Hmong History Month looks to past, future

An actor from the movie "Gran Torino" and an author with a national reputation will help the Wausau area celebrate April as Hmong History Month.

The seventh annual celebration will begin Saturday with a kickoff celebration at Wausau Center mall. This year's theme will be "Our Continuing Journey." Events held throughout April will highlight the past, contemplate the present and look to the future for central Wisconsin's largest minority group.

Taken together, the history month events tell the story of the Hmong journey from war-torn Laos to America, and how that change in geography, lifestyle and society has affected ancient traditions. Scheduled events seek to explain Hmong culture to outsiders, while other events are tailored for the Hmong themselves to discuss how old ways can and should mix with life in modern America.

April's program also will explore Hmong cultural traditions such as shamanism, wedding practices and the history of the Hmong language.

"It's about why we came to America and the steps in our lives," said Long Lor, 27, of Rothschild, a supervisor at Wausau Financial Systems and a member of the Hmong History Month planning committee. "And it's just to remember who we are. We don't want to forget our ancestors."

Themes of Hmong identity, language and culture are underscored by the appearance of Elvis Thao of Milwaukee, an actor who appeared in Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino," which spotlighted the culture clash felt by the Hmong. Thao will speak at a Hmong Community Conference tailored for Hmong parents and youths to be held April 24 at John Muir Middle School.

Kao Kalia Yang of St. Paul, Minn., the award-winning author of "The Late Homecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir," also will take part in the festivities. She was a keynote speaker at last year's celebration, and her book explores conflicts that arise when trying to preserve traditional ways while building a new life in America. She'll talk about her writing and its impact in "When the Story is Told," a presentation set for April 17.

Hmong History Month allows the Hmong community to re-evaluate its values and share its culture with outsiders, said Peter Yang, the executive director of the Wausau Area Hmong Mutual Association and another member of the planning committee. Ultimately, the goal is to increase understanding.

"We're a part of the community," Yang said. "And hopefully, what's important to us is important to the larger community, too."

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Business is focus for council candidates

A businessman seeking political office for the first time and a rookie politician facing his first election will square off next week in the battle for the 2nd District seat on Sheboygan's Common Council.

Ald. Vang Neng Vue — the first Hmong resident to serve on the council — is the incumbent, but this is his first time on the ballot, since the council appointed him to his current post to fill the seat vacated by Mayor Bob Ryan. If the primary results are any indication, he may face an uphill battle.

Dennis Radtke — owner of Urbane, a smoke-free bar just north of downtown — garnered 185 votes in the February primary, easily outpacing Vue's 98 votes and the 58 votes from the now-eliminated third candidate. Radtke says his 15 years of business experience and political science degree make him the right choice for the downtown district.

"I will look at city issues through the eyes of a businessperson," Radtke, 39, said after laying out a series of suggestions for attracting new business to the city.

Vue, meanwhile, said he provides an alternative perspective otherwise lacking on the council.

"I am a different person, a different ethnicity, so I have different opinions, different ideas," said Vue, 43. "Representation from a minority group such as Asian or Hmong would be another plus for the city."

Though he didn't introduce any measures in his first 11 months on the council, Vue said he has ideas that he will pursue if allowed to keep his post.

"I would work to keep business in the city and create business and make sure the city stays within its budget, if necessary (approving) service cuts, layoffs," said Vue, a family support specialist at Sheboygan County Head Start. "I have learned a lot. I still have a lot to learn, and I will do the best I can if I get re-elected."

Radtke said his focus as a 2nd District alderman would be on the neighborhoods.

"The biggest issue for my district as I go door-to-door seems to be crime in neighborhoods," he said. "They're worried about dilapidated houses … and they're worried about crime creeping into the neighborhoods."

Radtke suggested creating neighborhood organizations, where residents could meet with police and city leaders to discuss issues ranging from drug dealers to potholes.

All these issues are related," he said. "Once you have better neighborhoods, your property values go up, your tax base goes up without increasing your property tax rate."

Vue and Radtke both said they would vote against any increase in property taxes, with Radtke adding that he would be in favor of increased privatization if necessary.

On the business side, both candidates suggested lowering interest rates for the city's business development loans.

To attract new businesses, Radtke also suggests streamlining the committee process so businesses could have a "one-stop shop" for city approvals and waiving property taxes for the first year or two as business establish themselves. Vue said he supports lowering city assessments to help maintain some existing businesses, specifically naming Blue Harbor Resort and Conference Center.

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Former Hmong captain in Missoula to receive honors for war effort

The secret war of Laos is no secret anymore, and one of its soldiers will be formally thanked Saturday by the city of Missoula, the state of Montana and the United States.

Moua Chou, a former captain in Hmong Gen. Vang Pao's army, will receive the Vietnam Veterans National Medallion at a presentation at 1 p.m. at St. Anthony Catholic Church, 217 Tremont.

