jessica Rabbit! I see that for sure! I think my favorite characters in the story were Nelly—the Rizal dancehall owner’s adopted daughter, and Benny, the bouncer. With an honorable mention going to the reporter, Jimmy. Do you have a favorite character in the story? And why?
Marivi: Mamie Savage (that’s the actual name of the real-life taxi dance hall owner) was a lot of fun to write. Kiko the conductor for being the moral anchor, Lucy the spitfire.
Tara: One of the big themes in the story is social injustice—particularly where it relates to immigrants who are depicted throughout the story by the controlling class as being less than human. It’s unfortunate that even after one hundred years, we’re still facing the same sort of discrimination, even if it’s done in a more subtle way. What do you hope your readers will take away from the experience?
Marivi: That as George Santayana famously warned, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Trump’s DHS launched Project Homecoming in 2025, exactly 90 years after the Philippine Repatriation Act of 1935 passed under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Both programs offer free travel fare for foreigners who choose to self deport. Trump and the ProudBoys’ rhetoric vilifying and dehumanizing people of color sounds similar to the white racists who stormed Filipino taxi dance halls in the 1930s.
Tara: Finally, what are you most proud of in this story?
Marivi: That I recreated that forgotten era and persevered in getting this story published. Outside of academe, so little creative work has been produced about taxi dance halls and the relationships that grew out of them because Filipino men were denied the right to reproduce. They had no descendants to recount their stories the way Japanese and Chinese communities did.
Tara: I'm so glad you were able to tell their story and educate me and others on this fascinating bit of history about a lost generation. Thank you so much for sharing your story and your thoughts with me!