Grass Roots: Hmong scrape together money for Haiti earthquake victims

For more than a decade, Pat has reported on the communities -- neighborhood, ethnicity, lifestyle and avocation -- that make Madison what it is.
Disaster brings out the best in people, they say. And the people at Kajsiab House make me think that might be true.
The Hmong people who gather there for classes, community and treatment in a program of the Mental Health Center of Dane County don't have much. Many fought in or are widows of fighters in the CIA's secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War. They depend on disability benefits and family to help them get by.

But they squeezed a dollar here and there out of their household budgets to collect $550 for relief of earthquake victims in Haiti.

"We give a few dollars to help other victims," Blia Thao says. She was one of 16 Hmong who gathered at Kajsiab House on the grounds of Mendota Mental Health Institute to talk about the charitable effort that began when they saw television accounts of the devastation in Haiti.

"We've been through a lot. We know about suffering," said John Vang.
Like they say, hard times bring out the best in people.

Source

Read more...

Fourth-graders learning first-hand about Hmong culture and traditions

Fourth graders in the School District of La Crosse have been taking field trips to a village in Laos to learn about Hmong culture and history.
Of course, the students aren’t literally traveling half-way around the world; they’re actually at the Hmong Cultural Community Center in La Crosse.

For about a week, the Center has been turned into a village where the students from elementary schools in the district learn about the customs and traditions of the Hmong people.

Students learned how rice is made once it comes from the field, and got an opportunity to use some tools that were made from Hmong people who currently live in the coulee region. Students also had an opportunity to learn about Hmong artwork, and tried on some traditional Hmong clothing.

Wendy Mattison, the Hmong Education Project coordinator from the School District of La Crosse, says they hope this project leads to similar cultural experiences for students in the future.

"I’m calling this the first great conversation because what’s happening is as we’re providing this experience, people are coming forward and suggesting possibilities for the future," Mattison said.

Tomorrow is the last day for fourth graders in the district to experience the Hmong culture first-hand. Mattison hopes they continue to work with the Hmong Culture Center and other community centers for future projects.

Source

Read more...

Alumni Pride: Couple helps Hmong feel at home

When Chungyia Thao ’99, was a senior at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, he helped translate for Hmong community members at doctor’s visits, hospitals and county offices as an intern with the Oshkosh Hmong Association.

After his internship, the association suffered budget cuts, but there was still a high demand for services. Chungyia and his wife, Maiyoua Thao ’01 and MSE ’09, decided to continue the work on their own.

“I saw a need, and I had been helping the community for years, so I decided to turn service into a business,” he said.

They started their first business, which is now Universal Translation & Staffing Inc., in his basement in Appleton. It has grown to a service that translates and interprets more than 50 different languages for clients as close as the Fox Valley and as far away as California and Florida.

Chungyia and Maiyoua have tried to continue his mission of helping the Hmong community by opening other businesses in addition to the translation service. The couple owns four Appleton companies, including Universal Translation, Tongxeng Personal Homecare, Wisconsin Hmong Directory and Harmony Counseling Center.

Harmony Counseling Center, opened in September 2009, is their newest business and fills a need that Maiyoua saw in the mental health field.

She said counseling is a new concept in the Hmong community because the Hmong usually prefer to communicate with family members and clan leaders and to try to keep mental health issues to themselves.

“It’s traditional and cultural, but it’s not enough sometimes,” Maiyoua said. “This is a new community, and times have changed, so we have to adjust.”

Maiyoua sees 16 clients at the center for problems like anxiety, depression, grief and anger management.

The Thaos manage more than 250 employees. That, along with raising four children, keeps Maiyoua and Chungyia constantly busy.

“I like to be challenged,” Maiyoua said. “I see new things come up and meet new people every day.”

Chungyia is a board member for the Hmong American Partnership in the Fox Valley, the Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce and the Department of Transportation. He recently was appointed to work as a city-planning commissioner in Appleton.

Chungyia said his goal is to continue to recognize the needs of the community and meet them.

“All of my businesses are my favorite,” he said. “They all give me challenges and they are all working with people and helping the community.”

Source

Read more...

Thousands of Hmong supporters rally outside Sacramento federal court

RENÉE C. BYER rbyer@sacbee.com Hmong supporters chant, "Justice, justice, justice," Monday outside U.S. District Court; 12 defendants are accused of plotting the overthrow of Laos' communist regime.


As often has been true in the case of 12 men accused of plotting an overthrow of the government in communist Laos, what was going on Monday outside Sacramento's federal courthouse was more scintillating than the proceedings in court.

Throughout the morning, more than 3,000 men, women and children of Hmong descent engaged in a spirited but orderly demonstration in front of the courthouse to show their support for the defendants, 11 of whom are of Hmong heritage.

Inside it was routine business as a phalanx of lawyers talked with U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. about dates to file pleadings.

The federal indictment accuses the group of conspiring to mobilize an insurgent force with the aim of transforming Laos into an American-style democracy. The prosecution contends that the men were planning to arm Hmong people in Laos for a revolt against the country's communist rulers.

All 12 defendants have pleaded not guilty, and the defense argues that the whole case is a concoction by ATF agents and federal prosecutors.

The Hmong, a Laotian mountain people, fought a CIA-sponsored war for 14 years against communist infiltration into South Vietnam and Laos. When those countries fell to the communists in 1975, tens of thousands of Hmong made their way to the United States by way of refugee camps in Thailand.

For those marching outside the federal courthouse Monday, the case unfolding inside marks a betrayal of the debt they feel the United States owes the Hmong for those years of loyalty and sacrifice alongside American forces.