Guests of honor include Len Leibinger of the Montana Division of Veterans Affair in Missoula, Brig. Gen. Stanley Putnam of the Montana National Guard and Missoula Mayor John Engen.

Now 64, Chou was 15 when he joined the Special Guerrilla Unit in Vang Pao's army in 1961. He served through the fall of Laos to communist forces in 1975.

As President John F. Kennedy built up U.S. troop presence in Vietnam in the early 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency surreptitiously looked to the west for help to blunt North Vietnamese forces.

"They went to the Lao government, and it came up that the mountain Hmong peoples would be the best to fight," Chou said. At the time the Hmong, a hill tribe of northern Laos, had just one military official, Col. Vang Pao, "so the CIA flew by helicopter to find where he was at."

Vang Pao agreed to lend a hand, and the CIA and Air America soon began dropping weapons, military supplies and food to the Hmong, and provided air and advisory support. The Americans continued their aid until Laos fell in 1975 - more than two years after the official end of the Vietnam War.

Of a population of 400,000 Hmong, some 35,000 were killed in action, Chou said.

"Hmong peoples fought hard along the border to reduce heavy attacks on South Vietnam, they protected a ... blind bombing device close to the North Vietnamese border, and they saved a lot of downed U.S. pilots," he said.

Chou was a forward air guide, directing U.S. air strikes in Laos and nighttime truck movements along the borders of South Vietnam.

"The Hmong were doing interdiction missions and pilot rescue missions in Laos, and they were being paid a mere pittance to do that," said Leibinger. "A lot of U.S. pilots owe their lives to those folks, and that's what we're honoring."

The United States didn't officially acknowledge the Hmong contribution for nearly 20 years. In 1994, former CIA director William Colby paid tribute in Congress to the "heroism and effectiveness of the Hmong struggle."

The North Vietnamese devoted some 70,000 troops to Laos, Colby pointed out, troops that were not available to fight American and South Vietnamese soldiers in Vietnam.

The first government-recognized Lao-Hmong Recognition Day was held in Golden, Colo., on July 22, 1995, and July 22 was chosen as the annual date for subsequent ones.

"Veterans are allowed to wear their proper official uniform of Laos and medals as their own," Chou said. "The Lao-Hmong veterans have not received any benefit from the government, so in compensation the government agreed to hand out medals to the Lao-Hmong veterans (as) affirmation of their heroic acts."

Even now, 35 years after the fall, the struggle continues for Hmong soldiers still hiding out in Laos, noted Leibinger.

"The Pathet Lao regime in power will actually slaughter those folks coming out of the jungle today," he said. "It's unfortunate, but when we pulled out in '75 they were left holding the bag, with no way to get out or to escape the repercussions of what they did during the Vietnam War for the Americans."

Chou was one of the lucky ones. He and his family were airlifted by U.S. forces to Thailand on May 13, 1975, as the Pathet Lao closed in.

They became among the first Hmong resettled to western Montana the following March. They, Vang Pao and hundreds of others were aided in their new homes by Louise Daniels and her son, Jerry, a former Missoula smokejumper who worked for the CIA in Laos and Thailand.

Chou and his wife, Say Khang, have lived in Missoula ever since, raising six sons and a daughter. Their youngest is 16 and a student at Big Sky High, the school from which all his older siblings graduated.

A familiar face at Missoula's farmers markets, Chou worked at the Champion International and, later, Stimson Lumber mill in Bonner for 30 years before it closed in 2007.

He was invited to receive his medal at a national ceremony in Milwaukee, Wisc., last July but was unable to make it. The medal was sent to Missoula for an October ceremony, he said, but his wife underwent surgery and the award was postponed until Saturday.

Along with the medal, Chou will receive a citation signed by U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado.

It's in recognition of "outstanding performance of duty in action against enemy forces in (Chou's) native country of Laos," the citation reads in part. "He successfully executed primary missions for air and combat logistics support for the United States Military Forces to include the rescuing of American air personnel during battles in the theater of operations.

"It further commemorates all the Lao-Hmong Special Guerilla Units (SGU) during the Vietnam Conflict. ... I commend you for your bravery and your loyalty to the United States of America."

Reporter Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com

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Hmong youth not preserving traditions, professor says

SUN-STAR PHOTO BY MARCI STENBERG Dr. Chai Charles Moua talks to an audience at Merced College during a panel presentation on preserving Hmong culture in the United States.

In Hmong culture, it's believed that chickens foretell the future.

If chickens could talk, they might say that in 20 or 30 years Hmong culture may only show itself in small ways in the Merced County Hmong community.

During a panel discussion Friday at Merced College, professor Chai Charles Moua discussed how Hmong leaders have preserved the culture since their immigration to the United States.

Moua warned that today's youth are not following these traditions, which could lead to the culture's demise.

