Vietnamese Americans

What are some of the signs that an immigrant community has successfully blended into mainstream society? Off the top of my head: * Its children have done well in the public school system. * Workers have found meaningful jobs across the occupational spectrum. * People have begun taking part in the political system and run for public office. * The "majority" in society has come to consider the immigrants as part of the overall community fabric.

Statewide, the work of the Citizens Redistricting Commission has sent politicians into a flurry. Some find themselves in the same district as a colleague and many others face the difficult prospect of running in unfamiliar turf. But this isn't the case in central Orange County. According to congressional district maps released Friday, Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez can rest relatively easy. Her new district encompasses most of Santa Ana, parts of Garden Grove, Anaheim, Westminster and Fullerton.

Re "A Reviled Figure Resurfaces to Oppose Unwelcome Mat for Vietnam Officials," May 19: I am a Navy veteran who served aboard an aircraft carrier during the Korean and Vietnam wars. What's with all these Vietnamese demonstrations in Garden Grove and Westminster to "discourage" visits by Communist Party leaders from Vietnam? That war was more than a generation ago. Vietnamese Americans are living freely, comfortably and have attained their slice of the American dream. They now drive cars instead of pedaling bicycles.

It was an about-face that outraged a generation displaced by war. Nguyen Cao Ky, the former South Vietnam leader known for ruthlessly defending democracy, was suddenly, at 73, rubbing shoulders with communist officials - something that seemed unthinkable to those who had fled the country during the painful days after the Vietnam War. Vietnamese Americans who had rallied around him felt betrayed, and Ky's once-revered stature in the small...

(Your) Page 1 story last Sunday (Feb. 6) reporting about what was called "the exile community's first collective show of opposition to the end of the trade embargo," regrettably focused exclusively on the protest leaders and the participants to the demonstration--where "a parade of speakers assailed (President) Clinton as a traitor"--without getting the views of others in the community, or at least of the bystanders, and there were many on that busy Tet shopping weekend. The fact is, in lifting the trade embargo against Vietnam, Clinton also announced the establishment of an office in Hanoi to pursue a dialogue with the Vietnamese government on the issue of human rights in Vietnam, a decision which is hailed by many Vietnamese Americans as a decisive step forward in the struggle for human rights and democracy in Vietnam.

A walkathon to benefit flood victims raised almost $100,000 Sunday from 3,000 Vietnamese Americans who marched in support of family members and others left devastated by Vietnam's worst flooding in almost 50 years. The daylong event, held under blue skies at Mile Square Park, was one of three fund-raisers organized Sunday by the Vietnamese expatriate community in the United States. Walks also were held in San Jose and Houston.

Pamela Pham remembers the merciless teasing. The way her new American classmates ridiculed her for pointing to things with her middle finger, a custom back home. * "The kids would laugh and laugh and laugh and turned that into a joke," Pham said. "They made me a joke." Journey Pham (no relation) remembers a family member's brush with death. The way somebody tried to shoot his brother, yelling, "You don't belong here," Pham recalled.

Being called a communist sympathizer is enough to ruin a reputation in Little Saigon. In this staunchly anti-communist Vietnamese enclave in central Orange County, where the flag of fallen South Vietnam continues to wave, business owners, politicians and even pop singers know the label can spark street protests and damaging reports in the Vietnamese press. And in the past, those targeted have generally endured the attacks, knowing it would be futile to counter the accusations.

These days, Mai Ngoc Vuong and thousands of other Vietnamese Americans are besieged by a sense of helplessness. Her younger brother, Vuong Kim Lan, is among 31,000 Vietnamese "boat people" who since 1988 have been living in refugee camps in Southeast Asia, seeking political asylum and resettlement in other countries. Their hope--boundless years ago when they set out to sea on flimsy boats to escape the Communist regime of Vietnam--is about to run dry.

Six prominent Vietnamese Americans from Orange and Los Angeles counties were given lifetime achievement awards here Sunday for creative work they began at least two decades ago in Vietnam and pursue today in their adopted homeland. A writer, journalist, sculptor, actress and two musicians received the awards from the Committee of Vietnamese Overseas Artists, a nonprofit group headquartered in Little Saigon. Organizers hope the awards will become an annual event.

