What is Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Why Is It Needed?

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[00:00:36] What is Asian? Pacific Islander, Heritage Month and why is it needed?

[00:00:45] Good morning Fran. Good morning. It's so good to see you.

[00:00:48] Thank you. Fran is our visitor this morning. Fran is president of the Asian Chamber of Commerce.

[00:00:57] May is the AAPI month, which essentially is American Asian Pacific Islanders month.

[00:01:09] Maybe Fran you can say a little bit more about yourself and also maybe about the

[00:01:17] Chamber of Commerce that the president of. Sure. Sure. Well I was born here in Denver

[00:01:25] and raised here. My parents were from the Philippines and they actually met in California

[00:01:32] after the Korean War they met in California. My father who got his engineering degree out in

[00:01:38] Karp Ali but because he was not a citizen was not allowed to get a job in California so they

[00:01:44] came here to Colorado. And you know, the story is that they drove out here expecting to see

[00:01:52] horses and cowboys with their hats on and everything. They had no idea what Colorado was

[00:01:57] about and my father had a good job at I don't know how long you've been here but Samsonite

[00:02:04] which was which was here just on Broadway Night 25. So I was born here. They were one of the

[00:02:13] few Filipinos that was one of the saddest things when they moved out here is that they

[00:02:19] they didn't see any other Asians here. They didn't know where to buy their food. There was nobody you

[00:02:24] know except for each other to talk to. They were kind of ostracized in the neighborhood that

[00:02:29] they moved into. Nobody wanted to talk to them so that's kind of what I started out growing

[00:02:35] up in and this was in the 70s. Yeah that's interesting. So in the beginning then your parents

[00:02:44] as members of a minority they did not really have much interaction with other minorities at all.

[00:02:53] Couldn't find them. That's interesting. Didn't know where they were you know back then other

[00:02:57] other Filipinos, other Asians they didn't know where they were. They eventually somebody told

[00:03:04] them that they could get their fish and Asian food supplies at Granada market, Fish Market

[00:03:10] and Pacific Mercantile which is at Sakura Square and this was back a long time ago. So they went

[00:03:16] every single week in just hoping to find other Filipinos. This was before Osborn. Yeah hoping

[00:03:21] to find other Filipinos and they eventually did find some older Filipinos that had farms out

[00:03:29] in unincorporated Adams County and they actually had a little what they called the Filipino

[00:03:34] Club of the Rockies. Interesting. Yeah this was they were founded in 1954. They just celebrated

[00:03:40] their 70th birthday. Interesting. Yeah so my parents joined that and eventually found other

[00:03:46] Filipinos that they could speak their native language with then talk with. There was a little

[00:03:52] home away from home and that was what I grew up with was this community of Filipinos,

[00:03:59] a very small community of Filipinos. Now if I remember right I think the the main language in

[00:04:07] the Philippines is that it's Tagalog. Yes Tagalog. But because the Philippines has you know 7,000

[00:04:15] islands over 100 languages my father could speak five dialects my mother could speak four so I

[00:04:21] never they actually only taught me English because they wanted me to be a good American kid.

[00:04:28] Yeah yeah so I only heard them speak their dialect when they were really mad at me.

[00:04:35] Tell me something about the the AAPI organization and the AAPI months. The kind of things

[00:04:44] like sort of know I think many Americans like to know is that why me

[00:04:51] and what was the inception of the of the whole non-manclature. Sure and I have my notes here just

[00:04:59] because there's so many dates. Absolutely. Well it started in 1978 it was just kind of a congressional

[00:05:07] designation of oh let's celebrate Asian Americans just the Asians right so it was actually not

[00:05:14] a whole month then it was just the first 10 days of May and it was to commemorate two Asians

[00:05:23] communities that were here in the 1800s. The first is the Japanese American his name was John

[00:05:31] Manjaro and he was on a he was very young he was like 13 years old and he was on a wailing

[00:05:39] ship in the Atlantic he fell off somehow and he was rescued by another wailing ship and the captain

[00:05:46] of that wailing ship adopted him so he grew up in you know the east coast New England the only

[00:05:53] Japanese that he knew so I mean he was very fortunate that he was able to do that and he

[00:05:59] had a great life and obviously he became a little bit famous because people knew about him.

