May 24, 2009

For Immediate Use
Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca, melanyd@ucla.edu
(310) 206-7738

“New issue of UCLA’s AAPI Nexus explores the other side of model minority myth with new Senior Editor”

The Asian American Pacific Islander Nexus Journal: Policy, Practice and Community (AAPI Nexus) is pleased to announce its newest Senior Editor, Professor Marjorie Kagawa-Singer of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health. In Kagawa-Singer’s first special issue, vol. 6.1, the journal presents five articles that explore the diversity within these communities, including the disparities that continue to mark some of their experiences. The issue begins with the inaugural note from Kagawa-Singer that highlights a new vision for the journal, which works to bring visibility and attention to marginalized experiences within the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations through research and policy.

Paul M. Ong, Melany dela Cruz-Viesca, and Don T. Nakanishi explore in the first article how to provide these communities with agency through voting. In discussing the potential political power of the AA/NH/PI population, Ong et al. provide insight into how to create policy changes that can benefit these communities.

This issue also explores three pervasive difficulties that challenge the model minority myth, including:

Su Yeong Kim and colleagues, in “‘It’s like we’re just renting from here’: The Pervasive Experiences of Discrimination of Filipino Immigrant Youth Gang Members in Hawai’i,” which examines these youth gang members and their challenges in Hawai’i. This piece also includes avenues to help with intervention for these youth who join gangs in order to have agency and protection from discrimination.

Robyn Greenfield Matloff et al. explore in “The Obesity Epidemic in Chinese American Youth?: A Literature Review and Pilot Study” Chinese American youth and possible risk factors for the growing epidemic of obesity in Boston’s Chinatown. The study also discusses the role of acculturation and changing lifestyles that result from immigration experiences.

Jeanne Shimatsu and colleagues include data about the rates of alcohol use and risky sexual behaviors with their piece, “Sex and Alcohol on the College Campus: An Assessment of HIV-Risk Behaviors among AAPI College Students.” This paper also includes ways that can help intervene and address the alarmingly high number of unprotected sex and alcohol use found in their study.

These articles address the diversity within the AAPI communities that are often dismissed due to the model minority myth. These informative pieces help to develop new ways to intervene and prevent other pervasive problems from increasing in these communities.

AAPI Nexus copies are $13.00 plus $4.00 for shipping and handling and 8.25% sales tax for California residents. Make checks payable to “Regents of U.C.” VISA, MASTERCARD, and DISCOVER are also accepted; include expiration date and phone number on correspondence. The mailing address is: UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 3230 Campbell Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1546. Phone: 310-825-2968. Email: aascpress@aasc.ucla.edu
Order on-line at: http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/aascpress/comersus/store/

Annual subscriptions for APPI Nexus are $25.00 for individuals and $125.00 for libraries and other institutions. AAPI Nexus is published twice a year: Winter/Spring, and Summer/Fall.

The latest issue of CrossCurrents, the newsmagazine of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center is available for free downloading and viewing at the Center’s web site:

(http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/).

The 24-page full-color magazine, which is a special edition celebrating the 40th anniversary of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, is filled with the latest news about Center people, events, and publications, including the new endowed chair and media program on U.S.-China relations and Chinese American Studies; the work of the Center for EthnoCommunications; new books and research and other activities of our faculty, students, and alumni; recently established endowments; and several new on-line projects.

Just go to the Center’s web site and look for the “NEW” hyperlink on the left hand side of the home page for downloading Crosscurrents.

Subscribers to the UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press’s two national journals — Amerasia Journal and AAPI Nexus: Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy, Practice, and Community — receive complimentary printed copies of Crosscurrents with their subscriptions.

New book by UCLA Professor Lane Hirabayashi looks at photos used in WWII Japanese American resettlement effort

(Editors: For review copies of the book, please contact Beth Svinarich of the University Press of Colorado at 720-406-8849 x3 or beth@upcolorado.com.)

Within a year after incarcerating more than 110,000 West Coast residents of Japanese ancestry during War II, the U.S. government began releasing and relocating those it deemed “loyal” to areas outside the West.

