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.

Bao Phi Blogging

Hey Folks . . so some of you might think this is a cop out on blogging on my own, but please check out Bao Phi's blog in the Twin Cities' Star Tribune.

His first post is pretty freaking awesome.

He's going to be blogging there for a few months so y'all should support him and help to balance out the crazy mainstream comments he might get.

differences due to Diaspora, similarities due to...?

I'm pretty behind in my news stories but when I came across this particular one about Tavaryna in Lowell, MA, I was really compelled to react by writing and reflecting.

So while I grew up in Southeast San Diego and went to school up in the bay… Tavaryna and her story reminds me not only of some my cousins, some of my friends, and some of the amazing youth that I’ve worked with… but it also reminded me why I moved from California and local issues to DC and national issues.

I was always intrigued by not only the differences between our communities (like the differences between Khmer folks and Vietnamese folks) or the differences within our communities (like Lue folks in San Diego and Lue folks in Denver)…

But most importantly, I have always been especially interested in the similarities between our communities (like how my Vietnamese co-blogger and I both grew up in homes where our family used the dishwasher as a dish rack) and the similarities within our communities (like how family parties in San Diego and Denver always have way too much Heinekens).

Since my move, I’ve experienced just a taste of our dispersed communities through on brief meetings and phone calls.

This summer, I’m both excited and extremely nervous to travel to the twin cities and Lowell to see these great differences and similarities that have resulted from our Disapora.

While not exactly the best example a similarity that west coasters may share with east coasters… the story that is told in the news article about Tavaryna highlights some issues that I thought only affected our Southeast Asian community in California but I guess this great American Dream of a system has failed our community in other parts of the country as well.

The generational gap.
Miscommunic(asian) within in the family.
Gang violence.
Poverty.

In no way am I trying to say that this is the fault of us… if anything, I think this just proves that the United States in general has some f-ed up resettlement policies and even more f-ed up anti-poverty, education, and youth development policies and programs.

The more f-ed up thing is that all of us may have personally (or know someone very close to us who may have) experienced something similar to Tavaryna... the media consistently fail to highlight our stories accurately or often enough.

Visas to the United States

Thank you Danielle for sharing this article about how Visa rules are widening the rift between families.

This reminds me how my extended family and my mother and father's immediate family are spread across 4 countries: china, laos, thailand, and the united states.

Also, my grandmother's children and grandchildren here in the u.s. are spread across 4 states (well, i guess technically 3 states and 1 district).

Kind of ridiculous seeing that back in the the "homeland," my family used to live in a cul-de-sac / U shape kinda situation . . with the parents' house in the center and each of the houses of each of the children spanning outward towards the "main" street.

I guess there is little hope that my mother and father will ever have a real "family reunion." I mean, if the Senior Senator from the largest state in the country couldn't even use her power to leverage Luong Vu's case, I'm not sure where that leaves other immigrant families.

Andrew Lam

someone needs to ask him to become their mentor . .

Check out his article on New America Media, Re-imagining the Self, Re-imagining America.