Governor Newsom proclaims Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

PROCLAMATION

California is home to more than 6 million Californians of Asian or Pacific Islander descent, each invaluable to our state and nation. During Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, we celebrate all the ways in which AAPI Californians enrich and strengthen our society as part of California’s incredibly diverse heritage.

Unfortunately, throughout our history, AAPI communities have been the target of violence, disenfranchisement, discrimination, and other xenophobic policies at the federal, state, and local levels. Echoes of this dark history are still evident in shameful anti-Asian hate acts seen across the country. We must confront past and present racism and fight for the safety and inclusion of our AAPI friends and neighbors, who continue to show strength and resilience in the face of this discrimination.

AAPI communities in California have created and sustained some of the oldest and strongest cultural enclaves in the country, offering refuge and connection during times of hardship. Rebuilt from the ground up after the 1906 earthquake and fire, Chinatown in San Francisco is the oldest and largest in North America. All three remaining Japantowns in the country are in California – each with residents resilient enough to rebuild these thriving neighborhoods after they returned from unjust imprisonment in internment camps to ransacked homes and businesses. Across California, communities like Cambodia Town in Long Beach, Little Saigon in Orange County, Historic Filipinotown and Koreatown in Los Angeles, and Little India in Artesia are now thriving cultural enclaves, but many of these distinct neighborhoods were born of discrimination and segregation. Today, Californians from over 30 different countries and communities, including Native Hawaiians, live inside and outside of these historic boundaries. Their pride in their heritage and in themselves, in spite of prejudice, has always been and continues to be foundational to this state. 

Few movements and turning points in California history were not shaped, at least in part, by AAPI leaders. Throughout California’s history, AAPI communities have driven change, doing so not just for themselves but in solidarity and partnership with other communities. We would not be the same without the AAPI communities and individuals that have made this state the leader it is in arts and culture, in labor rights and human rights, in business starts, in research, and so much more.

During Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, California takes the opportunity to pay tribute to the irreplaceable legacy of our AAPI communities, their incredible strength and resilience, and their essential role in driving our state and nation forward. This month and every month, let us celebrate all members of our California family and work together to achieve the promise of a California for all.

NOW THEREFORE I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim May 2025 as “Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.”

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 27th day of May 2025.

GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California

ATTEST:
SHIRLEY N. WEBER, Ph.D.
Secretary of State