Spokane celebrates Lunar New Year with food, dance, activities

Whether it was the food, dances or dozens of vendors, hundreds of people embraced and celebrated Asian culture as part of the Lunar New Year celebration Saturday at the Spokane Convention Center.
Michael Cortez, who wore a brightly colored Filipino Barong, said he and his wife, Alice Cortez, wanted to expose his nearly 1-year-old son to different cultures at the Lunar New Year celebration, often referred to as Chinese New Year.
“He doesn’t understand yet, but hopefully when he grows up older he knows where he’s coming from and understands different cultures, not just ours, at these events,” Michael said.
Michael said he and his wife moved in 2022 from San Jose, California, to the Spokane area for his career. Michael is stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base.
Alice, who is Vietnamese, said she loves that people came out to experience and learn about other cultures.
“We love that there’s so many people that will come out and learn about the cultures, especially when there’s so many here ’cause we’re also learning too as we’re seeing all these other Asian cultures that are sharing in one event,” she said.
The couple was speaking with Anne Marie SamNicolas DeCaro, who had a small booth set up about Guam, a U.S. island territory is the Pacific.
DeCaro was born in the Philippines and grew up in Guam before moving to Spokane 50 years ago. DeCaro’s son was near her serving Pacific islands food from Island Style Food & BBQ, a restaurant her son owns on North Division Street.
“I always say in my own way, my son and I are trying to singlehandedly share about Guam with everyone,” she said.
She said there are hundreds of people from Guam in the Spokane area.
Members of Asians for Collective Liberation (ACL) in Spokane hosted one of the many booths lining the Convention Center floor.
“Our goal is to help create a more thriving community where everyone feels like they can belong,” said Tia Moua, political organizer for Asians for Collective Action, ACL’s sister organization.
Moua said the groups work to create that thriving community through civic engagement and mental health and wellness programs, like cooking classes and art workshops. She said members advocate for different legislation relating to environmental, racial and economic justice.
Moua and her group will travel to Olympia next month to support a Senate bill that calls for the instruction of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander history in public schools.
“Because our histories are often erased and forgotten, we want to acknowledge the fact that in order to combat the racism and discrimination that we often experience as Asian Americans and to help people to see a more fuller, richer history of the U.S., then we have to include our histories,” Moua said.
“ ’Cause Asian American history is U.S. history, too.”
Spokane is rich with some of that history, like Trent Alley, a stretch of blocks on the east side of downtown that was home to Spokane’s Chinese and Japanese communities and businesses for much of the 20th century. The Immigration Act of 1924, the Great Depression and, later, Expo ’74 led to its demise.
A Trent Alley storytelling exhibit, which ACL helped put together, containing foldable flyers about the history of Spokane’s international district was stationed Saturday near the live performance stage.
Historical markers honoring Trent Alley and Chinatown were unveiled in May 2023 in Riverfront Park as part of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebration.
The Trent Alley marker was placed at the Saranac Building on Main Avenue, and the Chinatown marker was installed at the Fruchi Building on Bernard Street.
Moua, who is Hmong American, said she personally doesn’t celebrate Lunar New Year and instead celebrates Hmong New Year, but Saturday’s celebration still means a great deal to her.
“It’s such a huge event that brings together so many diverse groups of people,” Moua said. “I just love seeing people being able to celebrate ourselves. … I think this is a big testament to how strong our Asian community here is and how we should be proud of our cultures and identities. I hope this inspires people to continue educating others on different Asian histories and contributions.”