Document 30–5: Oral History, 1983

Reading the American Past: Printed Page 314

DOCUMENT 30–5

A Vietnamese Immigrant on the West Coast

Following the Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of immigrants came to the United States from Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. The following interview, conducted in 1983, describes the experiences of one immigrant, a man from central Vietnam who preferred to remain anonymous. His statements reflect the experiences of millions of new immigrants who came to America seeking political asylum, reunion with family members, and, above all, a better life.

Anonymous Man

Oral History, 1983

On our third attempt, my wife, children, and I escaped by boat from Vietnam and arrived in Hong Kong, where we remained for three months. Then my brother, who came to America in 1975, sponsored us, and we arrived in America in 1978.

We stayed with my brother and his family for five months. Neither I nor anyone in our family spoke any English before our arrival in America. I realized that I must study to communicate. Even though my brother was in one place, I decided to move to the West Coast. For nine months we lived in one town, where my children went to school. My wife and I also attended school to learn English. Although we received public assistance, we were always short each month by $20, $30, or even $40. If the situation continued like this, we'd have no money for clothes for the family. Even then, what we bought were old clothes that cost 20 or 25 cents apiece.

We made a visit to one of my sisters who lived in a small city that was surrounded by a lot of farmland. I saw that many of the people worked as farmers. I thought, “Maybe it's better for us to move here because I am used to working hard. God made me a hard-working man.”

In 1980 we moved to that farming town. As soon as we arrived, I started to grow vegetables in the small backyard of the house we rented. In the meantime, I also worked as a farm laborer. We earned $35 to $45 a day, and that made me feel at ease. During the day I worked outside; in the evening I worked in my backyard. We began to sell what we grew, and from this we earned $200 a month. We liked to have our portion of land to do something, but we did not have enough money to buy.

We received help from the Public Housing Authority. The new house we moved into has four bedrooms. Each month we pay $50. The rest ... is paid for by the government. The owner who rents us the house likes me very much because we keep the house very clean. ... I moved all of the fruit trees from the old to the new house, and also planted a larger garden of vegetables and herbs. We have very good relations with our neighbors. They like us very much. They hire us to work on their backyards. That's the reason our income has increased. I grew too much to sell only to our neighbors. I needed to find a market.

One day I went to the farmer's market. I didn't know how to do it. I brought my vegetables there but they chased me away. ... The second time I went back, they chased me away again. But that time I asked, “Can you help me so I can sell vegetables like other people?”

That man told me, “Okay, you come with me; I'll show you how.”

He gave me an application form, his business card, and an appointment. He explained to me during the appointment how I should do it and what kind of product I should have. He told me, “I want to come and see your garden, if it fulfills the requirements.”

I agreed. He came down to inspect everything and wrote down on a piece of paper all the vegetables I grew. Then he gave me a permit. I brought my vegetables to the market, and nobody chased me any more. We earned some more money. ...

After two years of this, we can save some [a lot]. Then we decided to have a fish truck. I borrowed some from my brother because it costs $4,000 to $5,000 to have a fish truck. During my work as a fish merchant our income was better. ...

I am very happy in America for three reasons. First, I am very proud that I can do many things that other people could not do. Even though I do not know English very well, I did not bother anyone in dealing with paperwork or with translations. I myself did everything. I am very pleased by that. My English is not fluent, but when I speak with American people, they understand me, even though my grammar is not very good.

Second, I am at ease about living in America. Americans treat Vietnamese very well. I suppose if Americans had to live in Vietnam as refugees, the Vietnamese would not help them as much as the Americans helped me. We are very happy to live in America. I have received letters from Vietnamese refugees living in other countries. I am able to compare my life with theirs. Life in the United States is much better than in other countries of the Free World.

Third, what I like most is freedom, to move, to do business, and the freedom to work. I have freedom for myself, to work, to live, freedom to do everything you want. You can apply for a job or you can do a small business. You can apply for a license for a small business with no difficulties, no obstacles.

Although in America we live with everything free, to move, to do business, we still have the need to return to Vietnam one day. This is our dream. In Vietnam, before the Communists came, we had a sentimental life, more ... comfortable and cozy, more joyful. To go out on the street, in the market in Vietnam, makes us more comfortable in our minds, spiritually.

