APALS was founded in 1992-1993 during the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles civil unrest. The idea originated during meetings of APANLA (Asian pacific Americans for new Los Angeles), a coalition of APA community groups convened by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) to identify the needs of our communities and to provide grassroots advocacy to ensure that the voices of the APA community was heard as Los Angeles was striving to rebuild. In the early 90s, email and social media did not exist and many staffers relied on face-to-face meetings, personal phone calls, and fax blasts to stay connected. To this very day, APALS continues these traditions through informal gatherings and its Monday Minglers program. Furthermore, when APALS was first founded, there was only a handful of APA elected officials in California: Congressmembers Robert Matsui and Norman Y. Mineta represented northern California, while Assemblymember Nao Takasugi was the only APA representative in the California legislature. Councilmember Michael Woo served a brief term in the Los Angeles City Council. Although there were few APA elected officials in office, our community was fortunate to have several APA individuals who cared about the community, serving in government offices throughout the state of California. During APALS’ founding years, Candice Kim, from Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard’s office, and Jeri Okamoto, from Assemblymember Louis Caldera’s office, served as co-coordinators, working with a team that included: State Controller John Chiang, from Senator Barbara Boxer’s office; Kim Tachiki; Janet Lim; Mayor Chi Mui; Gerald Gubatan; Marissa Castro-Savanti; Audrey Noda; Maely Tom; and Georgette Imura. Our founding members focused on assuring that our elected officials were well-informed on issues of concern to their APA constituents, mentoring incoming staffers and helping them with community networking and providing practical advice on political and cultural protocol. APALS also served and continues to serve as a leadership pipeline as we recruit incoming APA staffers and helped each other move up through the ranks. Many in our network have gone on to serve on commissions and as elected officials themselves such as: Controller John Chaing, Assemblymember Warren Furutani, Garvey School Boardmember Henry Lo, and Councilmember Mark Pulido, just to name a few. For over 20 years, APALS continues to serve the mission our founding members set forth for us of increasing the political influence and participation of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans and providing direct access to all levels of government for the APA community, as we look forward to forming new partnerships and strengthening existing ones in the years to come.
