By Adriana Sanchez ’22

I have been reading ethnographies since my first day at St. Olaf. Now, at the end of my junior year (and officially a SOAN major) in my ethnographic research class, I have been tasked with writing an ethnography of my own. Our class focus is the pandemic campus, each person focusing on a different aspect of campus and seeing how it connects to the pandemic. I had trouble deciding on what aspect I wanted to focus on, until I realized it was right in front of me, in the book we were reading in class on Admissions in selective liberal arts colleges (SLACs). I realized after going through the Admissions process myself, I did not think much about my experience now that I was in the school I wanted to go to. The only time I remember speaking much about it was during orientation, when all the nervous first-years (myself included) were trying to make friends and find their place on campus. I decided to focus on everyone with an Admissions experience, talking to student workers, first-years, Admissions staff, and students about their perceptions and experiences with Admissions during and before the pandemic.  

One of the concepts Tom (our humble professor) highlighted repeatedly was collaboration. One thing that makes ethnographic research unique is that gathering research involves ethnographers collaborating with the people they talk to and interact with, their interlocutors, in order to produce the final ethnographic result. Collaboration involves talking with interlocutors, and having open-ended conversations rather than one-sided Q and A interviews. Interlocutors are an important part of what makes an ethnography, and without them there would be nothing to write about. 

At first I was hesitant to talk to people, but found it was rather easy, and that people enjoyed talking to me. It seemed like my interlocutors were just as excited to talk to me as I was to talk with them. After talking to everyone and taking as many field notes as my tired hands would let me, it was time to start writing. I spent nearly every semester at Olaf reading ethnographies and discussing them, and now that it was finally my turn to write one, I was excited. I also had no idea where to start. 

An important part of the ethnographic process is understanding that collaboration does not end after the first round of open-ended conversations. Collaboration is a fluid process that happens throughout the ethnographic process. They go hand in hand. Part of the collaboration process is getting input from others who have done the process before you, or those working beside you. In order to begin the writing process, which I had great difficulty doing, Tom suggested starting with a SFD- a Sketchy First Draft. The writing process is difficult, and one of the hardest parts of writing is starting. If you get a SFD on the page, then one of the hardest parts is already over. As someone who prefers a perfect sentence right from the beginning, the SFD was something I had to learn to embrace, in order to get something on the page. My first draft was not exactly what I wanted, and, well, it was kind of sketchy, but it was a start. I had already done one of the hardest parts of writing. After this experience I changed my mind: talking to people was now the easy part. 

Ethnographies may start with the anthropologist/ethnographer initiating the process with a focus and research questions, but it is really the interlocutors and collaborators that help make an ethnography complete through their input, stories, and experiences.

By Mona Sun ’23

“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” After taking one of the sociology classes – SOAN 233, I changed my phone wallpaper to these thought-provoking words. Exploring the sociology world and trying to understand colonialism and post-colonialism with Professor Ibtesam is truly an eye-opening and life-changing experience. 

I learned the terms “colonialism” and “post-colonialism” from my previous high school history class, but we never really talked about the meaning behind it and how this part of history has impacted people until now. This class walked me through different classical texts and sociology ideas, such as “imperialism”, “orientalism”, “Commodity fetishism”, etc. This course kept challenging my view of today’s world. Reading a small place by Kincaide, I learned the ugliness of tourism. Reading Can Subaltern Speak by Spivak, I realized the predicament of oppressed people who are silenced. Reading orientalism addressed by Said, I found that our image was constructed and defined by west scholars, which is not our true image. There are many more moments like these, which encouraged me to look at the world from a completely different perspective. 

This is the most difficult class and also the best class that I’ve ever had. Everything is new and fascinating to me. We don’t have too much reading in regards to length but the readings are so sophisticated and really hard to understand. I was pretty stressed at the beginning because I think my English is not good enough for this class. Sometimes I just read the assigned reading over and over but still couldn’t understand anything. However, the class lecture and discussion helped me understand most of them. My professors and classmates had many great ideas and thoughtful understanding. What happened during class always inspired me to try harder and keep going with this class’s material. I couldn’t understand everything we talked about during the class but those takeaways brought me to another level of understanding of the world. I was introduced to many new ideas and sociology concepts that describe what has been happening in the world. It’s so fascinating to realize that no knowledge is produced to seek knowledge but to serve a certain purpose. All the things that we are able to see today are processed and packaged for a certain purpose, such as the interests of the bourgeoisie. I realized that I shouldn’t fully accept what I see over different platforms, but look at it critically.   