Here in America, we have all the material comforts, very good. But the joy and sentiment are not like we had in Vietnam. There, when we went out from the home, we laughed, we jumped. And we had many relatives and friends to come to see us at home. Here in America, I only know what goes on in my home; my neighbor knows only what goes on in his home. We have a saying, “One knows only one's home.” In America, when we go to work, we go in our cars. When we return, we leave our cars and enter our homes. ... We do not need to know what goes on in the houses of our neighbors. That's why we do not have the kind of being at ease that we knew in Vietnam. ...

When my sister came to America, she did as I am doing now. She and her family grew vegetables. Now they have two Vietnamese grocery stores and are the most successful Vietnamese refugees in their area. ...

Another sister lives in the same town as I do. She and her husband are old, but their children are doing very well too. So four of my mother's children are now in America; four remain in Vietnam.

To live in America means that our life has changed. In Vietnam my family was very poor. We had to work very hard. We didn't have enough food or clothes. Under the Communist regime we were not free to do anything. If we made more than we needed, then the rest belonged to the revolutionary government. They did not want us to become rich. We needed to use old clothes. If we had new clothes, that's not good under the new regime because it showed that we had the capitalistic spirit.

My family living in America has everything complete and happy, and a new chance. I hope that my children become new people. My daughter in the eighth grade is the smartest of my children; she always gets A's. My youngest boy, who is eight years old, always is first in math in his class. My two oldest sons are not so good, but are above average and are preparing for electronics careers.

But the children are different here in America when compared with Vietnam. There is this big difference. Children growing up in Vietnam are afraid of their parents. Even when they marry, they still have respect and fear of their parents. In America, when they become 18, they lose their fear. They depend on the law of the land and go out of the house.

The one most difficult problem is the American law, and the American way to educate children. This is a big obstacle for the Vietnamese family. In Vietnam, in educating our children, if we cannot get success telling them what to do, we would punish them with a beating. By doing so, they would become good people. Here we cannot beat the children. That's the reason there's a big obstacle for us. When a child doesn't want to study, but likes to play with friends, if they want to smoke marijuana, when they do such bad things and parents tell them not to do so, the first, second, and third time, if they still don't listen, then parents put them on the floor and beat them. By doing so, this is the best way to prevent them from doing bad things, to get them to become good people. But here we cannot do that.

In my opinion, the Vietnamese have a lot of bad children because of American law, which is not like Vietnamese law. There are so many Vietnamese teenagers who came to America and who became not good people because of American law. When parents beat the child, the police come and arrest the parent. In the Vietnamese view, this is the most dangerous and difficult obstacle.

This is the one most important thing I want Americans to realize about the Vietnamese. The problem with educating and rearing the children is difficult because of American law. There's a second important point. Vietnamese life is not like American life. The Vietnamese have villages, neighbors, and sentiment. The father-child and mother-child relationship lasts forever, until the parents are very old. Children have the duty to take care of their parents. When the children were young, parents had the duty to raise and educate them. When the parents are old, duty is reversed: children take care of the parents. This is not like in America, where adult children leave the home, and old parents go to the nursing home. I'd like Americans to know that. I have met and talked with a lot of old American people. They have said to me, “When we become old, we ... live together. When we become sick, nobody knows. When the postman comes, makes a surprise visit, only then does someone know we are sick. Sometimes our children aren't close by, or they live in a different state.”

I ask the old people, “Do your children give you money?”

They reply, “No.” These children do not think very much about their parents. This is very different from Vietnam; when children are married, they stay at home. When the parents become old, the children are together and take care of them.

But there are good lessons to be learned in America, such as public sanitation. That is what I have learned from America. At home, everything is arranged orderly and clean. Also, my American friends say what they think. This is different from what a Vietnamese would do. The American way, that's what I want my children to do. When we have one, we say “one.” When we have two, we say “two.” If that is a cow, we say it is a cow; if it's a goat, we say it's a goat. Vietnamese can learn this from Americans. I don't want to say what Americans can learn from the Vietnamese.

From James M. Freeman, Hearts of Sorrow: Vietnamese-American Lives (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989), 382–90.

Questions for Reading and Discussion

  1. How did this Vietnamese immigrant come to the United States? What kind of work did he do after arriving?
  2. Why was he “very happy in America”? How did his life in America differ from that in Vietnam and the experiences of other Vietnamese immigrants “in other countries of the Free World”?
  3. Why did he believe the “most difficult” problems were “the American law, and the American way to educate children”?
  4. This man hinted that “Americans can learn from the Vietnamese.” What lessons do you think he might urge Americans to learn?