Vietnamese American New Orleans

This article weaves together interviews, cultural studies scholarship, and a personal experience of New Orleans to interpret narratives of Vietnamese Americans in the city pre- and post-Katrina. New Orleans is home to one of the densest concentrations of Vietnamese Americans in the country, and the community’s quick return and recovery after the hurricane thrust them into the local and national spotlight. The community’s vibrant urban farms have been a particular point of focus, but this article shows how the range of meanings emerging from the Vietnamese American New Orleans landscape—from pastoral ideals to urban decay—demonstrates how Vietnamese Americans complicate conventional understandings of race, space, and citizenship in the Crescent City.