Colonialism is not a simple concept to describe. One country takes over another country, but the whole systemic domination of one group over another group continues to affect every individual in today’s world no matter where you are from. 

During the class, everyone is so enthusiastic about the topic and there’s a general frustration going on throughout the course: What we can do in today’s world when we were impacted by the heritage of colonialism and postcolonialism at every moment? I think professor Ibtesam gave us a good answer, at least enough for me. We are not able to solve the systemic problem of today’s world structure and maybe not in the near future. However, we are here to recognize those issues, educate ourselves, critically examine our world, and think about the possible reaction together. We are not talking about where we should end but where we should start and how we go with all the information and knowledge we learned from this class. 

This class inspired me to have many great conversations with my peers, professors, and parents about today’s world and how we can make a change. The impact is not a one-time thing but an ongoing process. Currently, I’m reading the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” with my family members. This class grounded me well to understand other important texts and continue powerful conversations with others.

There’s much more to talk about this great class. I’m truly grateful for having this class and looking forward to taking more sociology classes.

By Allyson Green ’21

While it may be cold, January is a time of restoration for many St. Olaf students. Being able to focus on only one class removes some weight from our shoulders and helps us prepare our minds for the spring semester. Many SoAn students, like myself, found ourselves in Professor Tom Williamson’s Life on Campus class, which met for about 3 hours every weekday. As you may guess, this course discussed college campuses in an anthropological viewpoint, and as a bonus, there were multiple field trips off campus to other schools in Minnesota. This included the University of Minnesota, Macalester, St. Thomas, and Carleton – along with a guided tour of our own campus! 

You may be wondering – what is the point of Oles touring their own campus? Well, while there were a few First Years in the class, many of us hadn’t officially toured our campus for a few years. Because of this, we all had formed our own opinions about the buildings, people, and classes (amongst other things), so it was interesting to be reminded of the reasons we came to St. Olaf, and compare them to the reasons we stayed. In fact, a question that kept popping up in class was “compared to what?” 

For our final, Tom allowed us to be creative and explore a broad topic that related to campus life. I wrote 19 pages about the purpose of Art on Campus, both here at Olaf and other schools. There was so much to write about, that the general consensus was that the 20 page limit was not nearly enough to cover every aspect we wanted. This paper was not difficult to write at all, as many people were genuinely interested in their topics and enjoyed doing the research. 

Of course, I saved the best part for last – this was an UNpaper, an UNfinal, an UNproject. What does this mean? It means that the guidelines were not strict. This (un)paper was not about challenging our minds, or stressing us out. It had the purpose of allowing the students to explore and learn about a topic that helped them understand another aspect of campus life that had not been covered in the month. As for my unproject, I discussed chapels (stained glass!!!), Christmas Fest, art museums in schools, landscaping, and even the idea of artistic intelligence. Tom allowed us to express our personality in our paper, which was another relief – so much easier to write (and, supposedly, more fun to read)!

Though we were sad to move on, we now have the ability and inspiration to pay attention to colleges and universities (and other institutions!) and compare them to what we now know. This course opened our eyes and minds to other points of view (including those of other professors/faculty), and I think it’s fair to say that we all will see our school in a new light.

 

By Teresa Kayser ’21

Soon into our trip, we were split into small groups by Ryan and were given specific areas that impact immigrants to closely examine for the rest of the trip. My group was assigned gentrification and its impact on immigrants. Our topic required a large amount of independent research as well as some deductive thinking, since not a lot of research has been done on gentrification in Amsterdam especially. 

