Pertinent advice from a century ago, inscribed by a detained would be-immigrant into the walls of the Detention Center at Angel Island, near San Francisco. I visited it, again, this weekend. (more in ALT text and one follow-on note)
Replies
Angel Island is like a west-coast Ellis Island but its job was to imprison, not welcome, immigrants; to enforce the Asian Exclusion Act, and to create a place of cold comfort for immigrants. It's a chilling place to visit, even on a hot day.
sep 2, 2025, 5:45 pm • 9 0 • view
www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
sep 2, 2025, 6:00 pm • 8 1 • view
It is a moving place to visit. You might enjoy this IG post about Angel Island: www.instagram.com/p/DGycCSJywo...
sep 3, 2025, 5:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Thanks. It is appropriate to have the story told by those who have felt the lash of that hatred. A nit: not all the buildings burnt. The women's detention hall burnt along with the central admin hall, but the men's one endures. The poems carved into its walls are the reason it is preserved.
sep 4, 2025, 12:24 am • 1 0 • view
Powerful reminder of the human stories behind immigration. Those walls hold pain, hope, and resilience—lessons still relevant today. Thanks for sharing this history.
sep 2, 2025, 8:23 pm • 4 0 • view