A crowd of about 50 listened as Moua talked about the early Hmong immigration to the U.S. from Laos via Thailand in 1975.

The Hmong people originated from southwest China, but faced persecution and fled to Northern Laos and Vietnam in the 1800s.

During the Vietnam War, several Hmong left Laos after the country's communist takeover and sought refuge in Thailand.

According to a 2005 U.S. Census Bureau report, 188,000 Hmong have settled in the U.S., with the largest concentrations in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

There are roughly 8,000 Hmong residents in Merced County, according to the Lao Family Community, a nonprofit organization that addresses the needs of the Laotian community. Merced county hosts the third-largest Hmong population in California, behind Sacramento and Fresno counties.

The three main cultural distinctions for Hmong people are their new year's celebrations, weddings and funerals, Moua said.

For the Hmong, weddings and funerals both come with high price tags, Moua said.

The groom's family pays the bride up to $5,800 for marriage -- a payment that serves the same function as an engagement ring.

Funerals, which contain a long list of rituals, can cost a family an average of $35,000, Moua said.

Cultural traditions are passed to male children, and Moua said many young men aren't that eager to learn the traditions of their parents. Instead, male youngsters have opted to adopt the traditions of the mainstream culture.

Immigrating to any country naturally causes a person to shed some of their homeland's cultural traditions, Moua said.

Hmong traditions could end up forgotten, like some of the Native American tribal rituals, he added.

Heather Ybarra, 22, attended Moua's lecture and said she was saddened to hear about the culture's fading importance among their youth.

"I'm happy they are bringing awareness to the culture disappearing," Ybarra said. "I love diversity, and I wish the people who come to our country weren't pushed into submission, because I feel our culture is very dominant."

The key to preservation is reaching out to younger generations, Moua said. He ended his talk with an invitation to the community to continue educating people together.

Reporter Jamie Oppenheim can be reached at (209) 385-2407 or joppenheim@mercedsun-star.com.

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Resettled Hmong Feel Unsafe

Lao Hmong forcibly repatriated from Thailand say they want to be resettled again.


Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA
The first Thai military truck carrying Hmong refugees departs for Laos, Dec. 28, 2009.

BANGKOK—In a rare meeting with senior foreign diplomats and journalists, a number of ethnic Hmong recently resettled in Laos said that they feel unsafe and would like to be resettled in a third country.

“So far nothing has happened, but we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. We don’t know whether we are going to be alive or dead,” one resident of the resettlement village said.

One woman who appeared to be around 45 years old approached an RFA reporter during the March 26 visit and whispered that she wanted to leave Laos.

“I feel scared and do not want to stay in Laos. If possible I would like to be helped in order to resettle in a third country,” she said.

The Hmong were brought to Baan Phonekham, Borikhamxay province after being forcibly deported in December back to Laos from Thailand, where they had sought asylum.

Of the 4,371 Hmong that Thailand repatriated, despite protests from international rights groups and U.N. officials, 158 had been recognized by the U.N. as people of concern.

The Hmong say they fear persecution from the Lao government because of their Vietnam War-era ties to the U.S. in the CIA’s “Secret War” against the North Vietnamese in Laos.

Meeting cut short


Following the Hmongs’ repatriation on December 28, U.N. officials and international rights groups expressed concern about the treatment of the resettled Hmong and called on Lao officials to allow access to Phonekham village.

Lao officials invited senior foreign diplomats, journalists, and U.N. representatives to a meeting with around 300 residents of the resettlement village, but the tightly-controlled visit was cut short after Hmong residents expressed their fears to the visitors.

When the delegation was given time to question the residents who had gathered in a meeting hall, some attendees rushed up to the visitors to express their concerns directly, saying that they wanted to leave.

Afterward, the diplomats were taken in a van on a short tour of the village, instead of having the more comprehensive visit that had been originally planned.

During the visit, the Lao Brigadier General Bouaxieng Champaphanh said that the Hmong had received the best possible assistance and that all were safe, although the Lao government still work to do to develop the village.

Original reporting by Oratai Singhananth for RFA's Lao service. Lao service director: Viengsay Luangkhot. Written for the Web in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

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Rare glimpse of Hmong in Laos fails to quell concerns

A small, woollen-hatted woman, one of thousands of ethnic Hmong recently expelled from Thailand, creeps up to the row of rare foreign visitors in her new Laotian village.

Lao Hmong hill tribe villagers watch as foreign media and diplomats visit the village of Phongkham in Bolikhamsai province on March 26, 2010 where some 3,000 Lao Hmong were resettled after recently being deported from Thailand.

"I want to go to another country," she whispers to the diplomats and journalists, who have been invited by the communist government for a tightly-monitored trip to this remote, newly-built community.

"I don't feel good here in the village," says the 50-year-old, while the Laotian army's deputy chief, Brigadier General Bouasieng Champaphan, is delivering a rather different message to the audience.