During the first half of the course we focused solely on Miami and gentrification. We learned about a few different immigrant neighborhoods and how they were all being affected differently. One of Miami’s oldest neighborhoods that is known for its history of housing Bahamian immigrants, Coconut Grove, is currently undergoing battles to combating impending gentrification. To do this, some residents are trying to get the historic shotgun style houses to be designated as historic housing in order to stop their demolition. Some people disagree with this, however, as it puts strict requirements on any renovations that can be done on the houses. We also discussed climate change gentrification and its effects on Little Haiti. Little Haiti is a smaller neighborhood that more recently became a hub for Haitian immigrants. Located more inland, it was originally cheaper property because it was not beachfront property. Now, prices are rising in conjunction with sea levels since former beach properties are starting to be overtaken by the ocean. Because Haitian immigrants are not as well-established when compared to Cubans in Miami, they do not have as much of an ability to resist the gentrification they see happening in their own area. They have protested, but to little success, as there are many plans still in the works to “build up” Little Haiti.

When we arrived in Amsterdam, we learned that we were going to present on the same topics, but this time we were to compare the effects of gentrification in Miami to those in Amsterdam. One comparison we found very quickly was how gentrification in Miami was mostly led by private companies looking to gain a profit, while there were programs in Amsterdam that were “state led.” The way the government went about encouraging gentrification was by having richer middle-class Dutch families move to poorer neighborhoods in order to stimulate renewal and to act as a form of example for the less affluent people to follow. In addition to this initial finding, we noticed many similarities in the housing problem of Coconut Grove and Amsterdam Centraal. While Miami is in the process of designating historical housing, Amsterdam has already made a majority of their “canal houses” official historic housing. People have realized, however, that making these houses historic makes them more desirable to some people, jacking up the price further. 

FINAL REFLECTION

Looking back on this program almost a year later, this program taught me a lot more than I thought even immediately after our trip ended. I not only learned a lot about the course content and topics, but also just different ways of thinking as well. Because this trip was not just SOAN majors, I feel as though I learned many different perspectives that stray from the common voices I usually hear. We also got to talk to many people that were somehow involved in immigration, whether it was working in a detainment center, as an advocate for immigrant rights, or immigrants themselves. Many diverse perspectives were given to us and it was a privilege to be able to have heard them. 

By Teresa Kayser ’21

Lectures

Like in Miami, we dove headfirst into learning almost as soon as we arrived in Amsterdam. We started off listening to many lectures on various immigration-related topics. Our first two lectures were done by a husband and wife duo who split up the history of migration in two parts: from the formation of the country until 2000 and from 2000 to 2017. They explained some of the key views that Dutch people have on immigration and how they pride themselves in their tolerance. We then had two lectures that were more political science based as they focused on the immigration policies of the Netherlands in relation to those of the rest of the European Union and immigrants’ participation in Dutch politics. Both of these lectures also discussed Dutch views on multiculturalism and assimilation and how many Dutch policies are more geared towards an idea of assimilation. Lastly, we were given a lecture on intergenerational differences between first, second, and third wave Turkish immigrants to the Netherlands. Overall, we learned many different aspects of immigration in the Netherlands and were able to compare them to those of the United States with some thoughtful reflection. 

Tours

While in Amsterdam, we took advantage of the fact that the city is very condensed and went on many guided tours of the city. One of the first days we were in the city, we were able to go on a canal tour of the city, which explained how it grew around the canals historically. Another day we went on a “Tolerance Tour” of Amsterdam, which outlined the history of acceptance of other cultures and lifestyles in the Netherlands in the context of architecture. In contrast to this narrative, we went on a tour of Oosterpark, and viewed the National Slavery Monument that was there and learned about some of the history of colonization led by the country. We went further in depth of the topic during another tour that focused on black heritage in the Netherlands and its erasure from the grand narrative of its history. Additionally, we visited a mosque just outside of the city as well, seeing as many of the immigrants and migrants there are originally from countries that predominantly practice Islam. In Amsterdam, we were given many viewpoints from which to draw conclusions, whether it was the main narrative or an unheard side. 

The Refugee Company

One of the nights we were in Amsterdam, we visited a place called The Refugee Company, which works with immigrants to the Netherlands to help situate them in an unfamiliar country. We were given a tour of the facilities which included a textile workshop and a restaurant where immigrants can work until they are matched with a better fit for their skill sets. Additionally, The Refugee Company helps immigrants by supporting Dutch language learning, having mentorship programs available, and offering some forms of job training such as basic electrical engineering. It was interesting to see how this agency compared to those in Miami as this one seemed to be focused on assimilating immigrants into Dutch society while the ones we visited in Miami such as WeCount! seemed more focused on fixing problems caused by the host country. 

