Pao Fang talks matter-of-factly about leaving Laos for a military camp in Thailand circa 1975, when the Laotian Civil War ended. Anti-communists — many of them Hmongs trained by the CIA to fight North Vietnamese troops in a “secret war” outside Vietnam’s borders — faced retribution from Laos’ new rulers.
Fang’s brother was a captain in the U.S.-backed guerrilla army, and he sent Fang to study in Vientiane in the hope that the youngster would not be drafted. Eventually, Fang fled to Thailand along with thousands of other Hmongs, then on to Orange County and Fresno.
“My mom, my older brother, more than 20 members of my family were killed on the way,” he said of the journey across the Laotian-Thai border that led to his freedom. “The Vietnamese attacked us along the way.”
Despite such dramatic journeys, resettled Hmongs returned to everyday life and found livelihoods in the U.S. Fresno County, along with St. Paul, Minn, is home to the greatest Hmong refugee concentration in the United States.
Yet many Hmongs, a “hill people” unassimilated in greater Southeast Asia and in the Asian American community, retain their Old World notions of health and healing. That means a reliance more on herbal remedies and shamanism than embracing basic Western medical care.
The lack of health awareness in the immigrant community coincides with a higher than normal incidence of hepatitis B, a disease that can lead to liver cirrhosis and cancer. Among Hmongs, most cases are a result of mother-to-infant infection. The disease also can be transferred through unsafe sex, needle drug use and blood transfusions.
Addendum:
More good news, California Watch picked up my story Oct. 19 for the health and welfare section of their Daily Report. Read the identical version, if that floats your boat, here.
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