In this video, AAPI leaders reflect on Asian American histories in Orange County. Some place their own family’s stories in relation to larger histories of Asian American immigration and community growth, while others reflect on the importance of culture, outreach, and advocacy within Asian American communities.
KEYWORDS: Asian Americans, Asians, Pacific Islander, AAPI, COVID-19, community, family, history, Santa Ana, Orange County,
Video Transcript
[A Historical Perspective]
Mary Anne Foo (Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance): So Santa Ana—a long time ago, Orange County was made up of a lot of farms, and prior there were a lot of Japanese farmers. There’s also a history of the Chinese here, too. So prior, Orange County was pretty diverse with agricultural workers and others. Once World War II hit, and then there was a lot of industrialization and less farming and more getting ready for war and things like that. A lot of Asians left because they were pushed out. But prior to that, Chinatown was in Santa Ana. And what happened was there were white community members who wanted the Chinese out. So they said, “The Chinese carry TB [tuberculosis], there’s all this stuff.” So they burnt Chinatown down and chased the Chinese out. And the same happened during World War II, where they chased the Japanese out, Japanese farmers and others. And so Santa Ana had a strong history of having Asians there, helping to develop Santa Ana. Now today, Santa Ana is a mixture of more of the Latinx community, more of the history of Latinos is coming in and doing the same thing—agricultural work and other things. And then part of Santa Ana also has Little Saigon. And so we saw a lot of, when refugees came, they settled in Santa Ana. So a lot of Cambodians and a lot of Vietnamese. In Santa Ana, there’s Minnie Street, where there was a large Cambodian population because it was the only affordable area for Orange County. So you saw this mixture of community members there, Asian and Latino.
Ellen Ahn (Korean Community Services): The biggest impact was probably after the 1965 Immigration Act when immigration barriers a lot of them were loosened. And there was a flood of Korean immigrants that came in the 1960s and 70s and 80s. And, even 90s, [though] less now. And, because of the base population in L.A., the beginnings of Korea Town in the 1970s, many Koreans settled in Los Angeles—including my family. And in Orange County we’re a secondary migration that took place in the 1980s. As people lived in Koreatown, they just realized, like all immigrants, you want to go to a place with a good school district and a good neighborhood. And so people were looking at communities like Cerritos—Whitney High School—Fullerton—Sunny Hills High School, now it’s more Troy High School. And people started buying houses. And that was the kind of the big wave in the 80s and 90s. And that’s where our Korean history really started growing.
[Contemporary Personal Stories]
Andrea Wasawas (Coastline Community College): So I came to Southern California when I immigrated here from the Philippines. And then I lived in L.A. for the longest time, and I recently moved out to Santa Ana because of my current job. I moved here, I think, around 2000. And I was around seven years old. I actually, the funny thing is, I didn’t know why we were leaving, all I remembered was my mom was just saying that we were going to go to Disneyland. So I was like, “Yeah, sure.” And then, next thing you know I enrolled in school, and then I started living here. And then I didn’t really know what was happening. So I remember not wanting to leave, but because we were traveling I thought that was the reason why.
Tarit Tanjasiri (Crema Cafe and Crema Artisan Bakers): My family history and stuff like that it’s not the usual immigrant who is looking for a better life. I think my family definitely wanted me to have a better education. I left Thailand when I was twelve; it was a 12-year-olds choice when my parents [said], “Hey, do you want to go study abroad?” And I said, “Sure.” I had no idea what I thought I was getting myself into.
Tricia Nguyen (Southland Integrated Services): I think when all of us in Vietnam migrated to the United States, I think Orange County, because we have the Little Saigon area, it just feels like right at home. So everybody migrates. This is the place to be, just like when you go to Vietnam, Saigon is in the middle of the town, it’s where everybody wants to be. And I think when my dad came over—originally, he was in Kentucky, so he lived in Kentucky, but he figured we would not survive in the weather. I’m glad that he didn’t move us to Kentucky but he moved here. And so ever since then, I just liked the weather, I just liked the atmosphere. You just feel right at home, when you first come over. You don’t feel you don’t need to assimilate and there’s no need to learn English right away. Because the people, most of the time you bump into somebody who can speak your language.
