Transcript for the 59-min w/music in news hole version of Crossing East: Refuge From War - Program Seven

PROGRAM SEVEN

BILLBOARD

ANNOUNCER: Major Funding for this series is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with support from PRI ? Public Radio International.

HOST: This is Crossing East? Our stories, our history, our America?

FARM YOON LEE: Refugee is people that someone come over and take over your homelands, and you have no place to go. You have to escape for your life.

KILONG UNG: Being on welfare is probably one of the most miserable things I?ve done in my life in America.

LYCHENG TANG: I cleaned toilets when I was in high school. I picked berries for all seasons ? cucumbers, nuts (they were so damned heavy), a big bucket for a buck, but I did it anyway because we need money to pay rent.

QUY NGUYEN: Yes, you are free, you are safe now, but you still have a connection to the country that belong to you that you live before. So it was very homesick?

HOST: I?m Margaret Cho? In a moment? Refuge From War?on Crossing East?

(NEWS BREAK)

SEGMENT A

HOST: I?m Margaret Cho and this is Crossing East?Our stories, our history, our America. We?re looking at America as a ?Refuge From War??

NEWSREEL: Thousands of demonstrators opposed to the Vietnam War assembled in the nation?s capitol for a mass protest. For the most part orderly minor scuffles did occur between the?

HOST: Most Americans know the impact of the Vietnam War on America. But know little of the horrors of war that took place in the cities and countryside of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. We know some escaped and fled their countries to come here as refugees.

HOST: Yet we do not know that most refugees are still in trauma. They rarely want to talk about their experiences even to their children. Many of the second generation may have heard mom or dad tell some of their ?boat? stories. But they know very little else except how Southeast Asians are represented in Hollywood?s Vietnam-era war movies.

SOUND OF HELICOPTERS, GUN FIRE

HOST: Chapter One. The War Ends for America.

In 1975, Southeast Asia was in chaos.

LINDA VO: The communist forces overtook the southern part of Vietnam and wanted to replace the political power. As a result, they imprisoned anyone who was a leader ? whether they were a military leader or a political leader in that country? and replaced the form of government so that the socialist form of government was being instituted in this country.

HOST: Dr. Linda Trinh Vo, Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine.

LINDA VO: In the aftermath, in both Laos and Cambodia, communist forces also were taking, fighting for power and this internal struggle let to a lot of death, a lot of instability, and a lot of imprisonment and torture of individuals and also, ethnic persecution of minority groups as well. Some of the groups that were persecuted were those in Laos, and they were the Hmong and the Mien groups who had fought alongside the CIA and the US military against the communists. So when communist forces took over in Laos, they persecuted and basically practiced ethno-genocide of those ethnic groups.

HOST: Daran Kravanh lived through the genocide of the Killing Fields when the communist Khmer Rouge took over in 1975. Up to three million people were exterminated through forced labor, starvation or execution. Out of a family of 11, only he and his brother survived.

DARAN: See this picture? All my family, all of them were killed. When you say one word, how do you survive? I cannot answer. Killing fields, several civil wars and killing fields and minefield and refugee camp and here, I?m here. Across everything I cannot believe?

HOST: When the American war ended in Vietnam in 1975, thousands of Vietnamese fled to the U-S. These refugees learned to live in a new country, building a vibrant community from coast to coast. But the legacy of warfare and post-war trauma still haunts them 30 years later.

Vietnamese American writer and journalist Nguyen Qui Duc (Nwin-Kwee-Duhc) reflects on the formation of a Vietnamese community in the US, and his own ties to his homeland.

Chapter Two. "Home is always somewhere else? by Nguyen Qui Duc,

SOUND: BELLS, MONKS PRAYING

My uncle just died. It was cold, even inside the funeral home as the monks prayed. A heart attack killed him at 75. He was just 45 when he left Viet Nam, coming to America and responsible for a wife, three kids, a stepmother, and me. I was 17, and without parents, so after the Vietnam War, my uncle took me with him. Saved my life, really.

An hour after we cremated him, a blizzard turned Maryland, where he lived, pristine white. It was such a strange landscape.

I left my uncle soon after I came to America and drifted around California.

START FADING OUT MONKS AMB

As a kid, I grew up in a time of war.
Before I became a teenager, America had already come to my country.
Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, or the Doors. That was what I understood America to be.

MOTORCYCLE/TRAFFIC

The music came with men in army fatigues?hundreds of them tore through our town in central Viet Nam?their trucks noisy, dusty, their rifles a scary sight. The year I turned ten, things really changed.

FIRECRACKERS

Tet, the lunar new year, had arrived. But the sound of firecrackers celebrating the year of the monkey in 1968 was replaced by gunfire and explosions.

ARTILLERY EXPLOSIONS

North Vietnamese troops invaded several cities and towns in the south.

In the city of Hue, where our family was on holiday, thousands died in a month of house-to-house fighting. Thousands disappeared?among them, my father. It would be 16 years before I saw him again.

SCHOOL AMBIANCE/KIDS/TRAFFIC/POP MUSIC

I carried on with school, but for years, my father?s absence loomed over us. And the war grew worse.

