Despite having now been a month since the Jan. 23 massacre in Monterey Park, and the shooter, Huu Can Tran is dead now, the neighborhood is forced to live on with the tragic memory. In wake of so much reactionary violence, this situation may seem like another sad tale among others, but not for the New Lunar participants and residents of Monterrey Park, nothing like this has occurred in their corner before.
Although the motives of the shooter seem personal, the impact it had on the prominently Asian community, enduring hate crime after another since the rise of reactionary rhetoric around the pseudo-science belief Asians and Covid epidemic were linked.
“This shooting comes in the wake of years of collective trauma faced by Asian Americans, adding to a mental health crisis. The number of reported anti-Asian hate crimes surged 177 percent in 2021, according to the California Department of Justice, the third year in a row. That statistic is likely to be an underrepresentation, as most hate crimes are never reported.”
Although there are civil society organizations in Monterey Park and throughout LA intervening to help people recover from the trauma, and to mobilize politics so there can be a progressive end to rampant hate violence. Still, the state has not performed any extensive measures to prevent any future massacres, with the unkept repression of reactionary movements and fire-arm access to right-wing maniacs remaining untouched.
So, until interventions can be made into the society, a counter-hegemony movement takes shape, the epitaphs will continue to be made.
Rest in Power...“Ming Wei Ma, one of the studio’s managers; Mymy Nhan, who joined the ancestors she had paid homage to earlier that day; Diana Man Ling Tom, who loved dance; Xiujuan Yu, a hardworking mother of three; Valentino Marcos Alvero, the life of the party; Yu Lun Kao, a contractor in construction; Hongying Jian, a volleyball enthusiast; Wen Tau Yu, a pharmacy student; Chia Ling Yau, who enjoyed music, dance, and travel; Muoi Dai Ung, a refugee from Vietnam; and LiLan Li, described as “a pillar of strength and optimism.”