History of the Hmong in Merced, California
Encyclopedia
The Hmong
are a major ethnic group residing in Merced
, California
. As of 1997 Merced had a high concentration of Hmong residents relative to its population. The Hmong community settled in Merced after Dang Moua, a Hmong community leader, had promoted Merced to the Hmong communities scattered across the United States.
traveled to their home villages from satellite villages. Because of the manner of the Hmong using Merced as the location of the subclan gatherings, Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
, said, "Sometimes I felt that the other cities of the Central Valley—Fresno
, Visalia
, Porterville
, Modesto
, Stockton
, Sacramento
, Marysville
, Yuba City
—were mere suburbs of Merced." Because of the presence of a large Hmong community, it is easy for one to find a Hmong clan elder for dispute mediation, a txiv neeb, a Hmong herbalist, and a qeej player. Since, as of 1997, bamboo
is not commonly found in Merced, qeejs are often constructed from PVC plumbing pipes.
, then moved to the United States
.
Members of the Hmong community settled in Merced settled because Dang Moua, a community leader and former clerk typist at the Embassy of the United States in Laos, promoted Merced. Fadiman said that from the Hmong point of view, Moua "bears the same relation to Merced that Daniel Boone
bore to Kentucky
or the Pied Piper bore to Koppelberg Hill." When Moua moved to the United States, he originally lived in Richmond, Virginia
. While there he researched climates, crop yields, and soil conditions in other states. Moua's brother, a resident of Southern California
, told him that the Central Valley had good weather and a variety of ethnic groups. Through the Hmong community social network, Moua learned that General Vang Pao
planned to buy a fruit ranch near Merced. As a result, Moua left for Merced, arriving there mid-April 1977. While Vang's plan to buy the fruit ranch did not succeed, the Hmong community spread favorable reviews of Merced, and Hmong people from all over the United States traveled to Merced. Eric Crystal, an anthropologist, expressed surprise over the fact that the Hmong had converged upon Merced; he told a reporter for the Merced Sun-Star
, "It was just wild! You'd see these Arkansas
plates and stuff on the streets, I mean they were just pouring in from all over the place!" Because of the pre-existing Hmong settlement in Merced, Merced remained a favored destination for Hmong migrants.
The Hmong believed that Merced was a farming community, but they discovered that the land was owned by other people, and they could not farm. Many Hmong who traveled to Merced became unemployed; they could not get high end agricultural jobs because they did not speak sufficient English, and Mexican
migrants already held low end agricultural jobs. The Hmong arrived as Merced began to experience an economic recession in the early 1980s.
Crystal told a reporter for the Merced Sun-Star, in the words of Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
, that it was "extraordinary" for the Hmong language to have a presence in Merced when, fifteen years prior to Crystal's statements, the language had an almost negligible presence in the entire Western world
.
appeared and began causing crime. When the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act
was passed in 1996, some Hmong left Merced and settled in Minnesota
, North Carolina
, and Wisconsin
. When Hmong women first came to the United States, they often married at 14 or 15 years of age. In 1990, the average Hmong woman in Merced had 8.5 children. By 2000 the average Hmong woman had 3 children. Women began to attend universities and complete their educations before marrying.
By 1997, Merced had about 61,000 residents. Of them, over 12,000 were Hmong, making the Hmong about 1/5 of the population of Merced. Because of the concentration of Hmong residents relative to Merced's population, Fadiman said that Merced was the "most intensely Hmong place in the United States." As of 1997 Fresno, California
and the Minneapolis – Saint Paul area had larger Hmong populations than Merced, but Merced had a higher concentration of Hmong residents than those two places. Blia Yao Moua, a Hmong leader in the area, said that the concentration of Hmong in Merced "lets us keep more Hmong culture here than in Vientiane
."
Because of unemployment, many Hmong left Merced between 2006 and 2008; some went to Alaska to work in industries, such as crabbing and fishing, that did not require a lot of English language knowledge. Dr. Long Thao, a Merced Hmong physician quoted in a Merced Sun-Star
article, estimated that 8,000 Hmong lived in Merced, down by about half from the number in 1988 (15,000).
that has been in operation since 1983, is the main support organization that provides social services to Hmong people.
