13499 research outputs found
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Oral History of Linh Ly.
No full textMrs. Linh Ly was born on February 7th, 1978 in Cho Moi, Vietnam and escaped by boat from Vietnam in 1981. She and her family traveled first to Thailand then four months later, transferred to the Philippines so that they could be sponsored. In January 1982, Linh and her family reached Missouri where they were sponsored by a Christian church. In 1983, Linh and her family drove to California for better job opportunities and moved to Garden Grove. In 1984, she attended elementary school at AJ Cook then in 1990, moved up to Jordan Intermediate School. Then she started high school at Bolsa Grande starting in 1992. After graduating high school, she attended Orange Coast College then transferred to Cal State Long Beach. In college, she met her husband, Johnny, and they got married in 2003. In her interview, Linh talked a lot about the importance of education and family, as well as touching upon some stories concerning the escape from Vietnam to Thailand. Linh has two kids; a girl named Cameryn and a boy named Dylan. Currently, she is working at the County of Orange as an Administrative Services Manager.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Kiet Quan Tran
No full textKiet Tran offers a unique experience in the Vietnamese diaspora in that he did not come as a refugee during the war. He immigrated to California after being sponsored by his aunt. His unique experience opens up dialogue to various topics such as appropriation through food culture, fake marriage for a green card (permanent resident permit), and the model minority myth. To talk about food culture, we discussed what it might mean to be authentic and how can someone appropriate other cultures. Through Kiet’s discussion, I formulated an argument regarding the transformation of appropriation into appreciation. Fake marriage for illegal immigration is a huge phenomenon within the Vietnamese community as Kiet explains. By looking into details of the system of arranged marriage for immigration, I am able to draw a connection to narratives belonging to the underrepresented gendered as well as people of color. Finally, from the interview, the model minority myth was heavy; we explored the possible methods of raising the next generation of children. The model minority myth places overwhelming pressure on people, especially Asians to excel. The modern Vietnamese experience offers a special dual passage for connecting Vietnamese and American traits, history and culture.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Ngo My (Mary) Dung
No full textOral history with Ms. Ngô Mỹ Dung, who also goes by Mary as her “American” name. She was born on December 23, 1966, in Đồng Nai, Việt Nam. She fled Việt Nam in 1989 by boat with her older brother, Cậu Hải, and was at sea for 19 days before reaching the Philippines. She stayed there for three years before finally receiving approval to move to the United States in 1993. She has moved around Orange County with her family but is now settled in Stanton. She graduated high school in Việt Nam and considered pursuing college momentarily. She married my father in the Philippines, and she now has three children: her oldest son who is 25 years old, her only daughter being 20 years old, and her younger son who is 15 years old. She has been working as a nail technician for the past 14 years at ProfessioNail in Fullerton. In the interview, she talked mostly about her own family--her parents and siblings--as well as her family that she’s raised here in America.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Dzung Ngoc Nguyen
No full textDzung Ngoc Nguy was born in 1957 in Da Nang, Vietnam. She moved to Saigon four years later and tested into Gia Long High School in 1969. In 1975, the Communist invaded South Vietnam, taking over Saigon and imprisoning her father in a reeducation camp. Dzung would enter the Food Chemistry College (Hoa Thuc Pham) and land a job in 1982; this year coincides with her father’s release from reeducation. She would switch over to another job within the Yeebo Group based in Hong Kong. By 1993, she immigrated to the United States with her family. In the U.S., attended Coastline Community College in Orange County, CA, landed a job at TRAVCOA and started a family with her husband, Victor Tran.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Chanh Minh Nguyen
No full textOral history with Mr. Chánh Minh Nguyễn, born in 1968 in South Vietnam. After the fall of South Vietnam, he escaped Vietnam by boat in 1980 and arrived in Oxnard, California in 1981. He discussed his memories of his childhood in South Vietnam before and after 1975. He also discussed his experiences with assimilating into American culture as a student and government employee through discussions about food. After getting his bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice at Cal State Long Beach in 1991, he became an investigator and later a real estate agent. At the time of the interview, he is working as a real estate agent and is active in the Buddhist community. He has two children and lives in Westminster, California.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Tiffany Vi Tran
