The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

Photo: AFP

It is estimated that roughly 20,000 Vietnamese people have been displaced due to the hurricane.

For 39-year-old Peter Hoang, confined to a shelter with his wife and five children, it was the second time he has been a refugee: “The first one was from the war.”

“The war was worse,” he added. “But this was like the war. When you watch people on TV killing, looting.”

…In Mississippi, where like in Texas many Vietnamese work the gulf for shrimp, 13-year-old Nick Luong told of how his family lost their home in Biloxi but saved their boat. It’s where they rode out Katrina, moored hours away, and where they sleep now.

“We may have lost everything, but we’re going to rebuild everything,” the boy said, speaking for his father, Non, who came to Mississippi about seven years ago and speaks no English.

“We’ll probably go to Texas or something,” Nick said. “We’ll go for a couple months or so, ’til we can rebuild a couple of houses so we can live there. Then we can build more.” [link]

Katrina Clouds Vietnamese Shrimpers’ American Dream

Quick background info–

The seafood industry drew the Vietnamese to Biloxi just as it did the Slavonians and Cajuns before them. Many of the Vietnamese now living on the Coast came by way of Louisiana. They worked in the seafood industry in Morgan City, New Orleans, and other coastal cities. Two trailers full of unshucked oysters were responsible for many Vietnamese coming to Biloxi. In 1977, Richard Gollot, owner of Golden Gulf Seafood on Back Bay, could not find people to work in his factory. He heard of Vietnamese shucking oysters in New Orleans, drove a van over one day and brought back a dozen Vietnamese to work for him. After a week he persuaded one family to move to Biloxi, and others soon followed. Today nearly 2,000 Vietnamese, fifty-one percent of Mississippi’s Vietnamese population, live in Biloxi.

The seafood industry offered the Vietnamese employment best suited to their needs. The men became fishermen working together on the boats and pooling their resources. Women and children worked in the factories where they did not worry about their English deficiency, because most of their co-workers were Vietnamese also. As with the Slavonians and Cajuns before them, working became a shared experience, thus reaffirming the community bond. More important than financial success is the independence and freedom they attain for themselves and their families, said Liem Tran who owns a Biloxi trawl shop. “This is my business. I am owner. I run by myself. It was difficult to learn, but every job you go to you have to learn anyway. I am working hard, but I save my money. I do not think for me. I do not think for my wife, but I think for my children. Raise money for them for future.”[link]