SOUND: HELICOPTER

When the war ended in 1975, an estimated 3 million Vietnamese had died. America was mourning the 58 thousand it had lost, and would come to relive the nightmare of defeat for years. Viet Nam plunged into extreme poverty.

SOUNDS FROM MOVIE GREEN DRAGON

About a hundred thousand Vietnamese ended up as refugees in America including my uncle, his family and myself. The churches, charities, and families that sponsored us did all they could to welcome us, and create physical comfort. What they couldn?t give was a sense of home.

SOUND OF BUS

At 17, I was riding the bus to school and always the feeling gaze of others. It was as if they could see the shame of defeat on my back, and the guilt of having left my parents and a sister behind.

SOUND FROM MARKET/STORES

For the first couple of years, we had no news of home, but we eventually learned to live with our pain. People I knew were getting married, building new families, new identities. At some point we began to accept that we were ?Asian Americans.? Time passes. We spoke more and more English, and then came time to apply for American citizenship. A sensible thing to do, but we did it with a measure of shame. Being American seemed a betrayal of our roots, our nation, our real selves.

DUC?S RADIO SHOW IN VIETNAMESE

I ended up in northern California, with a radio show for the Vietnamese that had formed a community here. We were settling down roots, in our little Saigons, replenished by the arrival of boat people?those who risked their lives escaping from communism.

SOUND OF LITTLE SAIGON

Watch one of their popular entertainment videos now: you wouldn?t know these are people who?d been in labor camps, who?d lived in near hunger in the 80s, and who?d escaped on boats across the Pacific.

TV ENTERTAINMENT IN VIETNAMESE

It?s estimated that between a third to half of those who left this way died at sea.

SILENCE

After 12 years in prison camps, my dad was sent home, and four years later came to America with my mom. My sister had died. She too was cremated, her ashes placed in an urn and left with monks in Saigon, now renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

AIRLINE ANNOUNCEMENTS

My parents settled in San Francisco?we learned to be a family again. They never thought of going back to Viet Nam, I was desperate to. They were afraid of all sorts of danger. Prison and the years of communism had done terminal damage.

SOUND AIRPLANE

I went back to Viet Nam nearly 15 years after coming to America. No American Dream could hold me back. Home was home, and I pined for it.

SOUND OF BELL MONKS PRAYING

I found former classmates, and the old home, but the country had changed? and I had changed. In a temple in Ho Chi Minh City, I cried and cried. I?d found my sister?s ashes. I sat with the monks for a while, and then I brought her ashes to the U.S. The family was whole again.

PAUSE ? KEEP MONKS GOING

The Vietnamese in America still carry some wounds, but there?s a generation born here that?s graduated from college. In corporate boardrooms, on TV and in government offices, there are Vietnamese faces. In their homes, they?ve set up altars with pictures of the ancestors: remembrance of the dead and the past.

AIRPORT ? AIRLINE ANNOUNCEMENTS

I can?t stay away from Viet Nam. Since leaving, I?ve been back 20 times, sliding back into the old culture like a jewel thief into his favorite velvet gloves. Thirty years ago I followed an uncle, and crossed the Pacific: the ocean separated us from our birthplace.

Millions of Vietnamese have died, millions have survived. Some in one country, some in another. And some of us cross back and forth.

AIRPLANE FADES OUT

A month before he passed away, my uncle visited Viet Nam for the first time in 30 years. The family thinks the long trip, the dire conditions, and the terrible shape of his childhood home, finally did him in. My aunt thinks of bringing his ashes home in a few years.

SOUND: FLUTE FADES IN

Maybe he?s there already, in the way that we Vietnamese think of how souls can travel to a birthplace. I fly back and forth, the ocean beneath the wings of the airplane, beneath the clouds. I?ll visit my uncle?s ashes wherever. The ocean doesn?t separate. It connects my two homes.

SOUND: FLUTE FADES UP AND UNDER

HOST: "Home is always somewhere else? by Nguyen Qui Duc. He?s host of KQED's Pacific Time - distributed by Public Radio International. With help by Peter Breslow, Arthur Laurent and Nina Thorsen."

When we return? we look at how refugees adjust to an American life?This is Crossing East?I?m Margaret Cho.

ANNOUNCER: THIS IS PRI- PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL

MUSIC BREAK

SEGMENT B

HOST: I?m Margaret Cho?and we?re looking at a Refuge From War on Crossing East? Chapter Three. What is a Refugee?

HOST: Dr. Linda Trinh Vo?

LINDA VO: A refugee is someone similar to an immigrant. However, a refugee is someone who is fleeing their own country because of fear of persecution, whether that be political persecution, religious persecution or ethnic persecution.

REFUGEE DREAMS REVISITED

HOST: The refugees who came to America were Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian and the ethnic minorities from Laos?the Mien (Mee-YEN) and Hmong. Most had fought on the same side and helped the U-S military in the war in Vietnam. The Mien and Hmong? the rural people in Laos?were particularly vulnerable for helping the C-I-A with covert operations. Staying in Laos was not an option.

By 1979, there were almost 62-thousand Vietnamese in refugee camps. More than 140-thousand people displaced from Cambodia and Laos joined them.

LINDA VO: They were dispersed all across the country. There was lingering animosity after the war, people were unsure of who, you know, these refugees were, why they were here, so the US government wanted to process them as quickly as possible and also get them to assimilate as quickly as possible, so church groups, communities helped to resettle the refugees.

