© 2015 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. On this last day of October every
year I like to tell the same story. It is about perception and cultural
diversity. The story was told to me by a friend named John who was an
Immigration Intake Counselor for the Vietnamese Boat People in Long Beach, California
in the 1970s.
These refugees came to America from
South Vietnam before the war ended in April of 1975 and afterwards. Many refugees
fled knowing that if the North Vietnamese caught them it would be death. After
the country was reunited and was just Vietnam there still was quite a flow of Vietnamese
who came to America.
My friend John spoke their language
well because he served two tours of duty in South Vietnam in an organization,
the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam referred to as MACV. Rather than being
in an American unit, his job was to live in small villages and help the South
Vietnam soldiers of those areas.
From two years of living among the
villagers his speech, accent and understanding of their culture was excellent.
At the intake center in Long Beach his job was to walk around helping the
people coming through the center with what they needed to do.
For these people who had until then
lived their whole life in Vietnam, it was their very first day in America. Almost
all of the people did not speak English. John tried to show them that America was
a good place and the immigrants were safer in America than they had been in
their homeland.
John liked to sit in his office next
to the main walkway. He would listen to the people as they walked by chatter
excitedly about how wonderful it was to be in America. He heard many times how
the people were glad and grateful they made it safely to America.
The first thing each morning John
would work on daily reports and paperwork to the music of these people walking
by talking happily about being in America. That was except for one day. John
was busy working on paperwork when he became aware that the people outside his
office were agitated. And they were not happy.
He looked up from his desk and saw their
frightened unhappy faces walking by as they talked excitedly. This was very
unusual and out of character for the refugees.
John stepped quickly to the door and
tried to catch their conversation. To his surprise he heard some say they were
going to kill the headmaster for talking them into coming to this terrible and
evil land. Several said the Communists were right about how awful it was in
America.
John was in shock. He had never
heard anything like this before from the people and could not spot the problem.
Another group was saying the same things. Frantically John made his way through
the crowd. The normally happy people were sullen and pulled back from him.
He tried to speak to several groups
of people, but they did not reply and moved away. What a mystery since usually
they were so very glad to find an American who spoke their language.
On his way to the office to report
this amazing change of behavior his American perception came into focus with
his time in Vietnam. While he had not participated in a quaint American
tradition, he suddenly noticed the center's staff had decorated the center for
Halloween. He remembered that the Vietnamese do not celebrate Halloween.
Many Americans in the center were
dressed in costume. The Vietnam people's first view of a real American that day
turned out to be a woman dressed to the hilt as an evil witch with purple skin
and green hair.
It was touch and go the next hour as
John and other counselors explained to the immigrants that this was merely a
charming and quaint American tradition. At last everyone settled down and the
happy chatter returned somewhat, though he heard several groups comment that
Americans seemed to be good people but sometimes did crazy things.
The Vietnamese immigrants have quite
a story to tell about the very first day they spent in America since they
happened to arrive on Halloween.
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