Spring 2022
No. 4
UPDATES
Happy Spring 2022 to everyone on our mailing list! We are now using Substack to create and distribute the ACE newsletter. Among other things, this means we can include video, and you can post comments.
So far, this has been a Tiger of a year, but some great things are happening in Chinatown:
2022 ASIAN FESTIVAL
We are planning the 13th Annual Salinas Chinatown Asian Festival 2022. It will be in-person this year, and located in Salinas Chinatown, Saturday, April 30, 2022, from 11 am—3 pm. Opening ceremonies will be at the Filipino Community Hall on Calle Cebu. Other events, including a classic car show and martial art demos, will take place on California and Soledad streets. Admission is FREE. Sponsors include Asian Cultural Experience and the Chinatown Revitalization Project. Please consider buying an ad for our Asian Festival 2022 booklet! Contact: Larry Hirahara, 408-968-9081, seedyguy@aol.com
OPEN HOURS
ACE now has open* office hours from 10am—2pm, Monday—Thursday. We are located at 21 Soledad St., Suite A (corner of Soledad and E. Lake). Stop by and say hello; check out our “Stories from Chinatown” exhibit. This is a big step for us, and we’re happy to finally welcome visitors. Thanks to ACE Board members for help in preparing the office space, purchasing and donating office supplies and hardware, and setting up the current exhibit; thanks also to the Union Bank for their donation of office furniture, and to York students for decorating our gallery with beautiful, hand-decorated lanterns!
*Unless we are in a meeting, in which case a sign will be posted noting when we will be available.
EDUCATION / SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS
This year, we have been able to take advantage of our new office space and expand our programs. We are continuing to work with service-learning students from both CSUMB and York School, and their help has been invaluable.
ACE Programs Manager, Jason Agpaoa, has been working closely with York School’s faculty and international students. Their International Students Program sponsored a Chinese New Year presentation at York campus, and they are also preparing a pop-up exhibit (also at York) about Salinas Chinatown, using ACE historical materials.
Photos of the students, below, are courtesy of Jon Zeljo, Director of Teaching and Learning at York School:
On March 30, ACE conducted a tour of Chinatown specifically for York students with a group of faculty and staff; they visited some of the landmark buildings and historical spots in the neighborhood; they also met representatives of other organizations in Chinatown, learned about the neighborhood’s multicultural history, and our plans for revitalizing Chinatown. We greatly appreciate their continuing interest in ACE and help with our historical and educational projects.
CSUMB Library is organizing and cataloging both written transcripts and videos of our very large oral history project. Big thanks to Assistant Prof. Chrissy Lau and CSUMB’s Archives Specialist, Robin Guthrie, for their work on this project. The oral history project was initiated by ACE members who sought the help of the Oral History and Community Memory—Service Learning class, directed Prof. Emeritus Rina Benmayor with Kristen LaFollette. You can see some videos from the original project on our Walking Tour website (see the menu on the right-hand side of the front page).
CSUMB Service-Learning students are helping us re-organize our archive of exhibit boards and are creating a variety of projects, including online lesson plans based on materials in our archives, volunteering at the Asian Festival, and helping out with the Filipino Youth Club. Special thanks to CSUMB faculty who have been preparing and guiding the students to work with ACE.
DID YOU KNOW?
There are now two art galleries in Chinatown. They are Urban Arts Collaborative and Public Space Chinatown.
There are two gardens in Chinatown. One is in the inner courtyard of Moon Gate Plaza, and the other one is in front of the Salinas Buddhist Temple.
IN MEMORIAM:
To our great sadness, two ACE Board members passed away recently:
Richard Villegas was the president of FANHS Monterey Bay Area. He was a strong advocate for Filipino American history and for FANHS. Richard came up with the idea for the current three-flowers ACE logo. He had a special interest in the First and Second Filipino Infantry regiments, stationed at Fort Ord and San Luis Obispo, and made many historical contributions to ACE and FANHS historical programs.
Jess Tabasa was also a past president of FANHS Monterey Bay Area. He taught at E.A. Hall Jr. High School in Watsonville for four decades, was a long-time member of the Watsonville Filipino Community Center. He contributed his vast knowledge of Filipino history and culture to many historical exhibits and projects in both Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties.
We will miss them both. Let’s think about ways that we can honor those we’ve lost during the last several years.
We will include at least one ACE video during each newsletter. We hope you enjoy this one, from last year’s virtual Asian Festival, featuring Kian Silao (Fil-Am Youth Club of the Salinas Valley) giving us a lumpia cooking demonstration:
JOIN ACE
If you are not already a member of ACE, please JOIN. It’s easy! We also welcome volunteers to become part of our community. Check out our VOLUNTEER page and let us know how you’d like to help. We are planning to hold a Member Day event, this year, where we can all get to know each other and plan future Chinatown projects.