HOST: Oregon and Washington State had the fifth largest population of South East Asian refugees in the country. The Portland School district was one of the first to figure out how work with South East Asian youth coming to their schools. The 1 point 5 generation?those who came to this country at a young age?learned quickly, mastering language and writing skills before their first generation parents. Now they own businesses and are community leaders in Portland.

Chapter Four. ?Refugee Dreams Revisited? by Anne Morin and Dmae Roberts.

MUSIC OUT

SOUND OF SCHOOL KIDS

NAR: EVERY SUNDAY AFTERNOON, ABOUT 500 KIDS COME TO THE VAN LANG VIETNAMESE SCHOOL IN SOUTHEAST PORTLAND. PARENTS STARTED THE SCHOOL IN 1990 BECAUSE THEY DIDN?T WANT THEIR KIDS TO FORGET WHAT IT MEANS TO BE VIETNAMESE. THE STUDENTS RANGE IN AGE FROM KINDEGARTEN?

SOUND OF KIDS SAYING HELLO IN VIETNAMESE

NAR: TO HIGH SCHOOL?

GIRL: We?re having this contest between the 8th and 9th grade and practicing with each other.

SPEAKS VIETNAMESE AND FADE UNDER

NAR: QUY NGUYEN AND HER HUSBAND TIEN, ALONG WITH 50 TEACHERS AND VOLUNTEERS, WORK EVERY SUNDAY FOR FREE.

QUY NGUYEN: It?s not only for them to know the language but it?s help for the family. For the connection with parents and grandparents. Because by the time my son grow up, and if he don?t know how to speak Vietnamese he lose that root and that is a big, big problem for the family.

NAR: QUY CAME TO PORTLAND AFTER THE FALL OF SAIGON WHEN HER HUSBAND TIEN WAS SENT TO A RE-EDUCATION CAMP TO DO HARD LABOR. HE TOLD HER TO ESCAPE VIETNAM WITH THEIR FOUR YEAR OLD DAUGHTER CHRISTINE. QUY BECAME ONE OF THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE FLEEING VIETNAM ON OVERCROWDED BOATS IN DANGEROUS SEAS FILLED WITH PIRATES.

SOUND OF WATER LAPPING

QUI NGUYEN: We were surrounded by about ten pirate boats around us and all the women have to climb down to the trunk, hide in there. Because we know if the pirates see us they?re going to kill us or do bad things.

NAR: ONE OF THE REFUGEE MEN SHOT OFF A FLARE GUN TO SCARE THE PIRATES AND IT WORKED. THE PIRATES DECIDED NOT TO BOARD AND DRIFTED AWAY.

QUI NGUYEN : The third night it was a storm and I look out and saw a lights.
All lights there! And I say oh my goodness, we reach to some city. We were so happy?

SOUND: WATER FADES OUT

NAR: LIKE THOUSANDS OF OTHER SOUTHEAST ASIANS QUY AND HER DAUGHTER SPENT FOUR MONTHS IN A REFUGEE CAMP BEFORE COMING TO PORTLAND

SOUND: TRAFFIC, VOICES, SHOUTS

NAR: LY CHENG TANG WAS A CHILD WHEN THE KHMER ROUGE COMMUNISTS DROVE INTO HER TOWN. THEY MADE EVERYONE GO TO THE COUNTRYSIDE TO DO FORCED LABOR IN WHAT WOULD BE KNOWN AS THE KILLING FIELDS.

LY CHENG: Finally they said you have to go, just for a few days. You don?t even have to lock your doors. People didn?t take anything with them. All they take is money and material things. They would drive their car. They thought they?d be back in a few days but they never returned.

NAR: INSTEAD OF FOLLOWING THE KHMER ROUGE, LY CHENG?S MOTHER FLED WITH HER FAMILY TO THAILAND WHERE THE BORDER WAS LINED WITH MINE FIELDS

LY CHENG: And so about three, four hundred people would walk across the border to a Thai village and in certain areas very dangerous. They have all kinds of bandits. And also the Khmer Rouge, they still hide in the forests and sometimes they would come and rob people and sometime even kill or rape young girls. So in that area everybody know that in that area you have to be very quiet and walk very fast and if you could run, run.

NAR: THEY MADE IT, AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS OF HARDSHIP AND STARVATION, TO A REFUGEE CAMP RUN BY THE RED CROSS. SOMEWHERE BETWEEN 1.7 TO THREE MILLION PEOPLE DIED IN THE KILLING FIELDS OF CAMBODIA.

LONG SAN TZEO: Safety is the reason when we became refuges it was not safe. We were told when the communists came they would butcher everyone, they would kill everyone, especially the kids.

FARM YOON LEE: Refugee is people that someone come over and take over your homelands, and you have no place to go. You have to escape for your life.

NAR: MANY REFUGEES LIKE LONG SAN TSEO AND FARM YOON LEE, BOTH MIEN LEFT LAOS WITH NOTHING BUT THE CLOTHES ON THEIR BACKS.

LONG SAN TZEO: If your house is on fire, are you going to stay inside your house or get out of your house? My house was on fire. That?s why I had to run.

