BILL NUMBER: ACR 40 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Solorio
(Principal coauthor: Senator Correa)
MARCH 21, 2011
Relative to Vietnamese American history.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 40, as introduced, Solorio. Vietnamese American history.
This measure would recognize April 24, 2011, to April 30, 2011,
inclusive, as Black April Memorial Week, and April 2011 as Vietnamese
American month.
Fiscal committee: no.
WHEREAS, April 30, 2011, marks the 36th anniversary of the end of
the Vietnam War and the start of the eventual exodus of several
million Vietnamese out of Vietnam after South Vietnam's capital of
Saigon fell to the communists on April 30, 1975; and
WHEREAS, For many Vietnam and Vietnam-era veterans who were
directly involved in the war and Vietnamese Americans who have
settled in the United States, the Vietnam War was a tragedy full of
great suffering and the loss of American, Vietnamese, and Southeast
Asian lives; and
WHEREAS, 58,169 people were killed and 304,000 were wounded out of
the 2.59 million people who served in the Vietnam War so that one
out of every ten Americans who served in Vietnam became a casualty of
war; and
WHEREAS, During the American evacuation of Saigon, the first wave
of Vietnamese refugees, 135,000 strong, mostly military officers and
their families, took temporary shelter through several international
refugee camps, and at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, Fort Chaffee in
Arkansas, and Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania; and
WHEREAS, Starting in 1977, and lasting through the mid-1980s, a
second wave of Vietnamese refugees comprised mostly of "boat people"
began leaving Vietnam; and
WHEREAS, Seeing no future under communism, nearly 800,000 boat
people risked their lives in small, dangerous boats to travel to
resettlement camps in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and
the Philippines before eventually being resettled in the United
States; and
WHEREAS, The Red Cross estimated that during that time, at least
300,000 Vietnamese died on the high seas while trying to escape
communism; and
WHEREAS, After 1985, a third wave of Vietnamese refugees came to
the United States under the Orderly Department Program; and
WHEREAS, In 1988, Congress passed the Operation Homecoming Act, a
program allowing approximately 80,000 Amerasian children (offspring
of GI fathers and Vietnamese mothers) to come to America; and
WHEREAS, By 1990, the fourth wave of Vietnamese refugees began
arriving in the United States under the Humanitarian Operation, and
today, more than 1.7 million Vietnamese immigrants reside in the
United States; and
WHEREAS, Studies using census data show that foreign-born
Vietnamese entering the United States in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000
to 2005, inclusive, have seen an increase in terms of English
proficiency, proportion of college graduates, the number of
owner-occupied housing, family median income, and naturalization; and
WHEREAS, Over the years, Vietnamese immigrants have overcome
social, economic, and language barriers of unforeseen magnitude to
grow and become the most assimilated along civic dimensions of any
large group in America; and
WHEREAS, Through emphasis on intense study, Vietnamese Americans
have reached the pinnacles of American success in a variety of
fields, including business and entrepreneurship, science and
technology, space travel, medicine, the executive branch of the
United States government, politics, the United States military, the
United States judicial system, professional sports, and most
recently, cultural icon status in cooking, modeling, acting, and
comedy; and
WHEREAS, In order to serve their community and prosper in America,
Vietnamese Americans formed well-established and thriving Vietnamese
American commercial districts throughout the United States and
California, including enclaves in Oakland, Orange County, Sacramento,
San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose; and
WHEREAS, More than 450,000 Vietnamese now live in California, with
the largest concentration of Vietnamese found outside of Vietnam
residing in Orange County, particularly in the cities of Garden
Grove, Santa Ana, Westminster, and Fountain Valley; and
WHEREAS, San Jose, with a population of 900,000, has the largest
concentration of Vietnamese of any American city, estimated at 10
percent of the city's population; and
WHEREAS, In 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau survey of business owners
reported that there are 50,321 Vietnamese businesses in California;
and
WHEREAS, As we must teach our children and future generations
important lessons from the Vietnam War, including how the plight of
the Vietnamese refugees following the end of war serves as a powerful
example of the values of freedom and democracy; and
WHEREAS, Refugees and immigrants from the former Republic of
Vietnam who came to the United States and settled as free Vietnamese
Americans are honored and remembered for their sacrifices for freedom
and human rights and for their ongoing contributions to our
democratic society; and
WHEREAS, An executive order issued by Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger honors the contributions of the Vietnamese American
community to the State of California and recognizes their love for
democracy, justice, and tolerance, upon which the symbol of the
Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom flag was established; and
WHEREAS, The Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom flag, yellow, with
three horizontal red stripes, is the only symbol that can unite most
Vietnamese around the world and bring them together under the banner
that symbolizes the aspiration for freedom and democracy in their
homeland; and
WHEREAS, Although also united in sorrow as they commemorate April
30, 2011, as Black April, an occasion to reflect on the sacrifices of
the past, Vietnamese American communities throughout California
consider Black April a celebration of the resilience of the
Vietnamese people; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That in recognition of the great tragedy and
suffering and lives lost during the Vietnam War era, the week of
April 24, 2011, to April 30, 2011, inclusive, shall be proclaimed
Black April Memorial Week, a special time for Californians to
remember the countless lives lost during the Vietnam War era, and to
hope for a more humane and just life for the people of Vietnam; and
be it further
Resolved, That, to honor a community that has added so much
personal, cultural, and economic value to the social fabric of the
great State of California, which embraces ethnic and cultural
diversity, the month of April 2011 be recognized as Vietnamese
American Month.