Speech #1100043855

The history of APA Heritage Month: In celebrating APA Heritage Month. I want to give thanks to the late Representative Frank Horton from New York and my good friend Secretary Norman Mineta. along with Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Masayuki Matsunaga. that May is now designated as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The first 10 days of May coincide with two important anniversaries: the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants on May 7. 1843. to the U.S. and the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10. 1869. In 1992 Congress passed public law No. 102450. the law that officially designated May of each year as "Asian Pacific American Heritage Month." The first AAPI settlement in this country dates back to 1763. when Filipinos escaped imprisonment aboard Spanish galleons and established a community near New Orleans.