SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento launched AAPI Heritage month Monday with a kick-off ceremony at the California State Railroad Museum.
Raymond Chong, a civil engineer with the California Department of Transportation, said the museum in Old Sacramento was a fitting place to mark the beginning of AAPI month,
Chong can trace his roots directly to one of the Chinese laborers who helped built the transcontinental railroad from 1865 to 1869.
"He was my great-great-grandfather," Chong said, adding his family has been in California for seven generations.
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Chinese rail workers came to Northern California by the thousands, blasting through treacherous Sierra Mountain passes with dangerous explosives and enduring racism, violence, and legal exclusion in search of the American dream.
"He lived in poverty, in the countryside, on a farm, scraping by. He heard about gold riches he could earn, and he came to America as a contractor around 1865," Chong said.
The Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA), a Sacramento based non-profit, hosted the kick-off event featuring AAPI-owned restaurants and wineries. Many of the Chinese laborers who came to America to build the railroads stayed to build Northern California vineyards in Sonoma and Napa County.
"It’s really important to recognize these contributions and celebrate how important they are and how significant they are," said Brittany Erkeneff, national deputy director at APAPA.
Generations later, the AAPI community's contributions to America continue.
"We come for the same dream. The American dream. And we’re here to remember all the others who have sacrificed," Chong said.
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