Central Oregon groups help create authentic celebrations for Asians and Pacific Islanders

As twilight fell in Bend, people gathered in a smallish room at the far end of the East Bend Library. Members of the Asian and Pacific Islanders Collective, or APIC, and friends trickled in. They were gathering to participate in game night.

There was lắc bầu cua, a Vietnamese game of chance, a modified game of Jenga, where people had to pull wooden pieces with chopsticks. There was also a large drawing of a blue snake, which symbolized the new year, for people to decorate and sign.

APIC co-founder huong tran said it’s important that different Asian and Pacific Islander communities get to celebrate holidays authentically. It’s one reason APIC exists, they said. The group organized a game night at the urging of people who went to its recent pancultural celebration, “Spring Festival/Tet/Chinese New Year/Seollal.”

APIC provides safe spaces for people to connect and learn about different API cultures. The group has also educated people who were perpetuating harmful stereotypes, tran said. That’s important in Central Oregon, where less than 2% of the population are Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander according to 2020 U.S. Census data.

When Chris Saturnio and his family were considering moving to Bend, he said they looked at the demographics and felt concerned by the small number.

Sarturnio is Filipino-American and his wife, Mary To-Saturnio, is Vietnamese-Chinese-American. Both grew up in major metropolitan areas with access to not just large Asian communities but varied communities of color.

In the end it was their friend, who is also Filipino, who helped them choose Bend.

“We were like, ‘Hey, know what? If Paul’s been living there for the last six years and he’s been enjoying it, then that could be a good sign for us to try something new,’” Saturnio said.

When tran, who is diaspora Vietnamese, moved to Bend almost two decades ago, they said, “There wasn’t a space for us to celebrate any of our holidays.”

This year, Saturnio said, he and his family attended multiple celebrations.

“Mary and I looked at each other like, ‘Whoa, did we just go to three Lunar New Year festivals on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Bend?’”

APIC events are often multicultural. At game night, people across different diasporic communities came together. Community members have said because their ethnic or racial populations are smaller in Central Oregon, they often find themselves building a bigger pancultural network.

That’s been something Saturnio has been keenly intentional about.

“Whether it was small things like going to Vámonos Outside climbing nights at Bend Rock Gym or attending Juneteenth,” he said, “just to kind of feel like we are diverse here.”

He and his wife now have a running joke about meeting a new Asian family every time they walk downtown. He said they take pleasure in witnessing the growing diversity of Bend.

Saturnio has two adolescent children. Because their family has multiple Asian identities, he said conversations about culture are important.

“In order to truly know themselves, they have to know who they are in regards to heritage and history,” Saturnio said.

At this year’s Spring Festival celebration, the couple donned the outfits they wore for their Chinese wedding.

“It’s just nice for us to bring those back out and not only wear them for the Lunar New Year, but also just remember our wedding, or at least our Chinese wedding,” he said.