Prominent Asian Americans on the Heroes Who Inspired Them
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According to Hirono, Mink's signal characteristic was persistence. “She never gave up,” the senator points out. “She just kept fighting.” Mink left her congressional seat in 1976 to run for the Senate, a race she lost. After an appointment to the U.S. State Department and time leading a Washington lobby, Mink went home to Honolulu and won a seat on the city council. Two unsuccessful races later — one for governor, one for mayor of Honolulu — she again ran for Congress in 1990 and won her seat back. She remained a potent force in state and national politics until her death from viral pneumonia in September 2002. The last time the two women saw each other was in July of that year. “I was the lieutenant governor of Hawaii then, and I was running for governor,” Hirono notes. “We were talking about it over lunch, and Patsy looked at me and said, ‘Mazie, you just have to win.’ I always remember those words. That was the hardest race I've ever run. And I didn't win. But, like Patsy, I didn't give up.” A few years later, Hirono won a seat in Congress, and in 2013 she became the first female Asian American senator. By 2017 there were two others — although one of those two recently stepped down to become the vice president of the United States. Says Hirono, “I think that Patsy would be pleased.” Animator Ronnie del Carmen Remembers His Hero Tyrus Wong
Prominent Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on the Heroes Who Inspired Them
Meet the elders who paved the way for these celebrities
Olympian Greg Louganis Reflects on Hero Duke KahanamokuGreg Louganis on hero Duke Kahanamoku
"My parents never hid the fact that I was adopted,” says , 61. “They told me my birth father was Samoan, but I didn't know what that meant. I only knew that I had darker skin than the other kids.” Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Then, when he was 9 years old, the talented young diver traveled to a competition in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and saw a statue of Duke Kahanamoku, the legendary Hawaiian swimmer, who died in 1968. “I thought, He kind of looks like me,” Louganis recalls. “It was so gratifying to see that someone I resembled could be a champion." Louganis researched Kahanamoku and learned he was known not only for his five Olympic medals but for popularizing the sport of surfing, until then largely unknown outside of Hawaii. Having a Pacific Islander to look up to gave Louganis confidence, he adds. Yet it wasn't until he had won three of his own five Olympic medals that he first connected with his Pacific Island heritage in a personal way. At an appearance in Honolulu, he met his biological father, Fouvale Lutu, who had reluctantly given him up for adoption as an infant 24 years earlier. After more contact with Lutu and his other children — Louganis’ half brother and two half sisters — a bond was established. “They're just wonderful, loving, caring people, and I'm grateful to have them in my life,” Louganis notes. Now that the parents who raised him have died, Louganis and his husband, Johnny Chaillot, spend Christmas with the Lutus. In Waikiki there's a huge bronze statue of Kahanamoku. When Louganis sees it, he says, “I still feel a connection to him, especially now that I have discovered this part of my heritage." Dominic Valente/Hulu; Christopher HirsheimerPadma Lakshmi on hero Madhur Jaffrey br
had known about Madhur Jaffrey since college. A native of Delhi, the elegant Jaffrey broke barriers — first in the U.K., then in the U.S. — as an award-winning Shakespearean actress, TV host and food writer whose landmark 1973 book, An Invitation to Indian Cooking, is credited with introducing Indian cuisine in the West. “She is a great writer and a great artist,” says Lakshmi, 50, who immigrated to the U.S. from India at age 4. “I just never saw a career like that anywhere else. There were not very many Indian women who were known outside of India for anything but being Bollywood actresses. I always admired her ability to be herself and rise.” When the two women first met in the early 2000s — Lakshmi's then-husband was an old friend of Jaffrey's — Lakshmi was in the process of inventing her own hyphenate career as a model-actress-writer-food expert. “I still didn't know what my professional life was going to look like,” admits the longtime judge on Bravo's Top Chef and host of Hulu's Taste the Nation. “I had a great admiration for Madhur, but I don't think I appreciated her accomplishments then the same way I do today. Now I know what it takes to have done the things she did, especially at the time she achieved them.” In Jaffrey, Lakshmi found not only a role model but a mentor and friend. The older woman had learned to cook as an adult, via recipes that her mother mailed to her while she was a theater student in London, so she has a studied and intense relationship with the discipline — an intensity she recognized in Lakshmi. “When Padma really got into food, it was very interesting for me to watch how she explored the area, especially the way she brought attention to cuisines from Asia and around the world,” says Jaffrey, 87. “I have a lot of admiration for