Overall, Amsterdam was a beautiful city with a deep history of immigration and colonization. We learned narratives from many different sides of the conversation on immigration in addition to many scholarly voices.  During both our time in Miami and Amsterdam, we were assigned to dive deeper into an aspect of immigration. My group was given gentrification and its impact on immigrants as our topic and some of our findings will be posted in part 3!

By Teresa Kayser ’21

Overall Purpose of the Course

This past January, I was one of 18 students that travelled with Professor Ryan Sheppard and former SO/AN AAA Lori Middledorp on the inaugural SO/AN 244 trip to Miami and Amsterdam. When applying to go on this trip, my main reasoning for wanting to go was the fact that I am a SO/AN major and the course topic seemed very relevant in today’s social climate. One part of the application process was to go in for an interview with Ryan and Lori just so they could get to know the applicants a little better and to explain a little more about the course to the students as well. During this Ryan explained that she chose to focus on Miami and Amsterdam due to the fact that they were both hosts to relatively recent waves of immigration. Miami, famously known for its Cuban population, has also recently had many other Latin American groups migrating to it as well as having a rising Muslim immigrant population. This leads to the connection to Amsterdam, as its more recent immigrant waves have been from countries that predominantly practice Islam, such as Morocco and Turkey. Overall, we were going to compare “the causes, consequences, global context, major issues of, and responses to migration” (taken straight from our syllabus).

Museum Visits

Soon after we shed our winter coats for the Miami sun, we head out to learn as much as we could about Miami’s history and immigrant populations. While in Miami we visited three museums, all with different purposes and subjects. Our first site visit was a bus tour of historic Miami along with a guided tour of the Miami History museum, where we got a general overview of the foundations of the city and some of the dynamics between populations. Later on in our trip, we visited the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, a newly opened museum that had a display on famed musician, Celia Cruz. Here, we learned about the politics behind the Cuban exile with a concrete example of Cruz’s life. The last museum we visited was the Freedom Tower Museum in Miami, which in the 1960s, was used to care for and process Cuban refugees escaping from Cadstro’s regime. 

Lectures

In addition to museums, we also attended a few lectures given by academics in Miami. Our first lecturer was a historian from the Miami History Museum, Dr. Paul George, who led our bus tour around Miami, with stops in Little Havana and Little Haiti to give us an idea of the layout of the city. Another lecturer we listened to was professor Dr. Mirsad Krijestorac from Florida International University, who took us to two mosques in Miami and spoke on the growth of Islam and the Islamic community in Miami. Lastly, we visited Dr. Sallie Hughes at the University of Miami to discuss her book “Making a Life in Multiethnic Miami: Immigration and the Rise of a Global City” which we used as a reference throughout our time in Miami. She discussed the process of writing and gathering data for the book and answered any questions we had about more specific topics for individual research as well. 

Agencies

Because of Ryan’s background in social justice, she wanted to make sure that we were also learning from agencies that work to help out immigrants in different ways and not just from academics. While in Miami, we visited three different agencies that had very different ways of assisting immigrant populations in the Miami-Dade area. The first site we visited was Abriendo Puertas, which is an agency based in Little Havana that provides child and youth development programs, adult and community education programs, and family support services. After learning about these, we were able to go to their out of school program, which gives children from kindergarten to high school a place to go after school to study, play, or to just hang out. When we were there, we got to see some kids participate in a martial arts class, played with some of the younger kids, and talk to some of the workers about their experiences. After this visit, we went to the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) where a few of its workers discussed different programs and campaigns they have, easing the path to citizenship for immigrants as well as increasing civic engagement in immigrants. FLIC was slightly different in that they connect many different agencies with different focuses together to make a network of resources for immigrants. A few days later, we travelled to Homestead, which is around an hour south of Miami, to visit our final agency, WeCount!. WeCount! Has a big focus on workers’ rights, especially farm workers’, since Homestead is a hub for agriculture. The workers at WeCount! told us about some of their campaigns which included combatting wage theft, tackling problems with racial profiling, and educating workers on their rights and how to report mistreatment. 

