Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month It's a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. A rather broad term, Asian-Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants. Source: Library of Congress

Paul Lo

ABC30 celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. We salute Mr. Paul Lo. He's the first Hmong- American judge in the United States. California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Lo to the Merced County Superior Court bench in December. He was sworn in on Friday, April 18, 2014 in Merced.

Paul Lo was born in Laos in Southeast Asia in 1968. He is the second oldest of nine children born to poor Hmong farmers. In 1975, Vietnam and Laos were overtaken by Communist forces. Many Hmong assisted Americans during the Vietnam War and were subject to violence and retribution. When Paul Lo was 7 years old, he and his family were sent to a refugee camp in Thailand. The family stayed there for four years. In 1979, the family made a new life in the United States, settling in Colorado. Paul did not speak English but his family stressed the importance of education. In 1981, when Paul Lo was 13 years old, the family moved to California.

Paul Lo attended schools in Northern California. He wanted to study psychology to help the Hmong community. Paul saw his parents and other Hmong families struggle to integrate with the language and culture in the United States. He often served as an interpreter for his parents as they tried to navigate through institutions like social services departments and the DMV. His high school History teacher suggested he could better serve the Hmong community by becoming a lawyer. There was a need for someone who could understand the legal system and be able to help Hmong families maneuver that system. Paul Lo graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Economics and earned his law degree at UCLA. In 1994, he became the first person of Hmong descent to pass the bar exam and practice law in California.

Paul Lo had a desire to come back and help the Hmong community, especially the older generation which needed help adjusting to life in the United States. Merced County has the fifth largest HmongAmerican population in the nation. Lo worked for a Merced law firm and later became a partner. He opened up his own practice emphasizing in civil litigation in 2003.

Paul Lo has a wife and five children. He received a standing ovation and was surrounded by friends, family, dignitaries and media during his swearing in ceremony in Merced in April. Paul Lo: bicultural, bilingual and making U.S. history on the bench at Merced County Superior Court.