Pedro Flores

Pedro Flores. Pedro Flores was the first person to manufactured the yo-yo in the United States. The word yo-yo is a Tagalog word, the native language of the Philippines, and means 'come back.' In the Philippines, the yo-yo was a weapon for over 400 hundred years. Their version was large with sharp edges and studs and attached to thick twenty-foot ropes for flinging at enemies or prey. People in the United States started playing with the British bandalore or yo-yo in the 1860s. It was not until the 1920s that Americans first heard the word yo-yo. Pedro Flores, a Philippine immigrant, began manufacturing a toy labeled with that name. Flores became the first person to mass-produce yo-yos, at his small toy factory located in California. Duncan saw the toy, liked it, bought the rights from Flores in 1929 and then trademarked the name Yo-Yo.