I was 10 minutes from the Monterey Park shooting on Lunar New Year’s Eve, eating dim sum with 12 of my closest family members and friends, most Chinese. Monterey Park is where we have usually celebrated since my family and I moved to the U.S. from Asia, and the San Gabriel Valley was where we grew our village of gossiping Asian aunties who doted and cooked and cared for you like you were their own.
So on the morning of our new year, the shooting sent reverberations throughout my community. People heard of relatives who were killed and friends who ended up in the hospital. Some of our aunties danced regularly at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio the shooter targeted. All of us knew that for many in Monterey Park, the dance hall was not just a dance hall. It was a haven, a place where people went to gather, to connect, to remedy their anxieties and stress. Dancing there was their therapy.
As someone who grew up here and now works in mental health, I’ve been haunted by this question: How will this community wrestle with their trauma?