[00:06:05] As an adult later on he did go back to Japan but they didn't want him because he'd been here too long

[00:06:12] he'd tried to do some interpretation Japanese translation Japanese American translation for

[00:06:18] the Japanese but they he eventually came back here. Interesting. Yeah the other thing is of course

[00:06:24] and this is really specific to Colorado is the Chinese railroad workers right they were here

[00:06:31] from like the 1860s forward and they during the building of the transatlantic railroad they came

[00:06:41] in from the California side while most of the European Americans were working on it

[00:06:47] from the east side coming in but these Chinese railroad workers had it really hard because

[00:06:53] they were doing the demolition stuff that the eastern guys didn't have to do because

[00:06:58] they were coming through mountains so they you know they were very good in explosives and excavation

[00:07:05] and all of that very very tough work. When the railroad is finally completed and you know the

[00:07:12] president came out I don't and they took a great big picture of everybody that worked on it there

[00:07:17] were no Chinese there they were treated very badly you know they were barely paid it just

[00:07:24] was a very unfortunate position for them to be in and then for all that hard work not be recognized

[00:07:32] so that is part of the reason that Asian American and then later on Pacific Island or

[00:07:37] Heritage Month those two reasons that's why we're designated this month in 1992 is when it

[00:07:42] became the whole month but I think now that you know with everything that's been going on in our

[00:07:48] community a history of you know discrimination that has come into light and everything that

[00:07:55] everybody's learning it's taken on quite a significance and it's very important not just

[00:07:59] to our community but to anybody like yourself that wants to learn about it. Right yeah yeah

[00:08:06] because because here once again the Chinese what what happened to them after

[00:08:17] after the railroad was completed do you know what happened to them? That's where their

[00:08:26] history in Colorado starts because soon after the railroad was done they needed to find other

[00:08:32] jobs and with their expertise in explosion and you know excavation and all that they went into

[00:08:39] mining and that's why there were so many of them here in Colorado they were working up in Leadville

[00:08:46] you know Silverton working the tin silver and gold mines but unfortunately they were not treated

[00:08:51] any better than they were there was actually and this is very important now because we're

[00:08:57] commemorating it again there was an actual Chinatown in Colorado in Denver did you know that?

[00:09:04] No it didn't. It was let's see you know where Coorsfield is now so at about 20th and Blake

[00:09:10] just right in that area for about a mile square that was what we call Chinatown that is where

[00:09:17] these Chinese men lived worked they had grocery stores temples ghouls you know they they

[00:09:23] just like any other neighborhood yeah but of course the non-Asian population all the everybody

[00:09:30] else did not want them there because their food smelled and they looked funny and they you know

[00:09:37] they spoke a different language and all of that and and they're taking our jobs so what they called

[00:09:43] their Chinatown their home everybody else started calling it Hop Alley now Hop is that opium

[00:09:51] right they it was intentionally a moniker that was put on them to make them look bad

[00:09:57] that all that area was was just opium dens and prostitutes and you know drugs and and people

[00:10:03] are going to rob you they just intentionally labeled it as a bad area of Denver in 1880

[00:10:12] there was a riot that started it was on Halloween October 31st 18th there was a riot that started

[00:10:20] and unfortunately the next morning Chinatown was no longer there it was burned down it was everything

[00:10:27] everybody was robbed um everything was burned down all of the residents were kind of pushed out

[00:10:34] it it was really sad because the only thing that was left of of that Chinatown was a plaque

[00:10:42] that was on the wall outside wall of a bar across was Caddy Corner to Coorsfield and it

[00:10:48] was a plaque that said here was Hop Alley you know instead of calling it Chinese neighborhood

