Land of America, Home of a Hmong

Imagine being a young child leaving your home and traveling to a new land. Walking off the plane and seeing snow for the very first time, you feel delighted and scared because Minnesota is nothing like anything you've experienced before. This is what happened to Xee. 

Xee Vue was born in Thailand in 1993. She immigrated to the United States with her parents and siblings when she was about 4 and a half years old. They arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota in December of 1997. Xee is now 20 years old and attends Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota and she is planning on majoring in Elementary Education in hopes of influencing the younger generations.

FIRST DAY IN AMERICA

We came here in December, so the first thing I remember would be the snow. It was my first time seeing snow and that really gives off an impression. I was excited. In Thailand there’s only one season and we don’t get to see snow, but over here you get to see all four seasons. You get to see spring, summer, fall, and winter, and I like winter a lot.

Thailand

ADAPTING AND ADJUSTING

Coming to America was scary at first, but once you get used to it you’re pretty much okay with it. My dad thought that it was really important for his kids to receive better education so we came here for better opportunities and education. My dad went to high school and got his high school diploma and went to college for two years so he knows English a little here and there. It was hard learning English, I remember going to school and learning English and coming back from school and having my dad tutor me as well. I don’t speak English at home, I speak my home language, Hmong.

MAINTAINING TRADITIONS

My family and I still maintain our Hmong traditions. We still do our New Years ritual and have family gatherings. However, the New Years in Thailand is different from the New Years we have here in the United States. The New Years in Thailand lasted seven days and you would dress in your traditional clothing to represent who you are. And a guy would approach a girl and ball tossed with her in order to get to know each other. In comparison to that over here we only have the New Year's for three days and we have the pageant going on, dance competition, singing competition, food and market stalls. There's this jewelry that I wear with my Hmong clothing for the New Year that I really cherish. It's the silver necklace and the style and design is different according to gender. For the female, the silver necklace drape down from our neck all the way to our chest. Although, it's heavy it's something that my mother cherished a lot because it's like an heirloom that has been passed down from generation to generations. I remember that she would always nag at me if I ever got it dirty or tarnished because when I get marry, she would give me that and I'll pass it down to my kids. 

Xee and her siblings in their traditional Hmong clothing, circa 2004

We also kept our traditions of the process of Hmong funerals. In Thailand, we do not have coffins for the dead, so we just lay them out on the floor. The funeral lasts for a week or up to a month. Whereas, in America, the funeral lasts for only three days. The rituals are still the same. We dressed up the dead person in Hmong clothes and send their soul back to their homeland with a musical instrument called the qeej. The qeej would have to continuously be play to help the dead person trace their steps back to where they came from. Close families would gather around the coffin and mourn for the dead person and external families would sit around them. 

Since my grandpa is a Shaman, he can communicate with spirits and guardians. There's a superstitious in the Hmong culture that said we cannot trip at a funeral because spirits can follow us home and makes us very sick. If we were to trip, a special shaman chant must be carried out at that moment. When we come home we have to burn peppers outside of our doorsteps and walk over some dried peppers as we enter the house. We believed that ghosts and spirits are scare of spices so if they smell a spicy scent then they would lose their track and go away.

FAMILY STORIES FROM GRANDMA

My grandparents are in Thailand right now. I haven't visited them, but I plan to. We communicate about twice a month. My parents grew up [in Thailand] and they were born there too, so growing up we heard stories from my parents and grandparents. We would have family gatherings and my grandparents would gather all of us and tell stories about their life back in Thailand and Laos. The most interesting topic would be ghosts. They would tell us their experience with ghosts and the most interesting story would be the story about this ghost that takes the form of a monkey. I don't know the English name for it but in Hmong we call it Phim Nyuj Vais. It's an evil spirit that takes the form of a monkey, and that spirit usually comes after hunters. If you're in Thailand or Laos at night you can hear them scream and like talk during the night which is creepy. Those evil spirits usually come late at night and it would come disguised as a monkey or it can also disguise itself as a human. So my grandma was telling us about this one particular night where my grandpa went out hunting at night with his friends. They were hunting for squirrels and birds and ducks and turkey. It was the middle of the night and they were tired so they set up a campfire and started cooking dinner. My grandpa sat down and was talking about life, like what's going on in the community and what's to plan. There's only four of them that went together and as they were talking they started getting the chills. My grandpa's a Shaman and when he started having chills he was like, "What's going on?" All of a sudden it got really windy and you could hear dog howling and barking and all these other animal noises all throughout the whole night. They kind of got scared a little. My grandpa pretty much had an idea of what was going on so he burned some dry pepper, and it was said to be known that the Phim Nyuj Vais are scared of tofu. So he started burning the peppers and tofu, and as he was burning it he said these rituals and sayings that goes along with it. Right after, when he finished burning them the wind stopped and the barking stopped. So that pretty much gave them the idea that it was the evil spirits.

BEING "AMERICANIZED"

I consider myself pretty much Americanized. I define Americanized as being more open, more accepting and open to other cultures. There are certain levels of being traditional and going towards Americanized. My family is not really traditional. My grandparents are still really traditional Hmong. How we eat is different. My grandparents always have four different dish, and within those dish there has to be a certain fresh vegetable soup. But my parents are really open; we don’t have to have four different dish on the table, we don’t have to have that vegetable soup all the time, and we can eat anything we want. They’re more open to trying out new things like going to the State Fair. My grandparents would never go to the State Fair. They just don’t want to go, they want to stay within their circle and not go out of their comfort zone. Whereas, my parents try new things and we celebrate most of the American holidays such as Christmas. We have presents for Christmas, turkey on Thanksgiving, and we have a Christmas tree. So I would say we are pretty much adapting to the American society, we’re getting used to it as we grow.

BEING HMONG

I would say the definition of being Hmong is being free people. You’re not directed to one particular thing, you have the opportunity to reach for other things and accomplish a lot of other areas; whatever you want to do. We have a lot of opportunities out there for us, all we have to do is reach for it.

Xee and her sister are reaching for those opportunities
by furthering their education, circa 2011

STORY FACILITATORS:
Ashley Bienias, Justin Huey, Mai Lee Vue