Asian American, Pacific Islander Latinos in the US see exponential growth, new analysis says

The number of people of both Latino and Asian American or Pacific Islander descent has more than doubled in the past two decades, but it remains an often ignored demographic group, UCLA researchers said Wednesday.

The UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute analyzed Census Bureau data from the past two decades. This included both the 2000 census and the American Community Survey’s five-year estimates of population characteristics from 2010 and 2022. Their analysis shows that people in the United States who identify as Latino and Asian American or Pacific Islander, or ‘AAPI Latinos ‘, have increased. from 350,000 to 886,000 in that period.

“We looked at people who identify as Latino, who are of Latino ethnicity, and then we looked across all these people when they answered the race question, what race they specified,” said Jie Zong, a senior research analyst. “If they specify that they are of (an) Asian race, we have considered these individuals to be AAPI and Latino.”

This shows that mixed-race Asians and Latinos are a more typical occurrence today, said Kevin Kandamby, a graduate student in Chicano/a and Central American Studies and member of the research team. Part of the reasoning in pursuing this was that this population remains understudied.

“This is still a very niche topic. I am happy to see that more and more people understand that this community is growing,” said Kandamby, who is Mexican and Sri Lankan.

Asian or Pacific Islander Latinos were primarily Asian immigrants from Latin America or American-born citizens with both Latino and Asian American or Pacific Islander parents, the analysis found.

The population trajectory has its roots in a long history of Latino and Asian and Pacific Islander people coming into contact with each other while meeting labor demands in the U.S., Kandamby said. There are records of Chinese immigrants, targeted by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, settling in towns on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border, and of Punjabi and Mexican farm workers intermarriing in California’s Imperial Valley in the early 1900s.

In fact, when grouped by state, one-third of Asian Latino Americans live in California, the data brief said. Texas and Hawaii are the next highest.

That doesn’t surprise Hawaii’s Democratic state representative, Sonny Ganaden, whose father is Filipino and his mother is Mexican. The 43-year-old who called himself “Mexipino” was constantly given the impression growing up in Orange County, California that he wasn’t really Latino or Asian. In 2018, he lost his first bid for the Statehouse, but came away with an invaluable and “decolonizing” experience. Residents in his neighborhood, which includes the heavily Filipino neighborhood of Kalihi, embraced him.

“I felt like I was out of place in the American experience and that’s when I ran for office. That’s when I felt accepted as well as accepted,” Ganaden said. “It’s like a community chose me and I chose a community and that was it.”

Having two cultures, which results in the irony of feeling less visible, is a common thread. Olivia Yuen, 29, a high school art teacher and well-known artist in Phoenix, has a Chinese father and a Mexican mother. When it came down to which culture was most dominant in her household, it was more of a tie.

“It definitely felt like…I wasn’t Mexican enough to be considered Mexican, or not Chinese enough to be considered Chinese,” Yuen said. “And because my parents raised me with a pretty Western approach, honestly, I felt like growing up, I identified primarily as an American.”

She was questioned about her ethnic background or treated as completely Asian. This led her to lean more towards her Chinese side.

“Now I recognize and identify myself on both sides of my heritage,” Yuen said.

Isabella Chavez, 23, the daughter of a Korean mother and a Mexican father, grew up in the military town of Killeen, Texas and felt fortunate enough to live in a mixed community where friends helped her find her identity. Having divorced parents and being raised by her Korean grandmother, she was surrounded by Korean culture. Chavez spent his childhood going to Korean churches, dry cleaners and supermarkets alone.

“I usually say I grew up Asian-American, even though I don’t look Asian in any way,” Chavez said. “Having been a mixed child, I found myself wondering, Well, I don’t look Asian. So is it right to identify as Asian American?”

It wasn’t until she was older that Chavez realized she didn’t have to choose one or the other. Living in San Antonio — with the vibrancy and pride of the Latino community — has made it easier to connect with her Mexican heritage, she said.

There were a lot of great things about growing up Asian and Latino for Ganaden. It meant many relatives on both sides, including an abuela and a lola. And putting Filipino or Mexican food on the table led to tasty mash-ups like “day-old adobo in a tortilla.”

“My favorite way to eat adobo is with rice and beans. So I think it’s kind of funny that there’s a variety of new food movements, or that there’s a random article in the New York Times about, “Look at this new merger.” I’m like… ‘Were you in my house?'” Ganaden said, chuckling.

Other trends that emerged from the data analysis were that “AAPI Latinos” scored higher than Latinos overall, but lower than all Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in educational attainment and homeownership. About one-third, or 33%, of AAPI Latinos have a bachelor’s degree or higher. By comparison, 55% of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and 19% of Latinos are at the same level.

The UCLA analysis also shows that the current population of Latino-Asian or Pacific Islanders is quite young. Almost half are 18 years or younger.

Kandamby hopes to look beyond the data and bring more attention to the identities of Asian or Pacific Islanders and Latinos. He also wants to show how life experience can vary within this population.

“We have very clearly different communities, views and identities, but we still justify the need to be included in the conversations, to know that we have specific needs that may be different from others,” Kandamby said.

___ Associated Press writer Fernanda Figueroa in Austin, Texas contributed to this report.

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Tang is a Phoenix-based member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on X at @ttangAP.