| Phinne comes from the
village of Soc Trang located in (south) Vietnam below the Mekong Delta.
Many of the villagers there are Cambodian, as her mother was. Her
father was an American GI in the Vietnam war and Phinne moved herself and
ten of her family members to Burlington in 1990. She proudly became
an American citizen in 1997.
Melissa comes from Buon
Me Thout also in (south) Vietnam north of Ho Chi Minh City. Her mother
is Vietnamese and her father was an African American GI. Melissa
moved to Burlington in 1992 with her mom and sister. She and her
mom became citizens in 1998. Two of her brothers arrived in Winooski this
May.
Tuan is from Hai Phong
near Hanoi in (north) Vietnam. He crossed the Gulf of Tonkin (see
our map) trying to come to the United States for freedom in 1991 and got
as far as Hong Kong where he was arrested by the coast guard. He
lived there in an international refugee camp for four years and then was
finally sent back to Vietnam. He finally arrived here in 1998. |
MAP
of VIETNAM