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Written By Evette Padilla, member of the Dolan Law Firm Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee

November is Native American Heritage Month, and the Dolan Law Firm would like to acknowledge and give thanks to the Ramaytush Ohlone people of Yelamu, aka San Francisco; whose unceded lands and territories have provided a safe home to this firm’s main San Francisco office for over 20 years.

In order to accurately honor Native American history, we must  acknowledge that the indigenous peoples of precolonial United States experienced mass genocide at a scale unlike any other in World History.

“The nation’s indigenous people had a population of nearly 10 million before European settlers explored America. Their numbers began to fall rapidly shortly after that due to war and diseases brought by the settlers. Native Americans faced centuries of persecution and discrimination, losing their land and resources and being forced onto reservations that lacked the soil and natural resources needed to build and sustain their communities.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the estimated population of American Indians and Alaska Natives, as of July 1, 2007, was 4.5 million, or 1.5 percent of the total U.S. population.  

Today, some of the issues Native Americans face include threats from federal and state governments related to land-use and resource extraction. Furthermore, Native Americans have the highest poverty rate of any major racial group, with one in four people living below the poverty line. The tragedies of murdered missing indigenous women and girls have ripped away generations of matriarchs from their families and communities. The disregard for the wellbeing of the Earth in exchange for corporate greed for fossil fuel money, has left native lands and waterways so contaminated to sustain any form of life. We mourn all the generations that died, and at the same time we celebrate all the generations that have survived. 

The diverse Native American cultures and communities have endured despite centuries of violence, injustice and discrimination. Their resilience to persevere in the face of mass societal and historical erasure is commendable. Their centuries of and present day land stewardship sustains the life that remains in the United States.

Let’s continue to amplify indigenous voices, highlight and celebrate the diverse and rich culture of Native American people, and  take meaningful action to preserve the Native land. To learn more about the histories and contemporary experiences of Native Americans, here are some resources we recommend:

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
• 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, by Chris Mann
• Not “A Nation of Immigrants”: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
• 7 Must-See Films on Native American History and Life
• American Bar Association’s Introduction to Status, Realities, Legal Framework and Future of Indigenous Peoples in the United States and Canada

The Dolan Law Firm celebrates Filipino American History Month

By Dolan Law Firm, DE&I Committee

The celebration of Filipino American History Month in October commemorates the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the continental United States, which occurred on October 18, 1587, when “Luzones Indios” came ashore from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Esperanza and landed in what is now Morro Bay, California. 

Today, the Bay Area is home to the largest Filipino community outside of the Philippines and over 500,000 Filiipino Americans call the greater Los Angeles area their home. In 2009, U.S. Congress recognized October as Filipino American History Month in the United States. Various states (including California), counties, and cities in the U.S. have established proclamations and resolutions declaring observance of Filipino American History Month.

Filipino American History Month: 50 Years Since the First Young Filipino People’s Far West Convention

Each year, the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) shares a theme for Filipino American History Month. This year’s theme is “50 Years Since the First Young Filipino People’s Far West Convention”.  The convention, which is hailed as the beginning of the Filipino American Movement, took place at Seattle University and brought over 300 young Filipino Americans from the West Coast. Learn more about the First Young Filipino People’s Far WEst Convention and FAHNS and Filipino American History Month here.

The FANHS states that

“this theme is particularly crucial in 2021, especially as we are still amidst a global pandemic that has disproportionately affected communities of color in general and Filipino American healthcare workers specifically. We are also still navigating a culture of state-sanctioned violence against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), which resembles the historical racism faced by BIPOC communities (including Filipino Americans) throughout the history of the US. We are also still combating anti-Asian violence that resembles the anti-Asian and anti-Filipino violence that occurred a century ago in places like Watsonville, CA and Yakima Valley, WA. We must educate others – as well as our own families and communities – about our history, so that historical violence does not repeat itself over and over again.”

Activities and/or celebrations related to Filipino American History Month in the San Francisco Bay Area:

• San Francisco Public Library: This year, the Library’s celebration honors the Filipino American community in the Bay Area’s resilience against the tragedies and travails of the COVID-19 pandemic with the theme darating ang liwanag, or “Hope will come.” Throughout the month of October, the public is invited to learn more about the unique history and contributions of this community through interactive workshops, demonstrations, book readings, and more. 
• Filipino American History Month Celebration with SF Mayor London Breed: Filipino American History Month Celebration, hosted by San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed and the Filipino American Arts Exposition (FAAE), on Thursday, Oct. 21 at 5:30 PM.

