Week 3 - Katrina Estrella

Katrina Estrella

Section A03

Week 3   

   

    Upon opening the reading for this week, I was almost confused reading the title. “Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans”. At first, I thought of the word “Hmong” as a typo, that is until the onslaught mentioning of the word was I proven wrong. I don’t know how to pronounce the word “Hmong”, much less heard about it. To learn for the first time about how the United States fails to educate its students on Hmong communities in its history classes would prove to be fascinating, and also prove a point.

The more I learned about the Hmong communities, the more I could somehow relate. Its gender disparity and inequality was also present within Filipino communities, or at least in my family in particular. I was expected to excel in my studies, to which I did. But dare I pursue romance and other frivolous desires with the consequence of cultural and familial pressure. On the other hand, my brothers were let off easy of such things, and were not pressured to do well as I was. Their priority was to do well enough to support the family. I don’t know where such things are rooted from, whether it was from our Filipino side or our Chinese side. In fact, I don’t know much about Filipino history aside from being the United States’ “little brother”. The miseducation of the author’s ancestry was one I could relate to, and so I felt further divided about my place as a Filipino-American and what it really means to be a Filipino, an American, or both. This reading has me unfortunately overtaken by my own experiences and uncertainties. 

Question: With the access of the internet, we are able to learn more about these different cultures that seem foreign to us. So, is it the United States’ duty to educate us on these different ethnicities if it divides us even further, or our own?

References:

Mouavangsou, K. N. 2016. Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 6, 2017.

[Hmong Cloth Quilt]. (2011, December 30). Retrieved October 6, 2017, from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19DYCdLaxuPf4zkngxgFO2eZWFg4K6R0GskQKTeEaAsMaLRXwWsxwrc85wR-6BMQSUV5iWROODMe_f7yhWRjkMPQ38RDY7c8vpCffM7uQb4SQQovFhnwoJtNmRRipXittTxeYBHy5RgXm/s1600/hmong4.jpg