U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra came home Thursday, Feb. 23, to a city still reeling from a mass shooting last month inside a Monterey Park dance hall.
Becerra, who served 12 terms in Congress as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, said he and his wife Carolina maintain their home in Monterey Park.
Becerra and Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, invited 15 local politicians and community leaders to discuss increasing the accessibility of mental health and behavioral health care for Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI).
Panelists included L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis; Jose Sanchez, mayor of Monterey Park; Assemblymember Mike Fong, D-49th District; Glenn Masuda, senior clinical director of the Asian Pacific Family Center; and Cindy Montoya, California Survivor Lead of Moms Demand Action.
Manju Kulkarni, executive director of the AAPI Equity Alliance, oversees more than 40 community-based groups, including those that offer mental health aid in therapies both traditional and not.
“More Asian Americans report anti-Asian sentiment as their greatest source of concern, and you see that (racial trauma) growing,” Kulkarni said.
