May Ying Chen (born in 1948) is a labor organizer and advocate for immigrant workers. Before retiring in 2009, she was an officer and founding member of the AFL-CIO’s Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). May was born and raised in the suburbs of Boston. She was the first of her family to be born in America. Her parents were immigrants from China and Hong Kong. She earned a BA from Radcliffe College and a masters degree in Education at UCLA.  While living in California from 1970 to 1979, she taught high school and Asian and Asian-American studies at California State, Long Beach. She also founded a daycare center in L.A.’s Chinatown.

Chen moved to New York City with her husband and two children in 1979. She was working for Local 6 (the Hotel, Restaurant, Club Employees and Bartenders Union) at the time of the 1982 garment worker’s strike in Chinatown. Inspired by the strike, she joined the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) in 1983. She later recalled, “I got my union job after a huge strike of the Chinatown garment workers in New York City in 1982. I was working for the hotel and restaurant union and was called to support two massive rallies in Columbus Park. It was amazing to see close to 20,000 Chinatown workers cheering for union speeches and marching down Mort Street on strike! Almost every family in Chinatown had garment workers, or employers. This was such a big industry for decades. Local 23-25 did a lot for the workers and community. Our families had good health care benefits. There was a small daycare center. Workers and union were active in politics, registered to vote, and lobbying in New York City, Albany, and Washington, DC, for good jobs, fair treatment for immigrants, women, and all workers.” Later she began working on the ILGWU Immigration Project in 1984. The Project, which helped thousands of union members apply for U.S. citizenship, was the first union-created legal advocacy department for immigrant members. In the 1980’s, she worked with CAAAV, the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence to prevent violence in particular against Asian women.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Chen
• https://www.pbs.org/wnet/chasing-the-dream/uncategorized/built-new-york-may-ying-chen/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HE8OZqWSPw

Dalip Singh Saund (Saund), who everyone called “Judge Saund”, served in the House of Representatives from California in the Eighty-fifth Congress.  He served two terms from January 3, 1957 - January 3, 1963 .  He is the first Sikh American, the first Asian American, the first Indian American and first member of a non-Abrahamic faith to be elected to Congress.

 On September 20, 1899, Saund was born in Amritsar, India (now Chhajjalwaddi, Punjabi, India) to an Indian Punjabi Sikh family. In 1919, he received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Punjab. He immigrated to the United State to study agriculture at the University of California, Berkeley. While at the university, he obtained both a master’s degree and a PhD in mathematics and mastering the French and German languages in 1924. 

 In 1930, Saund was commissioned by the Khalsa Diwan Society to write a book in support of the Indian independence movement.  The book, “My Mother India”, was intended to “answer various questions regarding the cultural and political problems of India.” His book addressed India’s caste system,  compared it to racism, and "pleaded for civil rights in India”.  Although he frequently confronted discrimination during his life in the United States, Saund maintained his belief in the promises of American democracy.

 In the 1940s, he helped organize efforts to open citizenship to people of Indian descent living in the States. He worked long hours to build support, and, eventually, Congress passed a bill allowing Indian immigrants to pursue naturalization. Saund became a U.S. citizen three and a half years later on December 16, 1949..  In 1952, he was elected judge of the Justice Court, Westmoreland Judicial District, county of Imperial and served until he became a congressman 1n 1957. During his career in the House of Representatives, at the height of the Cold War, Saund became a transcendent politician who had the singular ability to engage audiences abroad.

On May 1, 1962, Saund suffered a severe stroke on an airplane flight which left him unable to speak or walk without assistance. He was unable to campaign and was defeated for reelection. After suffering a second stroke 10 years later, Saund died at his home in Hollywood, California, on April 22, 1973. Congressional members held a memorial service for the “Judge” in the Capitol and eulogized him on the floor. 

Sources:

• https://history.house.gov/People/detail/21228
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalip_Singh_Saund
• https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/saund-dalip-singh

Oscar Azarcón Solis, the first Filipino American to be consecrated a bishop, was born on October 13, 1953, in San Jose, Nueva Ecija, Philippines. He was ordained a priest on April 28, 1979.  After ordination, he served the archdiocese of Manila and Cabanatuan. He emigrated to the United States in 1984 and served as associate pastor at St. Rocco's Church, Union City, New Jersey and St. Joseph Co-Cathedral, Thibodaux, Louisiana in 1988. He then served as pastor of Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church and other churches in Louisiana. 

