Minnesota is built by immigrants who’ve enriched the state with diversity and innovation. One of these groups is HMong community.
Minnesota is home to the largest HMong population in the country and it began almost 50 years ago, when the Vietnam war led to the fall of Sajgon.
Just a few months after autumn, Leng Wong escaped from Laos’s house a couple of months after he served as a military officer in Lao armed forces during Secret warsecret operation where The CIA recruited and trained 1000’s of men from HMong fight on behalf of the USA
“I flew missions in various parts of Laos, and I flew in an American military agent, I explain for them, talked to soldiers on earth and gave them to American soldiers,” said Wong. “I traveled so that they could transfer it back to the base or headquarters and call support.”
Wong served for 10 years until the bitter end was inevitable. He knew he would remain not secure for him.
“They called us traitors, so they don’t like us,” he said. “It was so chaotic that we didn’t really have time to think about it except how to survive.”
He and his family escaped on one of the C-130 freight aircraft, which the Americans sent to assist evacuate refugees.
“Just clothes on the back. We really couldn’t bring anything with us,” he said.
They flew to Thailand, where they might stay for the next nine months. Then got here the news about the sponsoler.
(*50*) Leng wong/wcco
“There was a lot of uncertainty, what I would deal with in a new land,” said Wong.
He got here to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, in bitter cold, February 7, 1976.
“I had a problem with catching my breath because it was so cold and we are not used to this kind of cold in our hometown,” he said.
Frigid and foreign, Wong often met with a chilly arm. He says that his biggest barriers at the starting were language and culture.
“Initially, we also had a reluctance to reluctant to community, thinking that we were taking services here,” he said.
Despite this, Wong still felt the must help others like him. He tried to enhance the lives of other Hmong individuals who followed his footsteps.
“I was able to communicate and translate for people, so I was busy day and night,” he said. “We were in the hospital, clinic, at the airport.”
Wong spent years working for programs for refugees with Lutheran social services and the state, helping people discover a job and cooperate with employers to create these jobs.
He was also in favor of changes in politics to support refugees, and all this while traveling around Minnesota, and ultimately around the country to interrupt down barriers and educate others about the Hmong people.
Nowadays, Wong is the owner of several industrial buildings in twin cities, and likewise has monuments in constructing cheaper apartments for all families in Minnesota.
“I do not think that I will ever retire. I think I will continue to talk to our community and work and contribute to our community, as well as throughout the community,” he said.
Wong is a humble servant, without end grateful for the recent land and her individuals who accepted him.
“Minnesota was good for me. It’s always cold, but people in Minnesota are warm hearts,” he said. “We know that we belong there, but we still have a part of the heart on the other side of the world, about which we know that we are also there.”
Pauleen Le