"All the returnees are calm and stable and satisfied that they have returned to live in their home country again," he says. "They are very pleased and satisfied with the government's assistance."

Thailand faced a barrage of international criticism in December when it used troops to forcibly repatriate about 4,500 Hmong from camps in the country's north back to Laos, despite concerns of persecution on their return.

The Hmong's fear of retribution from the Laotian regime is a lingering remnant of the Vietnam War, when members of the ethnic hill tribe fought in a US-funded irregular army as the conflict secretly spilled into Laos.
After the communists took power in 1975, some Hmong hid in the jungle and fought a low-level insurgency against the regime. Hundreds of thousands of Lao and Hmong fled the country.

Though Thailand insisted all the Hmong recently sent back to Laos were illegal economic migrants, the United Nations recognised 158 of them as refugees, but was never allowed to assess if the thousands of others needed international protection.

While diplomats say there have been no reports of mistreatment, suspicions remain about the Hmong's rights and living standards in Phonkham village, which was built specifically for the group in central Bolikhamsay province.

"They've put them on a Laos equivalent of a desert island," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "There's no sustained access to these people or quality of access."

Laotian officials said 3,457 of the repatriated Hmong were sent to Phonkham, while others went back to their home towns.

Laos said it would grant the international community's request for "free and unfettered" access to the returnees within 30 days of their repatriation, but so far visits have been scarce, brief and strictly monitored.

On the latest two-hour visit Friday, foreign diplomats, reporters and a few UN representatives were among those escorted in two helicopters from the Laotian capital Vientiane, a 45-minute flight away.

The delegation was ushered straight to an unfinished village hall to be greeted by smiling youngsters in traditional Hmong dress, before a briefing by central government and Phonkham officials.

"In the beginning of their resettlement... they were afraid because of not being familiar with their new environment and not understanding the Lao government's policies," said Bounthan Douangtanya of the village administration committee.

"But the authorities have conducted an education course for these returnees in order to... make them understand the policy regulations," he said, before detailing plans to develop the village infrastructure.

Diplomats were given a brief but revealing chance to question the 300 or so Hmong gathered in the hall.

How many had been outside of the village since arriving? One hand went up in response. How many had received money, parcels or anything else from contacts outside the village? Two. How many had yet received ID cards or official registration? None.

As the meeting ended, several of the Hmong approached their visitors, saying they wanted to leave. "I want to go to Canada," one 16-year-old girl told AFP, in English, as tears welled in her eyes.

She said she was one of the 158 recognised refugees who have been offered resettlement in Canada, the United States, Australia and the Netherlands. Embassies have been told by Laos that these people now want to stay.

One diplomat on the trip said that the Hmong who "explicitly" expressed a desire to leave "seemed to be demonstrating courage in coming to talk to us, despite the best efforts of the authorities to stage-manage the situation".

But the visit was "altogether not too bad," another Western diplomat said. "Obviously the transparency of the dialogue was limited," he added.

Brigadier General Bouasieng said foreign countries willing to assist the village should contact the government in Laos, which is one of Asia's poorest countries.

There are hopes that such aid, if allowed, would facilitate more openness about the Hmong.

"I think (the Laotian authorities) are going to struggle to support them. The trade-off is: if they want donations, they must give access," said Robertson of Human Rights Watch.

Rights groups say they have serious concerns about availability of clean water, food and medical treatment for the group.

"As long as access is strictly scripted and stage-managed, visitors will not be able to assess the well-being of the returnees," said Brittis Edman of Amnesty International.

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Laos asked to grant access to Hmong

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya says he will ask Vientiane to give "free and unfettered" access to Lao Hmong repatriated from Thailand.

He would talk to Laos during the Mekong River Commission (MRC) meeting in Hua Hin early next month.

Mr Kasit unveiled his move after meeting European diplomats, including the envoys of the EU, Switzerland, UK, the Netherlands, and Canada yesterday.

Earlier, the European diplomats raised concerns about the fate of the 4,500 ethnic Hmong deported from Thailand to Laos last December.

The diplomats called for free and unfettered access to the Hmong returnees.

"It is now March and we have not been granted free and unfettered access, especially to the 158 Lao Hmong from Nong Khai.

"The Netherlands, the US, Canada and Australia have offered them resettlement," said EU ambassador David Lipman.

"Concerning these 158 refugees, we want to ask them about their needs, including their wishes for resettlement."

Mr Kasit said he had spoken to Lao authorities about access, but would raise the matter again at the MRC meeting.

Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, which share the Mekong River, will meet in Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan between April 2 to 5 to discuss water resources management and other development matters.

Vientiane yesterday took about 20 diplomats, mostly based in Laos, including the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) representative and US ambassador, and a group of foreign journalists to visit the Hmong resettlement village in Borikhamxay, about 225km from the capital.

The excursion was also joined by Thai diplomats and UN officials.