Activities and/or celebrations related to Filipino American History Month in the the greater Los Angeles Area:

• LAX lights Los Angeles International Airport lit up in honor of Fil-Am History Month from September 30-October 2
• LA Public Library: Books to Celebrate Filipino American History Month

For additional resources available to better understand the history of and to honor the contributions of Filipino Americans in the US and California, check out:

• The Filipino American National Historical Society: http://fanhs-national.org/filam/
• This Filipino American Life podcast
• My Family Moved to the US for a Better Life. But What Does That Really Mean? Buzzfeed News article on Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes
• From the Bay to the Bayou: 10 Places That are Steeping in Filipino American History, The Points Guy article on travel.
• Shades of L.A: The Filipino American Experience

Celebrating Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month By the Dolan Law Firm DE&I Committee

In honor of Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated from September 15 to October 15, the Dolan Law Firm celebrates the culture of both Hispanic and Latinx individuals and communities.

Background

“Hispanic Heritage Month”  began as a weeklong celebration coined as “Hispanic Heritage Week” in 1968. President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Hispanic Heritage Week Bill (P.L. 90-498) and was eventually enacted into law on August 17, 1988 (law-100-402) by President Ronald Reagan who extended the week to a full 31 days.

Additional Important Dates

• September 15 marks the independence day for various Latin countries, primarily from Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. 
• September 16 is Mexico’s independence Day.
• September 18 is Chile’s Independence Day.
• The second Monday of October (October 11th this year) was originally observed as Christopher Columbus Day. However, many have rejected the commemoration of Columbus and have pushed for the holiday to be renamed to celebrate the unique and often indigenous ancestry of Latinx people. Many communities of color and officially recognized by cities and states across the U.S. celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Some Latin American cultures celebrate Dia de la Raza, Day of the Race or Day of Hispanic Heritage. Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to highlight and celebrate the rich contributions and diverse makeup of Latin American culture.

Debate on the term Hispanic or Latinx?

The term Latinx is originated in “activist circles primarily in the U.S. as an expansion of earlier gender-inclusive variations such as Latino/a and Latin@”. The “x”does not imply a specific gender – as would the “o” (masculine) or “a” (feminine) for nouns in Spanish and is meant to disrupt the grammatical binary that is inherent in this romance language” according to Joseph M. Pierce, an assistant professor in the Department of Hispanic Languages & Literature at Stony Brook University.

The difference between Latinx and Hispanic largely comes down to how you self-identify. Latinx has been adopted among people who are looking for a more gender-free alternative to Latino or Latina (leaving no option for those who choose to identify as non-binary).

Honoring Historical Events and Contributions Made by People of Hispanic/Latino Heritage

1. Color TV  –  Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena, only 23-years-old, patented a chronoscope adapter with which black and white cameras of the day could capture color. NASA used the mechanism as recently as 1979 to transmit images of Jupiter.  
2. Mendez v. Westminster – In 1946, eight years before Brown v. Board of Education, Mexican Americans in Orange County California won a class action lawsuit to dismantle the segregated school system. Federal District Judge Paul McCormick, delivered a landmark ruling that segregation of Mexican Americans was not only unenforceable under California law, but it violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 
3. Helen Rodriguez Trias  –  Headed the department of pediatrics at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx. In 1970 she was a founding member of the Committee to End Sterilization abuse and in 1971 a founding member of the Women’s Caucus of the American Public Health Association. She supported abortion rights, fought for the abolishment of enforced sterilization and sought neonatal care for underserved people. She drafted guidelines requiring a woman’s written consent to sterilization in a language they could understand and set a waiting period between the consent and the sterilization procedure. She is credited with helping to expand the range of public health services for women and children in minority and low-income populations in the United States, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
4. Astronaut Ellen Ochoa became the first Latina to go to space in 1993. She served on a  nine-day mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery where she studied the Earth’s ozone layer, then returned to space three more times, spending nearly 1,000 hours in orbit. Ochoa was honored with NASA’s  distinguished Service Medal and served as the director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas, from 2013 to 2018. In 2017, she was inducted to the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame and in 2018 she was inducted into the 2018 International Air and Space Hall of Fame class.
5. Sonia Sotomayor – Became the first Latina Supreme Court Justice and the third woman to serve on the court. She ruled in the majority which upheld the Affordable Care Act twice, and in Obergefell v. Hodges, to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states.