Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

What began as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week in 1978, eventually became Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

What better way to celebrate than to start a new blog.

Let's start with the history of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. You might be wondering why May? Because it was originally only one week, the date was chosen because the first week of May was when the first Japanese immigrants arrived in America (7 May 1843) and on 10 May (1869) was when the transcontinental railroad was completed.

The railroad was originally known as the Pacific Railroad (because the nation was very East Coast-centric). Later it was called the Overland Route. The 1,907-mile contiguous railroad line was begun in 1863 and connected the East U.S. at Bluffs, Iowa (on the Missouri River) with San Francisco.

At the start, many of the semi-skilled workers were former Union Army and Confederate Army vets and immigrants from Ireland. The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (one of three private companies that built the line--the other two were Western Pacific Railroad Company and the Union Pacific Railroad Company). used slaves escaping during the Civil War and Chinese immigrants escaping the Taiping Revolution. Chinese manual laborers were the ones primarily responsible for the Central Pacific roadbed, bridges and tunnels.

However, the first Asians in North America was, according to the PBS documentary "Ancestors in Americas" Chinese Filipinos in Mexico. These Chinese Filipino sailors came to the U.S. in 1750 and other Asians were brought to the Caribbean islands and South America as slaves from China, India and the Philippines.

As slaves, then as laborers, then as menial workers, Asian immigrants came from countries that had unequal treaties with the U.S. and were often subjected to laws that prohibited them from becoming citizens, owning lands, marrying other races, etc.

Asian Americans have come a long way since then and so has Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Stargin as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week in 1978, by 1990, the week was expanded into a month. In 1992, the designation became permanent.

In Los Angeles, Asian Americans only make up 12 percent of the population. But Asia accounts for 60 percent of the world's current population. Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i Faith originated in West Asia. The Hindu and Buddhist religions originated in Central Asia. Islam is the religion in Asia with the largest number of adherents. Hinduism is the second largest religion in Asia (25 percent).

This month, it's time to remember our historic roots as well as our accomplishments and history in the United States.