Spartan Daily Vol. 160 No. 33

Documenting the AAPI experience

Activists discuss project to showcase Asian American history

By Brandon Nicolas STAFF WRITER

Last spring, the Community Advisory Board of the Oral Histories Project received a $500,000 contract from Santa Clara County to document the oral histories of over 30 Asian American activists in the Silicon Valley area.

The board chose Yvonne Kwan, San Jose State assistant professor and program coordinator of Asian American studies, to spearhead the project.

enter someone’s presence,” Kwan said.

She said the high school interns would research information on the internet, which would help her generate interview questions.

“Our interview questions are standardized up to a certain point, but when you’re asking people about their specific experiences, we want to tailor it to what they have done,” Kwan said.

After the interviewees are selected by the Community Advisory Board and the research team has provided background information, Kwan and the videography

The Oral Histories Project is split into two groups: The Community Advisory Board and the AAPI Perspectives team.

Associate Student President Nina Chuang said the AAPI Perspective team is currently in the editing process of the project.

The board consists of community leaders, legislators and activists who have made a difference in the county. They helped comprise a list of candidates to interview for the project.

“These are prominent figures in our community who saw that during COVID-19 – a lot of our elders were passing,” Kwan said. “We also saw a rise and resurgence of anti-Asian violence.”

The AAPI Perspectives team includes Kwan as the primary investigator, Chuang who leads a high school intern research team, a videography team and a creative director.

“We essentially want to do our homework before we

Connie Young Yu Oral Histories Project community advisory board Asian American historian

team attend the interview scheduled by Chuang.

“We’ll go through a range of questions that usually start with family origin, their schooling experiences, their interaction with their neighborhood – just capturing what life was like for them,” Kwan said.

The interviews then delve into their respective histories as activists in their communities.

Afterward, the videographers edit the video and generate a transcript that is then polished by the interns.

Kwan separates the AAPI Perspective Oral Histories Project into two phases: the first phase includes the video recording of 36 interviewees, curriculum building for K-12 schools and the archiving of the oral histories that will be made available to the public.

“It’s a community based, community centered project,” she said.

Kwan said she is currently requesting a follow-up

PHOTO VIA HISTORY SAN JOSE

San Jose’s Chinatown was located on Market Street prior to the fire which destroyed it in 1887. This Chinatown was on the present site of the Fairmont Hotel.

“He’s telling this story that has probably never been published or heard before and we’re going, ‘Oh my God, that’s what it was like during that time!’ We’re talking about human experience.

City council debates public transit

By Alina Ta STAFF WRITER

San Jose City councilmembers discussed the pros and cons of using city funds to build transportation to connect San Jose Mineta International Airport to Downtown San Jose.

The Diridon Station to Airport Connector Project will create a three to four mile transit path between the San Jose Mineta International Airport Terminal B to Diridon Station, according to a memorandum from the city.

Ramses Madou, the city’s division manager of Planning, Policy, and Sustainability for the Department of Transportation, said the city’s current transportation systems are not ready for its future goals.

“San Jose has set some really ambitious goals,” he said. “Becoming a zero carbon city, reducing deaths and severe injuries to zero [and] addressing historical inequities.”

Madou said transportation plays a major role in accomplishing these goals because most residents are unable to live without having “single occupancy vehicles.”

“In certain areas of the city, congestion is snarling,” he said.

He said neither electric or autonomous vehicles will help decrease traffic.

To provide more transit, the city will introduce a combination of different types of mass transit, including building hyperloops, monorails and other vehicles, according to a webpage from the city.

Brian Stanke, the project manager for the Diridon Station to Airport Connector Project, said the city is planning to implement an “innovative new way of connecting Mineta San Jose International Airport and Diridon Station.”

The new transit lines will be electric autonomous vehicles designed for high frequency use and will drive along a fixed path, according to the same memorandum.

Stanke said each vehicle can carry up to four people with luggage.

He also said development and design costs will be covered by Plenary Americas.

Plenary Americas, the parent company of Glydways, is a Canadian infrastructure developer and an investment company, according to the company’s website.

Glydways is the transit technology provider that will be building the new

transit connection between Mineta San Jose International Airport and San Jose Downtown, according to the same city webpage.

The city currently has around $4 million set aside for the project, while the pre-development stage will cost the city less than a million dollars, according to the same memorandum.

Stanke said the city will also have to cover additional environmental costs, which city staff are still estimating.

Councilmember Pam Foley said understanding the financial component of the project is important.