[00:10:55] yeah so that still carried that negative Hop Alley but it was just a few years ago

[00:11:02] that well California did it first but Mayor Michael Hancock actually made an official apology

[00:11:10] to the Chinese community there are actually two families that still you know their descendants

[00:11:15] are still here in Colorado and he made an apology to them so now there is an organization called the

[00:11:24] coalition of Asian Pacific United Colorado Asian Pacific United and part of what they are trying

[00:11:31] to do is make sure that everybody knows that history that there was a Chinatown here

[00:11:37] there's a couple of murals that have gone up there is a mural commemorating this it's in

[00:11:42] an area campus and there is one just close by where Sakura Square is now and there's also a

[00:11:47] couple of historic markers unfortunately one of them was vandalized and stolen but we're working on

[00:11:54] getting that back so that that that is actually the history of Chinese here because you know two

[00:12:01] years after that um the riot here in our Chinatown was maybe the first in our state but it was

[00:12:08] happening all around all around the United States you know Uncle Sam didn't want the yellow man here

[00:12:14] so in 1882 was the Chinese Exclusion Act that's when Congress started that and that was the first

[00:12:22] and only time where the United States has actually said no more you cannot come here anymore to

[00:12:28] a race of people it's not interesting how we you know we other other people

[00:12:35] historically it's a historical fact and it's been repeated over and over again

[00:12:43] you know it's kind of interesting that we're talking about the Chinese

[00:12:47] there of course I mean you know you there's another another chapter which is the Japanese

[00:12:52] chapter you know and um you know for many many years for many decades there's the the black

[00:13:01] uh othering also and the destruction of uh you know all the abodes and uh and where

[00:13:08] where people live so we just hope that we can do better as we as we go forward you know as a

[00:13:17] nation of people but coming back to the API what are the things that the the organization

[00:13:26] or the group what do they do in May to sort of distinguish uh distinguish that particular

[00:13:34] month for for the group well um the number one thing just like uh we did with Lunar New

[00:13:41] Year earlier this year we want to make sure that the community stops and says hey let me

[00:13:47] learn more about these people um let me learn more about their history and their culture just

[00:13:52] influence and um my life and to make my life better so there are so many occasions and

[00:13:59] and celebrations going on there's one this weekend it's at Araria campus on Saturday May 4th

[00:14:06] it's hosted by the Filipino-American community and it is a Kamal for free enjoyed the Asian

[00:14:13] culture there is you mean you're talking about food yeah oh yeah yeah you must come for the food

[00:14:19] there's gonna be uh some food trucks and of course some Filipino food there is also next weekend

[00:14:25] the following weekend on the 10th the Denver Asian-American Pacific Islander Commission

[00:14:32] this is the Asian Commission um they are hosting one at a celebration at the McNichols building

[00:14:38] there you know right across from the mayor web building and the Rocky Mountain News building

[00:14:45] it's another free event with uh focusing on the art performance art and visual art and also

[00:14:52] some of the community organizations and then throughout the month there's there's so many

[00:14:57] this week is actually mile high Asian food week where you can go online to the mile

[00:15:02] high Asian food website find there's over a hundred food trucks um boba tea places um

[00:15:10] Asian restaurants and if you go and just mention that oh i'm here because of mile high Asian food

[00:15:15] week you know you'll get a little maybe an extra egg roll a little discount yeah yeah when I was

[00:15:22] growing up here in the 70s and 80s there weren't a lot of Asian anything you know not a lot of

[00:15:29] Asian restaurants not a lot of food trucks but now it's an explosion of that yeah not on my side

[00:15:35] of town but mostly in Aurora yeah yeah yeah that's interesting um the uh the other thing to

[00:15:43] tell me about your uh your chamber of commerce a little bit sure what what the Asian Chamber of

[00:15:49] Commerce is one of five minority commerce here in Colorado we've been around since 1984

[00:15:55] you know like a typical chamber of commerce we provide business opportunities and

