May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Established in 1992, this month celebrates and honors Asian Americans, Pacific Islander Americans, and Native Hawaiians throughout the years. Throughout the years, many AAPI pioneers have moved the United States movement to where it is today. We at TeenSource want to recognize and honor individuals who have made a significant difference in history.
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Kiyoshi Kuromiya
Kuromiya was born in 1943 in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, but later returned to his state of California after the war. He learned early on that he was gay and later moved to Philadelphia, where he increased his involvement in human rights, in protests at his college. He often participated in peaceful protests such as sit-ins and supported racial equalACT UP Standards of Careity and gay liberation. He even worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Following the Stonewall riots in 1969, he and Basil O’Brien initiated the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), standing in solidarity not only with the LGBTQ+ community but also other human rights movements during this era. In the 1980s, after being diagnosed with AIDS himself, he advocated for AIDS treatment, creating the ACT UP Standards of Care, distributing information to thousands of people in the United States who did not have access to AIDS information and operating a 24-hour hotline for people who sought information about AIDS in Philadelphia.
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Grace Lee Boggs
Grace Lee Boggs was born in 1917 and was a key figure in Asian American, Feminist, and other Civil Rights movements. As a Chinese woman, many employers refused to hire her due to her ethnicity and gender, so she took a job at a minimal pay philosophy library in Chicago. However, once moving to Chicago, she started advocating for tenants’ and workers’ rights. Later, she began writing alongside her husband on civil rights, women's, and workers’ rights. She paved the way for the intersectional feminism movement, which emerged in the 1990s, helping women of color and the distinct issues that many still face today.
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Philip Vera Cruz
Philip was a Filipino American labor organizer, farmer, and Asian-American civil rights advocate. He was one of the main contributors to the United Farm Workers (UFW) union, which brought better conditions for farmers and their crops. He reflected on and advocated the first way Filipino people came to the United States, also known as the “manong generation,” who came during the 1920s-1930s, struggling to find work and being scrutinized by the US government through restricting immigration. After World War II, he joined the National Farm Labor Union (NFLU) and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), coordinating the Delano Farmworkers 1965-1966 grape strike and boycott, raising their wages. In his retirement, Vera Cruz also constructed a retirement village for retired Filipino workers, providing economic comfort.
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Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu
Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, or Kumu Hina, is a Native Hawaiian māhū, in which people embody both the feminine and masculine spirit, and a transgender woman. She is known for her work as a hula teacher, filmmaker, artist, and activist, advocating for the field of Kānaka Maoli language and cultural preservation. As a candidate for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, she was one of the first transgender women to be a candidate for statewide political office in the United States. Within her film career, she was the subject of her feature documentary Kuma Hina that spread information about being māhū and transgender in Hawaii’s modern landscape, winning the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. Other works she has are Lady Eva, Leitis in Waiting, A Place in the Middle, and Kapaemahu.
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Emily Kauʻiomakaweliokauaionalaniokamanookalanipo Kukahiwa Zuttermeister
Also going by the name Emily Kau'i Zuttermeister, and “Aunty Kau’i,” is an American Hawaiian Hula Master, opening her school of hula, “Ilima Hula Hale” in 1936. She was one of the prominent individuals who revitalized and worked to maintain Hawaiian culture through the art of hula. Here, she raised awareness of Hawaiian culture through traditional oral storytelling. In I984, she was awarded the 1984 National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest recognition for folk and traditional arts.
Although many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been overlooked, May is the time to recognize them and learn more about their culture, art, and practices. History continues to be shaped as more information is learned and shared, it is crucial not to cement it into what it is seen as, but expand it to what the past is