The Aragon Asian Parent Group hosted an informational session on March 12 about the Chinese Exclusion Act from 3:30-4:45 p.m. in the library; approximately 80 Aragon students attended.
The program started with a 38 minute documentary, which was a shortened version of “The Chinese Exclusion Act,” a two-hour documentary directed by Ric Burns and Li-Shin Yu.
“[The documentary showed] so many examples of the slow drum beat [of the animosity] that built up over decades that finally lead to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882,” said U.S. History teacher Heather Sadlon. “A really well done documentary with well presented sources helps students see and hear that discrimination for themselves and draw their own conclusions.”
Following the documentary, guest speaker Carolina Parrales, a member of the Faith in Action organization, a group that gives people of faith tools to fight for justice, spoke about her experiences as a young immigrant in the U.S.
“I decided to talk about my story because you never realize how much you can impact other people by sharing the things that you’ve been going through,” Parrales said. “I hope that I inspired students to do something for others in their community if they know anyone who’s [struggling with their legal status] and to use their voting power.”
The program ended with a question and answer session led by Sadlon and Ethnic Studies teacher Cristina Trujillo.
“It’s rather shocking to look back and see a whole group of people being demonized”
“From our perspective today, it’s rather shocking to look back and see a whole group of people being demonized,” Sadlon said. “It serves as a reminder for us to look back at history and see the uncomfortable reality of our past and try to understand why more wasn’t done [at the time].”
Joyce Delyani, board member of the League of Women Voters, attended the presentation and assisted students in pre-registering to vote before and after the session.
“People who do have the right to vote need to use that power to change things so that we don’t see something similar to the Chinese Exclusion Act again,” Delyani said.
Aragon Asian Parent Group (AAPG) members Edward Sun and Mei-Lan Liu were the primary organizers.
“We did not spend a very big budget on this event since the DVD [for the documentary] was provided to us free of charge for educational purposes by The Center for Asian American Media,” Sun said. “Our remaining expenses were funded from the endowment savings of the Aragon Asian Parent Group.”
U.S. History students learned about the Chinese Exclusion Act in the fall semester, which helped provide them with background information when watching the documentary.
“I went into the program knowing about the act and its effects,” said junior Benjamin Chen. “That being said, I still learned a lot of new details and insights about the Chinese Exclusion Act that I did not know prior to the program.”
This event differed from other events from the AAPG as it was meant for students.
“This event was special because it was geared toward our students and focused on an educational theme with the goal [being] for students to learn about issues relevant to the Asian American experience and community,” Sun said.