[00:16:02] important connections between corporate and elected officials and nonprofit and the community

[00:16:09] in a culturally competent way because we understand that Asian Americans and um new

[00:16:17] immigrants we may do business different or even if you're hiring into the workforce you know

[00:16:24] we help corporations be sure that they're fair and they're hiring of new immigrants and

[00:16:29] refugees from Asia that's the basic of what we do pre-covid as I was telling you earlier

[00:16:35] you know we really focused on bringing international business here and us hopefully

[00:16:41] bringing international business out you know because we were this was before me but our chamber

[00:16:47] helped a lot with um United Airlines 10 12 20 years ago I think when we helped them finally get

[00:16:54] that dream what they call the dream flight non-stop from here to Tokyo and you know that

[00:17:00] takes a lot of work and the chamber was really into that but you know during COVID we had to

[00:17:05] change our focus very quickly we you know our Asian small business is here in Colorado Denver

[00:17:14] especially before everybody else closed down you know we had to shut down starting March 2020

[00:17:21] um Asian businesses here especially the restaurants they saw a drop in revenue of 30 to 40 percent

[00:17:29] people just stopped going to them because the false rhetoric that was coming out at the time said oh

[00:17:34] if you go and eat there you're gonna get corona you're gonna get the coronavirus it wasn't even

[00:17:39] called COVID yet really you're gonna get the coronavirus so our Chinese restaurants our

[00:17:43] dim sum restaurants even our Vietnamese and Japanese restaurants people stopped going to them

[00:17:49] because they thought oh we're gonna get that and then the shutdown happened and by then

[00:17:53] our our Asian businesses were already behind so if they it was really hard for them through COVID

[00:18:01] the other issue that they had is you know could be cultural challenges but during COVID there was a

[00:18:07] lot of funding opportunities what they call uh relief and recovery funding yeah that was

[00:18:13] offered by the city by the state by nonprofits there was so many of them out there part of our

[00:18:19] job as a chamber was to make sure that our businesses knew that they were out there

[00:18:24] but there was a disconnect because a way of doing Asian business it was difficult for them

[00:18:31] to get those opportunities um what what what do you mean by that there may have been a

[00:18:37] mistrust of the business owner to get these these opportunities you know there was that PPP

[00:18:43] loan right that they could get to help safeguard their employees yeah but when you did the PPP

[00:18:49] loan you know you have to you have to show your financial records and absolutely now at least

[00:18:55] four years of payroll summary and uh Asian businesses don't necessarily run you know

[00:19:02] as perfect as that so it's kind of hard for them to to do that there's also a big mistrust

[00:19:09] of that you know um everybody else hated them hated us already you know and there's

[00:19:14] that long history of historical discrimination so there is a mistrust there the other piece

[00:19:20] of it is that like the city at Denver had some wonderful relief and recovery

[00:19:26] help that was available so part of what we tried to do is make sure there was proper

[00:19:30] translation that our communities knew about them we helped them walk through some of those

[00:19:38] even even to you know the director general of Taipei Taiwan who has an office not far from here

[00:19:46] when nobody could get masks Taiwan sent over millions and millions of masks nobody knew that

[00:19:54] so city of Denver actually they asked us to start giving them to anybody restaurants

[00:19:59] dentist office yeah so that's how you know those are the kind of the things that the chamber did

[00:20:04] during COVID and now past COVID now now that we're post COVID we're continuing with making sure that

[00:20:14] our Asian business owners know about the opportunities that are available

[00:20:19] we also make sure that the city and corporates know that these businesses are out here

[00:20:28] we do the DEI trainings for a lot of our corporates like Excel and Comcast and

[00:20:34] RTD we also provide translations for them I think one of the most exciting things just happened

[00:20:42] you know when Congress finally passed the budget last month yeah part of the Colorado

[00:20:48] earmark for financial services was some funding for us for Asian yeah for the Asian chamber