Lao representatives told visitors about how the government was resettling 4,500 Hmong in the village.

Foreign diplomats asked questions to see if the Hmong would be allowed free and unrestricted contact with the outside world, including relatives, said a diplomatic source.

"The Hmong indicated that they wanted to leave Laos. Some were crying, but there was not enough time to talk in depth with the individuals."

Another diplomatic source said the visit by Western diplomats had given the Hmong hope that they would be allowed to resettle overseas.

However, he believed it was unlikely that repatriation of the 158 Hmong with so-called person of concern status would come about. "Laos has tried to put in place the necessary infrastructure and wants to see them living here rather than going elsewhere," the source said.

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Laos allows Western diplomats into Hmong village

The Laotian government allowed UN agencies and top diplomats brief access Friday to a village housing thousands of ethnic Hmong who were expelled from Thailand in December.

Lao Hmong hill tribe villagers watch as foreign media and diplomats visit the village of Phongkham in Bolikhamsai province where some 3,000 Lao Hmong were resettled after recently being deported from Thailand. The Laotian government has allowed UN agencies and top diplomats brief access to a village housing thousands of ethnic Hmong who were expelled from Thailand in December.

In an attempt to quell international concerns about the group, officials led a tightly-controlled trip via helicopter to remote Phonkham village, a newly-built community in central Bolikhamsay province.

Bangkok sparked a global outcry in December when it used troops to forcibly repatriate about 4,500 Hmong from camps in northern Thailand to its communist neighbour.

The group included 158 people recognised as refugees by the United Nations.

Hmong are a Southeast Asian ethnic group who fear persecution for fighting alongside US forces in the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s.
Thailand and Laos both said the Hmong were illegal economic immigrants.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) was never given access to the vast majority of the Hmong in Thai camps to assess if any were in fact refugees, despite concerns that a significant number would need international protection.
But a UNHCR official was invited to take part in Friday's short visit, along with representatives of the World Bank, the UN Development Programme, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
"We're glad the Laotian government did invite us to go... I think it's a good first step," said UNHCR spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey. "We would like an opportunity to talk to the people who returned."
The visitors included about 20 Western diplomats including the US ambassador to Laos, European Union delegates, and foreign reporters. They were welcomed to the village by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Phongsavath Boupha.

He said his ministry was pleased about the visit, "so you can experience the real atmosphere of the village".
But for most of the two-hour stay, the delegation was confined to an unfinished village hall, mainly to be briefed about planned infrastructure developments, with no time allocated for one-on-one discussions with the Hmong.

"The returnees are stable and confident in the leadership of the government and our officials in charge," said Bounthan Douangtanya, speaking on behalf of the committee that administers Phonkham.
But as the visit concluded, some Hmong approached the delegation and said they wanted to leave.
US congressmen, US diplomats and the Thai military earlier visited members of the repatriated group, but rights groups and foreign embassies have been seeking better access to ensure the returnees are properly treated.

Diplomats have said there were no reports of mistreatment.

Separately in Bangkok, David Lipman, the head of the European Union delegation to Thailand, reiterated a call for "free and unfettered" access to the resettled Hmong, especially the 158 whom the Netherlands, the US, Canada and Australia have offered to resettle.

Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya -- who met Friday with Lipman, other Bangkok-based Western diplomats, the IOM and UNHCR -- said he would pursue the envoys' request with Laotian authorities, an EU press release said.

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Vietnam veterans (Hmong) honored officially for the first time

Eau Claire (WQOW) - Hundreds gather Saturday to celebrate a new Wisconsin holiday, honoring a special group of veterans.

Thirty-seven years ago, the last U.S. troops left Vietnam.

"I was over there November '69 to December of '70," says veteran John Myers of Eau Claire.

Saturday, the service of those soldiers like John Myers was recognized officially.

"This is the first time anybody has ever done anything for us veterans," Myers says.

Last summer Governor Doyle signed a bill designating March 29th as Vietnam Veterans Day in Wisconsin. That's the day the last American combat troops left Vietnam.

"It's an official welcome home for what myself and other Vietnam veterans did in the name of freedom for their country," says veteran Dann Dunham.

Side by side, hundreds of veterans and Hmong people who fought beside those Americans celebrated Saturday in Eau Claire. For friends and family, it's a moment of pride as well.

"It's a special moment for all of them to be recognized for the first time," says Sarah Peleschak, John Myers' daughter.

The celebration continues Saturday evening with a banquet at the Eau Claire Moose Family Lodge.

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Book - "Taking the gamble"

This is an honest and personal look at modern matrimony.

COMMITTED
A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
By Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: Viking Adult, 304 pages
ISBN: 978-0670021659

AT the end of her Eat, Pray, Love memoir, Elizabeth Gilbert met and fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who had been living in Bali. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but as post-traumatic-divorce syndrome sufferers, they also swore to never, under any circumstances, get legally married.

