AAPIRC's Community Submission Based Blog
About the Blog: The Visibility Blog features writings, reviews, artwork, news, and other contributions by and/or about AAPI students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members at UNM and beyond. The aim of this blog is to provide visibility to our often invisibilized experiences. It also provides an opportunity for our community to publish their work, be seen, and be heard.
We invite contributions! Email aapirc@unm.edu for more information.
AAPI History and Birthright CitizenshipBy John San Nicolas | February 14, 2025John San Nicolas is a senior at UNM studying Religious Studies and Philosophy. His research focuses on the interaction between American Christianity and politics. With family originating from Guam and Mexico, John has come to learn the importance of questioning how religion shapes and is shaped by power and politics. You can read John’s work on his Patheos.com column, “Faithful Politics,” where he addresses how Christians can build a just common life with their civic neighborsSince taking office, President Donald J. Trump signed a slew of executive orders. These orders saturated the news cycle. Several were met with immediate legal challenges, causing concern, outrage, and even fear for many Americans. The collection of executive orders regarding immigration caught my interest. On October 31, 2024, Trump visited Albuquerque, New Mexico for a rally. Many were surprised that Trump would visit the heart of a state that hadn’t voted red since 2004. I remember watching the live stream coverage of the rally. Throughout his hour-and-a-half-long address to his supporters, the topic that Trump hit on the most was immigration. The Trump campaign leading up to both of his terms centered largely on immigration. For Trump, illegal immigrants are the cause of America’s woes. He cast them as violent assailants who threatened the safety and national fabric of the US, even though immigrants are by and large less likely than US-born citizens to commit crimes. On the campaign trail, Trump falsely accused Haitian migrants of eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. Influencers in the Republican Party widely spread claims about a “gang takeover” in an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. Much of Trump’s rhetoric targeting immigrants resulted in real-life consequences threatening immigrant communities. We saw this before during his first term. I set out to analyze the executive orders directed toward immigration that were signed on Day One. These orders carry the same stigmatization against immigrant communities, casting them as dangers to public health and suggesting that the US is under “invasion” by immigrants. But one order in particular stood out to me. This order is titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” In this order, Trump walks back American jurisprudence on the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees birthright citizenship. As we will see, Asian American-Pacific Islander (AAPI) history is integral to understanding how the courts have developed their interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment.
First, let us acquaint ourselves with the Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment was passed by Congress in 1866 and ratified by the States in 1868. A little over a decade prior to its ratification, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided the Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) case. Dred and Harriet Scott were an enslaved married couple who sued for their freedom, granted that they resided in a free territory. This lawsuit spanned over the course of eleven years, with American slaveholding and anti-Blackness taking full form in the judicial system. In Dred Scott, SCOTUS ruled that the Constitution granted citizenship to American men and women — unless they were Black. “Freedom” for Black people remained the choice of slaveowners after being denied by the highest court of the land. Because of the intransigent nature of the judicial system, this decision was not to change any time soon. The doctrine of stare decisis holds that present judges must rule according to precedent set by past cases. As such, Justices in the U.S. Supreme Court are incredibly unlikely to roll back prior cases. For example, the nearly fifty-year gap between Roe v. Wade (1973) and Dobbs v. Jackson (2022) is quite low. So, the ratification of amendments was the only route to correct this gravely unjust decision. Since the courts are ultimately beholden to the Constitution, only a constitutional amendment could override the Dred Scott decision. And in fact, both the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments were required to roll back the consequences of Dred Scott. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship to all who are “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” AAPIRC Graduation 2024 :Honoring Muhammad Afzaal Hussain (1995-2022)By Sikandar Awan | May 4th, 2024
While I was thinking about Afzaal these past few days, ever since Miss Farah asked me to say a few words in the memory of Our Afzaal, something happened in my personal life which led me to a few realizations. Bear with me and I hope I can spread my message across. In Hindi/Urdu, the word “Pardes” is made up of two words. The word “Par” comes from Paraia which means foreign or someone else’s. The word “Des” means country, or world. So a “Pardesi” means someone who is living in a foreign country or a foreign world. Afzaal was one of those who came to a foreign world, left his mark on everyone, made some friends and some foes, worked untiringly towards his goals in life, and had that thirst in his eye where he didn’t only want to move vertically but also horizontally as well.
