THe art of starting over

By Rachel T.

Immigrants build a nation. They build communities, workplaces, and everything in between. If we were to zoom in a little closer and focus on the demographics, over 10% of San Jose’s population would be made up of Vietnamese immigrants. Hundreds of thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of stories.

According to History.com, between the years of 1975 and 1997, almost one and half million people made an escape from their home country of Vietnam. The war between the North and South of Vietnam had gotten out of hand, and on April 30th, 1975, Saigon, the capital of Vietnam, fell to the hands of the northern communists. People of all ages, all demographics, and from all different regions ran away from their home to find freedom and bigger opportunities outside their fallen country.

Coming to America by boat in 1981, Leslie Tran remembers her journey being heart-achingly difficult and haunting. As a native from Bạc Liêu, Vietnam, Tran’s father was a high ranking Southern army general. This, along with the lack of opportunities to build a life in her home country pushed her to take the life-changing step.

Tran’s boat held around 60-70 people, one being an old friend from her little town. “We’ve known each other for about 5, maybe 6, years,” she began. “(and) we both had the same reason [for] leaving.” According to Inside Vietnam, the economy greatly declined after the war, reaching over 450% in hyperinflation by 1986. With the worry for her and her family’s future, the appealing country of America became Tran’s goal to reach to restart her life.

Source: Leslie Tran (interviewee)

Tran set out on her journey on a dark night in August of 1981, not knowing whether or not she would be able to see her family again. Leslie recalls some key moments from her trip, mentioning that, “because there were too many people on the boat, the engine stopped working and [they] just floated.” Her boat remained afloat in the middle of the vast ocean for over 3 weeks with no land, and subsequently no hope, in sight. Still, her will remained strong and she held on to her life with a burning passion for a better future. Some weren’t as lucky, though.

“Maybe 3 children died,” she recalled. 7 others also lost their lives while staying afloat on the small boat. “...my friend’s wife and kid, the reason they died was because we were floating for too long, and there was no food and water.”

Throughout the years, survivors of these grueling journeys have learned to block out their past, but there will always be the memories that remain as a haunting reminder of what they have lost. According to Doctor Claudia Varagas in her journal article for Visions, “Adults tend to suffer from hyper vigilance, emotional numbing and flashbacks or re-experiencing the trauma.” Additionally, refugees could possibly develop PTSD from their experiences at sea.

When asked, Vanna Nguyen, owner of Vanna’s Salon Studio in Sunnyvale, California, stated that “even if you pay [her] millions, billions even, of dollars, [she] would never step foot onto a boat in the ocean again.” Nguyen fled her hometown of Qui Nhơn, Việt Nam in 1989 at only 10 years old.

Leaving her country at such a young age, Nguyen mentioned that she didn’t know, at the time, why she had to leave. “I just remember my mom saying we had to find freedom.” Still, she followed her mother onto a small family boat and can still remember her journey almost vividly. “I could see the colors of the ocean changing throughout the day, the farther we went,” she began. “From light blue, to purple, to black.”

Source: Vanna Nguyen (interviewee)

The 7 day 7 night journey ended with a bang, quite literally, when they accidentally arrived on the coast of China instead of their intended destination, Hong Kong. “The Chinese came running out with machetes and guns and fired at us after taking our money,” she recalled. “I was terrified.” Her family managed to restart and fix their small boat in the middle of the ocean after making a run for safety. “After another day floating on the ocean,” she remembers, “we finally arrived in Hong Kong.”

After about a year of staying on the small island consisting of over 100 thousand people and attending a school led by Vietnamese teachers finding their own refuge at the Hong Kong islands, her mom, sister, and herself were finally guaranteed over to America by her stepfather. Landing in San Jose, California, Nguyen attended Fair Middle School before it was renamed Bridges Academy and graduated from Yerba Buena in 1998.

“Starting over was difficult,” Nguyen recalled. “I had to learn English because I was never taught, and because I was shy, I never spoke up in any of my classes.” Nguyen also reminisces a core memory, where an ESL teacher from her middle school asked her the simple, “how old are you,” question, in which she continuously answered, “I’m fine, thank you.” Nguyen assumed the teacher was asking her how she was doing, and repeated the same, incorrect answer about 6 times.

“The language barrier was always hard,” Nguyen stated, after calming down from her fit of laughter caused by her old self. To Nguyen, having to learn English was the most difficult part in starting over in America. She was, though, always skilled with numbers, and went into accounting after high school.

On the other hand, Leslie Tran had no recollection of having a hard time with the English language. Having taken English classes in high school back in her home country, Tran was skilled enough in both reading and writing, along with the required speaking skills to even teach a class at her vocational school after arriving in Indonesia.

“First I learned how to type, then I learned how to manage a restaurant...then I was helping teach in the vocational school...in English. I taught them how to manage a restaurant, how to be a waiter and waitress.” While on the island of Galang, Indonesia, the waitering jobs were some of the only jobs deemed attainable to refugees. “It was the easiest job for us to get if we were to arrive in America,” Tran added.

She defied the odds when she stepped foot in the opportunistic country of America, though. After attending community college in Santa Clara and a vocational school for technicians and engineers, Tran found a job at Nortel Networks and worked under them for over 18 years. During this time, she was able to make enough money to send home to her mom, brothers and grandparents, eventually even bringing her mother and youngest brother over to America.

When recalling how she felt, Tran beamed, saying that she felt accomplished that she was able to bring her loved ones to America. While she was extremely overjoyed to be able to see her family again, she also brought up her worries for them.

“I had to teach my little brother about the racism towards people like us, and told him that once you’re here, you have to work for yourself and not rely on others.” Asian American racism has always been prevalent in America, but when the second wave of Vietnamese Americans arrived in America after the war, the disapproval rate spiked and the level of hostility significantly decreased, stated History.com.

“San Jose was a good place to resettle in,” Nguyen nodded after being asked if she liked her new home. “At first, there were not that many Vietnamese people, but soon more started to reside here and we built a community.” Over time, people came together to support one another and San Jose now even has a “Viet Nam Town,” a place where people can find a taste of home and belonging.

Nguyen, after having 2 kids, decided to get a hair license and find a new career. Years of school and experience at a family owned hair salon later, she now owns her own hair salon in the heart of Silicon Valley, in Sunnyvale, California.

After Nortel Networks relocated in 2004, Tran went back to school to pursue a career in medicine, becoming a pharmacy technician. She began working for Kaiser Permanente in 2006, and has been working as a pharmacy technician there for over 15 years.

Nguyen left me with some wise words that I think many people need to hear. “It’s not always easy, but if you try hard enough and do your best to overcome the hardships that life throws at you, there are always ways to surpass the barriers.”

These are just 2 of the millions of stories of Vietnamese war refugees finding a new life in a country that isn’t their own. Through their experiences, these ‘boat people’ are able to find a deep appreciation for the new life they’ve created, and are able to educate their children and the generations after them about the hardships of starting over.