Overall, there was a wide array of voices that we were able to hear in Miami. We learned about the history, the academia, the current issues and so much more about immigration that I had no clue about before. After our experiences here, we were ready to fly out to Amsterdam for the second part of the course!

By Jenna Castillo ’19

Research at The Ohio State University

In June of 2018, the summer before my senior year at St. Olaf College, I flew out to Columbus, Ohio, to conduct research for eight weeks at The Ohio State University as part of their Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP). I was placed in this program with the help of the Graduate School Exploration Fellowship (GSEF), which aims to diversify the professoriate by assisting underrepresented students (low-income, first generation, students of color) with undergraduate research which will make for a more competitive graduate school application.

The research I conducted studied gentrification and urban redevelopment and their impacts on public schools, housing, and overall community culture within Columbus, specifically focusing on the areas surrounding the Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Ohio State University. The aim of this study was to critically examine the development projects taking place in these areas through analysis of their motives and outcomes in the community in aspects of racial and economic diversity. This research is needed so we can better strategically plan how to develop and adapt to changing dynamics in rapidly-growing cities around the world.

This research project consisted of reading literature about the process of gentrification and its impacts, policies put in place to maintain economic and racial segregation, maps of Columbus and the city’s history of community development (specifically about immigration patterns during the two world wars) and finally, interviews with community leaders that support communities that are currently facing the effects of gentrification.

The History

Columbus, Ohio, like many other cities that are currently being gentrified, was once affluent with the presence of companies and factories such as the Streetcar Lines, the Columbus Coated Fabrics, and the Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, which provided jobs to African Americans who moved to the Midwest from the South during the Great Migration. However, the collapse of these industries lead to a period of neglect for areas within Columbus – specifically neighborhoods that were majority Black residents. After the Black community took shape during WWI, real estate developers became restrictive in selling property only to whites. Around the same time in the 1930’s, FDR created the Federal Housing Administration, which drew lines across communities that set standards of who was able to get loans (labeled as green communities) and who was not able to (labeled as red communities). This process is what we know now as redlining, a systematic way of preventing African Americans and other minorities from buying property.

During this time, there was a rise in suburbanization and white flight, meaning that as Black residents moved into a suburb, white residents would flee in fear of the community being taken over. Realtors would also take advantage of white flight with the process of blockbusting. Blockbusting included realtors going door to door in white neighborhoods and telling white residents that an African American had just moved onto the street. This resulted in white residents selling their home for a cheap price, which would then be sold to an African American at a higher price for profit of the realtors.

Throughout the 40’s and 50’s was the start of community organizations that advocated for the end of segregation, such as the Vanguard League. While racial integration and black advancement in Columbus occurred, there were still policies being made to reshape and further racially segregate the city. In the 60’s, the building of highways and freeways gutted black neighborhoods on the east side of Columbus. With the city’s lack of concern for minority and low-income neighborhoods, drugs, and crime, the Short North posse sprung up in the 80’s and 90’s, along with the rise of low-quality public housing availabilities. The 90’s permanently brought the Godman Guild to Weinland Park, offering support services for adult education, job training assistance, and child-care options.

Current developmental changes are lead by institutions such as the Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which have had shattering impacts on the low-income communities nearby. This historical perspective of Columbus allows us to better understand the projects currently taking place in the surrounding areas of the Ohio State University and the Nationwide Children’s Hospital, both of which are seeing the negative impacts of gentrification while being promoted and advertised as an improvement for the community and the city as a whole.

Major Takeaways

From this research, I found that the development in Columbus tends to be motivated by neighborhood safety and Columbus’ desire to attract more residents and create an identity as a major city in the States rather than focus on improving current communities and their residents. Oftentimes, development of low-income areas is seen as an improvement for both the city and members of the community. However, while the rehabilitation of buildings and introduction of new shops speaks to an improvement of the neighborhood, the problem is that it often overlooks the effects on low-income communities of color.

