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Asian American Pacific Islander Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Asian American Pacific Islander Oral History Project & AHMAY YA Narrator DAVID ZANDER Project Interviewer History Society Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Cover design: Kim Jackson Copyright © 2012 by Minnesota Historical Society All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy and recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Oral History Office, Minnesota Historical Society, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102. THE MINNESOTA ASIAN COMMUNITIES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT The Asian population of Minnesota has grown dramatically since 1980, and in particular during the period from 1990 to the present. The Asian community is one of the largest and most diverse in the state, and is particularly noteworthy because its growth has been spread across such a wide spectrum of ethnic groups. The Minnesota Historical Society and the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans formed a partnership to create a series of projects of oral historyProject interviews with Asian community leaders. The projects are intended to help chronicle the history, successes, challenges, and contributions of this diverse and highly important group of Minnesotans. During the past twenty years the Minnesota Historical Society has successfully worked with many immigrant communities in the Historystate to ensureSociety that the stories of their arrival, settlement, and adjustment to life in Minnesota becomes part of the historical record. While the Society has worked with the Asian Indian, Tibetan, Cambodian and Hmong communities in Oralthe recent past, the current project includes interviews with members of the Vietnamese, Filipino, Lao and Korean communities, with more planned for the future. These new projects have created an expanded record that that better represents the Asian community and its importance to the state. Historical The project could not have succeeded without the efforts of a remarkable group of advisors who helped frame the topics for discussion, and the narrators who shared their inspiring stories in each interview. We are deeply grateful for their interest and their commitmentCommunity to the cause of history. James E. Fogerty Minnesota Kao Ly Ilean Her MinnesotaKaren Historical Society Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Introduction Project The Karen are an ethnic minority group in Burma and Thailand. In Southern Burma, in Kawthoolei state, the Karen have been involved in a struggle for independenceHistory sinceSociety the end of World War II. The Karen villages continue to suffer frequent attacks and persecution from Burma’s ruling military junta. Many Karen fled to safety across the eastern border into Thailand. Since 2000 Karen have been arriving in Minnesota. There are now over sixOral thousand living in Minnesota. They are among the most recent refugees resettling in Minnesota. Historical Community Minnesota Karen Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Project History Society Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Ahmay Ya. 8 Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Ahmay Ya and her father Mahn Nyein Maung during Karen New Year, 2000. 10 Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Ahmay Ya in traditional Thai dress. 12 Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Ahmay Ya helping to deliver Christmas presents to Karen refugees in Minnesota. 14 Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Project HistorySociety Oral Historical AhmayCommunity Ya with Karen refugees social healing group art class. Minnesota Karen 16 Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Women, Wine & Wisdom event. From left to right: Ahmay Ya, Linda and Sarchi. 18 Project HistorySociety Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Project HistorySociety THE INTERVIEW Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Project History Society Oral Historical Community Minnesota Karen Ahmay Ya Narrator David Zander Interviewer April 1, 2012 Brookdale Library, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota Ahmay Ya - AY David Zander - DZ Project DZ: It is Sunday, April 1, 2012. My name is David Zander, the interviewer. I am at Brookdale Library, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, with Ahmay Ya, a young Karen refugee. We are going to record her story and the story of her father, Mahn Nyein Maung. Ahmay, please, give me your full name and tell me whenHistory and whereSociety you were born. AY: My name is Ahmay Ya. I am a Karen ethnic from Burma. I was born April 7, 1987, in Sanchaung in Rangoon. I have one oldest brother, one little sister, and two younger brothers. I am the second oldest. All of myOral brothers, and sister were born in different places and got different educations in Burma and Thailand. I graduated from University in Burma in 2003-2004, with a B.A., Bachelor of Arts. From Rangoon University. DZ: I didn’t know that. That’s very helpfulHistorical. AY: When I came to United States as a refugee, they put my name wrong on the year date of birth. It happened to ten percent of the refugee population. Actually, I was born in 1987. They put onCommunity my I.D., identification, 1983. They put the wrong date of birth on my identification. DZ: So they said that you were four years older? Minnesota AY: Karen Yes. They did a mistake. I was not the only person. There were some other refugees with mistaken dates of birth. Some families, they have brothers and sister and the paperwork says they were all born in the same age and the same date. So I was not the only one. DZ: What year did you arrive here? AY: October 21, 2008…I have been here about three years and three months. DZ: You were twenty-one when you arrived? 22 AY: Yes, twenty-one. DZ: You were born in 1987- that is the real truth. [Laughter] AY: It’s my birth certificate. DZ: In a suburb of Rangoon, is Sanchaung a part of Rangoon? AY: In the City Rangoon, called Sanchaung Street. At that time, Rangoon is the Capital of Burma. It was not the new [sounds like mee-pee-doh] state yet. DZ: Tell me about you family. When you were born, there was just one older brother, because you’re the second eldest. Tell me who were you living with? Your father, mother? Project AY: My mom left me at three months old. I stayed with my grandmother and aunt from my mom’s side. The reason my mom left me with my grandmother and aunt, they wanted me to begin education in Burma. My mom has to leave me with my grandmother and aunt so I could continue my education in Burma, toHistory have a good education and speak fluently in Burmese. The reason I didn’t have opportunity to Societylive with my parents, my dad was doing the revolutionary work for the Karen people before I was born, since he was twenty. Oral DZ: Just to get clear on why your father wasn’t able to be in Rangoon. It would have been dangerous for him to be in Rangoon, right? AY: Yes. He was a revolutionary; since heHistorical was a college student. DZ: Oh, that’s right. So this is just before all the big trouble in 1962 in Burma when the military killed many students. Community AY: Right. My dad was a student revolutionary for the Karen people before 1988. That’s a long time ago. DZ: Tell me about Minnesotayour dad’s life then before 1987. Where was your father born? Do you know?Karen AY: He’s seventy years old now. DZ: So he was born in 1941, 1942. He’s middle age when you were born. AY: He got married at forty years old, around forty, forty-five, between forty and forty- five. DZ: You’re right. In 1985, he would be forty-five. 23 AY: He got married kind of old. DZ: Yes, like me. [Chuckles] Tell me what you know of his life. Where was he born? AY: He was born in Burma. He was born in Ee-oh-dee Division, Karen State in Burma. He became a college student in Rangoon, doing revolutionary and democracy for Burma as a college student involving with the KNU [Karen National Union]. DZ: What were his subjects that he studied? AY: Politics and constitution. DZ: Oh, okay. It wasn’t like he was in medicine and then got involved in the revolution? He was always committed to political reform. Where was your motherProject born? AY: My mother was born in a small village in Karen State. DZ: Your mother’s name is? History AY: Nawksin Shwe. N-a-w-k-s-i-n. Last name S-h-w-e. Society DZ: And your father’s name is? Oral AY: Mahn Nyein Maung. M-a-h-n N-y-e-i-n M-a-u-n-g. DZ: Can you tell me anything about these names? In Karen culture, you don’t really have a family name handed down as a last name,Historical do you? AY: No, we don’t. DZ: So how did yourCommunity father end up with Ma hn Nyein Maung? How is that put together? AY: Mahn Nyein Maung is a formal name in Burma. DZ: Any famous personMinnesota that he is named after? Karen AY: Not actually. He got his name from his dad. His dad gave him his names. DZ: And his father’s name was? AY: His father, my grandfather on my father’s side was [chuckles] Utha Aung. U-t-h-a A-u-n-g. He lived to be 103 years old.
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