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6 Cultural Heritage Still Matters A Cultural Self-Portrait: Mimi (in Her Own Words) I am a Vietnamese American. A naturalized citizen, I was born and spent a short period of my younger years in Vietnam. I left my country at the age of six to move to a place completely new and scary to me. I didn’t know the language, the customs , or the lifestyle. I was a scared child uprooted from the place I called home, desperately wanting to belong somewhere. And so I dove right in. I took every chance I got to learn to be an American. I didn’t want to be the subject of ridicule by those who thought that because I’m Vietnamese, I must be a Viet Cong (communist party in Vietnam). I worked hard to get rid of my accent and the customs and ways of my people because it represented something alien among my American friends. Most of the people (non-Vietnamese) that I meet are often surprised that even though I wasn’t born in the United States, my American accent is flawless . But no matter how much I wanted to be rid of my culture, it never left me. Fortunately, I grew up and realized the beauty of my language, people, and culture . The Vietnamese people that I meet are always flabbergasted by my ability to fluently speak the Vietnamese language and my knowledge of the history, food, and culture of Vietnam. My response to them is always “I was never given a choice.” In fact, no one is ever given a choice as to what culture they’re born into. It’s who we are! It’s who we’re destined to become. My parents are true lovers of the Vietnamese culture. They are musicians who specialize in Vietnamese traditional folk music. Their number-one goal is to travel the globe so that they can share the richness of the Vietnamese history and culture. Because of my family, the culture of my people is very much within me. One major component of my culture is family. And by “ family” I don’t mean just 134 Chapter 6 you, your siblings, and your parents; I mean your grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, great-uncles, great-aunts, second cousins, and so on. There is never a holiday that goes by when we do not see one another. And growing up, we sought the advice of other members of the family as well as the advice of our parents. Everyone knew each other’s stories and life circumstances. And if someone was struggling, everyone pitched in to help in some way. We believe in the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. The close-knit but extended family is a part of who we are. I’m very appreciative of this because I know that I’m never alone. And my family, they also know that I’ll always be there for them. This thought is comforting to me given that we live in such a self-centered world. And now that I’m a mother, I’m determined to keep this tradition alive so that my son will grow up to care for those around him and not just for himself. Now that I’m a mother, I can understand the importance of knowing and respecting one’s culture and heritage. The history/story of the Vietnamese people is as long and as ancient as those in China. In fact, Vietnam was once a southern territory of China and has had a long history of fighting to keep the Chinese at bay. However, the recent history of Vietnam is one that has personally affected my family. Two generations of my family are immigrants. My grandparents’ generation immigrated from northern Vietnam to south[ern] Vietnam during the Vietnam War. And my parents’ generation immigrated from Vietnam to the United States. My grandparents on both my mother’s and my father’s sides had to escape the threat of communist power in northern Vietnam. My paternal grandfather worked for the Communist Party, but because he came from a wealthy family, they threatened to kill off his family to gain access to their wealth. Afraid for their lives, they fled to the South. My maternal grandparents came from an agricultural background. At the time, they had three young boys, one of whom was still a baby. They knew that if they stayed put, they would either be killed or...

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