We Are Here

FOREWORD

by Theodore S. Gonzalves

We are here… because you were there. That sentence has become shorthand for a number of experiences—sojourns, migrations, and movements. It can certainly be used to trace that long arc of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) stories that this book suggests through individual portraits. Who is the “you” in that sentence? Take a look at Loni Ding’s fantastic three-part documentary called Ancestors in the Americas. The first episode is titled “Coolies, Settlers, and Sailors: Voyage to the New World.” It helped to rearrange my thinking about my family’s personal journey from the Philippines to the United States. But it did much more. It demonstrated the need for all of us to think more critically about where and when “we” entered this evolving American story. Ding stepped back centuries and widened the frame, making global connections to AAPI routes and roots. These journeys were not just to the United States, but to the Americas as a hemisphere. One of the historians Ding interviewed for the program reminded viewers that Europe had had Asia on its mind for centuries. So much so, an Italian sailor was financed by Spanish funds in the search for an elusive passage to the “Orient.” He landed in what’s now called the Bahamas and thought he was in the “Indies.” And consider how the United States’ third president, Thomas Jefferson, commissioned Lewis and Clark’s expedition to find an overland path to the Pacific Coast and commerce.

Our stories have been woven into the hemisphere for centuries. With the formal end of the global trade of enslaved Africans in the early 1800s, Indians and Chinese were sent to the Americas as replacement labor. From 1565 to 1815, a grand galleon trade route linked Nagasaki, Macau, Malacca, and Goa to Lisbon, Seville, Antwerp, Havana, Panama, Rio, and Lima—with everything anchored between Manila and Acapulco. We’ve been here.

The year 2022 marks the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s twenty-fifth year of researching, documenting, and sharing AAPI stories. We Are Here is the perfect opportunity to acknowledge the diversity and pace of our communities’ growth. Beyond the global cities we’ve called home—Honolulu, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City—you’re just as likely to find our families and networks in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Little Rock, Houston, and Madison. Numbering more than twenty-four million persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing racial group in the country. Of the ten most commonly spoken languages in US homes other than English and Spanish, four hail from Asia. We’re everywhere.

When the Asian American movement was in full swing, poet-activists like Janice Mirikitani—a Stockton, California–born daughter of farmers—gave us a powerful vision of how to think about the expanse and beauty of our communities. In a poem called “Firepot,” she wrote about our routes and roots: “… we have been fractured / made to look at each other / as though we are / divided / but if we see with clear eyes, we know we are bound by common shackles:

Manila to Vietnam

Korea to Laos          China to the Islands

Hiroshima to Cambodia          Post St. to Hunters Pt.

Kearney St. to Richmond          Mission to the Valley

Bound by our Survival

Bound by our Strengths…”

INTRODUCTION

by Lisa S. Sasaki

We Are Here: 30 Inspiring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Have Shaped the United States will introduce you to members of diverse communities and their stories of resilience, adversity, and joy. It is my honor to be a part of a book that will reach readers like you across the United States, sharing stories that I have been proud to learn more about as director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. These stories make our work at the Smithsonian stronger and more inclusive. They also reflect fuller American stories that all readers deserve to see.

This book came together during a difficult time for our communities. The global spread of COVID-19 led to incidents of hate and bias against Asian American elders, women, and young adults. These heartbreaking incidents prompted the center and the Smithsonian to think about how we could better support our communities and the nation. We created a virtual care package, filled with meditations, short films, and musical performances created by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. We also developed new resources for teachers and caregivers about the impacts of negative stereotypes on AAPI communities and how to unlearn these biases. Sadly, these incidents are not new but part of a longer American history that we don’t often learn about in school.

It is my hope that these thirty profiles of incredible AAPIs introduce you to stories that you did not know before. I also hope these profiles spark conversations with your family, friends, and classmates about why AAPI stories are important to learn. As you read the following pages, you may be surprised by who you see in this book. Because we value inclusion and solidarity, you’ll read the stories of Pacific Islanders and Arab Americans. Their experiences have not always been visible in AAPI accounts, yet Pacific Islander, Arab American, and Persian American experiences are deeply intertwined and representative of AAPI communities and identities. We selected thirty profiles that speak to our global connections and histories, but they are not reflective of all AAPI stories. There are 22 million Asian Americans and 1.5 million Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. In Hawai‘i alone, 700,000 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders live there today. While you’ll meet inspiring activists, artists, musicians, actors, writers, scientists, and entrepreneurs, this is just a start. There are many more stories to tell.

We thank our colleagues at Hachette Group/Running Press Kids and Smithsonian Enterprises for telling these stories with the Asian Pacific American Center. We thank Jill Corcoran at Smithsonian Enterprises and Allison Cohen at Running Press for believing in our vision for this book. Special thanks to our colleague Sojin Kim at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Finally, acknowledgment must also go to the center’s staff for their many contributions and leadership on this project: Theodore S. Gonzalves, Andrea Kim Neighbors, Healoha Johnston, Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, Kālewa Correa, Adriel Luis, Nafisa Isa, Wendy Kennedy, Marynissa Pedroza, Catherine Lee, and Mary Woodward.