In Committed, Gilbert the Commitment Phobic shares, “We had ... learned that marriage is an estate that is very much easier to enter than it is to exit. Unfenced by law, the unmarried lover can quit a bad relationship at any time. But you – the legally married person who wants to escape doomed love – may soon discover that a significant portion of your marriage contract belongs to the State and that it sometimes takes a very long while for the State to grant you leave.”
However, providence intervened. The United States Government – after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at a border crossing – gave the couple a choice: get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again.

“Sentenced” to marry, Gilbert faced her fears of marriage analytically. So she takes us through a conversational stroll as she tries to talk herself into matrimony the second time round. She concocts a weird but wonderfully bittersweet marmalade of personal memories, literary walkabouts, political arguments, economic reasoning, historical and theological query; all mixed together with wry wit and careful, though seemingly casual, research. The result is a mostly smart and sobering analysis of the role marriage plays in our different cultures, consciousness and ecologies.

The discourse starts with Gilbert’s interaction with the Hmong tribe in Vietnam, for whom romantic love has very little to do with reasons for marriage. Here, she notes that “there is one critical gift that a traditional Hmong bride almost always receives ... which all too often eludes the modern Western bride ... the gift of certainty. When you have only one path set before you, you can generally feel confident that it was the correct path to taken.”
She says that Western-style “love-based marriage does not guarantee the lifelong binding contract of a clan-based or an asset-based marriage” as “by unnerving definition, anything that the heart has chosen for its own mysterious reasons, it can always unchoose later.”
The book takes us to modern revolutionary Iran where young couples can ask a mullah for a special marriage permit called a sigheh that permits them to be married for just one day, and to China where “ghost” marriages were sometimes effected between a young girl of rank and a dead man from a good family to seal clan bonds.
Gilbert also introduces us to psychologist Shirley P. Glass, who specialises in marriage infidelity and has a theory that every healthy marriage is composed of walls (barriers of trust behind which you guard the most intimate secrets) and windows (necessary gaps through which you interact with family and friends). She also provides a refreshing perspective on prenuptials: “It’s better to set your own terms than to risk the possibility that someday, unsentimental strangers in a harsh courtroom might set the terms for you.”

While I did not always agree with her arguments, I enjoyed Gilbert’s writing style and trademark wit, compassion and intelligence as well as her clever analogies; classics such as “Marriage has a bonsai energy: It’s a tree in a pot with trimmed roots and clipped limbs. Mind you, bonsai can live for centuries, and their unearthly beauty is a direct result of such constriction, but nobody would ever mistake a bonsai for a free climbing vine.”

In the end, Gilbert achieves her personal peace, for “sometimes life is too hard to be alone, and sometimes too good to be alone”. She consoles herself in that with the second marriage “at least you know you are gambling”.

The book is part marriage manifesto, part feminist mantra, part marriage manual and wholly personal.
If you can forgive the fact that she does not always present a balanced viewpoint on marriage – only those facts that serve her own purposes and intentions – you will enjoy this honest look at modern matrimony and should learn something new about marriage.

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Hmong Night

Hmong Night will celebrate the culture of an Asian people who've scattered in a worldwide diaspora driven by war and persecution.

The event is 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. March 27 in the ballroom of Atwood Memorial Center. View the event poster (PDF).

In addition to food and entertainment, there will be a presentation by Paul Hillmer, author of "A People's History of the Hmong." Hillmer is a professor of American history at Concordia University, St. Paul.

The evening's theme is "Hmoob Lub Neej Twag Rog" or "Refugee Life."

Groups of people who speak a Hmong dialect live in mountainous regions of Laos, Vietnam, China and other southeast Asian nations.

In the wake of U.S intervention in Laos in the 1960s and 1970s, Hmong families fled to refugee camps in Thailand and then emigrated to U.S., Canada and Australia and elsewhere.

Beginning in 1975, the Hmong minority in Laos was targeted for persecution during civil war between communist guerrillas and the forces backing the Laotian monarchy.

In the early years of the disapora, St. Paul, Minn., became a center of Hmong life in North America.

Hmong Minnesotans are succeeding in business, the arts, education, community service work and politics, among other areas.

Community leaders include Cy Thao, a Minnesota state legislator from Ramsey County, Dia Cha, an author and cultural anthropologist who formerly taught at St. Cloud State.

Tickets, which are available at the door, are $5. Students are $3.

For more information, contact Xee Yang at 763-232-4644 or Tou Yee Vang at 763-614-4009.

Hmong Night is sponsored by these St. Cloud State entities: Hmong Student Organization, the SCSU Cultural Diversity Committee, Multicultural Student Services, Ethnic Studies Department and Student Government.



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Hmong Cultural Night Set for April 3

Guest speaker for the Hmong Cultural Night on April 3 at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith will be Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt, renowned photographer, war correspondent, historian, human rights advocate and an expert on Southeast Asia.