In 1981, the shooting of 27-year-old Vietnamese American journalist Lam Duong, who was killed in broad daylight, steps away from his apartment, stunned the politically minded enclave of Vietnamese refugees in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. Thirty years later, Duong's story inspired a Bay Area youth organizer to launch a career as a filmmaker. "In a lot of the initial reporting, I didn't get a full picture of who [Duong] was," said Tony Nguyen, director of the documentary "Enforcing the Silence," which premieres at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Saturday, the 36th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. "For me, that's part of the 'silence' the title of the movie refers to. " The film uses Duong's life and death to addresses the clash between free speech and accepted socio-political beliefs held within the Vietnamese refugee community.

First Vietnamese American Bank in Orange County was shut down by regulators Friday night, five years after opening as the first U.S. bank with a core clientele of Vietnamese immigrants. The seizure in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Westminster brought the number of failed banks nationwide this year to 143, surpassing the 140 recorded last year and marking the most since the recession year of 1992, when the savings and loan debacle was winding down. The 2010 total includes three other banks that went under Friday: Western Commercial Bank, a small-business lender in Woodland Hills, and community banks in Tacoma, Wash.

Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez found herself in hot water this week after she said in a Spanish-language interview that "the Vietnamese" and Republicans were trying to take control of her seat. Sanchez, who is up for reelection, was put on the defensive after her main opponent, Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove), a Vietnamese American, jumped on the issue and called her statements "offensive" and "divisive. " The tiff highlights the political dichotomy of central Orange County, where two big voting blocs are Latinos and Vietnamese.

Dancers spin across a stage in flowing silk tunics under a bridge evoking Vietnam's imperial city. Quang Le, a popular young Vietnamese singer, serenades the audience with a song about falling in love. Suddenly, there's an explosion and the bridge collapses. A crying baby is heard as the dancers fall to the floor. Quang Le slowly rises, tears streaming down his face as he sings a new song, this one about the loss of innocence. The camera cuts to a montage of teary-eyed Vietnamese in the 3,000-member audience.

A feud between an Orange County supervisor and a Vietnamese community group over which should organize an event commemorating the fall of Saigon was settled this week when the Westminster City Council decided to let each hold their own ceremony Supervisor Janet Nguyen will be permitted to stage an event at Westminster's Freedom Park from morning to afternoon. The Vietnamese American Community of Southern California will get the park during evening hours. Members of the Vietnamese American Community of Southern California cheered after council members voted in a special hearing Wednesday to modify the supervisor's permit.

For more than a decade, a community group in Little Saigon has led the commemoration of the fall of Saigon, a day of reflection and unity in a place better known for its divisive politics and loud street protests. But this year, even the event marking the fall of South Vietnam to communist forces has given way to in-fighting. Members of the Vietnamese American Community of Southern California, which usually organizes the event, say the event has been stolen by an Orange County supervisor.

Month after month, the terror returned whenever Ann Phong looked at the ocean. During four unspeakable days at sea, death felt as close as the waves that ceaselessly licked the sides of the boat. Painting, however, has helped Phong confront the memories of her flight from Vietnam a dozen years ago. By giving form and color to her fear and pain with roiling, vivid tableaux, she has found release. "The more I hide it," she says, "the more it hurts me."

Hundreds of Vietnamese Americans demonstrated Saturday outside a provocative art exhibit in Santa Ana that had featured Communist symbols that protesters claimed mocked their painful experiences as political refugees. The protest -- joined by people bused in from as far away as San Jose -- came the day after one of the works was defaced with red paint and the owners of the building ordered the exhibit closed, saying the organizers lacked the proper business license.

Customers crowded into the Tan Hoang Huong bakery in Santa Ana several days before the lunar new year. Gifts of candies and dried fruit wrapped in red cellophane lined the walls. And the sweet fragrance of banh chung , rice cakes wrapped in banana leaves and stuffed with mung beans and pork belly, filled the air. Ailinh Nguyen had already picked up nine banh chung that she planned to give to her parents and friends, but realized she wanted one more for herself in time for Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year.