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On September 10th, SJSU Asian American Studies student Frances Mendoza and Street Team member Chloe Nguyen attended the biennial Asian Pacific Islanders in Historic Preservation (APIAHiP) 2026 National Forum in Denver, CO. As members of the San Jose delegation, they attended alongside representatives from the San Jose Sustainable Japantown Coalition and Associate Professor Dr. Yvonne Kwan to explore and share ideas on how Asian and Pacific Islander American histories are understood and protected. Together, the delegation exchanged ideas and learned about historical preservation initiatives in places such as Denver’s lost Chinatown, Sakura Square, Little Saigon, and Koreatown. Here are their respective reflections:

Frances Dela Cruz Mendoza

As a Filipino American artist, student in the South Bay Area, and volunteer for the Filipino American National Historical Society, I took part of an all Pinay artist team that participated in the Womanhood Project to honor activists Pacita Todtod Bobadilla, Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, Iris Chang and Ann Woo. I was interested in learning about aspects of historical preservation I found unfamiliar (such as, grant writing and the historical designation process). I wanted to go and see if I could bring anything back, if not just for the Filipino American community but to the Asian American community as a whole. These are things I care about, and I wanted to be able to show my peers that it should be something to care about.

"I wanted to go and see if I could bring anything back, if not just for the Filipino American community but to the Asian American community as a whole. These are things I care about, and I wanted to be able to show my peers that it should be something to care about."

I had found the forum a meaningful opportunity to further my understanding of Asian American Studies and Filipino American history in the United States. While sitting in on, “How to Become a Filipineaux Narrative Expansion Agent, Louisiana”, led by Carolyn Sideco, I was able to make connections between the Filipino American history of St. Malo, Louisiana and the course learnings of my AAS 184: Ethnic Studies Theory class. During the session, Sideco discussed the idea of “motherland” and how it can be difficult to feel connected to it if one’s family has been living outside of it, disconnected for multiple generations. Some of my classmates and friends have family who have been here for generations, while I am first generation Filipino American. But the same complicated feelings are there for many of us, where there is disconnect from the “motherland” as we try to find each other and build community while also trying to give the land back to those who stewarded it before settler colonialism began in America. Sideco’s session reminded me of the in-class discussion from AAS 184 dissecting the contradictions of Asian Americans as settlers, and what it means to truly decolonize something.

They had many interactive portions of the “Mosaic of Cultures” exhibit, one being that you could actually do karaoke. As a Filipino American with a love for singing, I was obligated to do at least one song. 

After being able to make connections from some of the content I was learning about back at San Jose State University to information presented at the APIAHiP forum, as well as having conversations with other attendees at the forum, I felt inspired to take on Asian American Studies as a double major at SJSU. 

Prior, I had felt trapped in traditional expectations of a career in education. Conversations I had with professionals at APIAHiP led me to the realization that I already carry a significant amount of experience in my student career. I am not behind, and switching to double major in Asian American Studies would help prepare me for lecturing in the topic by having more Asian American Studies classes under my belt on top of continuing to do work in my community on campus at SJSU now and off campus. Attending the forum with the San Jose delegation helped me see that working in the intersection of the arts, education, and community is all possible, as they all inform each other in my life. I hope to continue my learning within the Asian American Studies department at SJSU so that it may inform my career and the art that I create. 

"Attending the forum with the San Jose delegation helped me see that working in the intersection of the arts, education, and community is all possible, as they all inform each other in my life."

Chloe Nguyen

While I did receive the opportunity to attend this national conference as a representative of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose through my work as the museum’s Marketing & Communications Coordinator, I also serve as a member of the AAS Street team, a student-led outreach team dedicated to creating a politically-engaged, holistically-minded academic community within the program at SJSU. 

During my time at SJSU, I had always carried an interest in our local communities, their history, and how those communities can be sustained, welcoming, and liveable. I had interest in San Jose Japantown in particular given its history as a cultural milieu in the early 1900s and a hub for Japanese American activists organizing for redress in the 1970s. This led me to pursuing a B.A. in Asian American Studies in addition to my background in data analytics, leading me to the Japanese American Museum of San Jose through an internship supported by CSU ASAP. 

At this conference I sought to answer the question: “What does preservation mean to our living communities?” Cultural and historical preservation, since its inception, has been used to objectify and other indigenous people from their native lands–something I learned of in AAS184: Ethnic Studies Theory. Today, the environment of ‘preservation’ appears and is perceived differently. Asian American and Pacific Islanders across the country and in San Jose are starting their own museums, applying for historical markers, and receiving recognitions. 

"At this conference I sought to answer the question: “What does preservation mean to our living communities?” Cultural and historical preservation, since its inception, has been used to objectify and other indigenous people from their native lands"

A panel I found particularly interesting was “Emerging Histories of Pacific Islanders in the Continental United States” detailing the hidden histories of various Pacific Islander groups in past and present. The panelists posed the question of whether or not traditional methods of preservation on the local, state, and federal level used by some Asian American communities are applicable to Pacific Islander communities. 

This insight reflected a larger discussion throughout the forum surrounding the benefits and demerits of a historical marker or regional designation. For places that no longer exist physically, such as Denver’s Chinatown or San Jose’s Chinatown and Pinoytown, the conversation is one of public history and community authority. In the context of cultural sites, however, some have observed that these recognitions pose obstacles to fighting gentrification in their neighborhoods. Properties labeled as historical markers are incredibly expensive to make liveable, leading to “blight” determined on the local level. Ethnic enclaves across the nation have seen their properties becoming increasingly expensive to sustain and keep within the living community. 

