ASHA means hope in multiple South Asian languages. It is also my paternal grandmother's name. This magazine would showcase displays of resiliency in South Asian migration stories.

The cover's portrait is of Thumbu Sammy; he was 17 when this photo was taken at Ellis Island in 1911. I found this photo when I was in high school when SAADA (South Asian American Digital Archive) had been promoting and sharing it a lot. It was through this photo that I learned South Asians even came in through Ellis Island.
It's been difficult to find out what's happened to Thumbu. He came here with his brother from British India as circus performers but they eventually went back.

In the foreground I used an image of women excitedly waving goodbye to a ship to show the how unwelcomed immigrants were and still are. Asian immigrants getting through Ellis Island was rare and the fact that that history isn't part of what we learned in schools just shows that we're still happy to dismiss them.

​​On Thumbu's shirt, I've mapped immigration documents from his arrival on the Adriatic.

Thumbu and his brother, Perumall, are numbers 23 and 24.

Original photo of Thumbu by Augustus Sherman

I came up with the article titles from other articles and collections on SAADA's website. If you're interested I'd encourage you to browse their archive, you can spend hours at a time on there, I have.