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Saigon, Vietnam

I met Johnny Nguyen through my boyfriend. I was at his family gathering during New Years and found that he was particularly very friendly and easy to talk to. He was my boyfriend’s uncle. When the assignment came up I immediately thought of how interesting it would be to interview Johnny because I had already spoken to him in the past about his journey to America. The interview took place at the library at school. My boyfriend had set up the interview and translated if he did not understand my question or if I did not understand his answer. My interview will allow people to truly feel the emotions and conflicts that every migrant goes through, in the time of war. The interview truly illustrated how dangerous the journey truly was and how fortunate the migrant is to be here in America today.

            I was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1951. I lived a very easy life growing up in Vietnam. I remember enjoying school in my teen years and just playing with friends just like kids do here in America. The only difference was the amount of technology as well as cars. Saigon was very populated, it had movie theatres, malls, and parks just like America. I did not live a very poor life like many other migrants did. My father was the owner of a large supermarket and basically owned many surpluses of grains, rice, and flour. I helped around with the transportation of goods and spent most of my time studying for school as well as just doing kid stuff such as going out with my friends to the movies. The culture of Saigon was very lively. There was limitless food carts on the streets selling a famous dish called Pho, which is a beef broth with noodles. Everything was going great during my younger teen years. That was until the Vietnam War broke out.        

When my family and I heard that the communist North was starting to take over the entire city of Saigon which is located in South Vietnam, started to become chaotic. Everyone was arranging for their escape out of the country before the North would invade. A major slogan of the time was that people would rather be “Dead than Red.” My father arranged for a boat to take my family and I to an island in Malaysia where we could stay safely away from the war zone.     

Before leaving Vietnam in 1969, many horrible things were witnessed. I remember hearing the bombs drop close by my house months at a time when the North was getting closer. Many friends and neighbors that were close to me joined the South Vietnamese army was killed after enrolling for just months at a time. Many people knew that the North was much more powerful in weapons and number. It was fear that dominated South Vietnam and escape was the only answer.

The journey over to Malaysia was not a boat ride that anyone would enjoy. To keep it simple, some people died from dehydration because there was not an adequate amount of water supplies. My father owned may of the ships that were used for the escape. He made a lot of money for enrolling people onto these ships and business actually generated greatly from this. The boat was about 100ft. long and had a decent engine, but it carried about 100 people when its capacity was 50. People were not allowed to bring heavy luggage and were asked to only carry valuables. Thus, my family traded all of their belongings for gold before our escape happened. My father made a lot of money shipping people over to safe zones including Malaysia and Thailand. My family left on one of the last ships to Malaysia.

Our journey consisted of people dying from getting sick, or from dehydration. I think the scariest thing on the journey was the fear of ocean robbers or modern pirates. These thieves would carry with them rpg’s as well as automatic rifles with them. Many boats had been taken over by them; people were killed, and robbed of their valuables. I was most afraid of our ship being taken over by pirates and also being killed. I was also scared for my family. Unfortunately we had an encounter with these robbers. They approached our ship in a boat similar to ours. their boat got closer, they announced in Vietnamese for us to stop. However, many of the people on board with us carried rifles with them. They would fire large rounds of their automatic rifles at the pirate ship before they would get closer. Luckily this was enough for the pirate ship to not risk encountering us.

There were many days that we thought we would not make it to Malaysia safely. When there were storms at night, the boat would feel like it was going to flip over. It had many leaks that made it very hard for people to keep dry. The boat was not very sturdy, it was a very old and worn out boat that required maintenance. Once we made it to Malaysia, the refugee camps were not what we expected them to be. The living conditions in Malaysia included just small houses that had many hammocks inside. We would have to hunt for fish and pick for fruits on the island. We would also have to swim out to the Red Cross boats that would drop off supplies including medicine, water, and clothes. It was for two years in Malaysia before we boarded a plan to America.

When we got to California in 1971, my family and I came with basically a few thousand dollars in gold. There were 7 of us who lived in one small two bedroom apartment. We found jobs at Asian restaurants as busboys and later waitresses. After a few years I obtained my citizenship and began to continue our education again. I started to pick up English from television as well as from just working and hearing people everyday. After about 3 years in America, I started to go back to school with enough money made, and became more familiar with English as well as American culture.

Analysis

Johnny Nguyen’s story was remarkable; his life was change in a blink of an eye. Although he comes from a prestigious family, which shows that status does not spare your life when you are in life or death circumstances. In Cathy A. Small’s book From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs, she explains the story of Sela how she lived a rich life were she would spend her evenings with other young unmarried women, covering their bodies in sweetly perfumed coconut oil and laughing and talking. Johnny and his siblings had the same life style except living in a different country.

            Cathy Small also explains the importance of maintaining the strong tradition alive in heart and mind once Tongans arrive to America. Johnny still maintains that strong bond with family members however the tradition has faded into a more Americanize tradition. Miriam Davidson discusses different interviews she came across. The story about Jimmy Teyechea shows how the government does not care nor feel for it’s people, just with Johnny. He was persecuted because or religious believe and the war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. A government should look out for it’s people not mistreat them or cause them to fled their country.

Reference

Cathy A. Small, Voyages: From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs.

Cornell UP 1997.

Davidson, Miriam. Lives On The Line: Dispatches from the U.S.-Mexico Border.   Arizona: The University of Arizona Press, 2000.

David A. McMurray, In and Out of Morocco: Smuggling and Migration in a Frontier Boomtown. U Minnesota P 2001

Ann Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus & Girou 1998.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saigon#Khmer_Territory