FARM YOON LEE: You know you have to go somewhere that is safe for you to be able to survive. And safe for your life and your family. You have no house. You have nothing anymore.

SOUND: CROWD IN

NAR: THE CAMPS IN THAILAND COULD BARELY PROVIDE THE NECESSITIES OF SURVIVAL FOR THE THOUSANDS FLEEING FROM VIETNAM, CAMBODIA AND LAOS.

LONG SAN TZEO: The first refugee camp we stayed in for eight months. In the camp there were so many things we were suffering. Number one because the camp conditions were so bad ? water, food. A lot of people got sick, many died from diarrhea, illnesses, and the Thai soldiers who guarded the camp were cruel. Many of my refugee friends were put in jail for no reason. They have a curfew. If you do not follow the rules you get put in jail.

NAR: BUT REFUGEES CONTINUED TO ARRIVE IN THE CAMPS THROUGHOUT THE 80?S AND 90?S. LE PO CHA?S FAMILY WALKED FOR ALMOST A MONTH, THROUGH DEEP JUNGLE, FROM LAOS TO THE MEKONG RIVER ALONG WITH THOUSANDS OF OTHER HMONG.

LEE PO CHA: You know the refugee camps aren?t something we can imagine. You don?t have much freedom. You live in this bamboo tent. You know 18,000 people live in this thillite tiny camp.. And families after families crawl into this little space.

SOUND: MUSIC FADES IN

NAR: BECAUSE THE U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA LEFT VAST NUMBERS OF PEOPLE HOMELESS, AMERICA RESPONDED WITH THE REFUGEE ACT OF 1980. IT FORMALY DEFINED A REFUGEE AS ANYONE FLEEING THEIR COUNTRY BECAUSE OF PERSECUTION OR FEAR OF PERSECUTION BASED ON RACE, RELIGION, NATIONALITY, SOCIAL GROUP, OR POLITICAL OPINION. THE ACT CREATED A FORMAL RESETTLEMENT PLAN FOR REFUGEES AND SET A CEILING ON THE NUMBERS THAT COULD BE ADMITTED INTO THE U.S. CHURCH AND COMMUNITY GROUPS AROUND THE COUNTRY, LIKE THE LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES AND CATHOLIC CHARITIES IN PORTLAND WORKED TIRELESSLY TO SPONSOR AND PLACE FAMILIES.

SOUND: INSIDE AIRPLANE

NAR: KHANTHALY THAMMAVONG REMEMBERS BEING PUZZLED AT HER FIRST VIEW OF AMERICA WHEN SHE ARRIVED FROM LAOS WITH HER HUSBAND AND TWO CHILDREN.

KHANTHALY THAMMAVONG: We didn?t see much of kind of what we see you know high-scraping buildings. I tried to look down, I was sitting by the window, and I tried to see what it was like and I couldn?t see anything but sky and all this green. And I said where are we going?

SOUND: AIRPLANE ANNOUNCEMENT

NAR: LONG SAN TZEO HAD THE SAME REACTION WHEN HE ARRIVED IN WINTER.

LONG SAN TZEO: In the plane, I think about eight o?clock in the morning. When we came, you know December was very, very cold. It was raining and cold. I said how can you work? They said people work inside. That was the best feeling. Because in this cold weather I have to work outside, I may die.

NAR: LONG SAN FOUND INDOOR WORK AS A SCHOOL JANITOR. WITH NO LANGUAGE SKILLS, IT WAS A BLESSING TO HAVE ANY KIND OF A JOB WHILE LEARNING TO LIVE IN A NEW COUNTRY. AMERICANS, IN GENERAL, WERE IGNORANT OF THE STRUGGLES OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN REFUGEES AND CLUNG TO OLD, RACIST STEREOTYPES. WHEN HE FIRST ARRIVED, SOKHUM TAUCH HAD TO EXPLAIN HE WAS CAMBODIAN.

SOKHUM TAUCH: At that time people did not know where Cambodia is and who is Cambodian. They always tell me to go back to Japan because that?s all they know. At that time, people not that much friendly and they keep looking at you like a stranger. Because you look different, you speak different. You didn?t even speak the language at the time.

NAR: AND LEE PO CHA HAD TO EXPLAIN THAT HE WAS HMONG FROM LAOS.

LE PO CHA: I believe in those days we do have racism going on and we do have some difficulty. We had a lot of fights between Asian kids and Caucasians or African American kids there. We?d been calling names. We?d been shot at.

NAR: CAMBODIAN KILONG UNG HAD SURVIVED THE K ILLING FIELDS AND REFUGEE CAMPS. ATTENDING HIGH SCHOOL IN PORTLAND IN 1980 WAS ANOTHER BRUTAL EXPERIENCE?THIS TIME WITH RACISM AND POVERTY.

KILONG UNG#1: At school there?s? always boxes of old clothes people donated and I had some of those to wear. Being on welfare is probably one of the most miserable things I?ve done in my life in America. It was embarrassing, kids were laughing at me. With limited English I understood that language. The language of love and the language of hate?doesn?t mater you speak it, doesn?t matter how you listen to it?you can actually understand that.

