From the Ashes of the Cold War: Constructing a Southern Vietnamese Community and Identity in Houston by Roy Vu
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The Southern Vietnamese, United States, Texas, and POW/MIA fl ags stand tall outside a shopping center on Bellaire Boulevard. From the Ashes of the Cold War: Constructing a Southern Vietnamese Community and Identity in Houston by Roy Vu uite often, immigrants are perceived Vietnamese Americans have 1982 constituted a second wave. The third Qas helpless, poor victims who came signifi cantly contributed to Houston’s wave was made up of the former political here with little or no fi nancial resources multicultural history. Since 1975, detainees and Amerasians who arrived here and are constantly exploited. However, Vietnamese enclaves within Harris and from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. perception is often different from reality, Fort Bend counties have grown, creating a Throughout each wave, Vietnamese refu- and sometimes these earlier notions linger strong, viable ethnic group that has changed gees and immigrants came to Houston. in the public memory. In contrast to this the residential and business districts in The fi rst wave of Vietnamese refu- weighted perception, Vietnamese refugees the greater Houston area. The Vietnamese gees included “the originals, those who and immigrants that have come to Houston American community in Houston is the went out with the Americans and most have been active agents in constructing third largest in the U.S. with a population of the rest of the foreign community in their community and reconstructing an over 58,000 in the greater metropolitan April-May 1975.”3 Historian Douglas Pike identity that challenges and contradicts area. In development of such a community, characterizes this group as “urban, upper how Houstonians view the Vietnamese the Vietnamese have struggled to survive class, well-educated, and familiar with American presence in the city. and adjust to the socioeconomic realities American lifestyles.”4 After the capitulation This has been no small task for an of life in Houston. While doing so, they of Saigon on April 30, 1975, thousands of ethnic group in which some left their native have transformed the community by either Vietnamese previously affi liated with the land for fear of Communist retribution. challenging or altering traditional beliefs South Vietnamese government (Republic of Others fl ed to seek a better life for them- about gender roles and physical and mental Vietnam) fl ed the country. selves and their families. Yet, the Southern health to suit their immediate concerns and This fi rst group included a consider- Vietnamese identity1 constructed during new perspectives as Vietnamese Americans. ably higher percentage of professionals and the Vietnam War era can be linked to the Others maintained their Southern managers and a much smaller percentage creation of the Vietnamese fl ag, commonly Vietnamese identity through anticom- of blue-collar workers than the general sighted along the Milam corridor near munist politics and preservation of the Vietnamese population in Vietnam.5 A downtown Houston and along Bellaire Vietnamese language and culture to serve majority of heads of families from the fi rst Boulevard in Southwest Houston. It carries both as a coping mechanism and a method wave of refugees had at least a secondary forth a legacy, albeit a troubled one, of these of survival. school education, which in Southeast Asia immigrants’ former nation to pass on to was the key to a white-collar job. This future generations. THREE MAJOR WAVES OF pattern changed with the refugees who VIETNAMESE REFUGEES came after 1977, but a random survey A small number of Vietnamese men and Roy Vu is currently a lecturer at Rice of the Vietnamese in Houston in 1982 women lived and settled in the United demonstrated that a high percentage still University and a PhD candidate in History States before 1975. In early 1975, fewer at the University of Houston. He previ- held white-collar positions in Vietnam. than 30,000 lived in this country, with These were not persons with important ously received his BA in History (1998) fewer than 100 in Houston, which was at Texas Christian University and his MA careers and high social standing, but were home to twenty to forty wives of former 6 in History (2001) at the University of what could be called middle class. servicemen, thirty to fi fty students, and With hundreds of thousands of Houston. Vu is completing his dissertation 2 a small number of instructors. The end Vietnamese refugees seeking political on the Vietnamese American community of the Vietnam War in 1975 brought the in Houston. One of his academic projects freedom in the United States after the fi rst wave of Vietnamese refugees to the fall of Saigon, this mass exodus created a includes establishing a Vietnamese Studies United States. The “boat people” who fl ed program at the University of Houston. great consternation for the Gerald Ford the country between the years 