How Asian immigrants to the U.S. resisted pressures to assimilate, creating a vibrant American suburbia

This article is adapted from UNASSIMILABLE: An Asian Diasporic Manifesto for the 21st Century by Bianca Mabute-Louie (HarperCollins, January 2025).

I grew up in San Gabriel Valley — also referred to as SGV or the 626. SGV is an ethnoburb — an ethnic enclave — that grew out of the 1970s, with its own economy and ecosystem that includes banks, grocery stores, hair salons and restaurants.

Since many early Asian immigrants to this country were barred from accessing white institutions, working together to build and protect this ethnic ecosystem was a matter of survival and necessity.