On December 11, 2003, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by Pope John Paul II. In 2009, he was named auxiliary bishop for the San Pedro Pastoral Region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, he headed a council focusing on minority issues as episcopal vicar for ethnic ministry from 2004 to 2009. In an interview in 2021, Bishop Solis said his work in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with various ethnic communities in the archdiocese was a “beautiful experience” for him. The archdiocese lists more than two dozen ethnic liturgies at its parishes. “It's very affirming and inspiring to see that in spite of our differences, the diversity that we have, we can still gather around the table around the altar,” he said. He continued, “That's the beauty of our Church. But we need to proclaim this to the people to give them hope amidst this violence and issues of racism and xenophobia,”. Recently the bishop pointed to the recent mass shootings in Boulder, Colorado and Atlanta, Georgia, as examples of the hatred in society which must be overcome. Bishop Solis said the shootings sparked fear and anxiety among Asian-Americans at a time when harassment and violence against Asian-Americans has increased during the pandemic.

Pope Francis named him bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City on January 10, 2017. Bishop Solis has held several positions with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops including a member of the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church. Currently, he is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Sources:   

• https://www.dioslc.org/about-us/bishops-corner/bishop-solis-biography
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Solis
• https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247053/give-them-hope-how-parishes-can-be-a-light-amid-violence-and-racism

Susan C. Lee is the first Asian American elected to the Maryland State Senate. She was the first Asian American woman and first Chinese American to be elected to the Maryland legislature. She was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1954. Ms. Lee grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland. She earned a BA from the University of Maryland, College Park before graduating from the University of San Francisco School of Law. She is an attorney in private practice, and previously worked as an attorney for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 

She is the Senate Deputy Majority Whip and represents District 16 in Montgomery County. She is the chair of the Maryland Legislative Asian American & Pacific Islander Caucus. She has been described as the General Assembly’s leader on cyber security and innovation, identity theft, online fraud, and consumer protection issues. Lee was the Senate lead sponsor of the Maryland Equal Pay for Equal Work Act. 

While in the House of Delegates, she was a member of the House Judiciary Committee, vice chair of the Montgomery County House Delegation, chair of the Subcommittee on Family Law, co-chair of the Maryland Commission on Cyber Security Innovation and Excellence. Lee was elected to serve two terms as president of the Women Legislators of Maryland (Women's Legislative Caucus) and led efforts to pass an aggressive agenda of laws to fight domestic violence and human trafficking, economically empower women, reduce health care disparities, and obtain funding for rape crisis centers. Her work as a legislator and community activist has been recognized by numerous awards, including the Maryland Progressive Leader Award, the Community Service Award of the League of Korean Americans, the Organization of Chinese Americans Leadership Award, and inclusion in Maryland's Top 100 Women. She received an Award from the Maryland National Organization for Women for her leadership and work on legislation while president of the Women’s Caucus, particularly the law authorizing the placement of Marylander and American hero Harriet Tubman's statue in the U.S. Capitol.

Sources:

• https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Members/Details/lee
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_C._Lee
• https://www.mdsenate.com/senator-susan-lee/

During the Spring 1998 semester, students at University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law worked on a class project, In Search of Baltimore's Chinatown:  What It Was Like To Be Chinese in Jim Crow Baltimore. This historical project looked at the legal and social status of Chinese immigrants who settled and operated businesses in Baltimore during the 20th century before the 1960s. Students engaged in field research looking at legal documents, newspapers, and other archival materials documenting the existence and legal status of Chinese settlers in Baltimore. The overriding question was the legal and social consequences of being classified as neither "black" nor "white" in the United States.

To learn more, click HERE. 
Notable sections to explore are “History” and “Timeline”.

The 2020 American Census reveals that there are 19.9 million people of Asian descent in the United States. The largest groups are Chinese, Filipinos, Asian Indians, Vietnamese, Koreans, and Japanese.

With such varying backgrounds, it is no surprise that the AAPI religious landscape is very diverse and presents an interesting study of American religion in a multicultural, multireligious nation like our own. According to a Pew Research survey (2012), Christians compose the largest religious group among U.S. Asian adults, followed by the unaffiliated, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs respectively. The same survey concluded that “a majority of Filipinos in the U.S. are Catholic, while a majority of Korean Americans are Protestant. About half of Indian Americans are Hindu, while about half of Chinese Americans are unaffiliated. A plurality of Vietnamese Americans are Buddhists, while Japanese Americans are a mix of Christians, Buddhists and the unaffiliated.”

