San Jose's Vietnamese Community

Response to "Nguyen takes stand against tyranny" (Week 9 Reading)
Post Date: May 25, 2014

In this opinion piece for the San Jose Mercury News, Professor Valverde describes how one Madison Nguyen, the mayor of San Jose, has had to face heavy criticism from within the Vietnamese community over the name of a small district. The mayor has declared the district be named “Saigon Business District,” while protestors are fighting for the district to be named “Little Saigon.” These protesters are claiming that this specific name will represent the Vietnamese community in their experiences against Communism. However, Valverde argues that this focus on anti-Communism is outdated, since many Vietnamese within the United States are strongly anti-Communist. Ultimately, she argues that more people in the Vietnamese community should be involved with the naming process, such as the “silent majority.”

I would have to agree with her points on how the majority within a community should care their identity as a whole. Much of a community is not produced only by a few individuals, but instead produced by the majority. However, I think that there are many communities in America that do not have a majority group, but instead go along with what a stronger minority have to say. I think that this call for community gathering that Professor Valverde has suggested in this article can greatly strengthen a community’s identity, an ideal that remains important for an ethnic group to remain together.

Question: Have you ever been involved in community events? Do you think that community involvement will aid with ethnic identity in a larger ethnic group, rather than the individual?

Posted by: Eric Yu
Section A01

Madison Nguyen wrote a book about her experiences in Vietnam to the United States. Such written works are key in order to preserve identity not only as an individual, but also within a larger ethnic group. Source: Amazon.