While development takes place, low-income communities of color are displaced through the gentrification process due to rising property taxes and a shift in the neighborhood culture, resulting in a whiter and more affluent population in the area that was a historically low-income community of color. The problem is that the motive for development is not focused on those that are experiencing poverty, but rather on those that have to see it.

For development to be successful in supporting low-income communities of color, there should be an inclusion of efforts to support current residents without displacing them and being inclusive with development projects. This means that the shops that are placed in neighborhoods should reflect and be relevant to the current culture and economic status of the community. The most important takeaway of this project is that successful community development should have an equitable focus rather than solely an economic one.

Written by Padra Chang ‘20

Maintaining One’s Hmong Culture in the United States

Cultural Practices & Customs at Home:

Growing up in the United States, I was exposed to an environment that my siblings and my parents are not familiar with. It may seem natural to me but to them, it was something new. Growing up in a Hmong household, my siblings and I slowly started to adjust to the American mainstream culture and traditions. We then unconsciously started to celebrate American holidays such as New Year’s Eve, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and many other celebrations. However, my parents disliked these holidays because they are not part of our cultural customs or practices. My father initially criticized our stupidity of following the American holidays but now my father has become more open to these celebrations. Furthermore, my parents were very strict and often reinforced our Hmong culture and customs towards my siblings and me. My parents still believe in the patriarchy system and the notion of respecting the elders. Especially my father, he strongly believes in the patriarchy system and hierarchy of age. He reinforces these concepts every time he sees my siblings and me make a mistake.

My mother has the role of making sure my sister and I are well-trained to become future housewives. My father will often say that my sister and I are ladies and we should act properly whenever there are guests. We should cook, clean, and help my mother because we are ladies. My sister and I should wear long-sleeves, long-pants, anything that will cover our bodies since it is not proper to have skin showing. We could not hang out with friends or go to their houses because it was considered an American thing; we could not travel without having one of our brothers with us: we have to act proper. These are the roles of a Hmong daughter. On the other hand, my father teaches my brothers to be ready for rituals, Hmong politics, and handiwork. My brothers often have more freedom than my sister and I. They are boys, therefore they should not do any female work as my father always says. However, they are trained to be ready whenever there are events happening in the Hmong community or clan meetings. For example, hu plig is also known as spirit calling. It is a ritual where shamans will call the family or an individual’s spirit back to their body or household. When the spirit is back then we can celebrate and enjoy a feast. It is to help us on a spiritual level to be healthy. I can only speak about certain parts that I know from observing. Therefore, I can only provide small details about the role of Hmong men.

Custom & Cultural Changes:

Growing up in a strict Hmong family, there are customs and cultural practices that certain individuals want to keep and certain parts that other individuals do not want to keep. For example, the patriarchy system. The gender roles in Hmong families can be overwhelming, especially to Hmong ladies. It is hard to follow certain protocols, such as being polite, patient, and submissive. Hmong women went through those steps and it was stressful and difficult. It sometimes impacts women on a mental level because of the overwhelming stress. Moreover, women are not allowed to question their own cultural practices and customs because that is the way it was supposed to be. Some certain individuals would prefer not to practice or keep the notion of gender roles. They want Hmong people to understand that gender equality is not an American notion but a universal concept. They feel men and women are both capable of doing one another’s work.

The mannerism of always respecting the elders is one of the factors that many individuals want to change as well. They think that regardless of age, everyone is still currently learning from one another. Furthermore, they feel elders should respect young people and vice versa. In the Hmong culture, individuals know that respecting elders is a notion and it is a cultural practice, but the concept of elders saying they are always right and the young ones are always wrong, is not always correct. The elders always position themselves to be the authority, which many individuals totally understand and agree, but they believe that both generations are capable of learning from one another. It is about learning and understanding each other as a collective group. In general, situations can differ based on external and internal factors. However, people are constantly learning as they become older.

Customs & Cultural Maintenance:

There are certain customs that some individuals wish not to continue but there are other practices that people wish to continue. There are individuals who strongly want to keep their religious practices, cultural practices, and especially the Hmong language. Individuals may want to keep their religious practices because it is something that resonates with them and defines their identity within America. In America, not many young Hmong people understand or are able to process rituals hosted by shamans, and know how to decipher their symbols or meanings. That is something many in the younger generation are struggling to maintain and others want to keep. In order for Hmong individuals to keep this religious practice, they will try to devote themselves to learning the rituals and practices. They will also need to ask elders questions and be respectful that there are certain things that they cannot interpret for them.