[00:20:55] of commerce so that we could take our one-on-one business counseling throughout the state we already

[00:21:01] have a kind of an outreach in Colorado Springs so that we can help them because those Asian businesses

[00:21:08] not only did they not have any they had nothing they had no contacts down there to help them

[00:21:14] plus when the Asian hate started they didn't know who turned to so that's when we started

[00:21:20] doing some work in Colorado Springs we want to be able to do that on the western slope

[00:21:24] and in you know northern Colorado so we'll be doing that in 2025

[00:21:30] so it's some interesting interesting things here one of them that comes to my mind is the

[00:21:39] issue of finance especially when you have startups one of the complaints among minorities for sure

[00:21:49] for sure I think among the black minority is that the simply is no there's no investors I mean

[00:21:56] sort of putting out money for some it was being a new business so I wonder if the Asian

[00:22:05] community is able to access funds better than maybe blocks and Hispanic

[00:22:12] no you know the trend of investors investing in small business that trend is long gone

[00:22:21] so you know capital having capital to either start or continue their businesses is very

[00:22:25] difficult it's still very difficult I don't want to you know follow that myth that Asian you

[00:22:32] know yeah minority myth yeah that were better at it than anybody because that's not necessarily

[00:22:38] true yeah that's not necessarily true you know I also work with the Asian Pacific Development Center

[00:22:45] out of a rural mental health center that's where Harry's from and they provide classes for new

[00:22:54] immigrants and refugees on how to start up a business because it's so difficult I'm finding

[00:23:00] during COVID I was trying to find you know hey let's see if we can't get you into a

[00:23:04] brick and mortar so that you have retail space right but it's so hard to do that a lot of these

[00:23:11] startups would rather be just pop-ups you know bring in their table and their tent or their

[00:23:17] food truck to festivals and occasions and catering those kind of things rather than

[00:23:22] actually having to spend all of that money which they can't get investors for on actually

[00:23:27] having retail space so it is tough it is tough I wonder I mean you may not have an answer for this

[00:23:36] but why is it that they this impression that the Asian the Asian community

[00:23:45] some somehow has it quote-unquote easy as compared to other minorities yeah his

[00:23:53] by next and black in this game um why is that this is kind of an insidious thing

[00:24:00] the model minority myth is what you're talking about the actual designation of model minority

[00:24:07] was like it was put up by a couple of magazines back in the 60s late 60s as saying oh you know the

[00:24:14] Asians that are here they have better values and they're always at work on time and they're

[00:24:20] smarter and they're richer and blah blah blah and all that moniker did and it was intentional

[00:24:28] they made it so that there was a division between me and you yes so that there was a

[00:24:33] division between us and and Hispanics because nobody wants to you know as little kids you

[00:24:38] don't want to tell one kid oh you're great but you guys aren't as good as this one

[00:24:43] you know and it was just another way of making us other I was another way of making this

[00:24:49] unseen and invalidated if anybody remembers during the 90s the riots that happened in LA

[00:24:59] and the Korean community and you kept hearing it on the news oh those poor Korean shop owners

[00:25:05] you know they're being looted and you know of course they have to defend themselves

[00:25:09] that model minority myth picked those two sides against each other what

[00:25:14] that wasn't even this whole start of it you know it was it's just a wedge that is between us um

[00:25:21] and if anything for Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month that's a myth that we

[00:25:27] want to do away with that myth for us um you know they don't ask us to come to the table

[00:25:35] for big decisions because they figure oh you know the Asians aren't going to give us any problem

[00:25:40] you know so we don't you know for safety issues for cultural issues we they're okay

[00:25:44] they're going to be okay um they don't see us you know one of the big things for our community is

[00:25:51] good data you know good numbers because of the model minority myth you know for the longest time

[00:25:58] the numbers the demographics of our community was lumped in with the Hispanic Latino community

[00:26:03] even here in Denver for the Denver Public Schools and you know data means money so so