She said this will help the city understand whether or not it will need to take money out of its general funds, taxation and more.

“Hopefully, to the members of the public listening, I’m not advocating for taxes,” Foley said. “I’m hoping for federal grants and other grants that might work to help us.”

Madou said the city is still looking for sources of funding for the project.

“We are certainly hoping that grants will cover a significant portion of the future costs for us both in project development and of course in the final build,” he said.

John Costa, the president for Local 265 from Amalgamated Transit Union,

said he disagrees with councilmembers on whether or not San Jose’s current public transit system can continue supporting the city in the future.

He said the transit union strongly opposes creating a “public partnership for a luxury pod system.”

“You’re going to spend money on this when you’re not serving all the underserved people within this county,” Costa said.

Harun Neil, civil engineering junior from De Anza College, said he thinks building the transit connection with the vehicles from Glydway would be a huge mistake.

“There are lots of other solutions that could be better and much cheaper as well,” he said.

Neil said the city could do a lot of small things to make transit faster. He said one thing the city could do is to reroute and build more bus lanes.

“That wouldn’t cost an outrageous amount of money and would be generally much more in line with what other cities around the country do,” Neil said. “Without need to be innovative for innovation’s sake, which isn’t really innovation at all.”

San Jose resident Matthew Abraham said he is concerned about how small the vehicles are.

“This connector featuring autonomous vehicles I believe is a step in the wrong direction,” he said.

Abraham said most VTA’s buses can seat 18 passengers while VTA’s light rail can seat about 62 people.

He also said he is concerned that the vehicles will help spread viruses in a future pandemic because of how small they are.

Abraham said a better alternative would be to shuttle passengers between Diridon Station and San Jose Mineta International Airport.

Foley said she feels like there’s not enough information to say no to the project, but councilmembers can make a decision once they learn more.

“I want to see this go forward,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s a blanket, ‘yes’.”

‘Grad Slam’ to showcase grad student work

By Mat Bejarano STAFF WRITER

San Jose State’s graduate students will prepare to present their research next Tuesday in the College of Graduate Studies Grad Slam event.

Grad Slam is a research communication competition where graduate students have three minutes and one slide to present their research to a non-specialist audience, according to the San Jose State website.

The annual event will take place at the Hammer Theatre on April 25 at 2 p.m.

Marc d’Alarcao, dean of the College of Graduate Studies, said finalists are chosen from a committee of three people who evaluate each graduate students’ three minute video.

During the Grad Slam, judges chosen by the college select the winners of the event.

“We have some alumni, we have some industry folks who come in and evaluate the presentations and select the first and second place winner,” d’Alarcao said. “And then we have an Audience Choice Award winner, which is selected by the audience who views the competition.”

Mechanical engineering graduate student Antonio Cervantes said he was encouraged by his professor to participate in this year’s Grad Slam.

“That kind of gave me the push to want to just go for it,” Cervantes said.

Cervantes’ presentation is focused on wildfire embers, modeling their trajectories and landing location.

“One of the goals of the Grad Slam was to allow graduate students’ activities to be presented publicly to allow the community both within the university and outside to see the kind of great work

that they’re doing,” d’Alarcao said.

Cervantes said the hardest part of Grad Slam for him was fitting all of his research in the three minute time slot.

“All students who participate go through, like, as I was saying, a professional development opportunity,” d’Alarcao said.

He said the idea for Grad Slam came from the University of Queensland’s similar competition named Three Minute Thesis.

“What we have found here is that it’s a very valuable competition for us, primarily because it benefits the students . . . but also because it helps communicate to the world all the great research and other creative activity that’s going on here at San Jose State,” d’Alarcao said.

He said he hopes to see more students participate.

“I think there’s no reason why every member of the campus community shouldn’t watch it,” d’Alarcao said. “It’s really a cool event.”

Cervantes said he believes showcasing the work graduate students are doing is important.

“I had to step outside of the whole body of work and just choose what I thought to me was, like, the most important parts of my research,” Cervantes said.

He said participating in the Grad Slam taught him how to take a complicated topic and translate it to people who are not experts in the field.

Statistics graduate student John Cooper is presenting his research on fast acquisition for high resolution microscopy.

He said participating in the event is a good way to gauge your ability to convey research.

“I also work at a laboratory where we have to talk to people and give presentations so this kind of just hones in on that,” Cooper said. “I think every opportunity to speak to a group of people is a good and useful opportunity.”

Cooper said the hardest part was making the video.