900 AM, located in Fresno, California
and serving Merced, airs programming oriented towards Hmong people. As of 2004 the station staff members state that 95% of the area Hmong community listens to the station.
The Merced Department of Public Health began the MATCH (Multidisciplinary Approach to Cross-Cultural Health) program, intending to co-opt Hmong patients into the health care system. In 2009 the Mercy Medical Center in Merced began to formally allow Hmong shamans to practice abbreviated ceremonies for Hmong patients.
announced that it would begin offering courses in the Hmong language
in 1987. Merced's two major libraries have books in English and Hmong that describe the Hmong culture, history, and language.
(their numbers are great, but not the percentage). Other factors contributed to the economic distress of the Merced region. Fadiman stated that the Hmong residents were visible to the people of Merced while abstract economic factors were not visible, so the people of Merced focused upon the Hmong.
Seven out of ten Merced County
residents voted for Proposition 187. Based on that statistic, Fadiman concluded that "even legal immigrants are unlikely to be received with open arms." Some groups in Merced gave favorable treatment to the Hmong, including local churches and a group of well-educated professionals, including politically liberal
transplants from other U.S. cities.
John Cullen, director of the Merced Human Services Agency, said, "Merced has been a fairly conservative, WASP
y community for many years." Cullen said that while other ethnic groups trickled into Merced over a long period of time, the Hmong came "in one big rush" and were "a jolt to the system," "inevitably" causing "more of a reaction." Cullen argued, "I think Merced's reaction to the Hmong is a matter of water swamping the boat, not a matter of racism." While recalling an event that Dang Moua told her, Fadiman said that on some occasions racism is a factor in the reception to the Hmong. Dang believed that a man who insulted him was a veteran of the Vietnam War
who had mistaken him for a Vietnamese
person, and thus perceived Dang as an enemy. Fadiman said that "Dang's hypothesis is not as farfetched as it sounds," since many in Merced had confused the Hmong for the ethnic Vietnamese. The former mayor of Merced, Marvin Wells, told a Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the "Vietnam refugees" were "a problem" for California. Fadiman added that, as of 1997, "it is not uncommon to hear the Hmong called "boat people
,"" even though Laos is landlocked and "the only boat most Hmong are likely to have seen was the bamboo raft which they floated, under fire, across the Mekong River."
As the Hmong settlement matured and the Hmong children gained English language skills, the town's overall attitude began to be more accepting of the Hmong.
, "treated the newcomers like exotic guests." Because the word "Hmong" was not found in dictionaries at the time, news articles did not mention the word "Hmong." As the Hmong settled, the newspaper began to refer to the Hmong as "refugees" and printed headlines related to Hmong usage of social services. As of 1997 the Sun-Star now has a "Cultural Diversity page."
Hmong people
The Hmong , are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China...
are a major ethnic group residing in Merced
Merced, California
Merced is a city in, and the county seat of, Merced County, California in the San Joaquin Valley of Northern California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 78,958. Incorporated in 1889, Merced is a charter city that operates under a council-manager government...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. As of 1997 Merced had a high concentration of Hmong residents relative to its population. The Hmong community settled in Merced after Dang Moua, a Hmong community leader, had promoted Merced to the Hmong communities scattered across the United States.
Hmong culture in Merced
As of 1997 Merced has fourteen Hmong clans; they are the Cheng, Fang, Hang, Her, Kong, Kue, Lee, Lor, Moua, Thao, Vang, Vue, Xiong, and Yang. As a result, as of 1997 young people easily found exogamous marriage partners. Hmong often drive from city to city in the Central Valley. The Hmong who moved elsewhere go to Merced for subclan gatherings in a manner similar to how, in history, Hmong residents in LaosLaos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
traveled to their home villages from satellite villages. Because of the manner of the Hmong using Merced as the location of the subclan gatherings, Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures is a 1997 book by Anne Fadiman that chronicles the struggles of a Hmong refugee family from Sainyabuli Province, Laos, the Lees, and their interactions with the health care system in...