[00:26:09] you can't apply for grants or or funding unless you have good data can't get it because nobody you

[00:26:16] know you know people don't look at that for our community you know and just the mental health

[00:26:21] stress that it puts on us you know the the fact that everybody told me when I was going to school

[00:26:26] at Thomas Jefferson High School that I was supposed to be good at math and my grades should be

[00:26:31] you know straight A's and I'm the teacher's pet well none of that is true no none of that is true

[00:26:38] you know that I'm supposed to be making six figures here as a lawyer or a doctor none of that is

[00:26:44] you know that's not true um and that also puts a big disparity within our community with

[00:26:50] the generations of Asians who have been here for a long time and actually are doing good just

[00:26:55] because they've been working not because they're Asian versus the new immigrants and the refugees

[00:27:01] that are just starting there's a big disparity there but nobody's going to look at the new immigrants

[00:27:06] and refugees because the model minority myth is being fulfilled by you know the Asians Filipino

[00:27:13] Chinese Filipino and Japanese who've been here for a long time so it's it's just a big mess it

[00:27:18] really is and I'm glad you asked that because you know that's why during COVID anti-Asian hate

[00:27:25] Black Lives Matter here at least in Denver we made it we were intentional about working together

[00:27:33] about being seen together because we didn't want to be divided by that model minority myth or

[00:27:38] anything because it was hard enough as it was so so maybe what I'm hearing and what I'm thinking

[00:27:44] as you say that is that somehow the minorities you know you know a society somehow need

[00:27:54] to learn how to work together you know because I think maybe so much more can be accomplished

[00:28:01] by working together then by looking at each other with suspicion for example you know

[00:28:07] I'm also thinking in terms of for some point mathematics and things like that you know the

[00:28:12] Asian the idea that the idea that we all have is that Asians do extremely well

[00:28:19] um well and I'm talking about the Chinese I'm talking about the Koreans I'm talking about the

[00:28:24] Indians now are Indians Indians Indian from India are they are they a part of the API oh yes

[00:28:32] okay okay Asian American includes not just Southeast Asian but they're also South Asian

[00:28:39] and the PI is Pacific Islanders and you know in that in that acronym AA it's also now AA and H

[00:28:47] PI Native Hawaiian yeah yeah so we're all in that maybe maybe you can you can maybe give us like

[00:28:55] quick a quick description of who the A and H PI right try and do that well you know the

[00:29:04] demographics from the last census show that here in Colorado we are about almost 5% a little

[00:29:11] 4% all of us yeah yeah which is really very small in number quite quite large also I mean

[00:29:19] he's fighting something at about 30% oh yeah yeah you know so then that's the majority right right

[00:29:25] yeah right but I think because we are a smaller here in Colorado and Denver metro area we are a

[00:29:32] smaller demographic than let's say San Francisco LA New York or Chicago

[00:29:38] where like my relatives live in in California you know they're all kind of in their own little

[00:29:44] silos Chinese here Japanese here Philippines has what 70 languages plus so there's 70

[00:29:51] little silos that they're in but here in Colorado especially because of anti-Asian hate

[00:29:57] we work really well together we work very well together some of the organizations that I just

[00:30:01] mentioned to you we're all a part of that we're all a part of that so just within our Asian

[00:30:08] community here I think the two best things that happen to our community well one was good was

[00:30:13] in 2008 when the Democratic National Convention was here and for the first time the Asian caucus

[00:30:20] we had they had their biggest caucus here in Denver that was so wonderful and then

[00:30:25] it's kind of a silver lining of COVID because of the anti-Asian hate people are now listening to us

[00:30:32] they hear our voice you know a lot of the things that we're doing now we didn't do for four or five

[00:30:37] years ago you know so I think that's what's really important now AA Asian American a native

[00:30:43] Hawaiian Pacific Islander we also include in there South Asian right so then this this Monica

[00:30:54] this this you know description you know includes so Koreans north and south the Chinese