NAR: KILUNG UNG RUNS HIS OWN CONSULTING FIRM AND IS PRESIDENT OF THE CAMBODIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY OF OREGON. HE SAYS LEARNING ENGLISH WAS OFTEN THE BIGGEST HURDLE TO MAKING A NEW LIFE IN AMERICA.

KILONG UNG: English is probably the most illogical language to learn. I hated learning English and speaking English till now.

NAR: MOST ADULTS WERE SLOWER TO LEARN THAN THEIR CHILDREN.
FARM YOON LEE, A MIEN FROM LAOS, REMEMBERS HER ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSES.

FARM YOON LEE: When I get here, I don?t know any English at all. So when I go to anywhere, when people talk, I cannot pick up any words. What I heard is there?s no word broken ? just go Dhahuhuhu ? that?s all! Laughs. So I have no idea. I mean it?s not easy. It?s hard. They?re teaching us just like kindergarten kids.

NAR: CAMBODIANS LYCHENG TANG AND SOKHUM TAUCH WERE GLAD TO HAVE ANY JOB BECAUSE IT HELPED THEIR FAMILIES.

LYCHENG TANG: I cleaned toilets when I was in high school. I picked berries for all seasons ? cucumbers, nuts (they were so damned heavy), a big bucket for a buck, but I did it anyway because we need money to pay rent. But we happy that we had freedom. This is our choice that we make and we get our money, and that?s our money and we can spend on anything we want.

SOKHUM TAUCH: Our job like my job was before strawberry picker and none of the mainstream wanted to do that. The whole day you earn ten dollars. At that time they felt that we come here to steal their jobs. We come here to steal everything they have. It was just a misunderstanding from the mainstream community that we are here to steal thing from them.

LONG SAN TZEO: Many refugees are very reluctant to accept entry-wage jobs

NAR: LONG SAN TZEO ADJUSTED SO QUICKLY TO LIFE IN AMERICA THAT HE WAS ABLE TO HELP MANY OF THE MIEN FROM LAOS TO START OVER. HE OFFERED THEM A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF THE PATH TO SUCCESS.

LONG SAN TZEO: ?.I mean, back in their homeland, they could be commanders, or officials or schoolteachers, but my job is to teach them if you don?t start you can?t finish. But entry level job if they get a job should start. And many of them made it to the top in a few years.

MUSIC TRANSITION

NAR: THE MYTH THAT ASIANS ARE THE MODEL MINORITY?WELL TO DO AND WELL-EDUCATED WITH HIGHER INCOMES?IS NOT TRUE FOR MANY SOUTHEAST ASIANS. MANY REFUGEES STRUGGLE TO STAY ABOVE THE POVERTY LINE.

THE 70?S AND 80?S WAS A TOUGH TIME TO IMMIGRATE TO OREGON. THE TIMBER INDUSTRY WAS GOING BUST AND UNEMPLOYMENT WAS AT ALL TIME HIGH IN THE STATE. HMONG WERE MEMBERS OF THE UNDERCLASS THEN. LE PO CHA SAYS THEY?VE NOW MOVED UP TO THE RANKS OF THE WORKING CLASS.

LE PO CHA: During those days a lot of Hmong families are struggling but today I think they are employed, have their own homes and I would say we?re not living the American dreams yet, but I would say we are getting self-sufficient ourselves.

NAR: LE PO CHA IS NOW THE DIRECTOR OF THE ASIAN FAMILY CENTER IN PORTLAND. HE WORKS DIRECTLY WITH ASIAN YOUTH. NATIONALLY, ONE IN SEVEN ASIAN AMERICAN CHILDREN LIVE IN POVERTY. A FACTOR IN THE RISE OF ASIAN GANG ACTIVITY.

LE PO CHA: What really motivates a kid to be in gangs it varies so much. Poverty is one. Being discriminated against may also be one of the reasons.

LONG SAN TZEO: At first, most Mien parents do not accept that kids were involved in the gangs?

NAR: LONG SAN TZEO IS PRESIDENT OF THE U-MIEN COMMUNITY OF OREGON.

LONG SAN TZEO: ?because the parents did not understand English and the kids come home and the parents can?t communicate with them. The parents don?t know until the school informs them and then they begin to realize their kids were in trouble and by then it?s too late.

NAR: SINCE SHE ARRIVED IN PORTLAND AS A REFUGEE. TEACHER KIM NGUYEN HAS DEDICATED HER LIFE TO WORKING WITH TROUBLED KIDS IN JUVENILE DETENTION FACILITIES.

KIM NGUYEN: They think they discriminated against so they join a gang to get the protection they need. And to be someone. If you belong to the gang, it means you?re someone. To show the world you?re somebody else.

NAR: AND KIM NGUYEN SAYS IT ISN?T JUST THE KIDS. THE PROBLEMS RUN DEEPER AT HOME.

KIM NGUYEN: We have parents who work a couple of jobs. We have parents who are divorced. We have domestic violence, we have child abuse. And then the sad part for these families is they?re not familiar with the language or how to navigate the system and to get help. And especially for parents whose children are in the legal system, it?s even scarier?