The U.S. War Relocation Authority (WRA), which was responsible for the resettlement effort while the war was still going on, encouraged those who left its camps to avoid “Little Tokyo”-sytle neighborhoods, ostensibly to promote their assimilation into mainstream society. Thus, as early as 1943, released internees began building new lives in places like Des Moines, Iowa; Rochester, N.Y.; and Baton Rouge, La.

In “Japanese American Resettlement Through the Lens” (University Press of Colorado, 2009), Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, a UCLA professor of Asian American studies, and Kenichiro Shimada, a University of Maryland librarian, shed light on the role institutional photography played in promoting this wartime resettlement process.

The authors explain for the first time how the WRA commissioned thousands of photographs across the U.S. to convince Japanese Americans it was safe to rejoin mainstream society. The book painstakingly documents the history, mission and impact of the WRA’s Photographic Section and features more than a hundred images taken as part of this government public relations effort.

The WRA photos - which appeared between 1943 and 1945 in newspapers and magazines, government brochures and posters, books, newsreels, and other sources - show content and gainfully employed Japanese Americans blending seamlessly into the larger society in cities, towns and farms of the Midwest, the Rockies, the South and the East Coast. Women were often shown engaged in clerical or service work and day-to-day tasks like cooking and child care. Men were photographed working in various industries, enjoying leisure activities or serving in the U.S. Army.

“The photos also aimed to assuage other Americans’ fears about Japanese Americans leaving the WRA camps while the war was still being fought,” said Hirabayashi, UCLA’s George and Sakaye Aratani Professor of the Japanese American Internment, Redress and Community. “The larger American public had long harbored suspicions of Asian immigrants and citizens alike, and they feared Japanese Americans who had been deemed dangerous enough to be incarcerated.”

Of the 100-plus WRA photos featured in the book, 80 were taken by Hikaru Carl Iwasaki, the last surviving full-time WRA photographer. A native of San Jose, Calif., who was interned with his family at the WRA’s Heart Mountain camp, Iwasaki became the most prolific photographer of the resettlement effort, producing more than 1,300 pictures of Japanese Americans attempting to integrate back into American society.

Hirabayashi says that despite the work of Iwasaki and other WRA photographers, the photos did not assure the majority Japanese Americans that it was safe to leave the camps and join mainstream society before the war’s end. The photos also had little immediate effect on public opinion toward Japanese Americans. A 1946 National Opinion Research Center poll revealed lingering suspicion toward people of Japanese ancestry. Of those surveyed, 66 percent said they believed that first- and second-generation Japanese Americans had acted as spies for the Japanese government.

“In any case,” Hirabayashi noted, “the WRA’s resettlement photographs cannot and should not simply be dismissed as propaganda.” Those interested in exploring this issue will find much food for thought in terms of the history and technical matrix of these photos, as well as Hirabayashi’s discussion of how they can be put to new and sometimes oppositional uses today.

Counting his monographs and anthologies, both solo and co-edited, this is Hirabayashi’s ninth book.

Following the war, Iwasaki, now 85 and living in Denver, went on to work for Life, People, Sports Illustrated and Time, photographing such notable figures as Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, Jackie Kennedy and Joe Namath.

“Japanese American Resettlement Through the Lens” features a foreword by former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta. Mineta, who was also the first Asian American to serve as a presidential cabinet member, describes living with his family in the Heart Mountain camp. He also recounts the Mineta family’s resettlement story, which resonates with the photos and accounts presented in this path-breaking study.

Zhou, Min, 2009. Contemporary Chinese America: Immigration, Identity, and Community Transformation (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).

