A Pinch of This + A Dash of That: A little bit about me & how we ended up in the Midwest

You could say my life is like a beloved family recipe – handed down through generations, tweaked with a dash of creativity, and served with a whole lot of surprises. I'm sharing a "pinch" more about me and my family's journey from the Mekong to the Mississippi and why my parents chose the Midwest over Europe (say WUT).

The collage image above includes real mementos that I'm so grateful my mom kept and brought with her to America. We didn't have much to begin with when my parents arrived to start their new life in this foreign land, so it's really heartwarming and nostalgic to have these physical memories.

Pictured above are: my paper plane ticket that shows our 4 flights starting from Bangkok > Hong Kong > Seattle > Minneapolis, stamps my mom collected depicting different artist illustrations of my Lao homelands, a photo taken of my parents and older sister (me in my mom's belly) at our refugee camp, my visa/immigration papers upon arrival at SEA on June 17, 1981, a $200 Lao Kip bill circa1963 with King Savang Vatthana on it, and a wallet-sized photo of a very young and handsome guy I call Pa.

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So, my first question would be: do you know where Laos is? Growing up, the majority of the answers I'd hear were "Huh? What? No." You can bet that I still hear those same answers as an adult. I'm not here to teach you geography or shame you if you don't know where it is (but I will offer up my favorite emoji: 😑). I'm gonna let you off the hook by supplying you with these helpful links and facts:

• FACT: Minnesota is home to the third largest population of Lao people in the U.S. and the number is estimated to be around 17,800. Lao people represent 5.6% of the total Asian population and .23% of the total population of Minnesota (credit: MN Dept. of Health).
  

• Some great sites to learn more about the Lao diaspora journey:

  • The Secret War in Laos - take this free short course to learn why so many of my people ended up here in America and how many bombs the US dropped on Laos during the war in Vietnam (spoiler alert: it will and should give you nightmares).

  • Little Laos on the Prairie  and SEAD Project (founded by my talented friend Chanida Phaengdara Potter)

  • Sahtu Press

  • Why the internet isn't always trash: I was researching my refugee camp years back and came across this amazing blog post. If you have time, read through it and soak in these amazing photos from the refugee camp I was born in. Find my comment and his response in the comments section. Grab a tissue! 🥹

Photo credit: Jeri Rae (see last bullet point above)

FUN FACT: I learned just a few years ago that my parents had quite a few choices on where we could have moved outside of the Midwest. WE HAD CHOICES?! I was shocked and instantly had major FOMO/flashes of the other glamorous lives I could have lived. My dad told me that Europe (Switzerland and France) along with Tokyo had been on the table. EXCUSE ME SIR?!

So why the Midwest? For obvious reasons: family reunification and the fact that the US federal government had already started resettling so many Lao and Hmong refugees in the Midwest. Voluntary agencies like the Lutheran Social Service (whom my family was assigned to), Catholic Charities, and World Relief MN provided housing, food, clothing, and English language and job skills training.

My dad's older brother and his family had arrived to the vast cornfields of South Dakota before we did along with other folks/families my parents knew, so naturally and understandably my parents chose The Mount Rushmore State. Farewell rice fields 🌾 and helloooooo corn fields! 🌽

Pa in those vast corn fields!

L to R: Pa in those vast SD corn fields, Pa really leaning into his new Watertown, SD persona, Auntie Vilavone and Uncle Khambor Dethleusay (yup, they spell our last name differently).

I have so much more that I can share (and most likely will for the duration of this project), but I'll leave you with this newspaper article that the Osceola County Gazette wrote about my family from February 1986. My family and I left those vast corn fields of South Dakota for the even more vast corn fields of Iowa.

One question I'll leave with you to ponder: Can you imagine what it must feel like to have a foreign country drop millions of bombs on your country, then fleeing your country after a communist takeover, and taking only what you could carry (including your children) in hopes of a better life in the country whose bombs still kill your people to this day?

Now that you know a little more about me and how I became a Midwesterner, stay tuned for more stories and my first culinary adventure: MEATLOAF EGG ROLLS! Make sure to give my IG a follow @auntievilay for that extra sprinkle of Midwest Asian Auntie in your feed. 🤪