Pitman High student Vien Santiago said that during the pandemic he witnessed a lot more normalization of hate, racism and attacks against Asian Americans — and it was something that people weren’t talking about. That is why he helped organize the Pan-Asian Heritage Society at Pitman High School.

“And ever since then, we’ve been able to accomplish things…especially with Pitman’s most recent culture week. We were able to bring together identities and cultures from all over Asia that attend our school, because it’s not just east or Southeast Asians that we represent. We represent all of Asia. So we were very, very honored to be able to bring that to the whole school space,” he said.

Santiago was just one panelist who shared their experiences at Friday’s forum on Being Pan-Asian in the San Joaquin Valley held at the Turlock Unified School District’s Family Resource Center.

The panelists — Santiago from Pitman High, Karisma Naidu from the Asian Connection Club at Stanislaus State, Shriya Sharma from the Asian American Association at Gregori High in Modesto, and Phoebe Rosales from the Filipino Club at Enochs High in Modesto — discussed a variety of topics including how Asian American identities are being removed from American history, concerns regarding the Asian community in the Central Valley and living with an Asian identity and an American identity.

“We don’t really get to hear about the Asian impact or anything of that sort when it comes to history classes. Especially when it comes to the United States, literally, having held possession of The Philippines for over half a century. And that’s something that we really just don’t get to talk about much, especially when you start to factor in other like Pacific Islands — like Guam, like Hawaii – that were also taken as possessions of the U.S. We don’t really get to talk very in depth about those topics,” said Santiago.

Following the panel, former state controller and 2026 gubernatorial candidate Betty Yee answered questions from Pitman High’s Madiha Haideri.

Yee talked about growing up Chinese American in San Francisco and having to be the English-speaking advocate for her family’s laundry business and their interactions with government agencies and her siblings’ school concerns. She credited her neighboring immigrants in San Francisco — who were mainly from European countries in their particular area of town — for helping her family integrate into American society.

“My first political experience happened when I was 13 years old. I was asked by the four Chinese American families in the neighborhood where I grew up to be a spokesperson for them when the San Francisco Unified School District was proposing its busing program where my little sister was going to be part of the first class to be bused across the city as part of the school desegregation program. The poor families were all small business owners in the neighborhood. We weren’t the only ones opposed to the busing program, but they had developed the statement after conferring that they wanted me to make before the local school board at its town hall meeting at the elementary school two blocks away, walking distance from my parents’ laundry and dry cleaning, business. The statement I was to make, and I did make, was to essentially ask the school board members to spend the money that they would be spending on the busing program to improve the quality of the schools across the city, all the schools across the city… I made that statement I was 13 years old…I was nervous. My knees were shaking. I never spoke to a group or an audience before, but I made the statement,” Yee shared.

When asked why she decided to run for Governor in 2026, Yee credited her 101-year-old mother and the stories she tells of how she and her father had support when raising their family and starting their business in California.

“You’re hearing a lot this post-election that a lot of Americans are struggling, talking about basic bread and butter issues, about how to just make ends meet. But of course, here in California, with our high cost of living and affordability issues, inflation hit us particularly hard here. And you begin to think about just how easy it is for someone to just fall through the cracks. My parents didn’t. We considered ourselves very lucky. All six of the children do have college degrees. We were able to work during college, and they began to lay that foundation for us to all go to college. 

“But I mentioned this because she’s an inspiration and she reminds me of a time where we had those supports for people. And what motivated me to run for governor is that I travel the state extensively. And I think to be a good politician, you have to really acknowledge the realities of what people are experiencing…It’s just really palpable, and that is that more Californians are feeling less tethered to being here for the long term, either themselves or their children, because it is very difficult to be here because of the high cost. And I just decided, you know, my fiscal finance discipline, I understand investments, I understand all things that are related in the financial discipline. I just felt like this was the time to put them to work…This is really being done out of a sense of gratitude that we have the opportunities. My state has been kind to my family, but for so many Californians, it’s very, very difficult right now. So that was really what the motivator was…I wanted to just have an opportunity to put my disciplines to work, and hopefully have a chance to improve the lives for all California,” said Yee.