Russian Traditions

>

> Helping to Understand: The Hmong's story

>

> Anne Fadiman wrote an eye-opening book titled, The

> Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Fadiman is

> the editor of The American Scholar and has been

> published numerous times. In this book, she has

> documented the life of Hmong immigrants in Merced,

> California. I think she thought it was important to

> tell this story of the Lee family to open everyone's

> eyes to different cultures. Most of the field work

> took place in city of Merced. Here, she ran into

> some problems while gathering her information. The

> language barrier was obviously a huge one. Luckily,

> she found a few translators to interpret this

> complex language of the Hmong. Something that I

> thought she did a great job on was taking everyone's

> various opinions and tying them all together. Anne

> spoke with educated doctors, racist townsmen,

> teachers of the Hmong children and the elders of the

> Hmong culture, and each had opposite opinions yet

> she stood objective. I think judging a person or

> culture can be a somewhat natural

> event to a lot of under educated people. But her

> conclusions of the Lee family and their ancestors

> are only based on facts and not judgments. She makes

> the facts clear that the Hmong have suffered years

> of wars, forced relocations and poverty. But

> inevitably, they remain strong in the foreign

> country of America.

>

>

> Metchikoff 2

> Before I read this book, I have never heard of the

> Hmong. I had no idea that they were a group of

> people who were forced into our country and never

> fully adapted. Their dedication to their culture

> came off as stubbornness to the Americans

> they came in contact with. But all they wanted

> was to return to the mountains of Laos and live the

> way of their ancestors. All they got were small

> houses in the poverty stricken town of Merced,

> California. Away from everything they know, the

> Hmong had to adapt in this foreign country and learn

> everything over again. And a lot of it they did not

> want to learn. Having lived only in America, where

> cultures vary but are generally based on

> similarities, it is easy to get caught up in the

> materialistic side of living in this culture. The

> first generation Hmong described in this book did

> not understand all the products and manmade things

> in America. They did not even care. They did not

> know what all of our day to day gadgets and tools

> were. I could not believe it when a Hmong family

> planted and watered a garden in an apartment

> bedroom, causing leaks below. They wanted to keep

> their traditions alive in this modernized,

> materialistic world of America. Our lazy American

> culture is

> so pronounced over the hardworking, self sufficient

> Hmong culture.

> The Hmongs that are described in The Spirit

> Catches You and you Fall Down, have endured wars,

> long exoduses on foot, and forced relocations to the

> United States. Their past was full of hardships

> that the average American would not be able to

> imagine. Once such incident is when the Lees and

> other families are escaping to China, it is

> horrifying. One part that has stayed in my mind is

> how some families had to make the decision to leave

> the "burdensome relatives by the side of

> Metchikoff 3

> the trail". Whether they were young or old, they

> were left to scavenge for themselves. There is one

> account of "orphaned children in the forest, eating

> leaves

> and dirt" (163). After seeing that, the trauma

> that would surround you would last for a lifetime.

> But the Hmong only grew stronger.

> It was also interesting how the Hmong explained

> every suffering