Hmongs California

Stooped over her vegetable patch, face tucked against the wet wind, the old woman spares no glance for the low-flying B-52. She has lived with the roar of American bombers a long time, in the Laos highlands and now in San Joaquin Valley almond country. Her patch of bok choy and onions grows on the edge of Merced, under the flight path of Castle Air Force Base. The long skirt, head scarf and shawl identify her as one of the peasants who is changing cowboy land .

On the face of it, Susie Vang and her husband, Michael, seemed to have found their piece of the American dream. High school sweethearts, they were raising four children in a quiet neighborhood in the northeast part of the city. They enjoyed a middle-class life: soccer and Nintendo for the children, family trips to Magic Mountain, a personal computer in the family room.

For more than a century, the pioneer families of this Sierra logging town have buried their dead in a dirt, oak-studded field at the edge of Burrough Mountain. The Yanceys. The Greens. The Bretzes. The Deans. Tom Dean's great-grandmother is here. So are his grandfather, father, mother and wife, Mary Francis. The double headstone that marks her grave will one day mark his, too.

For the first time since they began migrating here from Southeast Asia nearly two decades ago, Hmong refugees are leaving California in significant numbers, citing fear of gangs and impending welfare changes. An estimated 60,000 Hmong, the highest concentration in the nation, settled in the San Joaquin Valley. Located mostly in Fresno, Merced and Tulare, they have the highest welfare dependency rate--about 70%--of any immigrant group.

On the face of it, Susie Vang and her husband, Michael, seemed to have found their piece of the American dream. High school sweethearts, they were raising four children in a quiet neighborhood in the northeast part of the city. They enjoyed a middle-class life: soccer and Nintendo for the children, family trips to Magic Mountain, a personal computer in the family room.

For the first time since they began migrating here from Southeast Asia nearly two decades ago, Hmong refugees are leaving California in significant numbers, citing fear of gangs and impending welfare changes. An estimated 60,000 Hmong, the highest concentration in the nation, settled in the San Joaquin Valley. Located mostly in Fresno, Merced and Tulare, they have the highest welfare dependency rate--about 70%--of any immigrant group.

For more than a century, the pioneer families of this Sierra logging town have buried their dead in a dirt, oak-studded field at the edge of Burrough Mountain. The Yanceys. The Greens. The Bretzes. The Deans. Tom Dean's great-grandmother is here. So are his grandfather, father, mother and wife, Mary Francis. The double headstone that marks her grave will one day mark his, too.

Stooped over her vegetable patch, face tucked against the wet wind, the old woman spares no glance for the low-flying B-52. She has lived with the roar of American bombers a long time, in the Laos highlands and now in San Joaquin Valley almond country. Her patch of bok choy and onions grows on the edge of Merced, under the flight path of Castle Air Force Base. The long skirt, head scarf and shawl identify her as one of the peasants who is changing cowboy land .