Contemporary Chinese America is the most comprehensive sociological investigation of the experiences of Chinese immigrants to the United States-and of their offspring-in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The author, Min Zhou, is a well-known sociologist of the Chinese American experience. In this volume she collects her original research on a range of subjects, including the causes and consequences of emigration from China, demographic trends of Chinese Americans, patterns of residential mobility in the U.S., Chinese American “ethnoburbs,” immigrant entrepreneurship, ethnic enclave economies, gender and work, Chinese language media, Chinese schools, and intergenerational relations. The concluding chapter, “Rethinking Assimilation,” ponders the future for Chinese Americans. Also included are an extensive bibliography and a list of recommended documentary films.

While the book is particularly well-suited for college courses in Chinese American studies, ethnic studies, Asian studies, and immigration studies, it will interest anyone who wants to more fully understand the lived experience of contemporary Chinese Americans.

Min Zhou is Professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of Chinatown (Temple) and The Transformation of Chinese America, co-author of Growing Up American, and co-editor of Asian American Youth and Contemporary Asian America.

Order online at http://www.temple.edu/tempress/
Order toll free 1-800-6212736

Sale is also available at amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords

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If you know of anyone that might be qualified or interested, PLEASE let me know, and forward this email. Thank you so much.

EXPERT CONSULTANT NEEDED, PART-TIME, $75/HOUR.

Must have expertise in the Korean American immigrant experience, including psychological, cultural and social adjustment issues. You will be working with a small team of lawyers and paralegals. You may be asked to testify regarding your areas of expertise in court. Work may involve extensive face-to-face interviews with Korean nationals.  Travel to South Korea is a possibility. You will either conduct these social history interviews yourself and/or lend your insight and expertise about the social histories to the team of lawyers. Graduate level work or extensive work experience in social work, psychology, cultural anthropology, or sociology a plus. Korean language ability a plus.

Must be flexible and available to work long term (part-time), 200-400 hours of work, over the next 2-3 years.

Fax resume to
Michelle Cheng Kim (or for more information call, (213) 974-8176)
Office of the Alternate Public Defender
320 W. Temple St. Suite G-35
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(f) (213) 626-3171

To: AAAS Community
From: University of Washington Press
Re:  Design Award for Mine Okubo: Following Her Own Road

The book, Miné Okubo: Following Her Own Road, edited by Greg Robinson and Elena Tajima Creef, was recently named a winner in the annual Association of American University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show competition, in the Scholarly Illustrated books category.  The book, which features a selection of Miné Okubo’s paintings, drawings, illustrations, and writings, as well as essays on Okubo’s career and legacy, was designed by University of Washington Press senior designer Ashley Saleeba.

Published in 2008, Miné Okubo: Following Her Own Road, is the first book-length critical examination of the life and work of Miné Okubo (1912-2001), the pioneering Nisei artist, writer, and social activist.  Okubo’s landmark book Citizen 13660, first published in 1946, has been one of the University of Washington Press’s perennial bestselling titles since 1983.

For more about Mine Okubo: Following Her Own Road, visit http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/ROBMIN.html

Beth DeWeese
Direct Marketing Manager

UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press

For Immediate Release
Feb. 13, 2009
Press Contact: Russell C. Leong
Review Press Copies: Ming Tu, ytu@aasc.ucla.edu

“How Do Asian Americans Create Places”
UCLA Professor Kyeyoung Park and Amerasia Journal
Present New Research on Asian American Communities in Los Angeles

Professor Kyeyoung Park, UCLA Associate Professor of Anthropology and Asian American Studies, has in conjunction with the Amerasia Journal, published new research on Asian American communities in California, with a focus on the Los Angeles area.

The special issue, vol. 34.3, entitled “How do Asian Americans Create Places” include six articles on the Thai, Hmong, South Asian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean communities, prefaced by a demographic profile of Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders in L.A. and the United States done by Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca, director of UCLA Census Center.

