May 2022

Hello AACP Newsletter Readers.

Another Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM or AAPIHM) has come and gone. Was it good for you?

I was looking over some old articles/editorials (May 2005 and May 2006) I wrote for APAHM, and was wondering if I should continue my crusade or rants. I guess my main beef was that people were misunderstanding the original purpose for the month. Many people see it as just a cultural event or maybe even about all things Asian or Pacific Islander. I used to cringe when I saw APAHM TV programming that would include things like “Pavarotti in China.”

I see the month more as a reminder to all Americans that AAPIs have been a part of American history and will continue to be a part of America. Most of us aren’t leaving so we better learn to live together and learn more about each other. This goes both ways, so when a group other than your own is having their month, please try to learn more about them too.

In keeping with my beliefs on the purpose of APAHM, I dusted off a one page piece I wrote a number of years ago on the Hawaiian named Humehume (also known as George Prince and a bunch of other names). I thought I could just add to it and have an article ready for you. When I started to do more research I kept reading and reading and almost didn’t have any more time left to write the actual article. Well, I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did in research him.

For our other piece, we’ve included another one of our comfort food articles (Up Auntie’s Dango). We haven’t had one for you in a while. We hope you’ll like this one and will give it a try.

We hope to continue the Mas interview series soon in one of the upcoming months. Thank you for your patience.

------------------

For this month’s book selection, I’ve tried to fit the theme for APAHM that I mentioned above. Have a look. It’s a little late, but it’s never too late to read and learn. Let us know what you think by clicking on the ones that you’re curious about.

------------------

Thank you to the Community Foundation of San Carlos for inviting us to your AAPI Heritage Month Community Celebration. We enjoyed meeting your festival goers and we hoped they liked our selection of books that we brought.

We’re going to the San Jose Obon (July 9-10). Yay! Great to be going to this again - hope to see you there.

Hey out there, keep the invitations coming. If we can get to your event and have enough help, we’ll consider it. We only have a couple of events that we’ve committed to. 

Our schedule is pretty open for the rest of the year.

------------------

Thank you Susan for the Dango article and thank you Philip with the editing help.

------------------

Everyone, as awful as the recent shootings and other terrible things going on are, keep in mind that people are still dying from COVID. One stat that I just saw said that we’re still losing over 300 Americans a day in to this disease. Can you imagine if we had a shooting every day that killed 300 people? We shouldn’t forget caring for these people, our loved ones, or ourselves.

So do take care.

Bye.