“You’re explaining a lot of technical stuff in a short amount of time and that’s always the hardest part about it,” Cooper said. “The video recording process is always weird because you’re not really talking to anybody, you don’t have an audience.”

Data analytics graduate student Sachin Kumar Srinivasa Murthy said Grad Slam allows him to showcase his research on building a new information system to track the shift and skill demand in the job market.

“It’s always good to showcase what you’re doing and get feedback from people around you who are in the same domain,” Srinivasa Murthy said. “When you showcase it, when you talk about it, experts get to take notice of what you’re doing and they can provide their feedback.”

He said he has acquired a better ability of presenting through the process of making his video.

“So personally, it has helped me with communication and presentation skills and also it has given me confidence in the subject that I’m conducting research in,” Srinivasa Murthy said. “I would have not been a subject matter expert in this field if I had not talked about it, and if I have not gotten this opportunity.”

ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY

A member of the public gives comment at the podium during the San Jose City Council meeting at city hall on Tuesday.

ALESSIO CAVALCA | SPARTAN DAILY Marc d’Alarcao talks to members of the press in his office at SJSU on Monday.

ACTIVISM

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grant from Santa Clara County to take the project into phase two.

The second phase will include more oral histories in addition to the creation of a youth program.

The youth program aims to train high school and college level students to conduct interviews, capture oral histories and document the lives of “role models” in their communities.

Paul Fong, former Democratic California State Assembly member and SJSU alumnus, said the Community Advisory Board received funding from Santa Clara County and made it their mission to find a person to lead the project.

“We contacted San Jose State University – Asian American studies, and that’s when we introduced the project to Kwan,” Fong said. “She gladly accepted the project and she’s been championing the whole thing.”

Connie Young Yu is a local Asian American historian in San Jose and serves on the Community Advisory Board.

Yu was a founding member of Asian Americans for Community Involvement, which was founded in 1973 and “serves individuals and families with cultural humility, sensitivity and respect, advocating for and serving the marginalized and ethnic communities in Santa Clara County,” according to its website.

“It was really a unique time and a unique process in terms of bringing different Asian groups together to form this organization so that this organization had depth and breadth of skills and ability to then begin to advocate for Asian Americans in the Silicon Valley,” said Victoria Taketa, SJSU alumna and Community Advisory Board member.

She said the organization aids in a wide range of subjects, including education, social issues, employment and mental health.

Taketa said the proposal for the grant included the importance of documenting the contributions of Asian Americans in Santa Clara County to then be used as resources in education.

“Through education, we can begin to combat anti-Asian hate,” Taketa said. “It’s the mission of this grant to document oral

histories to then be used as educational materials.”

Yu said one of the earliest interviewees for the project was Paul Sakamoto, the first Asian American superintendent in a U.S. school system.

“When you listen to his life, it’s a story of Japanese Americans in America – the struggle, what incarceration camp was like and he always said, ‘It was harder to come out than to go in,’ ” she said.

Yu said one particular story details a boy who was chasing fireflies along the perimeters of an incarceration camp in Arkansas at night when a soldier shoves a rifle in his face.

“He’s telling this story that has probably never been published or heard before and we’re going, ‘Oh my God, that’s what it was like during that time!’ ” she said. “We’re talking about human experience.”

Fong said the story of the boy is similar to former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and former San Jose Mayor Norman Mineta’s experience during his time within an incarceration camp.

“They took a baseball bat away from him in camp because they said it was a weapon,” he said. “He was just a young kid and he wanted to play baseball.”

Janet Arakawa was one of the early interviewees in the project.

She was an activist in the ’60s who advocated for the inclusion of minorities and the separation from stereotypes in textbooks before the formation of Asian Americans for Community Involvement.

“Or it is being told, but there are no avenues for it to be really institutionalized in our curriculum.”

On May 4, 1887, San Jose’s own Chinatown, one of the largest Chinatowns in California, was

Heinlen and Chinese Americans who were displaced.

“Here was an immigrant who embodied everything that this country is about,” Taketa said. “Whereas our political institution down the street did not.”

Taketa said she hopes the Oral Histories Project helps to humanize and stop stereotypes such as the “model minority” from being used as a tool to silence Asian Americans.

Victoria Taketa

“We want to be able to define who we are and our behavior,” she said. “Not someone else’s interpretation, not seen through their lens, but we want to advocate who we are so that our rights are protected.”

“These are the hidden histories of our community,” Nina Chuang said. “As an Asian American student, having the privilege to not only work on this project, but also interact with these elders, makes me feel visible.”