The crowd of young and old chanted, "What do we want? Justice! What do we want? Case dismissed!" They waved American flags and signs that read, "Gunslinger 'Steve' ATF Agent," a reference to the undercover firearms agent who executed a sting operation that led to the charges.

The highlight of the demonstration was a passionate speech by Song Vang, a daughter of defendant Youa True Vang. Her father was a colonel in the guerrilla army commanded by storied Maj. Gen. Vang Pao, who himself was a defendant until the government dropped its charges against him last year.

Born in Xieng Khuan province in northern Laos, Youa True Vang, now 74, was recruited at age 25 by the CIA in 1961, Song Vang told the crowd.

"He assisted in guarding radar towers, disrupting supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail" that ran from North Vietnam to the Viet Cong fighting in the south, said Song Vang, 51, who came from Minnesota to speak at the rally.

"Then the CIA put him in charge of a special battalion whose main purpose was rescuing American pilots shot down," she said. "He saved many U.S. lives and lost many men."

She went on to tell of her father's life after he settled in Fresno, where she said he became a political activist. He served as president of a Lao community organization and raised money for survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Song Vang said.

"He lived by John F. Kennedy's credo, 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,' " she said. "He was willing to risk his life for this principle before he even set foot on this continent. The Hmong are good U.S. citizens."

Meanwhile on the 15th floor, lawyers and Damrell agreed to reconvene next fall for arguments on defense motions.

It is anticipated that the defense will renew an earlier motion to dismiss the case and, failing that, will move to suppress the evidence. Both motions would be based largely on the conduct of the undercover agent, who posed as an arms dealer eager to sell weapons to the defendants.

James Brosnahan, a legendary San Francisco lawyer who did most of the talking for the defense, told Damrell that he and his colleagues still do not have all the material they want from the government.

He said there is a "warehouse of material," and the defense has asked prosecutors for an "inventory of what they have in there" to help locate and index relevant evidence. So far, he said, that has not been forthcoming.

Lead prosecutor S. Robert Tice-Raskin responded that "there is no item-by-item inventory," and the government has met its legal obligation to make the material "available for inspection and copying."

Tice-Raskin said the prosecution has produced 86,000 pages of documents and hundreds of recordings of electronically intercepted conversations, many of them not in English.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/16/2609530/thousands-of-hmong-supporters.html#ixzz0iLZd7APu

Read more...

Sacramento's Hmong community divided over charter school

The idea of a charter school tailored to Hmong students has generated excitement among local Hmong educators and parents, whose children are some of the lowest achievers in the Sacramento City Unified School District.

Proponents of the school say the struggles of Hmong students have been obscured by the academic successes of Asian students in general. Specialized teaching methods and lessons at the Yav Pem Suab Academy, they say, would help those children flourish.

But the pastor of a small Hmong church on 47th Avenue says the proposed school lumps together culturally different ethnic Hmong groups.

Sacramento's estimated 20,000 Hmong include White Hmong, Blue Hmong (some of whom don't spell it with an "H" and are also known as Green Hmong) and even Striped Hmong and Black Hmong.

The Rev. Txer Paul Vang of the 130-member Hmong Calvary Evangelism Center details differences in dialect, spelling and culture in a passionate letter to Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Jonathan Raymond. He charges that the proposed charter marginalizes the Blue Hmong-Green Hmong.

Raymond could not be reached for comment.

But board member Diana Rodriguez said: "I wasn't aware of that. I had heard there were different dialects."

Vang, who also is chairman of Mong Federation Inc., said Western missionaries translated "Mong Leng" as "Blue Hmong" and "Hmong Der" as "White Hmong."

"However, Blue Mong and White Mong are misleading terms and … must be ceased and discontinued," Vang wrote to the superintendent.

Vang, 55, said about 40 percent of the district's 3,000 Hmong children are Mong Leng, and if the Hmong language teachers speak Hmong Der dialect, "it will be confusing for our Mong Leng children, and we do not feel comfortable to study the Hmong Der Language."

Proponents of the charter school presented a revised proposal to Sacramento City Unified trustees during their Thursday board meeting.

They're asking for a five-year charter for their kindergarten-through-sixth-grade program that would open in the fall. The school board has until March 27 to accept or deny the petition.

The petition specifies, "Both the Hmong Der language (White Hmong) and the Hmong Leng language (Blue Hmong) will be taught."

And the school's name, Yav Pem Suab Academy (pronounced Yah Bay Shooa), means "preparing for the future" in Blue Hmong, said Vince Xiong, the front-runner for the principal's job at the charter. "It sounds good so we all agreed to it – it's recognizable in both White and Green Hmong," he said.

The academy will be open to students of all races, Xiong said, and Hmong language – taught in both dialects – will be offered to any student who's interested.

Hmong leaders acknowledge different dialects among ethnic groups, comparing them to the differences between Thai and Lao languages, or British and American English.

And each of the groups – including the Striped and Black Hmong – has distinct ceremonial garb.

Kathy May Ly, director of Sacramento Asian-American Inc., said she owns four traditional Hmong costumes: White, Blue, Striped and Hmong Chinese.

"I don't segregate – all Hmong are one," said Ly, whose parents speak Blue Hmong.

Lue Vang, who identifies as Blue Hmong/Green Hmong, said that in Laos, "somehow the White Hmong were the ones who dominated because they joined the French first."

Each group made fun of the other's dialect, but when the CIA forced Hmong jungle fighters into an anti-communist guerrilla army during the Vietnam War, "we blended," Lue Vang said.

"All Hmong kids are really behind in school, not only the Blue/Green ones," said Lue Vang. "They need both dialects – whoever teaches Hmong needs to be a master of both."

Source

Read more...