AAPIRC Graduation 2024: PHD SpeechBy Paulina Przystupa | May 4th 2024
I didn’t know what to talk about today. Should I talk about the state of the world as Heba so elegantly has, my identity as a Filipine and Polish person or, what it’s like to be a graduate student for 12 years and counting. But, that would repeat things already said or likely only speak to those with similar backgrounds, heading towards 2-year Master’s degrees, or joining me in the decade-long pursuit of a PhD. Others have different experiences or are heading off to jobs, or gap years, or to take care of family or loved ones or your community. Some might only know that they're heading to the excellently DJ’d Halal Pan-Asian dinner that accompanies this ceremony. And so I want to highlight something that no matter where we’re heading, we all share. Obviously, we’re all Lobos, or lobo adjacents to include our guests, and we share the communities and practices that make that part of our story. So, I want to remind everyone to recognize and appreciate the importance of the many communities and the practices that bring us together to be here today and help make us who we are. But, as a PhD student, I’ve learned the necessity of definitions. So, For the purposes of this speech, community means a group of people that you interact with on a regular basis, the folks who support you—even in small ways—that you reach for when you need help, or accomplices. Practices, on the other hand, are things that you do regularly that have meaning. They are meditative, cultural, religious, political or one of many other descriptors. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AAPIRC Graduation 2024: undergraduate speechBy Heba Moussa | May 4th, 2024For the AAPIRC graduation convocation, the undergraduate speaker was Heba Moussa, a Palestinian Arab student graduating with a B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Biotechnology and a minor in Chemistry. Heba was also an intern with AAPIRC from Fall 2022 through Spring 2024. She focused on outreach to South West Asian & North African (SWANA) students, event photography, and health programming, including AAPIRC’s weekly yoga.Good evening, everyone,
It's wonderful to have everyone around to honor this wonderful group of graduates today. My name is Heba Moussa. I am originally Palestinian, born and raised in Deir Debwan, Palestine, and I spent my summers in Gallup, New Mexico. When I started attending the University of New Mexico I found a sense of belonging among my peers at the Asian American Pacific Islander Resource Center. These past three years haven't been a walk in the park, let me tell you. It feels like they flew by, but they were anything but easy. Today, all the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, paid off in the form of a 3-hour graduation ceremony not just one of the regular big ceremonies, but something a little more special. Whether it meant pulling all-nighters to finish research papers or missing out on time with loved ones to prep for exams, we've all made sacrifices to get to this moment. As we say in Arabic “نستهين كل غالي كي نحقق الحلم” which translates to “We sacrifice anything valuable to achieve the dream”. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Best Therapy for a Grieving ImmigrantBy Paniz AghaPour Maleki | March 21, 2024As an immigrant, I often find myself in a nostalgic depression. I left at a young age and I am only left with glimpses of the past, the joys, the people, and myself. I yearn to experience these glimpses beyond my fuzzy, fading memory. The collection of songs in the Mr. Violet album by the Pallett Band allows me to relive those times I spent in Iran and to experience a part of myself that was only present in its absence, that grew as a metaphorical pit, that was deteriorating the self. The songs from the band are a remedy for the homesick Iranian, who feel as though they left something behind, an experience, a person, or themselves. I would describe their music as a mixture of the East and the West. The three songs in the album that perfectly exemplify these traits are “From Eastern Lands”, “Waltz No.1”, and “Half of Us”. |
KOAT Featured Intro to Asian American Studies Class at UNM By Breana Albizu Reporter | May 16th, 2023 It allows Asian American students to have a systemic, historical, cultural, interdisciplinary, [and] critical understanding of their own identity," Farah Nousheen, senior student success specialist at the university's Asian American and Pacific Islander Resource Center (AAPIRC), said.
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By John San Nicolas | July 20th, 2022 Hi All! My name is John San Nicolas. (Fun fact: “Santa Claus” is an anglicization of my last name!) I am a second-year undergrad at UNM, majoring in Religious Studies and Philosophy. I enjoy thinking about life and what it means to live well.
John San Nicolas | Photo Credit - Tyler Esping, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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By Charlotte Auh | July 6th, 2022 It is no secret that Asian American/Pacific Islander history is often overlooked, improperly told, or villainized in American history books. Even though the topic of today’s blog was monumental and crucial for Asian Americans at the time, many of us are probably asking, “Vincent Who?”. The 35th episode of the Asian American History 101 podcast hosted by Gen and Ted Lai covers The Murder of Vincent Chin.
Vincent Chin, killed at age 27 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
By Dr. Hooi-Ling Lee | June 28th, 2022 Hello! I am Hooi-Ling Lee, a Fulbright Visiting Scholar from Malaysia. Malaysia is a multiracial country consisting of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and other native ethnicities. As such, speaking different languages and dialects is very common in Malaysia. Though I often travel to foreign countries, I never feel lonely as I will always meet Asians through my daily life activities or interactions. Hence, I have an impression that Asians are everywhere in the world. Fulbright Scholar Dr. Hooi-Ling Lee ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
Joji Returns with "A Glimpse of Us" By Jacob Olaguir | June 28th, 2022 Hello everyone, my name is Jacob Olaguir and I recently started working for AAPIRC this summer. For this week's Visibility Blog, I wanted to talk about the newest song by Japanese singer Joji. This is one of my favorite Asian artists and I have followed his career since I was in high school. It is amazing to see a Japanese artist make it into the mainstream of western culture. If you visit AAPIRC this week you might see a vinyl hanging on the wall of Joji's freshman album “BALLADS 1” which was released October 26, 2018.
Cover Art of Joji's "A Glimpse of Us" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
What is America's Perception of Korea? By Charlotte Auh | June 15th, 2022 Hello everyone! My name is Charlotte Auh. I have been a student employee with AAPIRC for about 8 months (I’m also the creator of these newsletters, so I hope you’ve been enjoying them!). My portion will cover episodes of the podcast: Asian American History 101 created as a response to pandemic-related Anti-Asian racism and hosted by daughter-father team Gen and Ted. Listen to the podcast here!
Charlotte in traditional Korean hanbok ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
