40th Anniversary of the Southeast Asian Diaspora

Chiang Rai Refugee Camp, Thailand, sometime between 1975 and 1980: Papa Thammarath and Mama Thammarath

I admit.

Growing up, I was one of those high achieving, highly tracked, annoyingly arrogant students that lived up to the model minority stereotype (ironically spend my professional life trying to dismantle this stereotype, but that is another topic).

I particularly loved social studies and history . . so much so that I actually believed that my father lied to me about being a refugee from Laos. I thought all the stories he told me as a child about fleeing Laos, villages being shot up, piles of bodies on the side of the road, my grandfather dying fighting alongside American soldiers, secretly paddling across the Mekong River at night time, and living in refugee camps were just made up because I read about the Viet Nam War and all the other wars . . there was never any mention of a war in Laos. Any refugees from Laos. Anything, really, about Laos.

My conclusion was that my text books were right and my father was wrong. Unfortunately, it was me and my text books that were completely wrong.

Anyway, there are some amazing stories being posted to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Southeast Asian Diaspora. Here is one: Our Vietnam War Never Ended.