, said, "Sometimes I felt that the other cities of the Central Valley—Fresno
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
, Visalia
Visalia, California
Visalia is a Central California city situated in the heart of California’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley, approximately southeast of San Francisco and north of Los Angeles...
, Porterville
Porterville, California
Porterville is a city in the San Joaquin Valley, in Tulare County, California, United States. Porterville's population was 54,165 at the 2010 census. The city's population grew dramatically as the city annexed many properties and unincorporated areas in and around Porterville. Not included in the...
, Modesto
Modesto, California
Modesto is a city in, and is the county seat of, Stanislaus County, California. With a population of approximately 201,165 at the 2010 census, Modesto ranks as the 18th largest city in the state of California....
, Stockton
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
, Sacramento
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
, Marysville
Marysville, California
Marysville is the county seat of Yuba County, California, United States. The population was 12,072 at the 2010 census, down from 12,268 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistical Area, often referred to as the Yuba-Sutter Area after the two counties, Yuba and...
, Yuba City
Yuba City, California
Yuba City is a Northern California city, founded in 1849. It is the county seat of Sutter County, California, United States. The population was 64,925 at the 2010 census....
—were mere suburbs of Merced." Because of the presence of a large Hmong community, it is easy for one to find a Hmong clan elder for dispute mediation, a txiv neeb, a Hmong herbalist, and a qeej player. Since, as of 1997, bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
is not commonly found in Merced, qeejs are often constructed from PVC plumbing pipes.
Beginning of Hmong settlement
The Hmong began to settle in Merced in the 1970s and the 1980s. The Hmong settled Merced and other areas in the Central Valley of California after the conclusion of the Laotian Civil War, when Communist forces won and began to oppress the Hmong, who had fought for the anti-Communist United States side. The Hmong fled to refugee camps in ThailandThailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, then moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Members of the Hmong community settled in Merced settled because Dang Moua, a community leader and former clerk typist at the Embassy of the United States in Laos, promoted Merced. Fadiman said that from the Hmong point of view, Moua "bears the same relation to Merced that Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
bore to Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
or the Pied Piper bore to Koppelberg Hill." When Moua moved to the United States, he originally lived in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. While there he researched climates, crop yields, and soil conditions in other states. Moua's brother, a resident of Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
, told him that the Central Valley had good weather and a variety of ethnic groups. Through the Hmong community social network, Moua learned that General Vang Pao
Vang Pao
Vang Pao was a Lieutenant General in the Royal Lao Army. He was an ethnic Hmong and a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States.-Early life:...
planned to buy a fruit ranch near Merced. As a result, Moua left for Merced, arriving there mid-April 1977. While Vang's plan to buy the fruit ranch did not succeed, the Hmong community spread favorable reviews of Merced, and Hmong people from all over the United States traveled to Merced. Eric Crystal, an anthropologist, expressed surprise over the fact that the Hmong had converged upon Merced; he told a reporter for the Merced Sun-Star
Merced Sun-Star
The Merced Sun-Star is a daily broadsheet newspaper printed in Merced, California, in the United States. It has an estimated circulation of 20,000 copies...
, "It was just wild! You'd see these Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
plates and stuff on the streets, I mean they were just pouring in from all over the place!" Because of the pre-existing Hmong settlement in Merced, Merced remained a favored destination for Hmong migrants.
The Hmong believed that Merced was a farming community, but they discovered that the land was owned by other people, and they could not farm. Many Hmong who traveled to Merced became unemployed; they could not get high end agricultural jobs because they did not speak sufficient English, and Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
migrants already held low end agricultural jobs. The Hmong arrived as Merced began to experience an economic recession in the early 1980s.
Crystal told a reporter for the Merced Sun-Star, in the words of Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures is a 1997 book by Anne Fadiman that chronicles the struggles of a Hmong refugee family from Sainyabuli Province, Laos, the Lees, and their interactions with the health care system in...
, that it was "extraordinary" for the Hmong language to have a presence in Merced when, fifteen years prior to Crystal's statements, the language had an almost negligible presence in the entire Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
.