Hmong individuals want to keep their cultural practices as well, but with strong influences from American society, it can be difficult. But many Hmong individuals still have hope. The cultural practice that individuals most wish to keep is the Hmong New Year. First of all, Hmong New Year has already lost its original meaning and purpose. Living in America, Hmong people are often not taught the purpose of it and treat it as an event that people can enjoy, such as hanging out with friends and family, eating Hmong food, watching performances, and many more things. When one is able to understand the purpose of the Hmong New Year, which is to honor our ancestors for the completion of harvest, they might view the celebration differently. This celebration has been going on for years now in Minnesota, but it is important to teach the purpose of the Hmong New Year and its original meaning to the local Hmong population. Then the Hmong people would view it differently than just an entertainment.

Lastly, many individuals, especially those who struggle with the Hmong language, personally wants to maintain the Hmong language. They want it to still be relevant to future generations because it is only taught orally. There are two dialects in Hmong, Hmong White (hmoob dawb) and Hmong Green (hmoob ntsuab). The Green dialect is not commonly spoken anymore so it is especially important that young people learn Hmong Green before the dialect is lost. Historically, the Hmong language is taught orally but now people can learn the Hmong language through certain schools and materials. However, having a conversation can be difficult, especially having a conversation with an elder. There are levels of proficiency in the Hmong language; those that are able to converse with elders and understand their metaphors are considered very proficient. For many young Hmong people it may be difficult to have a conversation with older Hmong adults since they aren’t completely fluent in the Hmong language. However, it is easier for them to converse with other young Hmong people since the conversations are in simpler Hmong. If young Hmong people wish to understand elders and be able to have a conversation with them they will need to speak with elders more and ask them to interpret certain phrases. For future language maintenance, it would be advantageous if Hmong families would try to speak to their children in Hmong and in English. Perhaps one parent speaks Hmong and the other speaks English, in order to not lose the language. To lose the Hmong language is similar to losing one’s own identity, especially in the Hmong culture.

Written by Padra Chang ‘20

Hmong Culture and Customs

Gender Roles:

Many traditional Hmong families still believe in the patriarchy system and it is reinforced onto future generations. A patriarchy system is where the male plays the dominant role and holds the most power in the family. The role is often given to the father or the eldest male. In a typical traditional Hmong family, the father’s role is to be able to maintain a shelter, provide food, be able to make money, and be involved in Hmong politics. The boys are supposed to learn the father’s role and be able to support the father in other responsibilities. On the other hand, females are often largely excluded from having power. A mother’s responsibility is to do household chores, look after children, and try to make money through her embroidery. Furthermore, girls are supposed to learn the responsibility of a mother/woman and also be able to help around the house. The patriarchy system is still relevant in certain traditional Hmong families. However, there has been some role shifts within the past years.

Religion:

Historically, the Hmong people first believed in Animism and a blend of Shamanism. Animism is the belief in supernatural powers and a spiritual essence that animates the material universe. Furthermore, every natural being has a spiritual existence in the world. These spiritual beings can be helpful or harmful to the human interest. On the other hand, Shamanism is the belief that a person is able to reach a certain consciousness and transcend to different realms. A shaman is the bridge between the spiritual realm and the material world. There are still Hmong communities that practice these customs but most of them are traditional Hmong families and Hmong elders.  

Shaman performing the healing ritual

After the war, some Hmong families in Laos and Thailand decided to convert to Buddhism to blend in more with the local populations. Also, some Hmong people in America were very thankful to the churches that funded bringing them to the U.S. and they decided to convert to Christianity. In America today, there are more Hmong Christians than when the Hmong people first arrived in America. Furthermore, Christianity was able to stretch all the way to the Hmong people in Laos and Thailand as well.