1978 to administration. Thus, four major refugee The Houston Review...Volume 3, Number 1 page 27 camps were set up at U.S. military bases U.S. government, Vietnamese detainees The former was coping with mental and throughout the country: Fort Indian Town and political prisoners were released en physical ills from years of imprisonment, Gap in Pennsylvania, Fort Chaffee in masse. Beginning in 1990, many came and the latter, already a social pariah in Arkansas, Camp Pendleton in California, to the United States in the third wave of Vietnam, struggled to gain social accep- and Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Vietnamese refugees. According to the tance in the U.S. Nonetheless, all three Thousands of Vietnamese arrivals stayed Offi ce of Refugee Resettlement’s 1993 waves of Vietnamese migrants contributed at these makeshift camps for a few months report to Congress, 114,389 detainees to the establishment of a community and until they were dispersed throughout the arrived in the U.S. from 1990 to 1993.10 the reshaping of a Vietnamese identity. U.S. with the assistance of religious orga- Not all achieved the “American nizations, non-profi t groups, government dream,” and many still struggle today to VIETNAMESE RESIDENTIAL programs, and generous American sponsors. make ends meet in Houston. A growing SETTLEMENTS Yet, many Vietnamese newcomers socioeconomic divide exists between the Part of building a visible community is to would make a secondary migration. A fi rst wave of Vietnamese refugees and live and settle in concentrated residential majority of them decided to resettle in the later two waves. The 1975 group of areas. Such residential areas with large states with a warmer climate, healthier Vietnamese refugees held distinct advan- Vietnamese populations are clustered economy, and in California’s case, a strong tages such as a higher level of education, throughout the city. Concentrations welfare program. As a result, Texas and relatively greater capital, and more knowl- of Vietnamese Americans are found Louisiana became attractive places for edge about American society that allowed primarily in three areas of Houston: Vietnamese refugees to settle their families. them to adjust better to life in the U.S. Southwest, which is the largest concentra- Houston, with its booming economy in The fi rst wave of Vietnamese refugees tion; Northwest, the second largest; and the late 1970s, warm weather, and adjacent received a warmer welcome in the United Southeast. location to the ocean, became an attrac- States as many Americans were feeling Within the Vietnamese American tive place for many Vietnamese refugees. the “war guilt” that their Vietnamese community, smaller residential enclaves Despite the early economic adjustments counterparts had been left behind by our exist to further complicate the defi nition made by the fi rst wave of refugees, success government. They gained more media of a community. A large percentage of did not come for all Vietnamese, particu- attention and thus, greater government the third wave of Vietnamese immigrants larly those who arrived in Houston in the and public assistance. The “boat people” resides in several run-down apartment second and third waves of immigration. of the second wave consisted of a larger complexes known as “villages” throughout The “boat people” of the second wave contingent of ethnic Chinese refugees the city of Houston. Heavily settled by arrived in the United States under the with less education, less English skills, and recent Vietnamese newcomers, these Refugee Act of 1980, legislation designed fewer capital. Lastly, and perhaps the group villages include St. Joseph Village, Saigon to establish a legal framework for admis- that had the most trouble making social Village, Thai Xuan Village, Hue Village, St. sion in response to the massive infl ux of adjustments was the political detainees Mary Village, Da Lat Village, and Thanh Vietnamese refugees. These refugees had and Amerasians who came to America. Tam Village. Five of the larger villages are a more diffi cult time adjusting to the located in Southeast Houston on Park American way of life.7 Their fi nancial woes were harder to overcome and their children’s educational performance was not as strong academically as the fi rst wave’s children. One of the explanations for this economic and educational distinction was that the earlier Vietnamese refugees came from the educated, professional class in Vietnam. The majority of the second wave refugees and immigrants were from the working class with less education. Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in the 1980s and 1990s did so “with little formal education and few resources, having survived horrible conditions in refugee camps and terri- fying voyages across the seas.”8 Sociologist Stephen Klineberg notes: “Often they speak little English: 47 percent of the Vietnamese respondents in the Asian surveys completed the interviews in their native languages.”9 These “boat people” had a hard time The main entrance to St.