Kwan said the majority of the surrounding areas in the Silicon Valley were agricultural lands that were farmed and developed, which gave the county the name, “The Valley of Heart’s Delight.”

“A lot of those contributions were Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, but we are missing that history because it’s not being told,” she said.

burned down deliberately by anti-Asian arsonists where the Signia hotel, formerly known as the Fairmont hotel, stands, Yu said.

Yu said before the fire took place, the San Jose city council voted to condemn Chinatown as a hazard and use the site as ground for a new city hall.

“My grandfather lived there,” she said. “He worked there and he saw the fire and told us kids, ‘It was deliberately set to chase us out.’ ”

A public apology for the injustices toward the Chinese Americans was made by San Jose’s city council September 2021. Yu said she was someone who helped in the writing process for the apology.

John Heinlen, a German businessman and land owner,leased five and a half acres of land to displaced Chinese Americans affected by the fire, and the land became known as Heinlenville.

A new park named after Heinlenville is under construction on Jackson and Sixth to commemorate John

Santa Clara County supervisor Otto Lee spearheaded the funding of the Oral Histories Project.

“He knew the history and he wanted to capture it,” Fong said. “He was the one who proposed the $500,000 for us and he was able to get the other supervisors to buy into it – it was an Asian American perspective who got us the funding for this project.”

Chuang said the Asian American experience is not normally seen in textbooks and references representation in media as an example that there is still work to be made.

“In this documentary, it will not only provide a vessel for the Asian American community to connect with our history and actively engage in the people that come before us, but also, that we connect with our identity on a deeper level,” she said.

Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily

Correction

On Tuesday, April 18, the Spartan Daily published a story titled, “Spartans sweep UNLV at home,” in which Matt Spear was misidentified.

The Spartan Daily regrets this error.

RAINIER DE FORT-MENARES | SPARTAN DAILY

Former California State Assembly member and SJSU Alumnus Paul Fong is interviewed as part of a project to document the oral histories of Asian American activists in Santa Clara County.

RAINIER DE FORT-MENARES | SPARTAN DAILY

A plaque hangs in Downtown San Jose commemorating San Jose Chinatown, which was burned down on May 4, 1887.

Through education, we can begin to combat anti-Asian hate. It’s the mission of this grant to document oral histories to then be used as educational materials.

Oral Histories Project community advisory board

Spartans don’t cap about their caps

By Oscar Frias-Rivera SENIOR STAFF WRITER

With graduation around the corner, students got the opportunity to be creative and decorate their caps in the Student Union on Tuesday.

The Cesar Chavez Community Action Center hosted the event, providing supplies for all students graduating in May.

Political science senior Rachel Velez attended the event to accessorize her cap in honor of her family in Mexico.

“For those who couldn’t celebrate being first gen and being the first in my family to graduate college,” Velez said.

She said she wanted to find a way to pay homage to her mom’s South American heritage.

“And they have these boats throughout the city, because there are canals there. So I wanted to incorporate that into my grad cap and have that there and like a sunset in the background,” she said.

Chicano studies senior Yoselin Hernandez said she’s preparing to celebrate two ceremonies the same week of graduation.

“I’m actually in the EOP program on campus, so it’s going to be a ceremony for that,” she said. “I’m going to be part of Chicano commencement, which is going to be the Monday I have that same week of my actual department graduation.”

The Education Opportunity Program helps first generation, low income and disadvantaged students finish school and prepare them for their futures.

The design Hernandez went for on her cap was writing something special to her parents.

“I’m actually doing like a small message to my parents and to my family and really close ones.

A really long message just kind of appreciating them and saying, ‘Thank you,’ ” she said.

As students poured time into decorating their caps, a few were stuck trying to figure out what design they wanted for their own.

Sociology senior Vanessa Sepulveda said she didn’t come into the event with an idea of what she wanted to put on her cap.

Though Sepulveda was having trouble discovering what she wanted to do, she ended up finding a symbol that means the world to her.

“I’m thinking of doing something like the women’s international symbol. I think it’s sometimes hard, like as women, we don’t really get recognized,” she said. “So being an educated Latina woman, it’s a lot so

I was just like, you know, why not show it off?”

While some students get ready to conclude their academic journey, others prepare to walk across the stage and back into the classroom.

Sociology senior Victoria Mendez said she applied to graduate school, but is terrified of how it’s going to be.

“I thought that I was done, like I told myself I’m done. Just get your bachelor’s and you’re done, but I kind of want to keep going,” she said.

