Today is the 137th anniversary of the Chinese Expulsion from Eureka, CA so I have been working on a small gathering to acknowledge the day at the site of Eureka’s Chinatown as part of the Eureka Chinatown Project. Here are my short remarks for the event.
On this site in 1885, there was a community, 200-300 people, many from Guangdong province in China. They were shop keepers, fishermen, farmers, cooks, laundry workers, construction workers, and servants- also sons, fathers, brothers, uncles, and daughters, mothers, sisters, and aunts. Following a terrible accident, they were forcibly removed from this place and became part of a lineage of forced removal not only here but across this country once xenophobic acts were legalized and then broadly supported by national, regional and local leadership.
The destruction of this community is what brings us together today, in memory but also in solidarity and in hope. There is a growing community through the Eureka Chinatown Project striving to reimagine this place- City, County, and Nation- as a place where our neighbors, friends, shopkeepers and family of Asian descent can be safe, connected, and recognized for their important contributions to this place we all call home. We are updating the past narrative of Eureka’s Chinatown to one that recognizes the events that took place here, but also the the overwhelming strength it took for Chinese immigrants to get here and live in this environment that is difficult not only for one’s physical existence but for cultural existence at a time when xenophobia reared its head and changed this place and hundreds of lives forever.
Thank you for joining us to acknowledge this day, the strength of the people who lived here, and the work that is being done.
Katie Buesch 