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There’s the past.
In one photo, Vue, who is executive director of the La Crosse Area Hmong Mutual Assistance Association, stands on a gravel road. Somewhere in the field behind him, his mother’s bones might lay. He doesn’t know.
After carrying his mother on his back from Laos to Thailand in 1978, she died from malnutrition in a refugee camp. Vue and his family came to the United States in 1979, and on his first visit back to the piece of Earth where they lived almost 30 years ago, Vue found little he knew.
“1978 is no longer there,” he said. “I was telling my children, ‘Your grandmother died in the refugee camp in Nong Khai so maybe you can visit and see her grave.’ But now I can no longer tell them. There is no grave.”
There’s the present, too. In his La Crosse office, Vue smiles as he shows photographs of him, his wife and two other Wisconsin Hmong couples who spent half of December driving through Thailand.
There are photos with Hmong villagers who invited them into their homes for the Hmong New Year’s celebration; of a Hmong college student next to her motorcycle. In one photo, standing on a mountain with thick fog behind them, Vue and his wife pretend to fly.
There also are the photos Vue didn’t take. These would have shown about 8,000 Hmong refugees in Thailand who live on about two miles of road between two guarded gates.
The travelers talked to these refugees. They heard stories about hiding and fighting in the jungles of Laos, as they had done 30 years earlier. Vue is frustrated that neither Thailand, Laos nor the United Nations will screen the people and determine who are political refugees.
“We, the Hmong people who have come and lived in the United States, I think we have been blessed with the opportunity,” Vue said. “We cannot forget the refugee. We’ve got to bring the refugee to a safe haven.”
Authorities at the gates wouldn’t let Vue take photos.
After Vue closed the album — which held just some of the 4,000 photos he took — he spoke about the future.
During his 24-day trip, the Hmong Community and Cultural Center being built at Ward Avenue and Mormon Coulee Road was on his mind every day, he said.
They still need to raise about $800,000 to $900,000 on the $2.9 million project. Interior work has begun on the building and is slated to be completed in April. Vue said it’s like watching a baby grow.
“It’s not just a place, but a place you can call a Hmong cultural center,” Vue said. “Hmong, white, African Americans, Hispanic, you name it, anybody can go and use and learn. It can become a cultural diversity place for everyone.”
About 4,000 Hmong live in the Coulee Region. The first family came in 1976, Vue said.
Joe Orso can be reached at (608) 791-8429 or jorso@lacrossetribune.com.
