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In an interview before his speech, Yu told NBC News that she knew it was the moment.
"It's a bit like completing an arc," she said. "And I know that this huge responsibility weighs on me doing things right."
For the defenders of the interests of the Chinese Americans, the 150th anniversary of the railway company was an opportunity to write the Chinese workers and their heroic contributions in the annals of history.
"The railway they built or helped to build unified the country," said Russell Low, 66, whose great-grandfather and brother from the back -grand-dad worked for the central Pacific. "It made us a nation for the very first time – socially, psychologically, economically – and it's important. But the lasting impact is the people. "
A railway is built
Union Pacific and Central Pacific both inaugurated the first transcontinental railroad in 1863.
In conjunction with the existing eastern lines, the Union Pacific was built west of Council Bluffs, in Iowa (bordering Omaha), relying on workers including veterans of the civil war and immigrants from the east coast. Many of them were Irish, but none were Chinese.
To the east of Sacramento, California, the central Pacific had a predominantly Chinese workforce. Many were contract migrants from China.
Acts of Congress granted the two companies concessions and land financing.
Faced with a shortage of labor, the Central Pacific hired Chinese living in California on a trial basis in 1865. When exhausted this pool of workers arrived in the early 1850s in mines and others West areas, the railway began in China, mainly from Guangdong Province to the south.
By February 1867, about 90% of the Central Pacific workforce was Chinese, according to the North American Chinese Railway Workers' Project of Stanford University. The others were of European European origin, mainly Irish.
At its peak, between 10,000 and 15,000 Chinese worked in the central Pacific, with perhaps 20,000 in total.
It is estimated that between 10 000 and 12 000 Irish people also contributed to the construction of the railway. A smaller number of Mormons, veterans of the American Civil War, blacks and other nationalities, including Italians and Germans, were also employed.
Hundreds, if not more than a thousand Chinese, died during the construction of the line.
Their efforts and hard work convinced the highest authorities in the central Pacific, including Leland Stanford Railroad President, whose antichinese views were at the center of his campaign for the governor of California.
Yet despite their achievements, Chinese workers have often been reduced to speeches in American history classes and textbooks, a point advocates and educators have worked to change.
"These stories … are American stories," Low said. "These are not American-Chinese stories. These are stories that belong to you all. "
RETURNING A PLACE IN HISTORY
At the top of the promontory, an isolated expanse at 5,000 meters altitude where the tracks met, the celebration of Friday began with a lion dance, a Chinese tradition that brings luck and eliminates evil.
Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao also spoke about the contributions of Chinese railway workers.
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