Throughout her U.S. school years, Dr. Ma Vang’s history lessons never included the Hmong, from whom she is descended. The Vietnam War was the only topic broached involving Southeast Asia, and her teachers never covered the war from the perspective of Vietnamese people.
“As a kid, this was confusing because sometimes I wondered if stories about my parents’ and grandparents’ lives in Laos were true,” Vang recalls. “I can’t remember Laos or Cambodia ever being mentioned in school.”
She adds, “Today’s Hmong-American students tell me they have the same experience.”
So Vang and countless other Hmong-Americans enthusiastically welcome this month’s exhibition of “Hmongstory 40” at the fairgrounds in Fresno, Calif., which lasts through January 2.
The $250,000, multi-media project traces the history of the Hmong in rural Laos, their role in the so-called Secret War in that country directed by the United States, then fleeing their war-torn homes and coming to this country to start anew. The first of its kind in California, the grassroots project celebrates the resilience of Hmong-Americans who began migrating to the United States en masse 40 years ago after the civil war in Laos ended with Communists taking control.
“This is a gift for our children,” project director Lar Yang says of the exhibit.
Like most of the three dozen exhibit organizers, Yang came with his family to the United States when he was too young to remember life in Laos, so he cannot pass down stories to the younger generation. Another exhibit organizer was at a loss for words when her middle-school-age daughter asked, “Mommy, what does it mean to be Hmong?”
