Hmong progress greatly in 25 years

APPLETON - Like any proud mother and grandmother, My Thao Vue Ly of Appleton likes to show off photos of her six children and three grandchildren.

While her husband Seng Ly checks out a customer in their grocery store, she talks about her oldest daughter who has a doctorate in chemistry, her second daughter who works in the Minnesota Attorney General's office and her third daughter, a stockbroker in Green Bay. One son and his wife work for the Milwaukee school system. Her youngest chose to stay in Appleton after earning his degree in psychology.

She said their children had achieved what all parents want for their families: "They are good citizens and have good educations."

The stories her photos tell are a stark contrast to what the life was like before May 23, 1976. That was the date the Green Bay Diocese's Department of Resettlement and Immigration Services brought them to Combined Locks.

They were the fourth or fifth Hmong family to arrive in the diocese, said Barbara Biebel, department director. St. Paul Parish in Combined Locks co-sponsored the Ly family with the diocese.

The first Hmong family under the resettlement program arrived in Green Bay on March 17, 1976. St. Bernard Parish was their co-sponsor.

The Diocese is commemorating the 25th anniversary of those first arrivals. Biebel estimates that in the last 25 years, the diocese has resettled around 1,000 Hmong families. Although the Hmong resettlement program officially ended in 1997, the Diocese resettled two families last year.

Hmong tribesmen made up the "secret army" that worked with the CIA and the US Army during the Vietnam War, Biebel said. When the war ended, they feared that the communist Vietnamese and Pathet Lao, communist Laotians, would persecute them.

Ly said that he served with the Army. A bullet hit him in the head. It remains there and has affected his ability to think and the use of his hands.

His wife remembers their family "being scared, moving from city to city," and being scared "no matter what, day and night. (You) don't know the next day where you will be."

They spent nine months in Thailand refugee camps before coming to the United States with their five children.

Biebel recalled that they lived in the St. Paul rectory before an apartment was found for them. Later they moved to the house where they still live in on south Washington Street in Kimberly.

Seng's first job was cutting grass. Then he worked at Valley Packaging in Appleton. Both he and My Thao enrolled in English as Second language classes at Fox Valley Technical College. My Thao said her husband had higher level English than she. "I (was) just learning how to write my name."

He took classes in the morning and evening and worked in the afternoon.

Other students in My Thao's class asked her to translate for them. "I'm not quite shy... I always kind of speak for them," she said. Later FVTC hired her as a part-time translator.

Learning English was the greatest frustration they faced, My Thao continued. "You don't know what they mean. They don't know what you mean. When you want it, you don't know how to ask. You get sick; you don't know what to tell the doctor."

St. Paul parishioners tutored Seng and My Thao, helped them with driver's education and prepared them for their citizenship tests. They babysat while the Lys were in school and took them shopping and to the doctor.

Among the milestones the Lys passed in their 25 years in Appleton are:

-- The birth of their son Paul in 1977. Biebel believed he is named for the parish.

-- The opening of their business, Valley American Asian Foods, in 1982 on Locust Street in Appleton. In 1988, it moved to 930 W. Elsie Street. It is the neighborhood store, serving Hmong and American families, the couple said.

-- In 1984, they became U.S. citizens.

Besides her children's achievements, My Thao has a couple of her own. Now an outreach worker for Touchpoint Health Plan, she received the Unity in Diversity businesswoman's award three years ago.

Biebel said the Hmong have made "a quantum leap" in the last 25 years. They arrived from a lifestyle that resembled Biblical times. The average man had a third grade education; that had been gained piecemeal.

Now her coworkers bring her lists of Hmong across the country who have graduated from college each year, earned master's degrees and doctorates, who have become physicians and lawyers.

"I'm impressed with the resiliency of the Hmong.... They wanted a better lifestyle and economic footing for their children. They were really in a hurry," Biebel said.

While becoming part of American culture, they retained strong points of their own, namely, respect for their elders and families, she added. "I was blessed" to have been part of their resettlement program.