Sunday, November 1, 2015

Different thoughts from Vietnam

Jessica Au
ASA 2 Section A01
November 1, 2015
Week 7 blog



My parents grew up in South Vietnam and became refugees during the Vietnam War. My father came by plane, while my mother was part of the Boat People and traveled across the ocean. They were very anti-communist and always said they were lucky to come to the United States. Professor Valverde’s article “analyzes diverse cultural and political streams struggling for political representation within contemporary Vietnamese American communities.” This relates back to my narrative as my parents like were more than happy to participate in our community and being involved within the politics of the Vietnamese Asian community. A while back, I remember my family celebrating when it was announced that the first Vietnamese woman was elected to represent our district—it was a major accomplishment. They felt pride and admiration for themselves and described the feeling as being able to finally have a voice. However, I do know people from North Vietnam and they felt very differently about that election. The distinction between north and south is very clear sometimes and especially in politics. They felt that she was inadequate to represent the Vietnamese community because she was from the South and couldn’t voice their concerns. I never really thought about it, but from reading this article I realized the Vietnamese Community is certainly diverse and everyone is struggling to have a say in the politics of the community. 



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