“This year in April we will have been here 43 years,” said Minh Ho of Garden Grove, California, as he and his family gathered around a glass display case showing old photos from his army days and his son’s old shoes.
Ho emigrated to the United States from South Vietnam in 1975. As a master sergeant in the South Vietnam Air Force, Ho took his family into a plane on the day the bombs dropped on Tan Son Nhut Air Base, fled to the tip of Southern Vietnam and then to Guam.
Those memories, alongside dozens others, are now on exhibit as a part of VIET STORIES at the Richard Nixon Library, where the Orange County Vietnamese American community gathered Saturday for an afternoon of recollection and regeneration.
Curators Linda Trinh Vo and Tram Le collected hundreds of photographs and artifacts, shown here being used in an art installation. Visitors are invited to examine each photograph and remember the stories of Vietnamese refugees, many of whom had to leave behind their belongings and memories when fleeing their country. (Mary Grace Costa/Kore Asian Media)
The exhibition, dedicated to the history of the community and organized by UC Irvine’s Department of Asian American Studies’ Linda Trinh Vo and Tram Le, is an oral history project that conveys the strength and uniqueness of the Vietnamese community in America by recording their stories. According to Vo and Le, the exhibit is meant to show that “there is no singular Vietnamese American experience.”
The curators recorded hundreds of stories and artifacts from Vietnamese immigrants and refugees, many of whom were forced to leave behind their belongings and entire lives. Families of the individuals whose stories were collected and shared met at the library and were able to see their families’ histories as worthy of celebration and preservation.
Ho recounted the difficulty of adapting to life in America when he first arrived, and credited his family’s success to a solid work ethic, education and unflinching dedication to each other. “After I came here, my life really stopped,” Ho said. “I didn’t know anything. We had to learn, work hard. Any job, we take it. We went to school, and we learned everyday. We take care of family.”
His family lived with a sponsor in Arizona for many years before eventually being able to buy a home in Garden Grove. Ho’s children, now adults, grew up in the United States and visited the Nixon Library to see their father’s story and belongings on display.
A display case shows a pajama set that Viet Thi Tran made for her daughter out of adult clothing while escaping Vietnam. (Mary Grace Costa/Kore Asian Media)
The exhibit features over 17 artists whose work conveys both the diversity of the Vietnamese American experience and artistic excellence in the community. (Mary Grace Costa/Kore Asian Media)
Other young Vietnamese Americans who visited the exhibit spoke of the impact of being surrounded by their parents’ stories.
“For me, I think it’s just seeing the resilience of the Vietnamese refugees,” said Hui Pham, 30, from Westminster. “They left everything behind, came here with nothing and built so much. I can appreciate my parents more.”
“It was very relatable,” said Samantha Dinh, 18. “All the stories I read around the exhibit relates to my own family’s story.”
In addition to sharing the stories of various Vietnamese refugees, the exhibit also commemorated various achievements of Vietnamese Americans in the region, such as the formation of Little Saigon as a major ethnic and commercial center. Works of art from Vietnamese artists and garments loaned by Vietnamese designers also celebrated the community’s contributions to the arts.
“It’s really empowering to see Vietnamese people coming together,” Dinh said. “[They’re] achieving things and forming their own society even though they had to start from scratch.”
VIET STORIES: Recollections and Regenerations will be open to the public at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, until May 28.
