Kicking off AAPI month

Valley Asian Culture Festival honors Asian heritage with food, music

JENNIFER TANZIL Reporter

It was a day of celebration at the second annual Valley Asian Cultural Festival on Saturday at Pierce College, welcoming the start of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.

Attendees enjoyed dance and musical performances from various Asian and Pacific Islander cultures. In addition, food trucks and vendors sold Indian, Vietnamese and Japanese foods, among many other cuisines.

Pierce was one of the festival’s main sponsors along with Councilmember Bob Blumenfield’s office and the West Valley-Warner Center Chamber of Commerce.

Lois P. Klavir, President of the Filipino-American Chamber of Commerce Greater LA, was proud to represent the Filipino community at the event.

“Today is about diversity, appreciating what is unique about each culture and what is common amongst all of us–we’re all human,” Klavir said. “We all live here in the Valley, which we all love and care about. We need to appreciate our Asian communities and uplift each other.”

Klavir spoke on the importance of the Asian community coming together to support each other, especially now. Events like this help to create networks amongst people.

“It is more important than ever (for Asians to come together),” Klavir said. “As we all know, during the pandemic, it affected us as a community. So we should be having those conversations, how we shouldn’t allow those things to happen. We cannot be quiet when one community is experiencing discrimination. We all have to speak up for each other.”

Asian or not, Klavir hoped everyone would appreciate the different cultures around them, as all these rich cultures are what make our society.

“Everyone is going through different challenges, whether they are first generation or second generation immigrants,” Klavir said. “Each culture has their own stories, so don’t generalize and look into individual experiences. As a community, as an ally, we have to get together and support each other.”

The festival included a Katori Shinto Ryu samurai performance, a traditional style of Japanese martial arts, as well as a Chinese lion dance put on by the Camarillo Kung Fu & Lion Dance Association.

Families and children also made paper lanterns and origami.