Mai Trang Nguyen pictured third from the right
My mother, Mai Trang Nguyen, left Vietnam in 1983. Vietnam became communist during the fall of Saigon in April 1975. Because my grandfather worked as a police major in the army of the Vietnamese republic (the government that the communists took over), he was sent to re-education camp for eight years in North Vietnam and the family was persecuted. My grandparents arranged the family’s escape because of the political persecution they faced. In Vietnam, the required score for college entry exams was 80% lower for students from communist families than it would have been for my mother and her siblings.
To get out of Vietnam, my grandmother paid some acquaintances of hers to build a boat and sail to Malaysia. My mother was 14 and left with her younger sister. They brought just plastic bags with changes of clothes and 10 US dollars with them. Their rough voyage calls to mind that of Odysseus – they were initially chased by Vietnamese coast guard, then were boarded by fishermen in the bay of Thailand who robbed passengers of their jewelry and gold. Finally, they made it to Malaysia, where they stayed in a refugee camp. While accommodations at the camp were slim, they were much freer than they were in Vietnam – in Malaysia they could see the flag of their republic raised high. During their stay, they met with immigration officers. During that time, Vietnamese refugees went all around the world – to France, Belgium, Australia, and West Germany, just to name a few places. My mother’s family chose to go to Massachusetts, US because of the good educational opportunities there. Between Malaysia and the US, they went to the Philippines to learn English and vocational study.
They were shocked when they arrived in the US. My mother said she imagined America as sparkling and clean – Chelsea, “the armpit of Massachusetts”, couldn’t have been more different. My grandfather had a law degree in Vietnam, but he went to community college in Massachusetts and ending up working in air conditioning. My grandmother started out cleaning houses (which she didn’t tell her children about until years later) and ended up with a payroll company. Now, my mother lives in North Carolina with me. Her parents still live in Massachusetts, but in Stoneham, a huge step up from Chelsea. My mother’s brother moved back to Vietnam seven years ago, her other siblings live in the US.