NAR: SOUTHEAST ASIAN REFUGEES FLED FOR THEIR LIVES AFTER THE VIETNAM WAR. AMERICA OFFERED A NEW PLACE TO START OVER, BUT PROVIDED NO ESCAPE FROM THE POST WAR TRAUMA. LY CHENG TANG WORKS IN HER FAMILY?S GROCERY STORE IN PORTLAND BUT THE MEMORIES OF BEING REFUGEE ARE STILL WITH HER.

LYCHENG TANG: I see all the time on TV. I would see food tossing, tons of food?s been tossing. And I would God, imagine once upon a time, I would do anything just to have a bite of that food. That?s a flashback. And also when I see a sad scene on TV or go to a movie where people would feel so hungry. I was there. I know exactly how it felt you know to be hungry.

NAR: QUY NGUYEN AND KHANTHALY THAMMAVONG LONG FOR THEIR HOMELAND.

QUY NGUYEN: Yes, you are free, you are safe now, but you still have a connection to the country that belong to you that you live before. So it was very homesick. I miss my parents. My sister is still left there and every night I dream I went back to Vietnam. You are homesick but you are still afraid of the government. You still afraid of being there, you know?

KHANTHALY THAMMAVONG: When we came, we didn?t seem to worry about it, you we miss the homeland, but when we getting older the feeling comes that you want to see your own country. Seems like you want to go back and be able to go travel, see friends and family who we left in other states too. Because when you left, you don?t know who?s where.

NAR: SOME LIKE LONG SAN TZEO ACTIVELY HELP OUT IN THEIR ORIGINAL COUNTRIES.

LONG SAN TZEO: Me and my wife, we plan to work until our retire age and after we retire one of my goals is to go back to Asia. China or Laos or Thailand to educate those people. We have so many good things for other countries to learn and I think through my years of experience here that you can take back to your homeland and those people would appreciate it. Yes, I hope. I hope our dream with come true one day.

NAR: CAMBODIAN SOKHUM TAUCH IS NOW THE DIRECTOR OF THE NON-PROFIT IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE COMMUNITY OF OREGON. HE SAYS MANY REFUGEES FULFILL A CULTURAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR FAMILY HERE AND OVERSEAS.

SOKHUM TAUCH: I took my children over there for them to see this is where I came from and this is the school I went to. If you are older brother, you?re supposed to take care of the rest of siblings. We have parents. Some of us build a house for the parents. Relationships are still strong in term of relationship to Cambodian community.

NAR: AND THEY MAINTAIN TIGHT COMMUNITIES IN PORTLAND. FARM YOON LEE SAYS BECAUSE THE MIEN ARE SMALL IN NUMBERS THEY SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER LIKE A LARGE EXTENDED FAMILY.

FARM YOON LEE : We don?t have many people but we?re all really close. We helping each other. Like someone?s losing family member, we all the whole community combine and they all pitch in the money to give donation to this family. To help them with their funeral expense, to help our community to stay strong.

SOUND OF CHILDREN AT VIETNAMESE SCHOOL

FARM YOON LEE: Today I?m worried about the younger generation. I?m afraid that in the future maybe the children doesn?t know where they come from or where the ancestors and background they?re coming from. I think it?s important to know what your values are and what your ancestors and what you?re from and not to forget about that. It?s important for them to carry that on.

MUSIC UP

NAR: CARRYING ON TRADITIONS AND PRESERVING CULTURE. GIVING BACK TO THEIR CHILDREN AND TO THEIR COMMUNITIES IS THE REFUGEE DREAM FOR SOUTHEAST ASIANS IN PORTLAND. KILONG UNG.

KILONG UNG: The fact that I was able to get through the Khmer Rouge and was able to overcome the language barriers and get to where I am today. A lot of times I look back, I look in the mirror and think how did I get here?

SOUND OF KIDS FADE AS MUSIC FADES UP

HOST: ?Refugee Dreams Revisited? by Anne Morin and Dmae Roberts. You can find a flash movie about this piece on our web site at Crossing East dot O-R-G.

In a moment the contributions of South East Asian refugees in America?

I?M MARGARET CHO and this is Crossing East.

ANNOUNCER: You?re listening to PRI ? Public Radio International.

MUSIC BREAK.

SEGMENT C

SOUND: FLUTE MUSIC

I?m Margaret Cho? and this is Crossing East?

Chapter Five. An American Life.

HOST: One never forgets the ravages of war. The mental and physical trauma remains. It has a lifetime impact on refugee families. Many live in poverty in Southeast Asian communities across the country.

SOUND OF WATER FESTIVAL

HOST: Daran Kravanh works as a social worker in Tacoma, Washington. He has helped many fellow Cambodians living in poverty and isolation.

Every year Daran organizes a massive Water Festival celebration to bring awareness to and unify the Cambodian community in Washington State. That?s how he gives back to the community.

DARAN: We want to preserve the culture, we want to share the unity among the Asian and American people. We want to be part of the community, especially in the USA. We want to inspire for next generation. We want to let the people come together to make the community strong and let the people love each other. We create the peace and love together. We not to create war. I don?t want to see anybody have the stereotype to try to fight because I still believe that?s one flower doesn?t? make a garden until you have too many flower, different color, put together in one place and you can call a beautiful garden.

SOUND OF TET FESTIVAL IN LITTLE SAIGON

HOST: In Little Saigon in Westminster, outside of Los Angeles, thousands of Vietnamese Americans attend a New Year?s Tet Festival. Little Saigon is what Linda Trinh Vo calls an ethnic enclave as a safe way to network and create community.

