(NAME-MCE) Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month 2007

[Anselmo Villanueva]

May 4, 2007

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month 2007

[Summary source: U.S. Department of State] In 1978, a joint
congressional resolution established Asian/Pacific American Heritage
Week. The first 10 days of May were chosen to coincide with two
important milestones in Asian/Pacific American history: the arrival in
the United States of the first Japanese immigrants (May 7, 1843) and
contributions of Chinese workers to the building of the
transcontinental railroad, completed on May 10, 1869. In 1992,
Congress expanded the 10-day observance to a month-long celebration.
Per a 1997 Office of Management and Budget directive, the Asian or
Pacific Islander racial category was separated into two categories:
"Asian" and "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander." According to
the 2005 American Community Survey, there are 2.3 million people aged
5 and older who speak Chinese in the U.S. today. After Spanish,
Chinese is the most widely spoken non-English language in the country.
What is more, Tagalog and Vietnamese have more than one million
speakers each.

More information at these websites:

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/009714.html

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/heritage_month/

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/resabout/culture/7_languages/