In studying Asian American communities, Park, with Amerasia editor Russell Leong note that:

“Outside Hollywood, Asian Americans have long added a global dimension to Los Angeles. Since 1960, immigration has been the main impetus of Asian population growth in the United States. With almost 5 million Asian Pacific residents, California has the largest such population in the country. This includes Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Asian Indian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Laotian, Cambodian, Hmong, and Thai. It’s not surprising that L.A. County has the largest percentage of Asian Americans in the state-more than a million people, according to the U.S. Census, of whom 70 percent are immigrants. Any map of L.A. would reveal “Asian global ethno-hubs” in the central city (Koreatown, Thai Town, Chinatown, Little Tokyo) and in the San Gabriel Valley, where Little Taipei includes ethnic Chinese from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, as well as native-born American Chinese. Farther south, Cambodians in Long Beach are organizing for a Little Cambodia not far from Little India in Artesia, or Little Saigon in Garden Grove.”

What do the ethnohubs mean for the future? How do they connect Los Angeles to the world? These nexuses of Asian residents and commercial and cultural activities have developed a complicated network of institutions, including churches and temples, language schools, banks, book and video stores, markets, factories, and other businesses, linked with like institutions across the United States and Asia, as well.

This issue includes the following new studies:

† Jiemin Bao, in “From Wandering to Wat: Creating a Thai Temple and Inventing New Space in the United States,” examines in her case study the theoretical, intellectual and practical tensions and conflicts around building a Thai temple, or wat, in the Silicon Valley.

† Eric Yang, in “Recreating Hmong History: An Examination of www.Youtube.com Videos” examines how Hmong American students create selective versions of Hmong history through the creation of video narratives which they post on the internet.

† Surekha Acharya and Lalit N. Acharya present a case study: “Gender Identity among Hindu Women in the Indian Enclave of Artesia, California.” They interviewed Gujarati women who worked in salons and stores in Little Artesia as workers, managers, or owners.

† Utilizing U.S. Census data, case studies, and field observations, Min Zhou, Yen-Fen Tseng, and Rebecca Y. Kim analyze a Chinese suburban community “ethnoburb” in the San Gabriel Valley, California. Their article, “Rethinking Residential Assimilation through the Case of a Chinese Ethnoburb in the San Gabriel Valley, California,” focuses on the relatively affluent, high skilled, and educated entrepreneurial class of Chinese into a white middle class suburbia populated by Anglos, Latinos, and American-born Chinese.

† Looking at the older enclave of Chinese Americans and pre-World War II immigrants, Jan Lin, in a more journalistic account included in this issue, explores the development of tourism and gentrification, and redevelopment in Los Angeles Chinatown.

† Linda Trinh Võ, in her essay, “Constructing a Vietnamese American Community: Economic ad Political Transformation in Little Saigon, Orange County,” explores the establishment of Little Saigon in Orange County, California, an ethnic enclave with the advantages of both a large population base and sufficient spatial resources to sustain and expand both a commercial and residential community.

† Kyeyoung Park and Jessica Kim critically examine the developmental process of Koreatown in the 1990s. As one of the most densely populated, poorest, and multiethnic neighborhoods, Koreatown was subjected to redevelopment plans by the state sector as well as local and transnational (especially trans-Pacific) capitalists that resulted in its gentrification and the displacement of local small business owners and residents.

“How do Asian Americans Create Places?” is intended to stimulate more probing national research and further discussion on the relationship of space, place, gender, and race, and to raise broader questions around such issues as residential segregation, class-based work and labor, and the transnational migration and settlement of Asian groups in relation to the interlinked global econoy.

This special issue of Amerasia Journal costs $15.00 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling and 8.25 percent sales tax for California residents. Make checks payable to “Regents of U.C.” VISA, MASTERCARD, and DISCOVER are also accepted; include expiration date and phone number on correspondence. The mailing address is: UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 3230 Campbell Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1546. Phone: 310-825-2968. Email: aascpress@aasc.ucla.edu

Order on-line at: http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/aascpress/comersus/store/

Annual subscriptions for Amerasia Journal are $99.99 for individuals and $445.00 for libraries and other institutions. The institutional price includes access to the Amerasia online database, which has full-text versions of all Amerasia Journals published since 1971. Amerasia Journal is published three times a year: Winter, Spring, and Fall.

