The Faces of Asian-Pacific Islanders

Most American's don't know this, but the month of May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. I found this interesting, considering I never knew being an Asian-Pacific Islander was even a reason to celebrate.

Being born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii to parents of Puerto-Rican/Hawaiian/Filipino descent, I always considered myself to be normal, not unique at all. What made you unique was if you were 100% Hawaiian, which many of us were not.

In 1853, indigenous Hawaiians made up 97% of the islands' population. However, by the year 1923, their numbers had dwindled to 16%, with the largest percentage of Hawaii's population being Japanese.

You see, Hawaii had a history of welcoming immigrants from China, Japan, the Philippines, and Korea when fruit and sugar plantations were big business. This resulted in many mixed marriages, generating a rapid growth in population on the islands.

My grandmother was a full-blooded Hawaiian. She married my grandfather who was 50% Hawaiian and 50% Filipino. My father is 100% Puerto Rican, hence my 1/3 split bloodline.

I, like many other children growing up on the island, were all “hapa”, a term used to describe a person of mixed ethnic heritage or someone of part Asian or Pacific Islander descent. I clearly remember getting a kick asking friends, “What’s your ethnicity?”

“I am Hawaiian, Filipino, Japanese, Portuguese, Irish, English, Scottish," would be a likely reply.

The more diverse your background, the more normal you were considered because you, like everyone else were the same. Therefore, we held on to this and embraced it as part of our culture.

This cocktail-mix of ethnicity heavily influenced our island's cuisine, eventually placing Hawaii on the map by introducing Pan-Pacific Asian cuisine to the world. The mixed-plate lunch, for example, is the epitome of how people in Hawaii lived and worked together. This plate lunch, served at practically every drive-in on the island, was the most popular dish growing up. If you couldn’t decide what to eat for lunch you could chose a mixture of three items; (Laulau: Hawaiian/Kalbi: Korean/Teriyaki Chicken: Japanese), all with two scoops of rice and macaroni salad on the side. Seriously, what other place could you visit and eat several different cuisines in one dish?

My mother always told me to be proud of where I was born. Hawaii is a melting pot of cultures, and growing up here is very different from growing up on mainland USA. I never understood this until I moved to the Middle East. Living and working in the United Arab Emirates, another multi-cultural hub, opened my eyes to how truly blessed I was to be raised on the islands.

I was finally unique.

Majority of the people I met during my time in Dubai literally had just one ethnicity. It was, therefore, “unique” to meet anyone who had more than two ethnicities. From Germans to Iranians, Pakistanis to Emiratis, they were one and here I was, a part of three. I was now that one that stood out amongst the majority.

There’s a very famous song from Hawaii called Mr. San Cho Lee that does a great job summing up the diverse relationships we have here in Hawaii. Some of out-of-town guests heard the song recently, and thought it was racist. But, to me (and most people who grew up in Hawaii), it’s an honest representation of how we interact with each other on a daily basis.

The blood that runs through my veins and many Asian-Pacific Islanders living and working across the United States encompasses the history of our ancestors; leaving behind the familiar and seeking out new opportunity in a foreign land so that generations thereafter could prosper.

Let the month of May be a reminder of this as we celebrate the important impact that the Asian-American Pacific Islander community has made on our country’s progress.

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