One of the portals that appeared through The Madison Times was the opportunity to attend and photograph the first traditional Indian wedding held at Monona Terrace. The daughter of Shree and Lakshmi Sridharan, Anjali, was getting married. And Shree was aware of The Madison Times — and perhaps knew Heidi — and invited us to the wedding, which was held over a long weekend at Monona Terrace. It was a beautiful and quite colorful wedding with those in attendance dressed in traditional Indian garb. And the Sridharans have been friends of Heidi and mine ever since.

And then it was through the Wisconsin Organization of Asian Americans, WOAA, that I met other members of Madison’s Asian American community including the late Paul Kusuda. And I got reacquainted with Sharyl Kato who had worked at the Red Caboose Day Care in 1979 when my daughter Jennifer attended there. It truly is a small world.

Heidi also introduced me to the Filipino community through PAMANA. We would regularly attend their events, especially the annual Christmas Party. I became a member and continue to be a member to this day.

It was around this time that I became reacquainted with the Southeast Asian community. Back in the late 1980s when I worked at the Madison Urban League, we created the Multicultural Agency Training program in collaboration with Centro Hispano and United Refugee Services of Wisconsin. It was an all day training at the agency’s offices. And during breaks, we trainers would talk. And that was, in essence, my introduction to the Hmong, Cambodian and Lao communities.

During that time, I had gotten to know Shwaw Vang. And in the early 2000s, Shwaw won a seat on the Madison school board. During his tenure, 9/11 happened and I remember there was a hearing on whether or not the students should say the Pledge of Allegiance every day. And Shwaw, because he had been a refugee, came under intense, often negative scrutiny. I ended up getting up at the hearing and addressing Shwaw, saying that all of the people in the room — with the exception of the African Americans in the room — were immigrants including myself. I wanted to give him support during this ugly moment in Madison’s history. Eventually, Shwaw rewarded me with the exclusive announcement when he decided not to run for reelection for the school board. It was the only time in my 27 years as a journalist where other publicatikons led off their stories with, ‘According to The Capital City Hues...’

For 6-7 years, Heidi and I worked together at The Madison Times until I left near the end of 2005.

My son Andrew had gone off on his own adventure, teaching English as a second language in Hefei, China, which was about an eight-hour train ride west of Shanghai. My dear mother had passed away and so I used some of the funds to visit him in China. I met Andrew and his girlfriend Summer in Shanghai where we spent four days literally walking the city with Summer acting as our interpreter when needed.

Summer left for Hefei and Andrew and I headed to Beijing for a few days and celebrated the Chinese New Year while we were there. Beijing was undergoing a lot of transformation with building cranes dominating the skyline as it prepared to host the Olympics in 2008. And it was blending traditional with contemporary. One day, we were walking around Tienanmen Square that is lined with government buildings. And out of a window wafted Kenny G’s Songbird in sharp contrast. And as we walked through The Forbidden City, the home of many of China’s great dynasties, we turned a corner and there was a Starbucks selling coffee.

When I left The Madison Times, I had contemplated starting a multicultural, biweekly newspaper. It was during this trip to China that I made up my mind to do so. It was the end of January 2006 that I was in China and we published the first Hues about two months later. And Heidi came on board as the associate editor, while she also published the monthly magazine Asian Wisconzine.

In 2010, Heidi moved back to The Philippines when the Great Recession put a dagger through the heart of print advertising. She also missed seeing her grandchildren grow up. I am fortunate that the friendships that I formed along the way sustained my connections with the Asian American community.

I urge you to enter the portals of opportunity that open in your life. And one opportunity is to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Desi Heritage Month. It’s a long formal title that reflects the diversity within the Asian American community. Sometimes it is referred to as AAPI Heritage Month for short.

Begin your celebration with the stories in this issue. But don’t stop there. There is a lot to celebrate.