Maplewood, Minnesota | Hmong | She/Her/Hers

I am 12-years-old right now. My real name is Madelyn Yang, but a lot of people call me Maddy. I really love dancing and I can’t stop dancing. I’ve been dancing since I was little. One of my favorite memories was dancing at the Walker Art Center when I was nine years old. I made a lot of friends from this experience.

It started when I was asked by my dance teacher, Ms. Will, to perform with her group “I am from.” After learning the choreography and with lots of practice, I was ready to perform. There was 11 other dancers. We performed to a song about Black Lives Matter. The Walker Art Center liked our performance so we were invited to perform at one of their Choreographers’ evening events (at the McGuire Theater). Ms. Will had us practice as a group, added a few new dance moves, and then we performed in front of our friends, family, and strangers! I was so excited!

On the day of our performance at the Walker Art Center, it felt like I waited a very long time to get on stage. Maybe it was because I was too excited. My friends and I passed the time by sliding down a slide. The adults eventually told us to stop sliding, but then it was time to perform!

It was very fun performing! Everyone cheered and clapped. We even performed twice! After the show, our group was asked to sign our names on the theater’s wall. Now our names are at the Walker Art Center forever!

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Saint Paul, Minnesota | Hmong | He/Him/His

I was born in Thailand and came to the United States when I was 3-months-old. We lived in Frogtown at first – well, near Frogtown – in the housing projects. Many of my uncles and cousins were in gangs, but I didn’t get involved because dancing became an outlet for me. I was lucky that I found something that I was passionate about.

Almost three years ago, I went to Thailand with the project Street Stops and Mountain Tops – with Tou Saiko, Mai Yang, Keng, Dao, and Leedra. Our goal was to go teach hip hop, music, and the arts in Thailand. We wanted to teach at in an orphanage called Piyawat in Chiang Mai then go to Hmong villages to do workshops.

We went to Piyawat and introduced ourselves and put on a quick showcase of our talents. All the kids were very shy at first, but when we asked, “Who wants to do breakdancing with Lue?” A couple of hands raised.

With about 30 kids in the room we decided to just turn on the music. Then at least 10 more hands went up. The next day, 15 kids came to the class. I think they were shy but it didn’t mean they didn’t want to learn so we taught them.

I also had some connections to some Thailand Bboys so they voluntarily came to help teach the kids, too. Though we are all Hmong, I’m not the best at speaking Hmong and they weren’t the best at speaking Hmong either.hey are better with Thai – so we had some language barriers. But they came and taught. I was inspired because they came voluntarily and the kids had the opportunity to meet and see actual Thai dancers. The kids really loved it. We eventually went to the Hmong village where the orphans were originally from. We didn’t teach there, instead we listened.

We heard the stories of the kids and their families. In one case,their parents both remarried, and didn’t want to have to take care of him anymore so they gave him to their grandmother. The grandma was elderly and could barely take care of herself. So, she asked the orphanage to take him and they did. It was sad to see their living conditions. The grandma was loving and offered us food even though she didn’t have much. I’m a lot like her because that’s how I am too. I always give no matter how broke, sad, or low I am. I’m always a giver no matter what. It made me think: no matter where you are, you should always give instead of take. Some people take too much and don’t give. It was just great to go back to the homeland and see the living conditions where I was born. I eventually want to go back.

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Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota | Chinese | She/Her/Hers

With a few hundred dollars and a big dream for their children, my parents immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong when I was 5-years-old. My aunt was a student at the University of Minnesota, so between her and a local church, they sponsored my family, and we began our new life in pursuit of the American Dream.

My parents were extremely hard workers. For a while, they worked multiple jobs and received public assistance in order to make ends meet. Because I didn’t speak English I remember entering kindergarten completely confused. Fortunately, at age five, I spent close to a year in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes in the Minneapolis Public School system but picked up the language quickly. In the years following, we slowly climbed the economic ladder. My parents both worked assembly jobs, and with my father’s strong technical skills, he was able to gain more opportunities even with his limited language skills and lack of education credentials.

By the time I was in eighth grade, we were able to build a home and move to the suburb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota. I remember the great effort my mom undertook to help us integrate. I brought friends over and she would insist on making dishes like spaghetti even though that’s not what we normally ate. My parents would eat spaghetti with chopsticks.