The Hmong Student Association is hosting the event, which will be held from 6-9 p.m. in the Reynolds Room of the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center at UA Fort Smith. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Hamilton-Merritt’s book “Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret War for Laos, 1942-1992” was published in 1999. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 and again in 2000 for her work on behalf of the Hmong tribal people of Laos. Her books will be available for signing after her speech.

Kong Dah Lee, president of Hmong 18 Council of South Arkansas, will make an opening speech.

The main purpose of UA Fort Smith’s HSA is to educate the community and society about the aspects of the Hmong and to promote higher education to the younger generations. Goal for the Hmong Cultural Night is to let others experience the Hmong culture through traditional events that will be performed by Hmong students, including cultural dancing and singing, a fashion show of traditional Hmong clothing and a “qeej” performance. The qeej is a sacred, ritual instrument which has a cultural tradition among the Hmong.

The Hmong Cultural Night is free to the community. Food will be provided by Troung Son, a local grocery and restaurant.

Although there is no admission charge, Takeo Suzuki, executive director of international relations, asks those who are interested in attending to register by e-mail at international@uafortsmith.edu.

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Former Hmong captain in Missoula to receive honors for war effort

he secret war of Laos is no secret anymore, and one of its soldiers will be formally thanked Saturday by the city of Missoula, the state of Montana and the United States.

Moua Chou, a former captain in Hmong Gen. Vang Pao's army, will receive the Vietnam Veterans National Medallion at a presentation at 1 p.m. at St. Anthony Catholic Church, 217 Tremont.

Guests of honor include Len Leibinger of the Montana Division of Veterans Affair in Missoula, Brig. Gen. Stanley Putnam of the Montana National Guard and Missoula Mayor John Engen.

Now 64, Chou was 15 when he joined the Special Guerrilla Unit in Vang Pao's army in 1961. He served through the fall of Laos to communist forces in 1975.

As President John F. Kennedy built up U.S. troop presence in Vietnam in the early 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency surreptitiously looked to the west for help to blunt North Vietnamese forces.

"They went to the Lao government, and it came up that the mountain Hmong peoples would be the best to fight," Chou said. At the time the Hmong, a hill tribe of northern Laos, had just one military official, Col. Vang Pao, "so the CIA flew by helicopter to find where he was at."

Vang Pao agreed to lend a hand, and the CIA and Air America soon began dropping weapons, military supplies and food to the Hmong, and provided air and advisory support. The Americans continued their aid until Laos fell in 1975 - more than two years after the official end of the Vietnam War.

Of a population of 400,000 Hmong, some 35,000 were killed in action, Chou said.

"Hmong peoples fought hard along the border to reduce heavy attacks on South Vietnam, they protected a ... blind bombing device close to the North Vietnamese border, and they saved a lot of downed U.S. pilots," he said.

Chou was a forward air guide, directing U.S. air strikes in Laos and nighttime truck movements along the borders of South Vietnam.

"The Hmong were doing interdiction missions and pilot rescue missions in Laos, and they were being paid a mere pittance to do that," said Leibinger. "A lot of U.S. pilots owe their lives to those folks, and that's what we're honoring."

***

The United States didn't officially acknowledge the Hmong contribution for nearly 20 years. In 1994, former CIA director William Colby paid tribute in Congress to the "heroism and effectiveness of the Hmong struggle."

The North Vietnamese devoted some 70,000 troops to Laos, Colby pointed out, troops that were not available to fight American and South Vietnamese soldiers in Vietnam.

The first government-recognized Lao-Hmong Recognition Day was held in Golden, Colo., on July 22, 1995, and July 22 was chosen as the annual date for subsequent ones.

"Veterans are allowed to wear their proper official uniform of Laos and medals as their own," Chou said. "The Lao-Hmong veterans have not received any benefit from the government, so in compensation the government agreed to hand out medals to the Lao-Hmong veterans (as) affirmation of their heroic acts."

Even now, 35 years after the fall, the struggle continues for Hmong soldiers still hiding out in Laos, noted Leibinger.

"The Pathet Lao regime in power will actually slaughter those folks coming out of the jungle today," he said. "It's unfortunate, but when we pulled out in '75 they were left holding the bag, with no way to get out or to escape the repercussions of what they did during the Vietnam War for the Americans."

***

Chou was one of the lucky ones. He and his family were airlifted by U.S. forces to Thailand on May 13, 1975, as the Pathet Lao closed in.

They became among the first Hmong resettled to western Montana the following March. They, Vang Pao and hundreds of others were aided in their new homes by Louise Daniels and her son, Jerry, a former Missoula smokejumper who worked for the CIA in Laos and Thailand.

Chou and his wife, Say Khang, have lived in Missoula ever since, raising six sons and a daughter. Their youngest is 16 and a student at Big Sky High, the school from which all his older siblings graduated.