her for doing this. It's how our relationship grew.” The two share a conviction that food is more than just sustenance and sensory pleasure. “People often don't take food seriously, but it's a very serious aspect of a culture, because it has roots in history, religion, geography and just about everything else,” Jaffrey notes. “It's an important part of learning about a country, about a people, about every aspect of their lives.” Adds Lakshmi, “Food is a way for people to pass their heritage and culture on to their children.” Her international cookbook Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet was recently rereleased in paperback. Asked how she feels about being a pioneer in bringing Indian food to American palates, Jaffrey responds that she doesn't think about it much. “I don't focus on being the first,” she says. “Instead, I think about people carrying on the work that I started. It needs people to take it in all kinds of new directions. I'm so happy to see Padma carry on the work in a wonderful way.” Flowers & Gifts 25% off sitewide and 30% off select items See more Flowers & Gifts offers > Tan published The Joy Luck Club in 1989; it was the first of her six (and counting) best-selling novels. Shortly after the book was released, she went to one of Kingston's readings, introduced herself and received a warm welcome. “The first thing Maxine did was hug me and say, ‘We're sisters,’ “ Tan remembers. The writers stayed in touch and quickly bonded, jokingly sharing anecdotes about people confusing one for the other in public. When Kingston, 80, started her career, she'd had few models to follow other than Jade Snow Wong, whose book Fifth Chinese Daughter was published in 1950. For guidance, Kingston looked to Black writers such as Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Dick Gregory. “I found so much strength in the way they wrote about being invisible or about the inner life,” she recalls. “They wrote about things that had never been written about before. So I said to myself, I can do that, too. No reader has ever been able to read a story like mine.” To Tan, though, Kingston wasn't just telling her own story. She was creating an opening for other unheard stories to be told. “Maxine is an activist,” Tan says. “She's always championed those who have no voice." "Now there are more of us Asian American writers coming,” Kingston adds. “There are Vietnamese writers and Hmong writers and writers from the Pacific Islands. And I feel that I'm part of a movement.” If that movement has brought attention to diverse voices, it has also helped anchor those voices as fully American. At first, Tan notes, her books, along with Kingston's, were shelved in bookstores as “Asian American Literature.” “That divide doesn't occur anymore,” she says. “Our books are in the same section as other fiction writers’ books." Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesMazie Hirono on hero Patsy Mink br
"Patsy Mink was a risk taker,” says Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. A third-generation Japanese Hawaiian, , “knowing that she would be the first woman of color to be elected if she won — which she did.” In Congress, Mink took a broad view of her responsibilities, championing national causes such as the creation of Medicare and the protection of equal rights. In 1972 she coauthored Title IX, the law that equalized education funding between the sexes. “Patsy really stayed the course,” Hirono recalls. “She kept pushing for what she believed in, and that was an inspiration to me." Hirono, 73, arrived in Hawaii from Japan at almost 8 years old, along with her brother and her mother, who was fleeing a difficult marriage. “I'm grateful that America afforded me many opportunities,” Hirono says, “but my experience as an immigrant from a poor background means I know what it's like to not have opportunities. It's why I so appreciate what Patsy did."According to Hirono, Mink's signal characteristic was persistence. “She never gave up,” the senator points out. “She just kept fighting.” Mink left her congressional seat in 1976 to run for the Senate, a race she lost. After an appointment to the U.S. State Department and time leading a Washington lobby, Mink went home to Honolulu and won a seat on the city council. Two unsuccessful races later — one for governor, one for mayor of Honolulu — she again ran for Congress in 1990 and won her seat back. She remained a potent force in state and national politics until her death from viral pneumonia in September 2002. The last time the two women saw each other was in July of that year. “I was the lieutenant governor of Hawaii then, and I was running for governor,” Hirono notes. “We were talking about it over lunch, and Patsy looked at me and said, ‘Mazie, you just have to win.’ I always remember those words. That was the hardest race I've ever run. And I didn't win. But, like Patsy, I didn't give up.” A few years later, Hirono won a seat in Congress, and in 2013 she became the first female Asian American senator. By 2017 there were two others — although one of those two recently stepped down to become the vice president of the United States. Says Hirono, “I think that Patsy would be pleased.” Animator Ronnie del Carmen Remembers His Hero Tyrus Wong