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InspirAsians is a series celebrating Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage in the Bay Area and is a joint production of Asian Uplift, Millbrae Anti-Racist Coalition and Millbrae Community Television.
Find InspirAsians-related content on MCTV, Asian Uplift and Millbrae Anti-Racist Coalition social media! You can also spread the inspiration by tagging YOUR InspirAsian! #AAPIMonth #InspirAsians #MillbraeTV
Many residents in the Bay Area have no knowledge of the history Tanforan Racetrack (currently the Shops at Tanforan in San Bruno) during Japanese internment during World War II. The facility was used as a temporary detention center in 1942 for imprisoned Japanese Americans prior to being sent to permanent internment camps elsewhere in the country. The imprisonment of Japanese Americans during the war was carried out against US residents and citizens without granting access to due process of the law. The only accusation leveled against them–their Japanese heritage.
Steve Okamoto is a retired Foster City Councilman and active member of the Tanforan Assembly Center Memorial Committee. He sits down with Lilian Chang to discuss his activism, Japanese culture and his own time spent at Tanforan as a child.
Identity is rarely a singular concept. Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month is a celebration and exploration of our cultural heritage, but for most people identity exists at an intersection that includes ethnicity, culture, geography, generation, gender and more.
Parker Guban is a student leader at Aragon High School, and an active voice for the school’s Gender & Sexuality Awareness (GSA) Club and Filipino Club. He joins Grace Xia for an episode of InspirAsians to talk about what culture and identity means to him as a trans Filipino youth.
Many popular idioms suggest that the best way to understand the present is to understand history. To local Millbrae community and education leader Joy Pasamonte Henry, whose Asian identity was shaped by growing up in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines before eventually immigrating to the US, this doesn’t only means learning from history books. It’s also important to learn our personal history–“where your people come from.”
Part of Joy’s personal history comes from activism. The daughter of an activist in the Philippines, she now passes the message on to her own daughters that they can change the world in a positive way by taking action. And positive action has become a part of Joy’s daily life.
Why does representation matter? In many cases, it falls upon a vocal minority or single individual to ask the hard questions, to help bring issues to the surface that have been made invisible by lack of diversity in seats of power. With that burden, however, comes the risk of being perceived as too niche–an unfortunate and false perception when the true goal of political leadership is to represent all voices.
Councilwoman Amourence Lee, the first Asian woman to serve on the San Mateo City Council and the newest elected member of the body, talks with Grace Xia about striking that balance and her role as an AAPI leader.
Immigration stories are American stories. In California, cultures can converge in true melting pot fashion, and neighborhood fabrics are often an interwoven mix of many languages, foods, religions and traditions. This was Christian Guerrero’s experience at 12 years old, when he immigrated with his family from the Philippines to Los Angeles. And while his early days in the US were spent in a blended community comprised mainly of Mexican, Chinese and Vietnamese families, he found the through line was a pressure to assimilate into a “Disney” version of American culture.
He eventually fell in love with Daly City, which boasts the nation’s highest concentration of Filipino Americans. Putting down roots there, he found community organizing, coalition building and ethnic studies. He talks with Lilian Chang in this episode of InspirAsians about how this journey continues to influence his work today.
The ties that bind our communities are endless. For many immigrants, it’s the challenges that sometimes take center stage–issues such as language barriers, lack of services and isolation can overwhelm. But great strength can also be found in honoring cultural ties. Ratha Kim came to the United States at the age of one, a first-generation Cambodian refugee. Along with her family and other members of the Khmer community in the Bay Area, she has found resilience in traditions of dance, language and dress, just to name a few.
With a background in Khmer and Southeast Asian non-profit work, she is now the founder and designer of Rajana Threads. Mary-Elizabeth Xia of Asian Uplift talks with Ratha about how her ethical clothing brand uses handwoven traditional textiles from women-owned weaving co-ops in Cambodia to create modern designs, and how her love of community got her started on this journey.
Many Americans are suffering from a news and media fatigue: Inundated every day with grim news of violence, economic pressures and injustices. Whether it’s coming from cable television or our smart phones, it’s easy to become desensitized, or start to tune the stories out.
Making sure these stories are told in the right way is what fuels Rommel Conclara, a Bay Area-born reporter for the Filipino Channel. He also co-founded Kapwa Kollective, a Filipino-run media group that puts a face to everyday issues burdening communities of color, and also highlights positive stories within the community. Rommel sits down with Mary-Elizabeth Xia of Asian Uplift to discuss his role in bringing ethnic media coverage into the future.
