Nguyễn Huong Loan video oral history interview

This recording and transcript form part of a collection of oral history interviews conducted by the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation and donated to the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University. This collection includes video recordings of interviews with Vietnamese Americans native to or living in Texas. This interview forms part of the national 500 Oral Histories Project conducted by the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation.Nguyen Huong Loan was born in Saigon on 12 November 1958. She is Buddhist. She arrived in the United States in October 1980. She is the only girl out of six children. She was a student in Vietnam and now works as a manager in the United States. Nguyen Huong Loan attended French school until her graduation year, during which the Communists took over, forcing her to graduate from a Vietnamese school. Her father worked on the railroads while her mother stayed at home to raise the children. She specifically recalls festivities during which they celebrated their ancestors. Nguyen Huong Loan talks about her brother’s death and its impact on the family. She escaped by a fishing boat in 1978 at the age of 21. There were 28 people on the boat. A German rig encountered them after a thunderstorm and turned them over to Malaysian authorities who ultimately took them to a refugee camp. She stayed there for 8 months until coming to the United States