CBP, BP celebrate Asian American heritage
IMPERIAL — With the goal of becoming more culturally sensitive and to celebrate the Asian Pacific American Heritage within their ranks, the Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection paid homage to Asian heritage.
The event was part of the Asian Pacific American Heritage month for the Imperial Valley Integrated Diversity Inclusion Program Committee from the Department of Homeland Security.
To give an overview of history and culture, two guest speakers had very different presentations.
Imperial County Superior Court judge William Quan was one of the guest speakers at the event. He talked about the history of his family moving from China just before the rise of Mao Zedong and the journey that his great-grandfather went through first to get into the U.S. and the challenges and struggles he faced once he got in the country.
Quan went on to expand on the different circumstances that brought his father and mother’s families to the Imperial Valley and how the interaction of his family was with the rest of the community.
“I’m really proud of the Chinese community here in the Imperial Valley and in our history and contributions that we’ve made,” Quan said. “I’m proud of the contributions that Chinese Americans have made in the Imperial Valley and the history behind it.”
In his speech Quan illustrated part of the Chinese culture, the community’s adaptation to the Imperial Valley but also focused a lot on the struggles that his family just like many other immigrants from China had to endure in order for the agents to have a picture of what some of the struggles were then compared to the present.
“I think that to get everyone to understand the struggles that some immigrants now are facing coming from Mexico or wherever they come from,” Quan said. “The Chinese that came here to the U.S. and the Imperial Valley had the same struggles. Everybody has the same common concerns and common pasts.”
Because the agents interact with people from all over the globe learning more about different cultures can help them to understand and handle the people they interact with.
“I think based on the work that the agents do, they deal with people day in and day out, it will allow them to be a little more sensitive culturally to when they are doing their job and I think part of being a good law enforcement officer and in my position as a judicial officer you do have to be culturally sensitive,” Quan said “You got to understand a little bit of their past, their upbringing and mindset. You need to have that to be effective.”
Jennifer Castillo, a CBP officer and coordinator of the event, said that her agency and Border Patrol like to acknowledge and celebrate different heritages. Both agencies previously had these events separately; this was the first time they had such event bringing the two agencies together.
“We’re all one, we do remember that we have different heritages and we’re going to acknowledge them and celebrate them,” Castillo said. “We try to get a guest speaker that is going to tell us about their background and how they came about into the Imperial Valley, we go through so much to be here in the U.S.; that sometimes is taken for granted.”
Assistant Chief Patrol Agent David Kim was the second guest speaker of the event. Kim is a Korean-American who has studied swordsmanship culture from Japan.
“What better way to do a cultural exchange but to show something that has been very prominent of Japanese culture,” Kim said.
During his demonstration Kim gave a brief history of the culture, he wore a kimono and brought with him a Katana sword. His presentation was more hands on as he used his katana to show the fellow agents and guests some of the traditional moves and techniques used in Japanese sword fighting.
“(This event) is very important, we want to promote cultural diversity which is one of our strengths in this country and as an agency we value it,” he said. “It was my pleasure to part of that and hopefully entertained and impart something that maybe someone didn’t know.”