Utah Valley University (UVU) joins the nation in honoring Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) every May during AANHPI Heritage Month. UVU recognizes and celebrates our diverse student body throughout the year, and we use national heritage months as an opportunity to appreciate the different groups that bring unique perspectives to our campus community.

The history of AANHPI Heritage Month goes back to 1977 when the House of Representatives designated the first 10 days of May as Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. The beginning of May was chosen to recognize two key dates in Asian American history: May 7, 1843, when the first Japanese immigrant arrived in the United States, and May 10, 1869, when the first transcontinental railroad was completed following the work of a largely Chinese crew.

Since Asian-Pacific Heritage Week was expanded into a month-long observance in 1992, we honor AANHPI groups throughout the entire month. But why do we celebrate multiple cultural groups together in May when the history of this heritage month began with recognizing Asian American history?

Today, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders are viewed as separate, individual categories, but that wasn’t always the case. For much of the United States’ history, there was no federal distinction between Asian and Pacific Islander identities. The U.S. Census shows us not just the populations of racial and ethnic groups across history, but also how those groups have been defined throughout U.S. history.

• 1860: The first category for Asian Americans on the census was for Chinese people in 1860. It was only included in California in the 1860 census and expanded to the rest of the country throughout the rest of the 19^th century as immigration from Asia increased.
• 1940: By the 1940s, the census included “Chinese, Filipino, Hindu, Japanese, and Korean” in the category for Asian Americans.
• 1960: There was no distinction for any Pacific Islander group until 1960, the first census after Hawaii was made into a state.
• 1980: The “Hawaiian” category was expanded to include two more specific groups, Guamanians and Samoans.
• 1990: The 1990 census was the first to include a write-in option for “Other API” identities for Asian and Pacific Islander groups not specified category descriptions. This allowed people to respond with their individual identities, but it still included Asian and Pacific Islander groups together.
• 2000: It wasn’t until the 2000 census that Asian and Pacific Islander groups were separated into two different categories.

Today, we celebrate Asian Americans and Pacific islanders as separate identity groups that have a shared history in U.S. history. May was officially proclaimed Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month in 1992 to begin recognizing this separation. In 2021, President Joe Biden officially included Native Hawaiians as its own distinction in his 2021 Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month proclamation.

Each year, the Federal Asian Pacific American Council (FAPAC) sets a theme for AANHPI Heritage Month. The 2024 theme is “Advancing Leaders Through Innovation.” UVU celebrates the trailblazers and leaders from the AANHPI community and the cultures, perspectives, and experiences they bring to our campus. We believe in the power of creating new, innovative educational experiences that uplift Wolverines as the leaders of tomorrow.