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Oral History of Sang Nguyen (Steven Thanh Nguyen)
No full textThis is an oral history of Mr. Sang Nguyen, otherwise known as Steven Thanh Nguyen. He was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1970. After losing contact with his father due to the war, his mother decided to allow him to flee Vietnam with his uncle via boat in 1978. This boat took them and the other passengers to the Philippines, where he lived in a refugee camp for about eight months. Steven was sponsored for adoption in the states and was adopted by a Caucasian family in Nyack, New York. He went to high school at Nyack High School and continued his education at Alfred State College of Technology. After receiving his degree, he relocated to Orange County, California with some family members. Today, Steven is an electrical technician and a business owner. He is a husband and father of two sons. His family currently resides in Santa Ana, California. He enjoys playing soccer with his friends in his free time or spending time with his sons. Steven does not necessarily identify with a specific religion but supports and respects his wife’s Buddhist beliefs.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Tu Nguyen
No full textAn oral history with Ms. Tu Nguyen, born in 1988 in Vietnam. Her father fled to Malaysia as a boat person when she was young but came back to Vietnam around the year 1995. Her whole family—both parents, three sisters and four brothers—moved to the US around the year 1997, through the refugee program arranged by the UN, supported by her aunt living in Chicago. She spent her teenage years in Chicago, dropped out of high school, and studied in the community college in Chicago from 2009. She moves to San Diego, California in 2011, mainly because of her partner at the time. She went to the community college there, too. She went to the University of California, Irvine in 2013, and starts her art practice there. She currently lives in Long Beach, California, working as a videographer in a company, while working as a conceptual artist at the same time.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Joanne Nguyen
No full textAn oral history with JoAnne Nguyen, born on August 21st, 1967 in N/A, Vietnam. She was a young teen at the time and did not leave Vietnam until after the war. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, she was the last of her siblings to leave South Vietnam in a boat where she would eventually end up in a Thai refugee camp. Her travel continues to Calgary-Alberta, Canada where she began her schooling in junior high through high school and eventually ended up in California. She currently is married, has two daughters, and has worked as a cosmetologist and as a pharmacy technician. She is currently continuing her education in medical coding at the University of Loma Linda. She also has lived in Loma Linda, California since leaving Canada.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Thuan Phuoc Nguyen
No full textOral history of Mr. Thuan Phoc Nguyen who was born in Saigon, Vietnam on October 6th, 1988. He came to the U.S. by taking a plane from Saigon to Los Angeles International Airport on August 18th, 1993. He came to the U.S. through the Orderly Departure Program. He went to a local junior and high school in Southern California. After graduating from high school in 2006, he entered Pasadena City College. In 2008, he transferred to Chaffey College and majored in communication and sociology. In 2011, he transferred to California State University, Fullerton. In 2013, he continued studying at the California State University, Fullerton as a graduate student majoring in sociology, at the same university. The significant event for him was to join the organization Viet Rainbow of Orange County. It changed his relationship with his family because he felt more open to being a gay and Vietnamese man. The topic we covered in the interview was mainly about gender and sexual identity in the Vietnamese American community. He is currently studying sociology as a Master's student at the California State University, Fullerton and living in Montclair with his family.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Tuan Duc Tran
No full textMy narrator is Mr. Tuan Duc Tran. He was born on July 20th, 1965 in Da Lat, Vietnam. He moved to America in 1993, first stopping by Thailand and the Philippines. Mr. Tran is one out of seven siblings. In Vietnam, he earned his degree in mechanical engineering. His father was a colonel in southern Vietnam and was imprisoned from 1975 until 1980 and was eventually freed and subsequently defected to the U.S. Mr. Tran’s father sponsored the entire family to come to California, first settling in Fremont located in the Bay Area, where he obtained an AA from Ohlone community college. His mother passed away just four years after moving to the US. Mr. Tran is married and has one son. In our interview, we discuss his life in Vietnam, adjusting to American culture, the difference between Vietnamese and American academics, and how he ended up moving to Fountain Valley, where he now lives and works in production management in the health field.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Thai Viet Phan
No full textMy narrator’s legal name is Viet Thai Phan, but that is because her mother messed up her documents. The name she actually goes by is Thai Viet Phan which she will change in the future. Her family had escaped from Vietnam into Thailand where they gave birth to her in 1988, before setting off for the Philippines and finally America. Her sister was born when she was two, and her biological father was diagnosed with cancer shortly after. He passed away when she was 11, and her stepfather passed away recently in 2017. Thai did her undergraduate school at UCLA and got her law degree and public policy. Master's degree at USC. She also met her current husband at USC. They got married in 2016 shortly before Thai moved back to Santa Ana and began rebuilding her political connections via local government and Democratic organizations. Thai now works at Rutan and Tucker as a lawyer.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Naomi Ngoc Yen Quach
No full textAn oral history with Ms. Naomi Ngoc Yen Quach, born on September 16, 1989, in San Jose, California. She moved to Westminster, California and grew up in the area. She stayed in Westminster her whole life, mainly because she worked after high school to support her family. She worked in a law firm and grew within the company as well. She is currently an undergraduate studying Business Administration with a focus on Legal Studies. She started very late but did not want to go to school until she was sure of what she wanted to study. Her recent visit to Vietnam gave us a lot to talk about - especially because it opened her eyes to the struggles her family went through. She learned a lot about her family in Vietnam, and that gave us stories to reflect upon during this interview. She currently resides in Fullerton, California.Recoded digitall
Oral History of Tinh Ho
No full textOral history of Mr. Tinh Ho, who was born in Quang Nam, in the province of Da Nang in 1964. He grew up during the Vietnam War and completed school in Vietnam 10 years after the war ended. He recounts his memories of the war as a child and shares his story about coming here as an adult. He came to the United States by plane with his parents in 1995, when he was 31 years old. With support from members of his community, he did his best to learn English and get certificated to become a machinist. He sponsored his wife and his children to come to the US in 2003 and lives with them now, along with his parents-in-law in Fontana, California. He is currently chief executive of his local Cao Dai temple.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Tony Ly
No full textOral history with Tony Ly, who was born in Fountain Valley, California, in 1988. After the fall of Saigon, his family had fled to the Philippines and then migrated to California where he was born a year later. He was born and raised in the Garden Grove area where he also went to high school and later he went to the University of California Irvine, majoring in business economics. After graduation, he stopped working to take care of his brother who had fallen ill. His parents could not assist because they could not speak English well enough to communicate with the doctors. After seeing how well his brother had felt when he went to the chiropractors, he decided to attend the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic to become a chiropractor. Tony still lives in Garden Grove area with his parents in order to take care of his older brother and also works as a chiropractor in Pasadena, California.Recorded digitall
Oral History of Alexander Tran
No full textAn oral history of Mr. Alexander Tran who was born on March 8, 1984, in Orange, California. His family immigrated to America in 1975 through connections with the U.S. Embassy. His parents were first located in Oklahoma before they decided to relocate in Southern California. Throughout his K-12 education, Alexander hopped around from different schools that had primarily dominant Vietnamese populations among the students. In 2002, he began his studies as an art major at UC Irvine and later dropped out of school in 2005. In 2008, Alexander became apart of an organization called the Viet Rainbow of Orange County, where he found a supportive group of people who focus on LGBTQ issues within the Vietnamese community. Currently, he resides in Irvine, California with his parents and attends Santa Ana College. He also works as a pharmacy tech at Kaiser Permanente and, in his free time, he does freelance makeup and volunteers with the VROC organization.Recorded digitall