Amina Sen-Matthews (The Cambodian Family): When I first came to the United States, and we came and we lived out here in Santa Ana, we lived in an ethnic enclave where it was just, when I looked around, everybody looked like me, spoke the same language as I do. And that was what I knew of Orange County growing up, because we didn’t really venture out further than the Santa Ana area. And that’s what I knew. I thought everybody was Cambodian or Cham or from Mexico. I didn’t realize that there were others out there.
Ed Lee (Wahoo’s Fish Taco): Since 1975, obviously, the Asian community has grown a lot, tremendously. I mean, in ‘75, for instance, Garden Grove was not not yet a big Asian community, Westminster wasn’t that big. But now if you fast forward—when I moved to Newport Beach in 1973, I was probably the only non-white in the school system. I was here without my brothers. So when I went to school, everybody was Caucasian. There was no Asian, no African American, no Latino American, it was just me, Ed.
Dee Nguyen (Break of Dawn): My parents and I lived in pretty much the ghetto of Long Beach. My dad came from New Jersey, and we got sponsored and we landed in Long Beach. So my dad came to Long Beach and that’s where we stayed. But it was a rough life in that city. When you came from a third world country—you know Vietnamese and you speak in Vietnamese and all sudden you got thrown into this ghetto neighborhood where pretty much you[‘ve] got ten gangs within the same school. It’s like a mile block of the city, you have like ten-plus gangs within the inner city.
[Cultural Landmarks]
Zainab Syeda (South Asian Network): In terms of what SAN [South Asian Network] does, and the South Asian population—like I mentioned, I think, over the years, I’ve seen it transform so much. So growing up, I didn’t see as many South Asians as I see now. And actually, just two blocks down they opened up a gurdwara, or Sikh temple. There’s a lot more South Asians, like Punjabi Sikhs, who are either living in the neighborhood or they’re coming and visiting the neighborhood more often.
Ravi Seng Ly (The Cambodian Family): In Santa Ana, one of the most important places for our community is definitely the Buddhist temple on Grand Avenue. It’s the place where I’d say 90%-95% of our community members go to for different religious events or different religious ceremonies. The monks that lead the temple are very well trusted in the community. And that’s another one I should mention. Donut shops are, I don’t know if they’re important like the temple is important, but donut shops are notable because they’re mostly Cambodian run. And most of the independently run donut shops you see are probably by Cambodians.
[Final Thoughts]
Audrey Alo (Pacific Islander Health Partnership): The Western world, they want that alphabet soup behind your name. A lot of what I have between my ears are things that I learned from aunts, uncles, my grandmother, my mother that has no certificate. My certificate is when they nod at me and tell me that I did a good job. So even though I live in a Western world, and even though I’ve acquired the alphabet soup behind my name, the ones that are most important to me are the ones that come from my elders.
Jennifer Wang (Asian American Senior Citizens Service Center): And so I think that what I really want the next generation to learn is not everybody is going to have to know how to speak Mandarin or Chinese or whatever second language. You need to learn more about the cultural language. Cultural language in terms of their actions really are conveying how they really feel—from what they say with their eyes, what they say with their body language. You need to be able to read that. And like I said, what I do here, we wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t that need.
Sister Thuy Tran (Sisters of St. Joseph): My hope is that we continue to learn about different cultures, different ways [to] care about our community. For me if I did not do this work around the Asian American community, I would not see the gaps, the need. And from there, like I got engaged civically, I got engaged in areas that I know that can make a difference. So I hope future generations break away from your peers and take that risk and know what’s going on in your community and start advocating because we all need to be a part of this journey together.
- Interviews conducted in May/June 2020. These interviews represent a moment in time; but the work of these leaders and their organizations remains ongoing. Please visit their organizational websites, linked on their respective interview pages, to learn more about their initiatives, programming, and progress.