SA's Asian community emerges as a voting bloc

Pham Van Phuc's family made the front pages of local newspapers on April 25, 1975, after flying to San Antonio International Airport from a refugee camp in Arkansas, less than a week before the fall of Saigon in South Vietnam. Pham, his wife My, and their 10 children had fled Saigon ahead of a tide of Viet Cong soldiers who would soon raise a North Vietnamese flag over the presidential palace, where Pham had served as chief of staff to South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu.

"We have lost everything," Pham told reporters. "We are starting over; we even lost all our savings in the bank (in Saigon). But we are happy to be here."

Since the late 1800s, thousands of Asians such as Pham and his family have immigrated to San Antonio. Marilyn Dell Brady, author of The Asian Texans, surmises "some Asians became successful in Texas only by discarding their traditions. Others found identity and comfort in preserving their culture while affirming their loyalty to the United States. Although Asian Texans were often treated well and respected by their neighbors, discrimination, prejudice, and even murder also occurred."

Chinese laborers arrived with the railroad in the 1870s. Chinese merchants came from Mexico in 1917 after Pancho Villa threatened to hang them for trading with both sides in the U.S. war with Mexico. Japanese immigrants worked coal mines in Mexico, and farmed rice and other crop in Texas. War brides arrived beginning in the late 1940s. The Vietnamese, not by choice, but to escape their war-torn homeland, began to arrive in the 1970s. Other Asians, including Filipinos, Thais, Laotians, Cambodians, Malaysians, Asian Indians, and Pakistanis, also have chosen San Antonio as a place to live, pursue careers, and raise families in this former Spanish colonial city.

Today, Asians comprise almost 2 percent of San Antonio's 1.1 million citizens. Yet, population counts and other fine-grain demographics don't tell the story of the city's Asian community as it asserts itself as a political and economic force.

For the first time, a recently revived Alamo Asian American Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a mayoral candidates' debate among three of the six candidates, Julián Castro, Phil Hardberger, and Carroll Schubert.

"Our population is not very big, but a difference can be made by a smaller number of people," says Elisa Chan, who hails from Taipei, Taiwan and serves as president of Unintech Consulting Engineers, a firm established by her husband Clifford Heu, a structural engineer. "We want to be involved in the process; we want to see our leaders make an effort to involve us. This mayoral forum is important. We want to waken the Asian community to see how people who are in leadership affect us."

The Alamo Asian American Chamber of Commerce is comprised of Asians who have recently come to San Antonio, or who are first-generation San Antonians. They are professionals who see a need for an organization such as the chamber to act as a bridge to connect cultural differences among the different Asian subgroups and "to provide an open forum for the Asian community to have a voice," says Chan, chamber president.

Chan says it is important to emphasize to the Asian community that Asian citizens often don't have democratic voting rights in their home countries. Yet, in the U.S., the ballot is a way to make a difference in the community. "I hope this (mayoral forum) will be the beginning of more involvement."

Chamber board member Norio Seki moved to San Antonio two years ago after an eight-year stint in Chicago, where he lived after emigrating from Japan. Although he points out that he is a Japanese citizen who cannot vote in U.S. elections, he would ask that the City's next mayor pay close attention to nurturing international business opportunities. "San Antonio is the most friendly city in which I have ever lived," Seki says. "This is a major factor for me, business-wise and personal relationship-wise. It is easy for foreigners to conduct business in San Antonio."

When Pham began his new life in San Antonio, he worked not in a palace, but as a janitor with the Alamo Heights Independent School District. It was the first job offer Pham received; he stayed with it for the next 19 years. My and the older kids also went to work, leaving 13-year-old Mai Pham, who later changed her name to Jenny Samelson, in charge of the household and her younger siblings. "I learned how to cook early for the family," says Jenny Samelson, who is married with three children ages 15 to 21. "I was the oldest daughter at home and I had to cook dinner for 12 after mom put me in charge of the kitchen." She recalls her father often fished in local lakes to supplement their pantry. "I remember cleaning fish for half a day at a time, and I hated doing that."

It is hard to draw general conclusions about the collective Asian population, since each ethnicity has separate languages, cultures, and traditions. Asians traditionally have kept a low profile in the community. Few have campaigned and served in public office or high-profile roles in local government. In The Columbia Guide to Asian Americans, Gary Y. Okihiro writes, "Asians comprise a widely disparate groups of racial and cultural entities with divergent and often conflicting histories, languages, religions, class and caste relations, and national interests."

Nationally, Asians are also a disparate political group. Last fall, New California Media conducted a poll of 1,004 Asian Pacific Islanders identified as likely to vote in the 2004 election, which showed Democratic candidate John Kerry carried a 43 to 36 percent lead over President George Bush. A further breakdown suggested that Kerry was the preferred candiate among Chinese, Asian Indian, and Hmong voters, while Bush had support from Vietnamese and Filipino voters. Japanese, Korean, and Pacific Islander voters were equally divided between the two candidates.

