During the Spanish Empire between 1565 and 1815, Spain transported products and people from its colonies in Southeast Asia to the Americas. But the arrival of people from Asia is often overlooked in the stories of North America’s earliest settlers.
Both free and enslaved people were among the first to arrive in the Americas to work in the New Spanish caste system. The first documented arrival was in 1587 when a Spanish galleon from the Philippines landed at Morrow Bay in California aboard the “Nuestra Senora de Buena Esperanza” (Our Lady of Good Hope).
In 1977, the U.S. House of Representatives proclaimed the first 10 days of May as Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. A year later, President Jimmy Carter made the then week-long celebration official. Congress approved a bill, signed in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush, designating May as Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
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