Mannerisms:

Many Hmong families strongly emphasize the notion of respect. The system of respect is in the form of a hierarchy system, where the elders are the mostly highly respected in the family. In addition, Hmong people are very humble to elders and guests. Hmong people treat their elders and guests with respect because they believe everyone should feel welcome with care and attention. They also stress the idea of morality. Lastly, Hmong people prefer to do things as a collective group because they believe one cannot be successful without the other.

Ceremonies:

The Hmong New Year is celebrated to honor our ancestors for the completion of harvest. The celebration often takes three days to complete. In those three days, many Hmong families will take the time to honor their ancestors and wish for good health and fortune for the next year. After those rituals are completed, then comes a big festival with food, games, performances, feasting, and courting. This is the only time Hmong people are able to wear and display their traditional Hmong clothes.

Medicine:

Hmong families often use herbal medicines. In most traditional Hmong families, they believe that when a person becomes sick it is because their spirit must be lost somewhere. To retrieve their spirits they ask for help from a shaman practitioner (txiv neeb). The shaman will need certain materials and do certain steps to retrieve the lost spirits of the patient. The process is very complex and would often need elders to be there to interpret their sayings and assist the practitioner.

Hmong herbal medicines

Reference: Hmong People History Culture Beliefs

Written by Padra Chang ‘20

This will be a three part series on the Hmong history and my adaptation in the United States.

PART 1

My Family History

A little bit about myself, I was born in the United States into a low-income family. All of my siblings are all first-generation students in college and I am the last one to enter college. My parents were refugees during The Secret War before coming to the United States in 1995. I have five older siblings, four brothers and one sister. I am the youngest of the five, and my family currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota. All of my older siblings were born in either Laos or Thailand, except for my fourth oldest brother and myself who were born in the United States. However, my siblings and I were all raised in Minnesota.

My parents never talk in detail about what happened during The Secret War. My mother would only tell me about how my maternal grandfather was killed by being shot in the chest, how scared she was in the forest, how there was not enough food, and the fear of not knowing if she would survive the next day. Besides those events, she will not go in-depth about the war itself at all. As for my father, he never speaks about it other than to say that he was an orphan at a young age and was left all alone to survive by himself.

The Secret War

Many people may have heard of the Vietnam War but there are others who have not heard about the Secret War. The Secret War happened later during the Vietnam War when the Hmong people allied with the United States CIA. In 1961 newly elected President John F. Kennedy authorized the CIA to recruit ethnic minority groups in Laos to prevent the spread of communism. Hmong men and young boys were all recruited into the U.S. CIA military. Some of these boys were as young as 10 years old. The U.S. CIA trained many Hmong men and boys to use guns and other military weapons. The U.S. also funded new schools which opened opportunities for women and young girls. In these schools, women and young girls were trained to be nurses or medics, and they cared for injured soldiers. As the war continued, more and more Hmong men; fathers, sons, and husbands gradually never returned back to their families. The majority of these men died during the war. After the fall of Saigon, Vietnam in 1975, the U.S. then withdrew its troops back into America. The Americans left the Hmong people behind to be persecuted by the Pathet Lao North Vietnamese troops and communist soldiers. The Hmong genocide then began. Many Hmong lives were in jeopardy, therefore fighting against the Pathet Lao troops and communist soldiers with little weapons was the only chance of survival. As a result, many Hmong people died or fled to Thailand in hopes of seeking refugee. The Thailand officials were able to create temporary refugee camps for the Hmong people and Buddhist temples hosted Hmong refugees as well. However, Thailand officials also did not want to be responsible for the Hmong people and insisted on sending them back to Laos, where they would most likely be killed.

After the war, many Hmong people were deported back to Laos, some were able to come to the United States, and others fled to other countries. Of the Hmong population that was able to resettle in America, most of them were funded by Christian churches. The government had little part in this situation. Most of the Hmong people resettled in California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other places. As for the Hmong people that returned to Laos, many were able to resettle but are still discriminated against. Although, there is still some resentment towards the Secret War with many unexpressed emotions and many untold stories, the Hmong people generally are glad just to be able to reconnect back with families and other Hmong communities.

The Hmong ask the UN to stop their extermination

 

Hmong searching for a home

 

Reference: Minnesota Historical Society: Hmong Timeline