LINDA VO: And ethnic enclaves allows groups to assimilate because it allows them to share information with one another. It can help them in terms of finding a job, finding housing. It allows the first generation to survive and readjust.

HOST: Dr. Vo says these enclaves have also helped to revitalize neighborhoods in decline.

LINDA VO: They?ve changed the American landscape with their ethnic communities, whether they?re residential areas or commercial or cultural spaces. They pay millions of dollars in taxes to the community and also have revitalized areas that were dwindling previously and just have added significantly to the vitality of cities and towns where they?re located. You can see them going into all kinds of occupations. Making political contributions, participating in the electoral process, participating in the local economy, becoming professionals.

HOST: And for those refugees able to successfully seize the American Dream, they?ve made it their mission to give back to their communities.

MUSIC FADES OUT

SOUND OF MARKETPLACE

HOST: The capital of Hmong America is St. Paul, Minnesota?where a bustling market covers more than a city block?.crowded with shoppers.

Nearly 200 thousand Hmong people live in America. Some have just arrived from camps in Thailand?they are the last Hmong refugees allowed into the U-S. Others have lived here for almost 30 years. In Laos the Hmong were peasant farmers. During the Vietnam War, the Central Intelligence Agency recruited the Hmong to gather intelligence in the borderland between Vietnam and Laos.

HOST: At the height of the war, there were 30 thousand Hmong soldiers. They suffered horrific losses and helped to save many American lives. After the communist take-over of Laos, the Hmong fled to refugee camps in Thailand. Nearly a third of the Hmong population in Laos eventually migrated to the United States.

Our final chapter of Refuge From War??Hmong in America? by Mary Stucky.

Sound of bells

AI MOUA: I?m Ai Moua. And I came here when I was six.

More bells and chanting

AI MOUA: When your family finds out that you are sad or you?re sick they usually do this to call back the spirit.

Chanting

AI MOUA: In a bowl there?s a chicken and an egg. She has bells, they?re metal and she shakes it back and forth to make sounds.

MEE MOUA: My name is Mee Moua. I?m a state senator. I represent the east side of the city of St Paul. I was born in Laos and in 1978 my family came to the United States as refugees. Traditional Hmong Americans believe that everything has a spirit or a soul. Now there are a lot of Hmong American entrepreneurs to accommodate in a very appropriate manner the cultural practices that continue to persist and perpetuate in the community.

Sound of people speaking Hmong at the market

AI MOUA: And these are the story cloths right here. Instead of painting a picture, they sew a picture of their life onto a cloth. This scene shows the Hmong people growing rice and vegetables. They also grew opium for a cash crop to China. And then the war in Vietnam came to the peaceful Hmong village. There?s a plane dropping bombs and the house is on fire, so the family pack their stuff up the hills to the jungle, and they cook in the jungle, they eat there, they run from away from the Vietnamese or the soldiers that are chasing them.

DIA CHA: I?m Dia Cha and I?m a Professor at St. Cloud State University. I was born in early 1960?s. Grew up during secret war in Laos and my father was recruited by the Americans, and he was missing in action in 1972 and he never came back and we don?t know what happened to him. You know when I was little girl, my grandmother told story of white man with curly hair. His plane was shot down. And so, he had another friend who died, and so it was the Hmong men who rescued this man and brought to this village and because of language barrier couldn?t talk and this man was so depressed and so sad and so he had cuts on his face and she put herbal medicine on his wounds and feed him. You prepare special meal for him and boil rice till soft and tender and feed him that and so she did that for him and he feel better and after that they took him to the district and sent him away.

Houa Thao speaking Hmong.

AI MOUA: I?m Ai Moua and I?m translating for my mother in law Houa Thao. My mother in law hid in the jungle for about 7 years with her family after the war. And they were hiding because of the Communists trying to catch them.

Houa Thao speaking.

AI MOUA: All they could bring mostly is blankets, mostly rice and pots and pans and a knife, so they could eat and find food. While in the jungle three of her younger kids that were born in the jungle passed away so that when they crossed the Mekong River there are only seven kids. At midnight they would steal um little boats and all the family would sit in there while their husbands sail the boat to the other side. When they first came it was cold, snow was everywhere and they don?t know anything so they just stayed home and watched the traffic light going red, green and orange. They didn?t really want to stay but they had to.

PENG YANG: I?m Peng Yang. And when I came here I was only 11 years old. And I?m Houa Thao?s son and I?m married to Ai Moua and I have five kids, two girls, three boys. Me and Ai we married when I was 19 and she?s only 17. Part of my culture is mostly big family at least 10 or more. When I got here it?s not that tough. I learned a little bit English in Thailand. I know like ?I want to go to America? or ?This is chair, book, that kind of stuff. But when I go to school the first day it was kinda scary. The first year a little bit of struggle but the second year I?m okay.

Sound of cash register at grocery store

MEE MOUA: There are pockets of communities across the state where there are Hmong Americans who are extremely successful. Within the community, we have a concern, it feels to us like there?s a large number of Hmong Americans who continue to live in poverty. Many have never had an education and I?m concerned about that because it has implications for things like opportunities for
violence in the home, the poverty gives rises to exploitations of other sorts like gang activities, domestic violence, depression, untreated mental health issues.