Information about our new book ONCE THEY HEAR MY NAME:  Korean Adoptees and Their Journeys Toward Identity is below.  If you’re interested in receiving a desk copy, let me know.

Marilyn Lammert

Marilyn Lammert MSW.ScD
301-951-9645
www.marilynlammert.com

Relationship issues - Living with illness - Cross-cultural issues
Finding personal meaning - Adoption identity and search

“Once They Hear My Name” is a step forward in our collective understanding of the cultural hurdles international adoptees tackle every day. In their own words, the nine Korean adoptees of “Once They Hear My Name’’ talk about how they became the adults they are today, speaking candidly about acceptance and rejection, about life struggles and successes, about experiences unique to each yet connected by common threads. At their core these stories chronicle adoptees’ ongoing, and often difficult, quests to discover who they are. Growing up, they initially viewed themselves as typical American kids at home with baseball, pizza, playing with dolls and the rest. But often their peers - and sometimes members of their own families - saw them as strangers, good targets for ugly stereotypes. Many of the nine adoptees chronicle their trips as adults back to Korea to find their roots and, in some cases, their birth families. These journeys yield mixed emotional results. The narratives illustrate the wide variety o f ways all adoptees, not just those from Korea, and all Americans with cultural roots in Asia, wrestle with identity issues.
By Ellen Lee, Marilyn Lammert and Mary Anne Hess.

ISBN: 978-0-9793756-0-6 (Paper)
978-0-9793756-1-3 (Hardcover)
LOC CONTROL NO. : 2007937159
PUBLICATION DATE: September 2, 2008
PAGE COUNT: 200
PRCE: $14.95 (Paper)
$20.95 (Hardcover)
Tamarisk Books
P.O. Box 3006
Silver Spring, MD 20918
tamariskbooks@aol.com
www.tamariskbooks.com

Authors:
Marilyn Lammert (www.drmarilynlammert.com) is a psychotherapist and healer in private practice and a former university professor. She has taught at Washington University, the University of Maryland, and the Catholic University of America. She and her husband, Paul Carlson, adopted their son, Adam, from Korea in 1983. Adam is one of the book’s nine contributors.
Ellen Lee is a licensed clinical social worker. Korean-born, Ms. Lee came to the U.S. with her family at the age of 10. Her interest in Korean adoptees began when she met Marilyn Lammert and her adopted son, Adam, and became involved in their search for Adam’s birth family in Korea. Thoug h not adopted, Ms. Lee can relate to the adoptees ‘ sense of disconnect from their birth country, loss of language, culture and identity confusion.
Mary Anne Hess is an award-winning freelance writer and editor. During her 35 years of professional experience, she has specialized in education and family issues. Her work has appeared in newspapers and education and parenting publications across the United States.

REVIEWS:

Christian Science Monitor
Once They Hear My Name
Korean-American adoptees talk about their experiences growing up in a predominantly Caucasian world.
By Terry Hong | September 30, 2008 edition

Once They Hear My Name: Korean Adoptees and Their Journeys Toward Identity, Edited by Ellen Lee, Marilyn Lammert, and Mary Anne Hess
“When I got to college I said I was adopted, right off the bat,” says Todd Knowlton, a 33-year-old Korean-American adoptee. “It doesn’t bother me, but once they hear my last name, people always ask uncomfortable questions.”  The new collection, Once They Hear My Name: Korean Adoptees and Their Journeys Toward Identity edited by Ellen Lee, Marilyn Lammert, and Mary Anne Hess, echoes Knowlton’s sense of the disconnect shared by many transracial adoptees.  In the 1950s, long before Angelina Jolie and Madonna put transracial adoption in the headlines, Korean children were already arriving on US shores to join predominantly Caucasian families. According to various estimates, some 100,000 to 120,000 Korean adoptees reside in the United States alone, with a 50-plus-year history of becoming Americans.  According to the US Census Bureau, even with the rise in adoptions from China, Vietnam, Guatemala, and Ethiopia, Korea remains the largest single-country source of foreign adoptees under the age of 18.
The nine voices represented here are all those of adults, with ages ranging from 25 to 53 and a variety of backgrounds and chosen professions. Regardless of individual circumstances, certain similarities are clear.

