A visit to San Francisco this holiday season or anytime should include a visit to Angel Island Immigration Station.
More than just a scenic landmark, Angel Island is widely considered the Ellis Island of the West, the place where many Asian Americans entered the country in the early 1900s.
It’s been more than 30 years since I’ve visited the immigration station on Angel Island. It was a life changing moment, a time when I felt a connection between my own life and the life of my forefathers and mothers.
In a story for the Dallas News, Judith Fein talks about what you can expect on the special guided tour of the immigration station. You’ll be lead on the tour by a guide who is a descendant of a detainee on the island. You’ll walk through the barracks where men and women slept in cramped quarters. You’ll see the watch towers where guards kept a close eye on the immigrants. You’ll also see the wooden walls on which many of the detainees expressed their sorrow in heartfelt poems.
The immigration station is a product of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act which greatly restricted immigration to the US and spawned paper sons and daughters.
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You can read more about the tour and how you can sign up in the Dallas News.
