This week, we are proud to share the documentaries of KALW producer JoAnn Mar. Over the last four decades, many of her radio features have focused on Asian-American culture and history, and have been featured on NPR, Voice of America, and Pacifica Radio.
In today's show, JoAnn is debuting the second-half of her latest documentary: “When Dreams Turn To Ashes”, the story of her ancestors, who were among this country’s earliest Chinese immigrants in the early 1850s. Their fishing village in Monterey existed during a tumultuous time of deep discrimination and hostility towards the Chinese.
At the end of part one, the village burned down in 1906 under mysterious circumstances, probably an act of arson. In part two, the town of Pacific Grove finally faces a time of reckoning, over 100 years after the fire.