For adoptees, growing up without access to a Korean- or Asian-American community can be problematic. Even in the most nurturing families, an adoptee’s sense of being jarringly different from the rest of his or her family may be thrust upon them in the form of racial slurs or even violence.  Then, ironically, even as adoptees fight that prejudice at home as a result of their “forever foreign” faces, they are still recognized as typically “American” when they travel abroad. For some adoptees, however, traveling to Korea can bring a sense of relief at no longer being the minority.

This book potentially serves two purposes: For adoptees, it offers a sense of community, a feeling that, “I’ve been there, I’ve felt that.”
For adoptive parents, it can serve as a guide to the growing number of resources to help families teach transracial adoptees to celebrate rather than regret the cultural riches that come with their backgrounds.

In addition to “Once They Hear My Name,” here are other collections to consider adding to the family library: “Seeds from a Silent Tree: An Anthology By Korean Adoptees,” edited by Tonya Bishoff and Jo Rankin; “Voices from Another Place: A Collection of Works from a Generation Born in Korea and Adopted to Other Countries,” edited by Susan Soon-Keum Cox; “I Wish for You a Beautiful Life: Letters from the Korean Birth Mothers of Ae Ran Won to Their Children,” edited by Sara Dorow; and “Outsiders=2
0Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption,” edited by Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah and Sun Yung Shin.)

Terry Hong is media arts consultant at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program.

San Antonio EXPRESS-NEWS 9 -14-08

Longing To Fit in Part of Life for Korean Adoptees

By SUZANNE STRUGLINSKI
.2008 Hearst Newspapers

“Once They Hear My Name: Korean Adoptees and Their Journeys
Toward Identity.”
Edited by Ellen Lee, Marilyn Lammert and Mary Anne Hess.
Tamarisk Books, 178 pages $14.95

Nine Korean adoptees tell their stories of growing up in American, white families in “Once They Hear My Name: Korean Adoptees and Their Journeys Toward Identity.”

Among the cultural stereotypes to overcome: “is he yours?” asked of a white mother walking with her Asian child, to playground taunts of “slanted-eyes” and unfair assumptions about being good at math.

As children, the book’s featured adoptees, now ranging from age 25 to 53, said they did not need to look too hard to figure out
they were different from others in their families. How they dealt with the differences - and the experiences these divisions produced
while growing up - varied widely from person to person.

When Marilyn Lammert, an adoptive mother, traveled to Korea to meet her son’s biological family in 1996, she met other American
adoptees searching for their birth families along with some who had moved back to Korea to work or go to school.

As Lammert and Ellen Lee, a Korean-American friend who traveled with her, heard their stories, they sensed a common theme of
longing for an identity and a strong desire to know more about their Korean roots. The visitors were amazed by the different paths
that the adoptees took to get them to that point.

The two decided to interview Korean adoptees and collect life-experience stories that might help other adoptees through the
struggle of being born into one race or culture but raised in another. Mary Anne Hess edited the taped interviews into the
first-person accounts that make up the book.  The editors note that there are more than 100,000 Korean adoptees in the United States. The oldest are now senior citizens and the youngest are still babies.
“They are part of the largest group of children ever adopted cross racial, cultural and geographic lines,” according to the
book. The oldest came home with American soldiers stationed in Korea after the Korean War (1950-1953); the youngest are infants
babies still coming over today.
Some adoptees’ parents went out of their way to teach their children about Korean culture, either through books, Korean food,
special camps or trips to their home country. On the other hand, at least one adoptee “never had a bowl of rice.”
Some had adopted brothers or sisters while others had siblings who were the biological children of their parents, creating an
entirely different complication. Some families talked openly about adoptions while others did not really discuss it. Some families
stayed together while others were separated by divorce or death of a parent.
Beyond examining how the mere knowledge one is adopted (and of a different race) affects day-to-day life, the book also explores the adoptees’ decision of whether to seek out their birth families.
Two in the book, including Lammert’s son Adam Carlson, whose story makes up the first chapter, found their birth parents, while
others have either come up empty or did not choose to begin an intense search.
Someone reading this book either thinking about adoption or parenting an adopted child of a different race may read between the
lines as to what worked and what didn’t with the book’s nine adoptee contributors. But the overall lesson is that what works for
one child may not work for another.
The book itself can be uncomfortable - and thought-provoking - particularly when reading about the outright discrimination or
stereotypes that the adoptees endured on top of their struggles to fit into their own families. The stories help answer questions that
would normally be too hard or perhaps too rude to ask.

