A Refugee's Daughter Remembers April 30th

​I still can’t believe it took me this long to understand the significance of April 30, 1975 for my family. Growing up as children of refugees/immigrants, we’re all kind of familiar with the silence that exists between us and our parents due to a number of factors (language barrier, trauma, erasure of our history in history books, etc.). The silence breeds anger, contempt, and sadness that transfers onto the next generation because it is never expressed or misunderstood. It took me 25 years to finally ask my parents the questions of their own hopes and dreams growing up. Through doing a KPCC interview with my parents, I learned some new information about my family (that wasn’t included in the 8 minute cut) including: as a child, my dad used to capture crickets with his friends back in Saigon and make them battle; my mom’s favorite community college class in Colorado was square dancing; John Denver’s “Country Road Take Me Home” was the song my dad would listen to when he felt lonely in his new home.Don’t wait 25 years to start asking questions (like me) and start learning about your own history. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll find. I’m grateful for the experience that KPCC gave our family to share our story, to reconnect with each other, and to learn how ordinary people can go on to accomplish extraordinary things.

You can listen here:

http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2015/04/27/42575/after-saigon-a-quick-choice-a-new-life-in-californ/