[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 72 (Tuesday, May 21, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5306-H5307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ASIAN/PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May
12, 1995, the gentleman from California [Mr. Becerra] is recognized
during morning business for 5 minutes.
Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join another colleague and
friend, the gentlewoman from Hawaii, Mrs. Patsy Mink, to salute all
those in this country, all those Americans of Asian/Pacific Islander
descent who have made this such a great country.
I rise because I have grown to know and to respect the many
accomplishments of our Asian/Pacific Americans, and I happen to have a
district in California, in the Los Angeles area, that happens to have a
great number of Asian/Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles. It happens that
much of my work, much of my effort and much of my success is a result
of the efforts of many of the people in my district, and I count among
those the many people from the Asian/Pacific community that have helped
me along the way.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to spend a few moments talking a little bit
about the individual and the collective contributions of Asian/Pacific
Americans to our country, and I would like to do that within the
context, if I may, of my particular district, because as I said, my
district is rich in what makes America great, the diversity, the
talents, and I can speak of so many individuals from my particular
district in southern California, so I would like to concentrate on just
a few of those.
First, I would like to just make sure it is clear that someone who
has an opportunity to represent Koreatown in Los Angeles, parts of
Chinatown in Los Angeles, a great percentage of the Filipino community
in Los Angeles, and countless other Southeast Asians who live in Los
Angeles, I have had a great opportunity to get to know the much and
diverse ways in which our culture here in America is reflected.
We can talk about people like Mr. Don Toy, who is a Chinese American,
who has become probably Mr. Chinatown over the years because of his
many efforts on behalf of the residents of Chinatown within the Los
Angeles area. This is the executive director of Chinatown Teen Post,
and in that capacity he has been able to help so many of our youth go
on and lead productive lives.
He has been instrumental in making sure that senior citizens
throughout Los Angeles have an opportunity in the areas around
Chinatown to have safe and decent homes to live in at the point of
their retirement. Cathay Manor, which houses more than 300 units and is
home to more than 500 seniors in Los Angeles, is really a tribute to
the success of someone like Don Toy. Cathay Manor is there, and the
people living in Cathay Manor owe a great deal to Don Toy.
Stewart Kwoh, another Chinese American, is a resident of Los Angeles,
the Silver Lake area, part of which I represent. He is the executive
director of the Asian/Pacific American Legal Center of southern
California. Most people know of the legal center because of its many
successes in defending the rights and protecting those rights of Asian/
Pacific islanders who are in this country.
We have found on too many occasions the need to go to court to defend
the rights of all citizens of this country, of all people of this
country, to have the protections of the Constitution. Stewart Kwoh and
the Asian/Pacific American Legal Center of southern California have
been there to ensure that those people have been able to assert their
rights.
Bong Hwan Kim, a friend and another individual from my district, he
is Korean American. He is also the director of a fantastic program at
the Korean Youth and Community Center. It is the largest Korean
American service organization in the Nation. Through his leadership it
has continued to grow, and it continues to build bridges with the
different races and ethnic groups that make up Los Angeles, the
patchwork which has become such a renowned part of Los Angeles. It is
because of his efforts that the Korean American community has been able
to
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reach out to the African American community, to the other communities
which make up that portion of America that we call Los Angeles.
Linda Wong, a Chinese American of fantastic reputation, is chief
financial officer of Rebuild L.A., the organization created to make
sure that we could, after the aftermath of the unrest in Los Angeles,
go on to rebuild this great city. She has worked tirelessly for many
years as a lawyer defending so many people, not just Asian/Pacific
islanders, but many people through her public interest work as an
attorney, and now she is also someone who is working as a trustee of
the Los Angeles metropolitan project, which is a $100 million
educational reform movement in Los Angeles.
The honorable Delbert Wong, Chinese American resident, is the first
superior court judge in the United States, a fantastic jurist, someone
who would be just the epitome of what we would want to see in our
courts. He is someone who is Los Angeles bred.
One last friend, Dr. Haing Ngor. Some of you may remember this
Cambodian American because he is the individual who won the Oscar for
best supporting actor in the film, the Killing Fields. He has
unfortunately left us because of his brutal murder, a tragic death, but
he too was an Asian American of renown. Throughout his lifetime Dr.
Ngor never gave up his work to someday obtain peace in Cambodia.
I want to thank the Speaker for the opportunity to say to all those
people who have represented this country so well and will continue to
do so whether they are of a particular ethnicity, or race in this case,
we are talking about the Asian/Pacific islander community, that what
make America great is the fabric that keeps us together. The Asian/
Pacific islander community is among the various communities that make
this Nation so great, and I wish to extend to all those people my
congratulations and my thanks for the greatness that comes through
those people.
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