The poll showed that a slight majority of those surveyed said it was wrong to go to war with Iraq. The most important issue among 47 percent of those surveyed was "jobs and the economy," with 22 percent of respondents saying they were concerned about the war on terrorism. The poll also found that Vietnamese, Korean and Filipino voters believed that outsourcing jobs should be taxable, while Asian Indians and Japanese felt outsourcing jobs overseas would "help the U.S. economy by creating stronger markets for U.S. goods."

Generally, says Evelyn Crow, a Filipino and director of international programs at St. Mary's Hall, Asians are family-oriented. Parents put their children first and emphasize the importance of attaining a better life than their parents by pursuing higher education.

Until recently, says Crow, who married and came to San Antonio in the 1970s, many Asians have focused on culture rather than politics. Many Asians are active in local churches or fraternal groups such as the Karilagan Philippine Cultural Group Inc., which participates in the annual Asian Festival at the Institute of Texan Cultures, and aims to teach young Asians about music, dance, and culture. "We haven't gotten together to form an Asian political bloc," adds Crow. "Everyone is busy with their professions at the moment."

She explains that in Asian culture, consensus takes priority over individuality, in contrast to American society, where individuals are expected to fend for themselves. "We're a group society where if you are an individual who is standing out, it is considered bragging," Crow explains. "We listen to each other. We go with groups. That's the dilemma we face. American culture teaches our children to be individuals, and older generations tend to temper our children, who are raised in the American culture. We explore for opportunities, but we do it as a group."

Crow says Asians are conscientious about how their behavior would affect their family and village in their home countries. "What good are our accomplishments if it is not successful for our family? That includes our immediate family, our extended family. The village is a family, and the country is a family. One person who misbehaves brings shame to all of us."

While San Antonio's Asian population hasn't been politically visible, they have impacted the local economy beyond restaurants and specialty groceries. Entrepreneurial first-generation families who started those enterprises have raised college-educated children who, in turn, have left the family business in favor of professional careers as doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Many have moved out of San Antonio. Other Asians, including 11 families who recently relocated to San Antonio because of the new Toyota plant, have moved in.

Katherine Kimm is new to San Antonio. Born in Korea, she was raised in Toronto, Canada, and moved to Texas when she married Christopher, who came to San Antonio from Korea in the 1970s to work in his uncle's retail shop on Houston Street. "We consider ourselves the 1.5 Generation," Kimm says. "We weren't born here, but we came along with our parents, of course."

Kimm manages her husband's architectural firm, WestEast Design Group, based in the partially renovated Friedrich Building on the city's near East Side. She sees San Antonio's Korean community as a slightly different group without huge numbers and no central agency to represent it. "Koreans congregate in church groups."

Kimm joined a church, but left after she witnessed an internal leadership struggle that led the congregation in a direction that she considers "unhealthy." Although older generations of Koreans have tended to keep a low profile, as have other Asians in the community, Kimm lends her voice to the community as chamber secretary. Kimm shares Chan's vision to share the Asian culture, and "come together for a stronger voice, to help each other out."

Kaushalya "Kausi" Subramaniam is a second-generation Indian American born in San Antonio. A mechanical engineer, she manages her family's business, Integrated Testing and Engineering Co., and serves on the chamber board. Subramaniam also is involved in her community through the San Antonio Dance Umbrella, a cultural group that encompasses many ethnicities.

In the 1970s and 1980s, 100 to 200 families comprised the Indian community, Subramaniam recalls. Today, there are about 1,000 Indian families that stay in touch through the India Association of San Antonio. Subramaniam became involved with the chamber after she and her husband, Nurali, who is also from India, met Elisa Chan. Subramaniam heard that the chamber had been organized by a group of Chinese restaurant owners who ultimately could not devote the time to keep it running efficiently. "In May 2004 we revived it to give it a new direction. It was the right time with Toyota coming, and with more Asians coming to town," she says, noting that many Asians are involved with manufacturing and related industries, such as Toyota.

Subramaniam says she is interested in hearing from mayoral candidates, especially concerning the dearth of health statistics for the Asian community. "Asians don't appear anywhere on the charts. It is hard to tell what health risks Asians face."

Subramaniam says it is important that the leaders in the Alamo Asian AmericanChamber of Commerce do not "endorse any political candidate, but encourage people to be part of the political process. We would like candidates to know there is a small, cohesive, and viable Asian community, with good resources. As far as I know, there are no power struggles, there are just a few of us who have taken a lead, and we want people to get involved."

Pham Van Phuc is now 86. His children, who ranged from age 2 to 26 in 1975, have been successful since they arrived in San Antonio 30 years ago. His daughter Jenny Samelson, her twin brother Tuyen, and the other Pham children attended Alamo Heights High School and settled into a new life in San Antonio after escaping the wrath of North Vietnamese bent on reunifying their country. "It was like coming out of prison," Samelson says.

Some of the Phams still reside in San Antonio, others in Austin, Houston, and Los Angeles. Pham has 15 grandchildren, who will be counted in the 2010 Census as Asian Americans.

"We have all gotten accustomed to the culture. We all became productive here in the United States. We are married (with the exception of younger brother Tam, an engineer who is about to relocate to London), and we all want our children to be successful," says Samelson, whose husband William, was liberated from a German concentration camp at the end of World War II. He served as chairman of the San Antonio College foreign language department for 30 years.