COUNTY-WIDE — 50 Years From Lunch Bunch to Legacy
The AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] Equity Alliance held its “Celebrating Leadership and Legacy” 50th-anniversary gala at the California Science Center on May 21.
The milestone traces directly to a scrappy origin: in 1976, Asian American leaders in Los Angeles who couldn’t access critical county services in their native languages began meeting monthly over food, calling themselves the “Asian Lunch Bunch.” That table grew into what is now a coalition of 50 member organizations serving 1.6 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across LA County.
Five decades later, the organization’s executive director Manjusha Kulkarni is a James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award recipient, and its Stop AAPI Hate program — launched at the dawn of the pandemic — earned TIME magazine’s “Top 100 People of 2021” recognition.
The gala honored four community leaders: Assemblymember Mike Fong, who received the Changemaker Award for championing the Stop the Hate grant program; Angélica Salas of CHIRLA, who received the Mobilizer Award for fighting immigration enforcement targeting LA’s immigrant communities; Isa Kelawili Whalen, founder of API Advocates, who received the Catalyst Award for lifting Pacific Islander voices to lawmakers; and Snehal Desai, artistic director of Center Theatre Group, who received the Groundbreaker Award for bringing AAPI stories to the stage.
For further info, visit aapiequityalliance.org.
VIETNAMESE AMERICAN — The Most Contested Pacific Rim Race in California
Five Vietnamese Americans are competing for California’s 45th Congressional District, which is anchored in Orange County’s Little Saigon but extends into LA County cities including Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, and parts of Lakewood.
Democratic incumbent Rep. Derek Tran — a son of Vietnamese refugees who grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and won the seat in 2024 by just 653 votes — faces four Vietnamese American Republican challengers, including former Cerritos Mayor Chuong Vo, Westminster Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen, and Westminster Councilmember Amy Phan West.
The ideological divide is not merely partisan. It is generational and historical. Vo told NBC LA: “We truly believe we worked so hard to flee a communist party to come here for American values. We have to continue that here.”
That anti-communist identity — rooted in the Vietnamese refugee experience — has made the Vietnamese American community among the most Republican-leaning of any Pacific Rim group in Southern California, a political reality that coexists uneasily with the community’s vulnerability to the very immigration enforcement policies the Republican Party has championed.
The tension is not lost on Tran’s left flank either. VietRISE and other progressive organizations have criticized Tran for not doing enough to push back against federal immigration enforcement sweeps in Little Saigon — putting the incumbent under pressure from both directions.
Tran heads into the primary with a commanding fundraising lead, having raised $3.9 million through March 31.
Muratsuchi runs for Cali Superintendent of Public Instruction
Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D – South Bay, including Torrance, Manhattan Beach, and Redondo Beach), the only Japanese American member of the California State Legislature for the past decade, is termed out of his Assembly seat and running for California Superintendent of Public Instruction — making him the highest-profile Japanese American candidate on the June 2 statewide ballot.
The superintendent oversees the state Department of Education and a record $150 billion budget serving nearly 6 million public school students — including oversight of bilingual education and language access programs that directly affect Pacific Rim families across LA County. It is an office with limited formal authority over local curriculum and budgets, but a powerful statewide platform.
The race is crowded. Muratsuchi’s principal competitors are Richard Barrera, the San Diego school board president backed by the California Teachers Association; former Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon; former state Senator Josh Newman; and Republican Sonja Shaw, a Chino Valley school board president who has been outspoken against transgender student protections.
Muratsuchi argues he is the only candidate who has served simultaneously as a school board trustee, state legislator, and classroom teacher — having taught civics at El Camino Community College in Torrance during legislative breaks. His platform centers on teacher pay, universal preschool, mental health services in schools, and career technical education. He is backed by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, the California Federation of Teachers, and LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn.
Among his South Bay legacy: $5 million in state funding secured in 2021 to build a memorial in Torrance honoring the more than 125,000 Japanese Americans unjustly incarcerated during World War II. Torrance — where 12.7% of residents are of Japanese ancestry — is the largest Nikkei community in the South Bay and the base from which Muratsuchi built his political career.
LA COUNTY — The Fire Department’s Pacific Rim Pipeline
The three-year-old LACoFD Asian Pacific Islander Association is quietly building a Pacific Rim pipeline into public safety careers.
Founded in 2023, the association provides language access services across the department, scholarships for aspiring AAPI firefighters to reduce financial barriers, mentorship grants, leadership training, and targeted recruitment outreach in Pacific Rim communities across LA County.
The association has been an active presence in the community beyond the firehouse. In January, API Association members participated in the Chinese Employees Association of LA County’s Lunar New Year reception — where the department’s response to the January 2025 wildfires was also recognized — and staffed a community engagement booth at the Chinese New Year Gala in Rosemead in February.
For AAPI Heritage Month, the association marked the occasion on May 22 with Battalion Chief Ramon Valdoria serving as president, Fire Captain John Tran as vice president, and Executive Assistant Amy Lozano as secretary/treasurer.
The association’s website is lacapi.org.
