RINCON LATINO : FESTIVAL PAN ASIáTICO

Ayer el Festival Pan Asiático ( Pacific Rim Festival ) se celebró en la localidad histórica de Old Sacramento luciendo las diversas culturas asiáticas en Sacramento. En 1993, el difunto empresario Frank Fat estableció esta organización para que sirviera como una coalición comunitaria brillando lo mejor y lo más destacante de las comunidades asiáticas de la región. En los últimos 20 años, la comunidad ha crecido astronómicamente con la inclusión de las culturasHmong, Camboyana, Laosiana, Filipina y Polinesia.

Muchos no lo saben pero la cultura polinesia también es representado en la cultura iberoamericana con respecto a la Isla de Pascua la cual es una provincia ultramar de Chile.

Desgraciadamente para los aborígenes de la isla , el ímpetu a asimilarse a la cultura predominante chilena es tan arrasante que la cultura y la identidad se va desapareciéndose todavía más y más. También, la cultura filipina tiene ciertos rasgos hispanos porque también fue colonia española y fue representada por muchos miembros de la comunidad vendiendo curiosidades, platillos típicos y prendas de vestir.

En fin, el Festival era muy divertido para los integrantes como nosotros y para los visitantes atraídos por la simple curiosidad o por un interés económico.

A Finer Focus: April 30, 1975: The Last Chopper out of Town...

Vietnam. Vietnam. Vietnam. What comes to mind when you read...Vietnam? The pearl of Southeast of Asia? The tiered rice patties of the lush Mekong Delta? The limestone isles of Halong Bay? While not any of these features cling (I'm sure they don't for many of us), we invariably think of War. That War. The War.

Thirty-three years ago, April was indeed the cruelest of months for Vietnam and an American expedition that was coming to a crashing end. North Vietnamese Army units were cutting through an overmatched and demoralized Army of the Vietnamese Republic (more popularly known as the ARVN), and bearing down on the capital city of Saigon. Panic, terror, a sense of betrayal, heartbreak, fear. All were felt. Plain clothed Marines - playing God - pulled desperate dependents, government officials, American nationals over the high fences of the Embassy. Explosions could be heard near Tan Son Nhat Airport and the enemy had long breached the city's gates. Chaos.

Check out this embed of a BBC report on Saigon's "Eleventh Hour."



For a list of books on this tragic epilogue, click on the following link: Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) -- History OR Vietnam War 1961 1975 Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City.

The Central Library also holds numerous magazines from that era, along with articles covering the evacuation of Saigon:

Jenkins, L. (May 5, 1975). City at the Edge of Doom. Newsweek, vol. 85.

U.S. News. (May 12, 1975). Communist Takeover: Russian-Made Tanks, Barefoot Guerillas Roll into Saigon. U.S. News, vol. 79.

Benjamin, M., et al. (May 5, 1975). Last Exit from Saigon. Newsweek, vol. 85.

Time. (May 12, 1975). Memories of a Fallen City. Time, vol. 105.

Time. (May 12, 1975). Saigon Under Siege. Time, vol. 105.

Time. (May 12, 1975). Saigon: A Dreamlike, Twilight Mood. Time, vol. 105.

Chrysler, K.M. (April 28, 1975). Saigon's Fate: Quick Kill. Slow Death--Or a Deal. U.S. News, vol. 78.

Book Review: Where They Lay: Searching for America's Lost Soldiers

Where They Lay: Searching for America's Lost Soldiers, Earl Swift, Houghton Mifflin, 2003.

I've not seen a single episode of television's CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), but I'd guess that if one took the show out of its sexy LA and/or Miami confines and mixed in a Texas-sized mud pie, poisonous reptile, unbearable humidity, and a million or so fire ants, you might come close to understanding the worldwide quest of the U.S. Military's Central Identification Laboratory (CILHI), an organization tasked to find and identify the nation's lost soldiers. Telling the tale is Earl Swift, a Virginia journalist, who journied to Laos in 2001 to surveil the group and their hunt for a crew of missing Army aviators, whose helicopter went down near the Vietnam/Laos border in 1971.

The engine of Swift's story is human interest. In not much time, you know the crew. From the spitshined complexion of the chopper commander to the muscle car-loving door gunner, the author brings you into their quirky, homey, chain-smoking world. Then he rips them from you; Their steel machine crashes and they are gone. But, at this point, you're in, part of the search team, walking just behind Swift down some dusty Degar hunting trail, and you'll accept even the slightest form of proof: a helmet, a manufacturing i.d., bullet casing.

At the beginning of the account, Swift asks us if it's worth it: spending $100 million a year to find our fallen sons and fathers. By the time the collective fate of Jack Barker, Johnny Chub, Johnny Dugan (see photo above) and Will Dillender is decided, you have your answer.