This leads to community having to close their businesses, moving elsewhere due to the increasing cost of living. These places are redeveloped by parties with interests that may or may not include the sustainability of the community, and become unrecognizable to the generations of people who have called it home. What remains are the historical markers, signage, and museums. But the living community is ousted from the site once designated to them. In the past and present, the narrative of “preservation” is the same, and goes hand in hand with today’s patterns of gentrification. 

"In the past and present, the narrative of “preservation” is the same, and goes hand in hand with today’s patterns of gentrification."

I found this forum a great opportunity to learn about the AANHPI preservation landscape across the country and what untraditional approaches to preservation communities have taken to keep these sites liveable and welcoming. As I continue my work at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, I hope to further projects to create new, reachable public history processes that support sustainability efforts. I also carry interest in exploring these questions of preservation, sustainability, and community authority in an Asian American Studies graduate program. 

I am excited to see where this takes me in my career and grateful to the professors of SJSU’s Asian American Studies program, the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, and CSU ASAP for providing me with these opportunities to forge a more just future for our local communities.

This trip was supported by the SJSU AAS Program and the CSU ASAP grant. 

Author Bios:

Frances Dela Cruz Mendoza is a Filipino American transfer student at San José State University pursuing their B.A. in Art Studio Practice with a minor in Asian American Studies. They are interested in how the arts can be used as advocacy for Asian Americans in the South Bay Area. They are looking to add B.A. Asian American Studies as a major.

Chloe Nguyen is a Vietnamese American and recent graduate from San José State University with a B.A. in Asian American Studies and B.S. in Information Science and Data Analytics. She currently works at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, where she started as an intern thanks to a partnership with SJSU Asian American Studies and CSU ASAP. She also serves as a member of the SJSU Asian American Studies Street Team.

Professor Kwan has published a new article in the Journal of Asian American Studies: "Making the AAPI Perspectives Oral History Project: Remembering a Place-Based Social History of Activism in Santa Clara Valley"

This article examines the AAPI Perspectives: Oral History and Activism Digital Archive and Curriculum Project (2021–2024), which redirected county funding from carceral “hate crime” initiatives to community-based oral history. AAPI Perspectives reframes AAPI pasts while modeling how communities can reclaim, preserve, and mobilize their histories in the pursuit of justice.

Over the Summer in 2026, I attended the Center for Ethnographic Research (CER) Summer Workshop under the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI) at the University of California, Berkeley. The workshop was designed as a six-week methodology seminar focused on qualitative research methods, where participants learned by conducting simple fieldwork, discussing readings, further developing individual research projects, and engaging with our peer’s research. I attended the workshop to learn more about what graduate school and research programs look like in practice as I consider pursuing one myself.

One of the workshop’s key aims was to train participants in ethnographic and qualitative research methods. Ethnographic research is a qualitative method that involves studying people’s experiences, practices, and communities through direct observation and interaction. These methods would enrich my current research, which asks: How do Filipino Americans and their families experience, understand, and respond to incarceration within institutions shaped by colonial histories, religion, labor, and state power?

"How do Filipino Americans and their families experience, understand, and respond to incarceration within institutions shaped by colonial histories, religion, labor, and state power?"

I joined a cohort of diverse and talented peers under Professor Gonzalez for two days a week from May 25 to July 2. As we met, each of us shared our personal in-progress research topics and questions, and we all worked to build them into something more substantial – such as learning how to better pose our questions, how to better explain them to those outside of our fields, and how to acknowledge our unique “politics” or positionality. 

During the workshop, we would go outside to conduct our own participant observations or interview others from our cohort to broaden our capabilities in analyzing data and transcription. 

I wanted to join this program because Dr. Nguyen in the Asian American Studies department at SJSU encouraged me. My independent study and research under his guidance opened my eyes to the different academic and professional paths I could take – even ones that strayed from the stable “techy” jobs my family insisted were the most reliable option. I found it immensely refreshing to explore how I could view data and data analysis in relation to the people and things I care about in my community. Throughout this workshop, I was able to learn how graduate programs and proposals are taken in by “the other side” and what it looks like to do that type of academic work – whether it is interviews, ethics, or IRB approval. 

As part of the workshop, I also had the opportunity to meet graduate students and post-graduate faculty at Cal that shared their experiences in interacting with their own communities as researchers. It was interesting to learn about their varied approaches that helped them better portray their ethnographic research (e.g., photography as a way to present observations visually rather than just through field notes). 

The CER workshop helped me not only better understand what graduate school realistically looks like, but also what it would mean for me to pursue it in the future.

"The CER workshop helped me not only better understand what graduate school realistically looks like, but also what it would mean for me to pursue it in the future."

It was a great opportunity to meet and work amongst students and faculty from various universities across the country, to listen to what they intended to research, and to receive feedback and questions on my own research from those who were not as familiar with my specific Filipino and Filipino American experiences (as these were integral to my topic and the specific language I used throughout my paper and research).

This project was supported by the SJSU AAS Program and the CSU ASAP grant. 

Author Bio: Stephani Marie Soriano-Del Rosario, known as Seven Soriano, is a senior Filipino American transfer student at San José State University pursuing a B.S. in Data Science with a minor in Asian American Studies. Their academic interests include Filipino American communities, particularly those systematically impacted by incarceration, colonial histories, and other forms of structural inequality.