The practice of sending messages, money, packages, and photos across thousands of miles did not begin in the twentieth century with the Internet or with global shipping companies. Immigrants to America from Asia and the Pacific Islands--known collectively among themselves as Asian Pacific Americans or APAs--started some of these international business practices in the sixteenth century and perfected them by the second half of the nineteenth century.

Local lives and global ties means that even as these immigrants' boots were muddied in the California lettuce fields by day, their thoughts would fly each night like sparks from a campfire to ...