Filipino migration-themed mural, Kashmir rally and a story of transition: Sacramento Bee’s AAPI newsletter

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Hello there.

It is Wednesday, Aug. 21, and this is The Sacramento Bee’s third AAPI weekly newsletter — brought to you by yours truly.

First, here’s a recap on the stories I recently covered:

Make this your Instagram checkpoint if you are interested in murals —the first Filipino migration-themed mural in Sacramento was completed over the weekend at Sacramento State by artist Eliseo Art Silva. The project is a part of Wide Open Walls, the nation’s largest mural festival.

The theme of the mural is “Together We Rise,” to tell the central role of women in the Filipino story of migration and neighborly cooperation, Silva said. “It is about honoring our ancestors and our history both in the Philippines and the United States.”

Nine days into the military lockdown of Indian-administered Kashmir, around 300 people rallied at the state Capitol last Tuesday in support of those living in India’s only Muslim-majority state.

Dr. Manejeh Jahan, a Kashmiri American, has not been able to contact her parents since the internet blackout.

“My father is a chronic kidney disease patient and he needs dialysis treatment twice a week,“ Jahan said. “I have no idea whether he is getting to his dialysis treatment or not. The thought process is killing us here.”

I had the privilege of talking to Ryan Tiêu, a transgender person currently based in Sacramento, as well as Ryan’s mom, Tracy, about how they navigated Ryan’s transition, together, overcoming language and cultural barriers, as a first-generation Vietnamese immigrant family in California.

“I had access to LGBTQ health centers or resources meant for people to grow their capacity … but my mom was learning to survive,” Ryan said. “Her sacrifice made me able to live the life that I do. I think it is a privilege to talk about these things, and she doesn’t have the privilege yet.”

Ryan said there should be more culturally competent health services for the AAPI community. For example, going through transition means having a different role in the family, and the whole family, not just the transgender person, needs to adjust expectations.

In other news, read The Sacramento Bee’s article on how the city of Roseville may soon change how it elects council members from “at-large” elections to “by-district,” following the Davis City Council’s voting to make the switch in Davis. At-large election systems have been criticized for preventing minority groups such as Asian American and Latino voters in Davis and Roseville from achieving adequate representation.

Interesting data in The New York Times op-ed on why President Donald Trump fears women of color. Women of color led the change in voter turnout because they mobilized their friends and family in significant numbers.

“Black women led the way, with 84 percent convincing members of their social networks to register and vote, followed by 76 percent of Asian-American and Pacific Islander women, 72 percent of Native American women, 70 percent of Latinas and 66 percent of white women,” the op-ed stated. This is an important point in terms of strategizing the infrastructure for political engagement to prepare for the 2020 election.

Read the L.A. Times report on Korean American journalist K. Connie Kang, who died at age 76. Kang is thought to be the first Korean woman reporter in the United States, and she was hired by the Los Angeles Times to cover the Korean community affected by riots that broke out in L.A. in the spring of 1992.

“She was doing it because she felt not only an obligation to speak for the second generation of Koreans in America, but also to speak for the voiceless and powerless immigrants who brought them here, most who were monolingual,” said K.W. Lee, founder of Koreatown Weekly, where Kang used to work as a columnist.

Here’s my pick of Kang’s many notable works. Kang wrote a profile on Chinese American attorney Stewart Kwoh in 1995, who ran a legal center that fought for Asian Pacific issues. Her 2006 first-person piece “To Know You Is To Love You” poetically dissects the Korean language and the Korean American experience.

That’s it for this week’s newsletter. For tips, please send to tyu@sacbee.com. Can’t wait to hear from you. Thanks for reading!

This story was originally published August 21, 2019 at 9:34 AM.