Celine Nguyễn

The Journey - Two Sides

For my project, I decided to make a drawing that depicted the story of my parents and their experience of coming over to the United States, ultimately shaping the identity I have today. On the left side of the drawing there are four girls gazing up at the sky at an airplane, and it is used to represent my mom and her younger sisters arriving to the United states by plane. On the right, it shows my father escaping Viet Nam by boat. I purposely did not put any detail into the shadowed figures in the boat with him because it was to indicate he traveled by himself over to the refuge camp in Malaysia. Both of my parents were one day told by their guardians that they would have to leave their home country behind, and these were their means of transportation to begin their journey.

Emigration Bag

At the refuge camp my father stayed at, they let him use only this bag to carry his things when the flight to the United States was ready for him. He remembered not having many things in the first place but still brought along books so he could learn English. On the bag, it shows that his first flight would land in Narita, Japan then take the second flight to SFO.

Parents Meeting Story

My parents met through a class they took together near today's Independence High School, a course that was for ESL learners like them. My mom said that the two of them did not get to learn about each other much until they found each other again on UC Davis campus for undergrad studies.

Letters

These letters were ones that my father and his older brother (my uncle) sent to each other about the immigration plans. My uncle was already living in the United States at the time, so he would be doing the sponsorship paperwork to sponsor my dad over.

School

This was a picture taken of my mom when she was in high school in Viet Nam. She said that it was hard for her and my dad to pursue higher education in their homeland at the time because both their fathers (my grandpas) served in the military and were arrested after 1975. This meant that my mom and dad's family were listed as 'enemy of the state' and they would not allow my parents to go to college.

This envelope has the address to the refuge camp my dad was in when he escaped by boat to Malaysia, which was Pulau Bidong Camp. He would spend around 7-8 months at this camp until he would be sponsored over to the United States.

Camp

When my mom's family were sponsored by her dad, who earlier escaped prison and fled to the United States, they did not allow her to bring much onto the plane. Her mother (my grandma) would urge my mom to bring books for study, because she knew that my mom would have a chance at higher education in the States so she wanted her to be prepared.

Education in the U.S

Reflection

Being able to sit down with my parents and ask them about their life stories has been an eye-opening experience. They have always briefly mentioned what they had gone through, but through this project I was able to go into detail about their journey of not only their escape from Viet Nam, but also their life living in Viet Nam. I was able to truly see where my identity originated from and getting to hear how my parents faced obstacles on the way had taught me how to sort my own problems. It inspired me to continue working hard to try and achieve my goals despite the odds that might be set against me. I am very grateful to have been able to learn more about my family origins and genuinely get to appreciate just how hard my parents worked to be able to raise my family to the way it is now.

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