No full textMy narrator is Tiffany Vi Tran, age 30. She was born and raised in Fountain Valley, California to two Vietnamese American refugees. She is the youngest in her family and has spent most of her life in Southern California. For her primary education, even though she was raised Buddhist, she attended a private Catholic school in for the first few grades, and the private Christian school. She completed two years at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa and later went on to finish her Bachelor's Degree at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Before completing her final year at UCLA, she took about a year off to move back home to recover from an illness and jaw surgery. Since then she has been battling chronic pain due to nerve damage from dental surgery. In 2012, Tiffany completed her degree and became involved with several Vietnamese American organizations such as Project Motivate and Common Ground. Today, Tiffany is currently taking care of her parents at her home in Fountain Valley.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Phuoc Duc Nguyen
No full textAn oral history with Mr. Phuoc Duc Nguyen, born in 1969 in Sài Gòn, Vietnam. After the collapse of South Vietnam, he and his father made several attempts to escape the country by boat and succeeded on their eighth attempt in 1981. He arrived at Camp Songkhla in Thailand and stayed for less than six months before arriving in San Diego, California (CA), later moving to Westminster, CA, to live with his mother. He discussed his service in the U.S. Navy after finishing high school and becoming a navy electrician. After his military service, he gained U.S. citizenship and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering at San Diego State University. He has three children and lives in Westminster, CA, with his wife.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Vanna Son Long
No full textOral history with Mr. Vanna Son Long, born in 1958 in Saigon, Vietnam. Since Mr. Long was separated from his family member in 1973, he went traveled alone to the refugee camp in Thailand. Before arriving in the United States, he was transferred to the Philippines in 1981 to learn English as a second language (ESL) and worked for UNICEF as a neighborhood leader for incoming refugees. The job required translations from Vietnamese and Khmer into English and vice-versa. A year afterward, he immigrated to the United States in 1982 and placed in Chicago, Illinois through the Christian missionaries that were present in the Thai refugee camp. Mr. Long was able to receive a GED and was able to work low-wage jobs within the city of Chicago. In 1989, he moved to Salem, Oregon for an arranged marriage to his current wife, Chantra Khy, who is Cambodian and Chinese. They have been married for 30 years and have two sons; both are college graduates. His current occupation is a security guard with the company, Securita and he is residing in Long Beach, California.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Hieu Nhu Nguyen
No full textThe name of my narrator is Hieu Nhu Nguyen. He was born on September 25, 1984, in Hue, Vietnam. To come to America, his family had to move to Saigon to process paperwork. Then they moved to the Philippines and lived there for almost a year before moving to America in 1993. Hieu went to high school at Santiago High in Garden Grove, CA. He graduated from UC Irvine with a degree in Psychology. Hieu talked to me about his family life, his coming out story, and his connection with Viet Rainbow of Orange County. Hieu has six sisters, one brother, a mother, and a father. He met his current partner in 2011, and they have been together for eight years. Hieu currently lives in Garden Grove, and he is working as a licensed social worker. He is also a part of the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team and has a private practice serving patients within the LGBTQIA+ community. In addition to this, he is also chair of the nonprofit Viet Rainbow of Orange County.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Patricia Chau Nguyen
No full textOral history with Patricia Nguyen. She was born on September 21, 1982, at the University of California, San Diego. She identifies as Asian American but socio-politically as Vietnamese American. She is a space maker for change creators. Patricia’s parents were college students when Saigon fell. Her grandfather was a part of the US military and was sent to Georgetown for reeducation and was able to obtain a diploma. Higher education to her family was a way of not means of life but understanding who they were as people. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a degree in Cellular and Developmental Biology, she went to graduate school at the University of Vermont and received her Masters of Education. She was Assistant Dean of Students at Cornell University, being brought in to build an Asian American center for the college. Currently, she lives in Los Angeles and working at the University of California, Los Angeles working under the alumni center where she convenes with all the different identity-based alumni associations for UCLA.Recorded digitall