Here Lai’s Our Truth: Civil War
Here lai’s the end. This is my last gif for Here Lai’s Our Truth, so I wanted to emphasize an important aspect of My Lai identity, civil war. It started with the Vietnam War and it will end with an internal struggle with self-identity. The My Lai community was, to quote Miss Saigon, born in hell […]
Here Lai’s Our Truth: Entry
“This kid is okay. He’s our entry to the U.S.A.” – Miss Saigon Half Vietnamese half American children were used as one way tickets into the United States. Many people would try to claim that these My Lai children were their nephews, nieces, grandchildren, and so on to escape the aftermath of war. In my […]
Here Lai’s Our Truth: DNA Gateway Part 2
The DNA Gateway – spit goes in and American citizenship comes out. While speaking to multiple people in the community, I learned about this “gateway” where Amerasian people in Vietnam take DNA tests to try to connect to their family in America and gain US citizenship. I do not have a lot of knowledge about […]
Here Lai’s Our Truth: Hoa
“[I] never had a desire to look for him.” It’s been 36 years since I came from Vietnam, I was ten years old. Growing up in Vietnam was not a good experience… I felt like an outsider because I was Mỹ Lai , the kids in school and my neighbors were not nice to me. […]
Here Lai’s Our Truth: Tiến
“We were the kids of the enemy, so they always treated us really badly… Like we weren’t human.” I grew up in Việt Nam. My grandma raised me because my mom left me when I was two months old. I lived with her, but after the war, the economy was really bad so they [the […]
Here Lai’s Our Truth: Legacies of War
What are the first things you think of when you hear “Vietnam War?” Maybe you’re thinking about communism or a fresh bánh mì. I don’t blame you, the public school system tends to leave out important history. We are taught about how the Americans tried their hardest to take down the Việt Công and stop […]