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Today, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing racial group in the United States. AAPI Heritage Month celebrates the unique journey of all AAPI immigrants and citizens in the United States and their unique life experiences, traditions, and cultures.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have contributed significantly to American culture and society, including science and medicine, literature and art, history, culture, film and recreation, education, finance, international trade, government and politics, and activism and law.

Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month occurs every May in the United States. As of 2019, there were about 22.9 million of Asian or Pacific Islander descent in the United States. When many think of AAPI communities, they think of people from or that have descended from South Asia, East Asia, South East Asia, and the Pacific Islands. However, AAPI also includes West and Southwest Asia (commonly referred to as the Middle East in the U.S.). According to the Pew Research Center, AAPI people are a diverse and growing population that makes up about 7% of the total U.S. population.

The AAPI umbrella term includes cultures from the entire Asian continent, including the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and Easter Island).

The theme for AAPI Heritage Month 2022 is “Advancing Leaders Through Collaboration.”

District Administrative Activities

District leaders will be celebrating AAPI’s rich cultures and traditions. A special event will be held at the Donaldson Administration Building (DAB) and the Bamberg Professional Development and Resource Center (BAM).

Be sure to share how you are celebrating AAPI Month on social media. Include the hashtags #AldineAAPIHeritageMonth ,#AldineForward, or #AldineAdelante.

• May 2-6: Works of literature and history are great examples of people’s culture. In honor of Asian American Pacific Islander Month, commit to reading books about or by Asian American or Pacific Islanders.
• May 9-13: Culture is the customs of people who live together. Aldine ISD art students will be creating cultural art walls representative of members of the Asian American community in areas of literature and fine arts.
• May 13: Staff members are encouraged to wear their Asian American Heritage attire to celebrate and commemorate Asian American/Pacific Island culture and heritage, using textiles as another visual art form.
• May 16-20: Asian American art heritage is kept up by cultural gems across the city open to all. These are important to keep up your family’s ancestral heritage or to see a different cultural perspective for the first time.
• May 19: During ILT, a performance from the students participating in the Vietnamese Bilingual Program will take place at lunchtime.
• May 23-27: Stories are a way for humans to engage with others. Stories help draw people together because we see ourselves reflected in them and understand ourselves better. For AAPI Month Book Club will have participants reading I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. It is the remarkable true story of a family uprooted by global terrorism, the fight for girls’ education, parents who encouraged her to write and attend school, and their fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons. An email will be shared with staff to sign up to participate; participants will receive a zoom link to join the chat on May 25 at noon.

To join the district in celebrating AAPI Heritage Month, click here to learn more about Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage. You can also visit the Smithsonian Institute website.

Why Celebrate AAPI Month?

AAPI people have a long history in the United States. According to the Bering Land Bridge Theory, Asians first migrated to what is now known as North America over 15,000 years ago through a land bridge between Asia and North America. In the 16th century, Filipinos escaping forced labor and enslavement during the Spanish galleon trade immigrated to North America, eventually settling in St. Malo, La., in 1763. During the California Gold Rush of the 1850s, many Asian immigrants came to the West Coast and provided labor for gold mines, factories, and the transcontinental railroad. In 1882, Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigration for 20 years.

Japanese and Koreans began immigrating to the United States by 1885 to replace Chinese labor in railroad construction, farming, and fishing. However, in 1907, Japanese immigration was restricted by a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” between the United States and Japan. The civil rights movement assisted the liberalization of immigration laws. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act changed restrictive national origin quotas and allowed large numbers of Asians and Pacific Islanders to come to the United States with their families. In the mid-1970s, refugees from Southeast Asia like Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos came to the United States to flee war, violence, and hardship.

Today, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing racial group in the United States. AAPI Heritage Month celebrates the unique journey of all AAPI immigrants and citizens in the United States and their unique life experiences, traditions, and cultures.

Be sure to share on social media how you celebrate #AldineAAPIHeritageMonth.

For more information, visit asianpacificheritage.gov.