DIA CHA: Some of the children who are born in this country, especially in the 90s lots of children join gangs, who were just totally lost, don?t know who they are, whether they are Americans or Hmong and again in the home they were taught that they were Hmong, but in the school there?s nothing that teaches them about Hmong so because of their parents so busy trying to survive in this society that they may not have the same amount of time to spend with the children so we have some of the challenges that we face.

MEE MOUA: I am so hopeful about this new wave of Hmong American refugees who are just arriving. I?m so optimistic because I feel like they are so lucky to be arriving at a time when the Hmong American community is so able to give them the support that they need.

There were actually two formal refugee camps established in Thailand for Hmong refugees from Laos and I believe in the early 1990s those two camps formally closed down. It wasn?t cause they were empty. And there were some attempts to repatriate the remaining individuals in the camps back to Laos. But many people were worried about persecution and what would happen to them. And so some people left the two formal camps when they heard that it was being shut down. They sought refuge at this temple that was being run by an abbot who cared very much about refugees. And this temple then becomes sort of a default refugee camp. So the United States government decided that they would go through a formal process and accept 15 thousand to be resettled in the United States.

AI MOUA: I?m Ai Moua. And I?m translating for my sister in law Blia Yang. She?s been um separated from her family for about 20 years in the camps. Blia stayed behind because she was left with her husband because his family didn?t want to come yet.

Blia speaking Hmong

AI MOUA: She didn?t get to see them when they leave, but she heard that they?re leaving and she was crying cause she?s left behind.?

PENG YANG: In Blia?s family Blia have two kids, one son, one girl, and her husband only. She cannot afford to rent a house and so she has to stay with me. Yes, I?m taking care of her and the whole family for the food, for transportation, You know that part of the culture, uh you have to take care of your family, it doesn?t matter how struggle it is, that?s the first thing that is important to your life, to help each other. Family is even more important than money.

Sound of microwave beeping

AI MOUA: Yeah the microwave, she still doesn?t know how to press, like you know, like how many minutes, she just puts it in and when she knows she needs to take it out, she takes it out. We show her how to use the stove, microwave, how to turn on the hot water and cold.

Ambience of English class

TEACHER and BLIA: Blia what are you doing this weekend? At home. Stay at home? Yeah.

KATE MUELLER: My name is Kate Mueller and I?m a teacher for the functional work English classes. We have 14 students now in the class and this is a high beginning to intermediate group and many are studying for their drivers license and many are looking for housing so that?s kind of what we focus on here.?

TEACHER and BLIA: Blia do you take care of children at home? Yeah. Do you like to cook? Yes I don?t know how to say, teacher. That?s okay. Do you like to cook chicken? Chicken, rice, bell pepper.

MEE MOUA: I often think about my mother-in-law when I talk to senior groups. My mother in law when she goes to bed at night and she dreams, she doesn?t dream about getting into my husband?s car and driving to Rainbow and buying groceries. She dreams about strapping on a basket, walking down a dirt path to her garden, where she sees family members or other people who have passed away, or she reunites with them. Oftentimes when they go to sleep, their sleep reality is not in this country because in a way, their souls and their minds psychologically they?re still living the life back in Laos.

Houa Thao speaking Hmong

AI MOUA: She didn?t want to talk about her life anymore cause she?s upset that she lost her husband and with all the memories she had with him running from Laos to the jungle to Thailand and that gives her a lot of memories of him.

PENG YANG: What I know even everybody says America is one of the best place ever to be settled. You have freedom. Freedom of religion, freedom of culture, everything. Freedom of speech. You know, in the jungle, what are you going to be in the jungle? In here each person has their own blanket. In the jungle a whole family shares only one blanket. I never missed home at all. Here is my home, that?s what I thought.

SOUND: MUSIC UP

HOST: ??Hmong in America? by Mary Stucky. You heard the voices of Houa (WAH) Thao (TAO) , Ai (AYE) Moua (MOW-ah), Blia Yang, Peng Yang, Scholar Dia (DEE-ah) Cha, , Kate Mueller (Miller) and Senator Mee Moua

MUSIC FADES UNDER

HOST: We came in many waves,

We fled wars and starvation

We gave our children better lives?

We revitalized neighborhoods and gave back to this country?

This is Crossing East?our stories, our history, our America?

I?m Margaret Cho?

ANNOUNCER:

Crossing East is produced with major funding by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and individual donors of MediaRites Productions.

Music on this show was performed by Daran Kravanh from his CD Music Through the Dark.

Helicopter sounds were provided by the film Saigon U.SA.

Our lead scholar is Judy Yung Professor Emeritus of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Our Managing Editor is Catherine Stifter, Associate Producer is Sara Caswell Kolbet. The Crossing East Engineer is Clark Salisbury with technical assistance by Michael Johnson and marketing and outreach by Ping Khaw.

The Executive Producer is Dmae Roberts.

To find out more about Crossing East and this program?go to CrossingEast.org.

Support for Crossing East comes from this station and Public Radio International stations and is made possible in part by the PRI Series Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

MUSIC ENDS

PRI BUTTON

Back