MOTHERS FOR SALE
Women in Kolkata’s Sex Trade

Indrani Sinha & Shamita Das Dasgupta

Mothers for Sale attempts to offer an understanding of sex workers as mothers, which goes beyond the current debate on the viability and legitimacy of sex work for women. It highlights the aspirations and fears, joys and disappointments, triumphs and failures that sex workers share with all mothers. Based on information culled from more than 750 sex workers including child prostitutes and 300 children, Mothers for Sale takes an unblinking look at the lives of mothers involved in the sex trade of Kolkata, India.

Indrani Sinha founded Sanlaap in 1987 and works with women and young people fighting for their rights and protesting violence against women.

Shamita Das Dasgupta cofounded Manavi in New Jersey and is an Adjunct Faculty of Law with the NYU Law School.

Published by Dasgupta-Alliance
Pages 288
Softcover, Perfect Binding
Price $25.95

For purchase of 5 or more books, quantity discount is available. Please contact globalbooksusa@gmail.com or visit http://www.globalbooksus.com/ for details.

The authors of this volume have shown how deep insight and in-depth study can enhance the quality of knowledge and lead to the design of intervention strategies that are both effective and feasible…There are unambiguous pointers to what the state, community and society need to do for ensuring not only welfare of the sex workers but their very human rights.
– Kumkum Bhattacharya, Professor, Dept. of Social Work; Director of Publishing Dept., Visva-Bharati, India. Coauthor, Saontal Muktadharay Prabesh (Bengali), Purbanchal Sanskriti Kendra, Kolkata.

A sharply intelligent and compassionate exploration of an East Indian social reality. Mothers for Sale is notable for its unblinking examination of the complexity and “thickness” of local culture. This is a must-read book for anyone with a serious interest in the issues of South Asian womanhood.
– Dr. Kalyan Ray, Director, Int’l Partnership for Service-Learning. Co-author, Visions of Service, IPSL Press, NY; author, Eastwords, Penguin Books India.

Sinha and Das Dasgupta’s Mothers for Sale is a unique and urgently needed book as it focuses on how motherhood of sex workers is an invisible role worldwide and the implications for their children as well. The greatest strength of this book is that it sets the local experience of these women and their children in the context of the global, highlighting women’s lack of resources and recourses in a patriarchal world.
– Natalie J. Sokoloff, Professor of Sociology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice—CUNY, New York. Co-editor of Domestic Violence at the Margins: Race, Class, Gender & Culture and The Criminal Justice System and Women: Offenders, Prisoners, Victims, and Workers.

ANNOUNCING A NEW PUBLICATION

Voices from Colorado:
Perspectives of Asian Pacific Americans
by Nestor J. Mercado, Elnora Minoza-Mercado and Alok Sarwal
2008
(ISBN 978-0-615-20213-6)

The authors and other leaders of Asian Pacific American communities in Colorado are pleased to announce the publication of Voices from Colorado: Perspectives of Asian Pacific Americans. Asian and Pacific Americans (APAs) are one of Colorado’s fastest growing groups, and they have been an integral part of this state’s economy and society since the late nineteenth century. However, the story of their experiences and contributions is not widely known. Voices makes these vital APA communities more visible and accessible. The chapters in book provide background material on APA cultures and history and then focus on contemporary Colorado APA economic, organizational, educational and social/health service endeavors. Other topics covered include APA community social and cultural leaders, youth, festivals, media, the creative arts, the Japanese American internment, and current issues. Most of this material is presented through the words of Colorado APAs themselves who, through interviews and their own written accounts, describe their lives, accomplishments, and rich and diverse cultures.

