All posts tagged: Hmong

Lost photos: Hmong nurses of the Secret War

Published by littlelaosontheprairie

Air America Association, Inc’s Facebook page uploaded photos of Hmong nurses from America’s Secret War days, which surfaced in a newly published photo book that’s free to the public. It’s an incredible look inside one of the most historically invisible wars of our time and especially of the women whose honorable mentions went unheard of. Air America and the Air America Association, Inc. Air America’s tenure in Asia began when Civil Air Transport (CAT) crossed the river into Shanghai in 1946. It ended on a rooftop in downtown Saigon in 1975. First in, last out. That was Air America in China, Korea and in Southeast Asia. The Air America Association is composed of former employees of Air America, their families and their affiliates. Its purpose is to capture that experience and present it in historical context. www.air-america.org 

Cultivating an L.A. Hmong Community

Published by Chelsey See Xiong

There is a common understanding that when a Hmong person journeys into the diaspora, they will find Hmong community if they seek it, and the community will welcome them with hospitality as if they were immediate family. I found this hospitality every time I left the comfort of my family’s home in Fresno, California, to the Twin Cities in Minnesota, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York City. This past weekend, I drove down to Los Angeles to meet its Hmong community. Like many large cities outside of the large Hmong enclaves, such as the central valley in California and the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Los Angeles’ Hmong community is a young and vibrant one. I grew up in Fresno where we are some 30,000 Hmong strong. I do not know how many live in the City of Angels but the Hmong have an early history in southern California. The earliest Hmong migration to California was in Santa Ana, then to the rest of the central and northern regions. During my trip, I took part in …