[00:31:03] not so much north Korea yeah not a lot of them are here yeah yeah Korea so so then

[00:31:10] Filipinos um then Thailand Thailand and you know there's over 40 different nationalities

[00:31:20] tribes here in the Denver metro area I would say maybe a third of them are Pacific Islanders

[00:31:27] but that means over 40 languages and religions and political backgrounds it's so diverse you

[00:31:35] know it's just like when people say oh the black community well there's so many different types

[00:31:41] you know and even when they talk about the Hispanic Latino community well they're not all the same

[00:31:48] same as the Asian community we don't all speak Chinese we don't all look the same you know we don't

[00:31:54] all eat the same foods um and that's you know if people understood that this month next month whenever

[00:32:02] and enjoy that diversity gosh that would be a great thing and I think I think maybe in a podcast

[00:32:08] like we have now um I think it's one of the things that we are trying to sort of distinguish

[00:32:15] is the fact that there's a lot of a lot of parts that go go to form the whole and so when you say that

[00:32:23] you know there are so many different groups for example they all somehow come under the the heading

[00:32:30] of the api art you know people should really know that right you know and I think we need to

[00:32:36] clarify to people you know this you know a pluribus uno you know you know out of all

[00:32:45] all of that you have one yeah and I think that's that's that's very important and I think for

[00:32:52] especially like myself you know out of all of those monikers I could be called Asian American

[00:32:57] Filipino American but anything I really just want to be the American yes you know that happens to

[00:33:02] work with the Asian community you know Philippines is not my country um even for me going out to

[00:33:08] California to see all my Asian relatives out there I feel foreign out there I just want to be you know

[00:33:15] American yeah but what more is there that that's you would like the general population to know

[00:33:22] about this month I want them to you know we talked about recognizing each of the Asian communities

[00:33:29] that are here you know the you know why the Japanese are here the Japanese community are here

[00:33:34] well because of campomachi oh you're talking about yeah the second world war right about the

[00:33:39] internment camps right and you know governor Ralph Carr at the time of World War II he was

[00:33:45] totally against the internment camps because he you know he understood that their rights were

[00:33:49] taken away there was no there was no kind of legal rights to put them in there so he invited

[00:33:56] Japanese Americans from across the country to come to Colorado if they needed a safe space

[00:34:01] so some of them came here that uh just because governor Carr invited them here and then after

[00:34:08] the internees were released from Campomachi many of them stayed in Colorado and in southern Colorado

[00:34:15] a lot of them came up this way to Denver now you know where Sakura Square is

[00:34:20] Sakura Square at 19th about 19th and 20th between Lawrence and Larimer okay um yeah that's where the

[00:34:26] Tri-State Buddhist temple is and Pacific Mercatile is back in that day after the Japanese were

[00:34:33] released they could come live there but it was redlined which means they had to stay in that area

[00:34:40] because that was a redline district yes we welcome all the Japanese Americans who are interred to

[00:34:45] come to Denver but this is where you're gonna live and go to store and go to school and worship

[00:34:49] at your temple you really can't go out of that area um and that you know that was only let go of

[00:34:56] you know our 70s so but that's why the Japanese community is here one of the oldest my community

[00:35:02] the Filipino community I am the third of five generations here no really yes my grandfather

[00:35:09] came here first from the Philippines you know after the Chinese exclusion at

[00:35:13] America needed another source of cheap hopefully free labor you know the civil war they can't have

[00:35:19] black slaves anymore Chinese exclusion no more Chinese so where did they go where did they go

[00:35:25] they went they went to the Philippines and Japan and interestingly enough Puerto Rico

[00:35:30] because um America just won the Spanish-American War so they got Puerto Rico as their territory

[00:35:38] same with the Philippines so my grandfather was one of those that came in 1928 is when he

[00:35:45] his brothers and long cousins came they weren't treated any better um they didn't have them you

[00:35:51] know they were recruited saying oh you're gonna make lots of money and you could send it home