Voices is a unique, one-of-a-kind publication that will be of interest to all readers who want to know more about the diverse racial and ethnic groups in Colorado. The book also is a valuable educational resource and reference for students and teachers. The authors are longtime, highly respected Colorado APA community leaders, and they have produced this book with the cooperation of many of the leading APA individuals and organizations in this state. Reviews of this book have been highly positive, with comments such as

‘Voices From Colorado’ explores an amazing variety of Asian Pacific Americans (APA), communities and celebrations in Colorado. The stories and accomplishments from the younger generations to the old, from APA businessmen and women to students are inspiring and impressive. As a woman of Asian heritage, I was moved by the rich history of our culture in Colorado and the future potential of Asian Pacific Americans.
Best,
Teresa Kostenbauer

Congratulations on your book launch. It is outstanding and I am honored to be included. Quite obvious that much care and love as well as diligence and accuracy went into the contents. The comprehensiveness of the book is over the top impressive.
Mary Lee Chin
Nationally known nutrition and media consultant,
spokesperson for nutrition and food corporations
and for the American Dietetic Association.

The struggle continues today that has been chronicled so well by you. A monumental effort, well done.
Marge Taniwaki

This book is highly recommended for library purchase. Questions or requests for additional information can be directed to the publisher at: voicesfromcolorado@gmail.com or 303/635-6925.

APAs are one of the fastest growing populations in the country. The projected number of U.S. residents in 2050 who will identify themselves as APA is 33.4 million, which will be eight percent of the total U.S. population. Also, how can APAs remain invisible in the U.S. given their increasing social, economic, and cultural contributions and influences?

There are many books on Asian Pacific Americans in the market today, but this one is different because it is specifically written about the experiences of and by APAs in Colorado. However, we also have addressed issues that are relevant for Asian and Pacific Americans elsewhere as well. We believe that this book will be a contribution to existing information about APAs.

The highlights of the book are the interviews with a cross-section of APAs in Colorado. We hope our readers will not only learn about the APAs, but will also find inspiration from them.

Finally, as stated in the beginning of the book, we hope we have captured and conveyed the America of Colorado’s Asian and Pacific Americans. We further hope that, as a result, our readers now have a better understanding of APAs and that they will want to continue learning more about them.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Nestor J. Mercado, retired editor-in-chief of Asian Pacific American Times, Chair Emeritus, National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) Region V, author: God Bless America, a discussion of family values and Fulfillment of a Dream, past president, life member, Filipino American Community of Colorado (FACC), former Assistant Editor, Economic Research Journal, Graduate School of Business, University of the East, M.A. in Economics, University of the East, Master in Public Administration, University of the Philippines, Life Member, Pi Gamma Mu, International Social Science Honor Society, has been a lifelong advocate of visibility of Asian Pacific Americans.

Elnora M. Mercado, retired managing editor, Asian Pacific American Times, Asst. Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado, Denver; retired Librarian, Auraria Library; B.S. Library Science, University of the Philippines, M.S.L.S. Syracuse University; Fulbright Travel grantee; past president, life member, Filipino American Community of Colorado (FACC) hopes to put Asian Pacific Americans on the map of Colorado and in the U.S. for their social, economic and cultural contributions through this book:

Alok Sarwal, PhD., executive director for Colorado Asian Health, Education and Promotion (CAHEP), a nonprofit 501C3 organization, successfully completed projects for reducing health disparities in the Asian Pacific American (APA) population in Colorado, has been president of India Association of Colorado, vice-chair, Kindred Spirit Council of the Denver Center of Performing Arts. Recently selected for the prestigious 2007 David Satcher Leadership in Community Health national award.

For information on ordering, please download the order form: Voices from Colorado Order Form