In order to more effectively fulfill their mission to spread the Gospel and shepherd the Lord’s flock, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) created the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Island Affairs in 2008. This subcommittee began a long, detailed process in order to study the needs of the AAPI Catholic community and to create a pastoral plan. Encountering Christ in Harmony: A Pastoral Response to Our Asian and Pacific Island Brothers and Sisters is the resulting pastoral response published in 2018.

From reading the Pew Research survey, the USCCB’s pastoral document, and related texts, we can get a glimpse of the complex realities of religion in the Asian Catholic community.

Asian Catholics in the US make up 3% of the total U.S. Catholic population with a large percentage living on the West Coast. Immigrants compose the majority of Asian Catholics in the country compared to those born in the US. In light of Asia’s considerable religious diversity, different members of the AAPI Catholic community argue that the Church must seek to better understand how the non-Christian religions of Asia influence and interact with Asian Catholicism. Because culture is porous and dynamic, efforts must be made to comprehend the socio-religious frameworks from which Asian Catholics have emerged. For example, Confucian principles favor respect and deference for authority thus facilitating acceptance of the Church’s hierarchical, monarchical nature by some communities such as Korean Catholics. In contrast, American born Catholics come from a culturally Protestant US with a long history of questioning the Church’s authority which can lead some Catholics to do the same. This dichotomy highlights how the specificities of every community presents gifts and challenges to evangelization. An example of a challenge facing the Church is how to effectively respond to the syncretic practices that some people may see as essential to their faith and not contradictory to Church teaching.

Awareness of AAPI Catholic realities also includes examining challenges facing Asian Catholics in the US such as religious and cultural tensions and sometimes open conflict with members of their own ethnicities who do not practice Christianity. In the Gospel and throughout history, people across the world have misunderstood and/or rejected our Lord’s invitation to friendship and love. Therefore, tensions between Catholic and non-Catholic members of the same ethnicity and even within families are not unusual.

The Asian-American Catholic community also faces universal challenges in keeping with 21st century America’s zeitgeist. Like most US minorities, Asian Catholics are more practicing than their white counterparts. However, in absolute numbers, the numbers of practicing Asian Catholics are falling. In an ever-secularizing America where more and more people identify as nonreligious or atheist, Asian Catholics may be tempted to leave the faith. Asian Catholic elders have expressed concern that their descendants will not remain connected to their culture and Catholicism. There is also the appeal that Protestantism has for some AAPI who feel drawn to popular Protestant denominations and movements.

Asian theologians and everyday laypeople have highlighted the need for the USCCB to better educate the clergy concerning their pastoral needs. They have voiced their opinion that priests of Asian and Pacific Islander descent alone do not suffice to better minister to the AAPI community. They need priests who are better informed on what is happening both in Asia and the US and how this concretely impacts their parishioners. 

Sources:

• “Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths,” available at https://www.pewforum.org/Asian-Americans-A-Mosaic-of-Faiths.aspx. 
• https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/cultural-diversity/asian-pacific-islander/upload/asian-and-pacific-island-pastoral-response-encountering-christ-in-harmony-2018.pdf 
• https://www.seattleu.edu/media/institute-for-catholic-thought-and-culture/files/images/events/chl/gemma-tulud-cruz_ICTC_lecture_summary_and_bibliography_correct_version.pdf

The Philippines, an archipelagic country of about 7,640 islands in Southeast Asia, is noted as the third largest Catholic country in the world. In 1521, Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, landed in the central Philippine Island of Cebu which led to Spanish-led colonization and mass conversion to Christianity. 

In September 2021, a Mass was held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to honor this anniversary. It took place on the Feast Day of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, martyr and one of the patron saints of the Philippines. Read an article HERE and view short highlight video HERE of the commemorative event in which many Filipino Catholics local to the DC area reflected on that heritage of deep faith, and what this anniversary means to them.



Come join the virtual discussion hosted by PGCMLS at 7pm on May 9 about this remarkable documentary film. Filmmaker Robin Lung documents her 7-year journey to uncover the efforts of Li Ling-Ai, the visionary but uncredited producer of KUKAN, an Academy Award-winning color documentary about World War II China that has been lost for decades.

To register, click HERE 

You can watch the documentary for free using Kanopy, a limited video streaming service using a valid public library account. Click HERE.

If  you don't have a public library/kanopy account, you can also rent the video for $4.99 on Vimeo.  Click HERE.

To learn more about PGCMLS’s AAPI celebrations, click HERE