[00:35:54] that wasn't true most of their money went to a company store which means you know you had to

[00:35:59] buy your food buy your clothes those kind of thing this was out in California they were not allowed

[00:36:05] to bring their family here they were not allowed to own property become a citizen

[00:36:10] citizen they were not allowed to marry white European Americans Colorado New Mexico and states

[00:36:18] in the Midwest there were no anti-miscegenation laws so a lot of Filipinos came here to Colorado

[00:36:26] yeah so that's one of the reasons they could come here in on land and have their farms out

[00:36:32] here um eventually after um there was an immigration act in 1965 that got rid of all the quotas and

[00:36:40] stuff out of Asia so they were allowed to go to school and allowed to have property and eventually

[00:36:45] allowed to become citizens so there's about a modicum of uh of freedom then yes yes even more

[00:36:53] so than in California and you'd think oh in California you know they're so liberal no this

[00:36:58] their history too right California was not that that liberal then yeah yeah the political change

[00:37:05] that has uh overtaken California is kind of something reason to think you know yeah it doesn't go

[00:37:11] back a hundred years ago yeah i think you've you've given us quite a good amount of information

[00:37:19] about the api month i think i think the takeaway for me is that the Asians that we see in this country

[00:37:29] and the blacks that we see in this country have a lot in common i think there's a there's a lot in

[00:37:34] common among the minorities in this country and um by all of us realizing that there's that

[00:37:43] much in common i think maybe we should we should try and get together somehow and maybe work together

[00:37:52] and maybe fight for each other's rights you know because we all we all need rights you know

[00:37:59] it's something i think that you know all of us can sort of you know work towards now do you

[00:38:05] know rose do man manager oh yeah um you know this this this whole this podcast i think is uh you know is

[00:38:15] is an idea of a core you know the coalition the coalition against the global genocide i think maybe

[00:38:23] the idea of of stopping genocide is not when genocide happens it's before i yes much much

[00:38:31] before and i think i think maybe one of the ways to sort of to heal our differences is in in fact a

[00:38:41] way of stopping genocide or possibilities of hate and dislike and the complaints about other people

[00:38:49] is you know but it's sort of worked working towards education education exactly and this is what

[00:38:56] rose and the uh in the group has been trying which which uh i admire that very much now you

[00:39:02] you know with the chamber our chamber i mentioned earlier that we have five minority chambers right

[00:39:07] the black a chamber hispanic chamber lgbtq chamber our chamber and the ruckum mountain indian chamber

[00:39:14] in 2019 the red cross you know they had their building there at like fourth and spear yes um

[00:39:20] the red cross donated their whole first floor to us to all five chambers fantastic yeah so we all work

[00:39:29] together um on on many many things um like like if if the hispanic chamber has something going on

[00:39:37] we're gonna back them yeah um when there was some lgbtq hate going on we back them during the

[00:39:45] anti-asian hate they were the first to come and help me back me so in that respect as far as the

[00:39:51] chamber world you know for for economy and business and workforce we work together there

[00:39:57] not you know i have to give a plug to the red cross because they gave that to us for free

[00:40:01] absolutely we have offices and meeting space and a board room and classroom yeah it's wonderful

[00:40:08] it actually saved us during covid because if we had to pay rent we would have been good yeah yeah yeah

[00:40:14] yeah yeah you if you begin with the business i mean it it kind of sort of most you know bleeds to other

[00:40:21] to right to other other things that you do together you know your health care health care mental

[00:40:27] health care mental health care right education education you know and um and we just just you

[00:40:33] know being good good citizens yes you know and that's it that's very very important i think so yeah

[00:40:39] i'm really proud of um not just our work but the work of all of the asian organizations our community

[00:40:45] is pretty tight we really work for you with each other so yeah but thank you very much friend

[00:40:55] the never again podcast is presented by the coalition against global genocide

[00:41:00] and its mission to educate motivate and empower individuals and communities to oppose genocide

[00:41:07] and crimes against humanity