PHOTOS BY OSCAR FRIAS-RIVERA | SPARTAN DAILY

Sociology seniors Vanessa Sepulveda (left) and Victoria Mendez (right) decorate their graduation caps in the Student Union on Tuesday afternoon.

Follow Oscar Frias-Rivera on Twitter @oscar_frias408 Sociology senior Victoria Mendez dedicates her cap to women.

Studying abroad is a life-changing experience

abroad that I didn’t expect was getting used to foreign accents.

Sometimes it was difficult to understand what an Englishman was saying, so I’d have to ask them to repeat themselves because I’m not used to hearing people speak with an English accent.

were life changing because it helped me reflect on myself and make connections with new people.

I learned to be more openminded and understanding of situations because I was exposed to various cultures.

One class was a group project where I had to create a website with local news. Another class was to create a pitch for an agency, and lastly a class teaching students how to create video and audio news packages.

when they are at their host location.

Ryanair had flights that were affordable for weekend getaways.

Studying abroad is a lifelong experience I will always be grateful for.

During the Fall 2022 semester, I studied in Liverpool, England at Liverpool John Moores University with the SJSU Study Abroad and Away program to continue my journalism studies.

I saw the opportunity of studying abroad as a way to grow as a person because I was going to be away from my family in an unfamiliar country.

Studying abroad was something I wanted to do for myself to get out of my comfort zone.

When I arrived, I was afraid and worried about how I could possibly survive alone for four months.

One day I asked myself, “when is the next time you’re going to be in Europe again?” and “how many people would die to be in your shoes right now?”

Settling in a different country was a big culture shock, but I had to mentally toughen up to make the most of my time there.

One aspect of the culture shock was the cold weather.

Being from California, I’m used to the heat and sun, so the transition to colder weather was difficult.

Another aspect of studying

students.

I became friends wit h various p eople from different countries including Australia, Germany Netherlands, Norway and Spain. My Spanish friend group had well over 40 people.

I didn’t expect to be speaking Sp anish in Eng land, but it made it feel like home again because I strictly speak Spanish at home with my family Ever y day was a ne w adventure because t here was always something to do, especi a lly w it h a g roup of

In the midst of socializing, I soon became known as the Hispanic American from California among a diverse friend group of fellow foreign exchange students. especially with a big group of friends.

Getting to know people from different countries was a highlight of studying abroad because there were endless conversations, including our favorite alcoholic drinks, food, music and life goals.

These types of conversations

It’s important to learn about diverse cultures so one won’t be ignorant or prejudiced toward someone because of their background.

Since these were fairly easy classes, I had a lot of down time.

My favorite part of Liverpool was its close-knit community.

I traveled to Dublin, Ireland, Vienna, Austria and Brussels, Belgium on my own time and money.

The majority of my time outside Liverpool was spent sightseeing and trying different cuisines not found in the U.S.

Local pubs were full of spirit with live music and soccer fan chants in the air.

students on my abroad exp erience help ed motivate one anot her t hroug h

The foreign exchange students on my abroad one another through university because we were all experiencing the same change. For me, the school curriculum wasn’t difficult or different to anything I had done in the past.

The host university only allowed students to take three classes throughout the semester.

The average cost of a pint of b eer was £3 which is equal to $3.73 in U.S. dollars. I felt like a kid at a candy shop.

Transportation was e conomical ly friendly b ecause the city was small. Buses or bicycles were used to get around if people didn’t have a car.

The most intriguing dish I tried was wiener schnitzel, a traditional dish in Vienna.

Wiener schnitzel is a thin breaded and pan fried cutlet of veal, according to Visiting Vienna.

I wish I had more time in my study abroad program because I would have liked to explore more countries.

It’s expensive to travel from California to anywhere in Europe, so I tried to value exploring new locations.

Studying abroad helped widen my perspective of cultures outside of the U.S. and made friends from around the world.

The experience of studying abroad should be recommended more to students because it gives them the opportunity to network with people from other countries.

One of the best things about studying abroad was traveling elsewhere in Europe.

I’d recommend for students studying abroad to create an itinerary of things they’d like to do and have a plan ready.

Studying abroad is good for students because they have the chance to travel on their own

Another positive thing about studying abroad is that students are able to explore willingly. Students should consider studying abroad because it will benefit them personally and academically if taken advantage of.

Enrique Gutierrez-Sevilla STAFF WRITER

One of t he best t hings about

Follow Enrique Gutierrez-Sevilla on Twitter @mtvenrique

GRAPHIC BY JILLIAN DARNELL