A familiar face at Missoula's farmers markets, Chou worked at the Champion International and, later, Stimson Lumber mill in Bonner for 30 years before it closed in 2007.

He was invited to receive his medal at a national ceremony in Milwaukee, Wisc., last July but was unable to make it. The medal was sent to Missoula for an October ceremony, he said, but his wife underwent surgery and the award was postponed until Saturday.

Along with the medal, Chou will receive a citation signed by U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado.

It's in recognition of "outstanding performance of duty in action against enemy forces in (Chou's) native country of Laos," the citation reads in part. "He successfully executed primary missions for air and combat logistics support for the United States Military Forces to include the rescuing of American air personnel during battles in the theater of operations.

"It further commemorates all the Lao-Hmong Special Guerilla Units (SGU) during the Vietnam Conflict. ... I commend you for your bravery and your loyalty to the United States of America."

Reporter Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com.

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Sacramento City district board approves charter for Hmong academy

Sacramento City Unified School District trustees on Thursday night voted unanimously to approve a charter that would focus on teaching Hmong children.

Proponents of the Yav Pem Suab Academy said the school will recruit all students, as required by law, and will focus on Hmong culture and language instead of the typical foreign languages of Spanish and French.

Educators pushing the charter say Hmong children have fallen through the cracks at regular public schools for too long.

Hmong students in the Sacramento City Unified School District had the lowest scores - collectively - of all the district's ethnic groups on the English language arts section of standardized tests last year and the year before.

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Hmong Education Conference in Appleton exposes students to options after high school

APPLETON — As Fox Cities Hmong students graduate from high school in rising numbers, educators and others hope to help them take the next step.

And young Hmong already in college or in the work force want to throw open more doors for both the parents and students, dispelling the older generation’s long-held belief that true success in chasing the American dream is attainable only in medicine or law.

“In this sense, Hmong children are limited in their planning for their future,” said Lawrence University freshman Nkaujzouapa Lor. “If we want to make our parents proud, do we all need to become doctors and lawyers? What if we want to work with the environment? What if we like fashion and art?”


With that in mind, careers and higher education will be the focus Saturday of an education conference designed especially for Hmong families.


About 300 parents and students from Appleton Area School District and surrounding communities are expected to attend the fifth annual event at Madison Middle School.


The conference is a testament to how far the Hmong have come in pursuit of careers and education in recent years.


An ally of the U.S. in the Vietnam War, the Hmong had to flee their homes in Laos as refugees after the conflict. After several years spent in Thailand camps, they began resettling in this country, including the Fox Cities, in the early 1980s. The last wave of Hmong refugees began arriving here in 2004.

“We do this because we want Hmong students to be successful in pursuing education,” said Ger Vang, school district special |education/cultural support specialist and conference co-chair with Kia Thao, Hmong student cultural support specialist. “We believe education is everyone’s dream and we want Hmong parents and students to be able to access any available information that will enhance their livelihood.”

Vang said the conference is a community effort by the school district, various two-year and four-year higher education institutions, local businesses and agencies. It will focus on how parents can “get involved in their children’s life and guide them through their education.”


“In the beginning we were just talking about the basics of education,” Bill Curtis, Appleton’s ELL/Bilingual coordinator, said of earlier conferences, which were attended by many newly resettled Hmong refugee families. “But now there is a greater level of sophistication in the Hmong community here.”


“We see the progress,” Vang said. “More and more of our parents participate in school activities. They are more vocal in education. They used to lie back in the past and leave education up to the school.”


He also sees progress in the students’ school participation from the growing numbers joining Hmong clubs at each high school to other school-related activities.


“They are more consciously geared toward college,” he said.


Curtis noted that Appleton, which has the largest Hmong population in the Fox Cities, has a consistently high graduation rate for Hmong students. In 2009 it was 96.7 percent. In 2008 it was 88.9 percent and in 2007 it was 90.1 percent.


“This, (conference) helps take it to the next level and get people to think about that next step,” Curtis said.


Along with two keynote speakers, there will be workshops focused in eight career clusters, from human services and technology to public safety, the arts and business.


“Hmong professionals in certain fields will come in at talk about their careers fields,” Vang said.


Lor, 19, a biochemistry major at Lawrence from Milwaukee and one of the conference panelists, said the workshops will be enlightening to Hmong parents still learning the ropes of how to guide their children’s education.


“I think a lot of Hmong parents, especially the ones of the older generations, lack the resources they need to really understand what a full education in America means. They just assume, ‘Oh, my child will graduate high school and then go to college and then be a doctor! Then they will have a lot of money!’ That’s the extent of their support though, because they don’t really know how to be involved in their children’s education.”


A conference such as this, she said, “works to better the parents’ understanding of the many and great things their children can pursue, as well as broadens the students’ choices and possibilities for their futures.”

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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

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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."

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