Maturation of the Hmong settlement
As Hmong lived in Merced, they bought land and began to farm. In addition, as the Hmong presence continued, Hmong gangsGangs in the United States
Street gangs in the United States date to the early 19th century. The most publicized street gangs in the U.S. are African-American; black gangs were not recognized as a social problem until after the great migration of the 1910s...
appeared and began causing crime. When the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 is a United States federal law considered to be a fundamental shift in both the method and goal of federal cash assistance to the poor. The bill added a workforce development component to welfare legislation, encouraging...
was passed in 1996, some Hmong left Merced and settled in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, and Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
. When Hmong women first came to the United States, they often married at 14 or 15 years of age. In 1990, the average Hmong woman in Merced had 8.5 children. By 2000 the average Hmong woman had 3 children. Women began to attend universities and complete their educations before marrying.
By 1997, Merced had about 61,000 residents. Of them, over 12,000 were Hmong, making the Hmong about 1/5 of the population of Merced. Because of the concentration of Hmong residents relative to Merced's population, Fadiman said that Merced was the "most intensely Hmong place in the United States." As of 1997 Fresno, California
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
and the Minneapolis – Saint Paul area had larger Hmong populations than Merced, but Merced had a higher concentration of Hmong residents than those two places. Blia Yao Moua, a Hmong leader in the area, said that the concentration of Hmong in Merced "lets us keep more Hmong culture here than in Vientiane
Vientiane
-Geography:Vientiane is situated on a bend of the Mekong river, which forms the border with Thailand at this point.-Climate:Vientiane features a tropical wet and dry climate with a distinct monsoon season and a dry season. Vientiane’s dry season spans from November through March. April marks the...
."
Because of unemployment, many Hmong left Merced between 2006 and 2008; some went to Alaska to work in industries, such as crabbing and fishing, that did not require a lot of English language knowledge. Dr. Long Thao, a Merced Hmong physician quoted in a Merced Sun-Star
Merced Sun-Star
The Merced Sun-Star is a daily broadsheet newspaper printed in Merced, California, in the United States. It has an estimated circulation of 20,000 copies...
article, estimated that 8,000 Hmong lived in Merced, down by about half from the number in 1988 (15,000).
Tourism
As of 1997 the Merced Chamber of Commerce distributed a tourist brochure showcasing a Hmong woman holding vegetables.Social services
As of 2004 the Merced Lao Family Community Inc., a nonprofit organizationNonprofit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
that has been in operation since 1983, is the main support organization that provides social services to Hmong people.
Media
The cable television channel Channel 11 broadcasts informative programming to the Hmong community twice per week. The radio station KBIFKBIF
KBIF is a radio station broadcasting a World Ethnic format to the Fresno, California, USA area. The station is currently owned by Gore-Overgaard Broadcasting, Inc....
900 AM, located in Fresno, California
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
and serving Merced, airs programming oriented towards Hmong people. As of 2004 the station staff members state that 95% of the area Hmong community listens to the station.
Health care
Miriam E. Warner and Marilyn Mochel, the authors of "The Hmong and the Health Care Delivery System in Merced," stated "Provider and facility insensitivity to the linguistic needs of the Southeast Asian patients sends a loud negative message about accessing health care to the ethnic communities in Merced County." The two state that health care providers in the county had a lack of awareness of the history of the Hmong patients in the Laotian civil war and the experiences during that war. In addition they stated that the providers had a lack of awareness of the Hmong beliefs and that Hmong patients had a difficulty in expressing and sharing their belief systems.The Merced Department of Public Health began the MATCH (Multidisciplinary Approach to Cross-Cultural Health) program, intending to co-opt Hmong patients into the health care system. In 2009 the Mercy Medical Center in Merced began to formally allow Hmong shamans to practice abbreviated ceremonies for Hmong patients.
Education
As of 2004 Merced's school districts have Hmong-speaking faculty and paraprofessionals who serve the Hmong population. Merced's community college and its two major high schools have Hmong culture and language classes. Merced CollegeMerced College
Merced College, established in 1963, is a community college located in Merced, California.-External links:*...
announced that it would begin offering courses in the Hmong language
Hmong language
Hmong or Mong is the common name for a dialect continuum of the West Hmongic branch of the Hmong–Mien/Miao–Yao language family spoken by the Hmong people of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, northern Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos...
in 1987. Merced's two major libraries have books in English and Hmong that describe the Hmong culture, history, and language.
