Hmong and American: Negotiating Identity, Community, and Culture

2. Searching for Sources of Hmong Identity in Multicultural America

Searching for Sources of Hmong Identity in Multicultural America Vincent K. Her The identity of an ethnic group is relatively stable with deep roots in family , culture, tradition, and history. Extensive research also has shown that politics, race, and intergroup interactions are all important considerations for individual and group identity formation. As Stuart Hall notes: “Cultural identities come from somewhere, have histories. But, like everything which is historical, they undergo constant transformation.” For Hmong Americans, where should this somewhere in the development of their identity be located, what are the stories that constitute their histories, and what forces are influencing the transformations within their families and communities?1 As Hmong Americans situate themselves within the twenty-first century , what bonds them locally and globally and what links them to others in U.S. society? Being Hmong in America today is different radically from being Hmong in Laos or in the refugee camps of Thailand in the 1970s and 1980s. Yet, for those of us who are first-generation Hmong Americans, being Hmong in the United States continues to be influenced by our collective experiences in the other countries where we were born (and, in the case of the 1.5 generation, where we first were educated). Our lives have been altered by transnational migration. More significantly, our outlook has been nurtured by the ideology, beliefs, and lifeways of our adopted home country. People necessarily rethink their identities as they pick up new ideas, respond to contemporary challenges, and assess their contributions to society. The aim of this chapter is to explore identity formation withinthecontextoftransitionsandchangesaccompanyingHmongadaptation to American society. Vincent K. Her Experiential Approach to Identity At a community conference in April 2011, an elder of the Vue clan stopped by at the conclusion of my workshop to introduce himself. After thanking me for the presentation, he forthrightly stated his disappointment at what I had not said. In his view, I should have been more explicit about the specific meaning of Hmong. “I know that you know what Hmong is,” he said, “Tell the audience what you know. I wish you would hais kom khov thiab muaj ceem tshaj ko.” That is, I should “tell it as it is” rather than leave too much room for interpretation and questioning. This advice made me ponder once again questions central to my work in Hmong and Hmong American studies: What essential elements do people look for when defining what is Hmong? Also, do certain perspectives hold greater authority than others inportrayingthechanginglivesof HmongandHmongAmericans? As a Hmong American educator, I have indeed developed my own perspective on what is Hmong and American; equally important, I recognize how productive it is for people—Hmong and non-Hmong, men and women, parents and children—to engage in discussion where different points of views on Hmong identity can be shared. Guiding my ongoing work in Hmong American studies is this goal to promote dialogue in families, communities, and schools on how Hmong have integrated into American society. This writing is an experiential approach to exploring Hmong American identity. It is informed by the conviction that multiple entry points can lead to deeper understanding of the evolving meaning of what is Hmong, thereby contributing to scholarship on Hmong history, culture, and life experiences. Since I will include information that pushes the boundaries of ethnographic subjectivity, what follows is an understanding of Hmong American experience that is deliberately “situated.” Here, I am embracing the concept of “self-inscription” as a means to link firsthand knowledge of what has happened in the recent past to broader understandings of community history and identity formation. I owe this inspiration to David Bleich, who writes: “Many of us want to speak more deeply from personal experience, to add this dimension to the habits of scholarly citation and criticalinterpretation.Ourdesireforself-inclusionhasledtonewgenresof writing, new styles of knowledge.” In this spirit, I include my family’s story as a segueinto history,to establish forthisessayanimportant somewhere in Hmong Identity in Multicultural America Hmong identity development. Although that point is not fixed, a Hmong American sense of place in the world and in human history has greatly been influenced by events of the 1960s and 1970s.2 Reenvisioning Community History through Firsthand Knowledge Born at the start of the Secret War in Laos, I lived through its horrors as a child. I remember running away from Long Cheng in the dark with my mother and brother, as bombs...