May 29, 2024

By Christine S. Escobar

For three decades, Del Sol Quartet has been committed to the music of our time. But with their Angel Island project, the group is looking back on local history and tracing its resonance to the present day.

Located in the San Francisco Bay, Angel Island is sometimes known as the “Ellis Island of the West,” but its story contains a darker history. During a 30-year period from 1910 to 1940, Asian immigrants to the United States, mostly of Chinese origin, were detained, questioned, and subject to racist and humiliating treatment at the Angel Island Immigration Station.

Approximately 500,000 immigrants arrived and were processed at Angel Island, with about 300,000 being detained. Chinese immigrants represented over one third of detainees and could be held for days at a time or even years. Their harsh treatment was due to the lasting effects of the discriminatory Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: the first law restricting U.S. immigration. It set forth a 10-year ban on Chinese laborers immigrating to the U.S. and also declared existing Chinese immigrants ineligible for citizenship.

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