Reception to Hmong settlement
Merced residents often perceived the Hmong as being a cause of economic troubles because, as of 1997, a far greater proportion of Hmong are on welfare than White Americans and Hispanic AmericansHispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
(their numbers are great, but not the percentage). Other factors contributed to the economic distress of the Merced region. Fadiman stated that the Hmong residents were visible to the people of Merced while abstract economic factors were not visible, so the people of Merced focused upon the Hmong.
Seven out of ten Merced County
Merced County, California
Merced County , is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, north of Fresno and southeast of San Jose. As of the 2010 census, the population was 255,793, up from 210,554 at the 2000 census. The county seat is Merced...
residents voted for Proposition 187. Based on that statistic, Fadiman concluded that "even legal immigrants are unlikely to be received with open arms." Some groups in Merced gave favorable treatment to the Hmong, including local churches and a group of well-educated professionals, including politically liberal
Liberalism in the United States
Liberalism in the United States is a broad political philosophy centered on the unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion for all belief systems, and the separation of church and state, right to due process...
transplants from other U.S. cities.
John Cullen, director of the Merced Human Services Agency, said, "Merced has been a fairly conservative, WASP
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...
y community for many years." Cullen said that while other ethnic groups trickled into Merced over a long period of time, the Hmong came "in one big rush" and were "a jolt to the system," "inevitably" causing "more of a reaction." Cullen argued, "I think Merced's reaction to the Hmong is a matter of water swamping the boat, not a matter of racism." While recalling an event that Dang Moua told her, Fadiman said that on some occasions racism is a factor in the reception to the Hmong. Dang believed that a man who insulted him was a veteran of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
who had mistaken him for a Vietnamese
Vietnamese people
The Vietnamese people are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam...
person, and thus perceived Dang as an enemy. Fadiman said that "Dang's hypothesis is not as farfetched as it sounds," since many in Merced had confused the Hmong for the ethnic Vietnamese. The former mayor of Merced, Marvin Wells, told a Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the "Vietnam refugees" were "a problem" for California. Fadiman added that, as of 1997, "it is not uncommon to hear the Hmong called "boat people
Boat people
Boat people is a term that usually refers to refugees, illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made...
,"" even though Laos is landlocked and "the only boat most Hmong are likely to have seen was the bamboo raft which they floated, under fire, across the Mekong River."
As the Hmong settlement matured and the Hmong children gained English language skills, the town's overall attitude began to be more accepting of the Hmong.
Articles about the Hmong in the Merced Sun-Star
When the Hmong first arrived, according to Anne Fadiman, the local newspaper, the Merced Sun-StarMerced Sun-Star
The Merced Sun-Star is a daily broadsheet newspaper printed in Merced, California, in the United States. It has an estimated circulation of 20,000 copies...
, "treated the newcomers like exotic guests." Because the word "Hmong" was not found in dictionaries at the time, news articles did not mention the word "Hmong." As the Hmong settled, the newspaper began to refer to the Hmong as "refugees" and printed headlines related to Hmong usage of social services. As of 1997 the Sun-Star now has a "Cultural Diversity page."
See also
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall DownThe Spirit Catches You and You Fall DownThe Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures is a 1997 book by Anne Fadiman that chronicles the struggles of a Hmong refugee family from Sainyabuli Province, Laos, the Lees, and their interactions with the health care system in...
- Hmong AmericanHmong AmericanA Hmong American is a resident of the United States who is of ethnic Hmong descent. Hmong Americans are one group of Asian Americans. Many Lao Hmong war refugees resettled in the U.S. following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975...
External links
- Brown, Patricia Leigh. "A Doctor for Disease, a Shaman for the Soul." The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. September 19, 2009. - Reiter, Carol. "Addressing problems in Hmong health care." Merced Sun-StarMerced Sun-StarThe Merced Sun-Star is a daily broadsheet newspaper printed in Merced, California, in the United States. It has an estimated circulation of 20,000 copies...
. Friday May 14, 2010.