As a middle schooler, fitting was hard and there weren’t many other Asians at school. I noticed that the only other Asians at school were Korean kids adopted by White families. We were the same, but also very different.

My parents were completely dedicated to giving us a better life. They sacrificed everything for my sister and I.They often did little for themselves. They made sure we participated in sports, worked hard in school, and encouraged us to achieve as much as we possibility could. We both went on to obtain graduate degrees. My sister has a degree in occupational therapy, and I have a Masters in Public Administration from Syracuse University. I was a Woodrow Wilson fellow. That immigrant experience seems so distant to me now.

Today, I work in the economic development field where I help businesses grow and be drivers of economic vitality in communities. But, what good is economic prosperity and growth if it isn’t accessible by all groups within our society? I have come to realize that I have an opportunity and obligation to use my leadership role to ensure that all people have access to the same American dream. That dream that my parents believed in so strongly that it led them to trade their life for mine in many ways. I believe economic prosperity and growth can be accessible by all groups within our society.

Being in this field of work sometimes feels like eighth grade again when I was the only Asian kid in the room. I need to be confident in my role and abilities, and start fighting back against my hesitations, fears, and anxiety. I cannot be afraid of the unknown, possible failures, and setbacks. In order to fight back these insecurities, I have to dig deep emotionally. I try to imagine what it must have been like for my parents when they landed at the MSP airport. I can never thank them enough, but I am able to work as hard as they did to magnify others. I do this to demonstrate to them that their sacrifices were not only a dream come true for their daughters, but for all the people I impact too.

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Shakopee, Minnesota | Burmese | She/Her/Hers

I was born in Burma (now Myanmar), in Southeast Asia. I lived there until I was 6-years-old. Then my immediate family – which includes me, my older sister, and my parents – moved to England where we lived until I was ten.

England has been one of my favorite places I’ve lived. In England it felt like my parents were so chill. I remember playing outside a lot. I’d be gone for hours playing with the neighbor kids, climbing trees, racing down hills, and exploring the woods. We lived on the hospital compound in Basingstoke because my dad was working at the hospital there. It seemed huge as a kid. In England I fell in love with soccer, biking and being outdoors.

We moved to the States when I was ten. We first lived in New York before coming to Minnesota. After some time in Minnesota, my parents moved to California. They have been staying warm since 2008 while I’ve remained here.

I don’t see my family as often as I’d like, especially my mom. Every time I visit, we end up visiting at least one monastery together. Though my entire family is Buddhist, I was never drawn to organized religion. But, as I have gotten older, I have come to realize how much Buddhism is a part of my identity, culture, and family. Learning more about Buddhism makes me feel closer to my family back in Burma, whom I’ve not seen since we left. We are a world apart but are connected through Buddhism. I’ve learned to appreciate the Buddhist philosophy and values.

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Saint Paul, Minnesota | Cambodian | She/Her/Hers

I was in my second year of college and he was a faculty member twelve years my senior. His coworker told him that the they had recently hired a new Thai lady. At the time, he was single so his coworker encouraged him to go meet the new Thai lady. When I entered the cafeteria, he asked me if I was Thai.

I said, “No, I’m Cambodian.”

He was born in Cambodia, but he’s ethnically Chinese so he didn’t speak any Cambodian. He spoke broken Cambodian and I made fun of him.

My family is very traditional; meaning that I never talked to boys or went on dates because that was not okay. After I met him, I tried to ignore him, but I saw him everywhere on campus. Whenever we ran into each other, I greeted him but then I’d avoid those locations, fearing I’d run into him again. I even went so far as to stay in my dorm room to avoid seeing him. I told myself I couldn’t talk to this guy because if my parents knew, they would lose their reputation in our community.

After a few months of avoiding him, I walked out of my dorm room and there he was, standing in the lobby. He asked me if I’d like to hangout with a group of mutual friends. I didn’t know what to do other than question, “Why would you want to go out with me?”

I agreed to go, but I was so nervous I canceled at the last moment. He had our friends ask me, so I went. I never went out with him alone. We were always with a big group when we did go out.

I explained my parents to him, and told him to ask my parents for permission if he wanted us to go out alone. He had his parents come to talk to my parents. We went out exactly three times before we got married.

When he asked my parents for their approval to marry me, they looked at both of our ages and zodiac signs and found that we were a match. My father even had a dream that my grandma told him that it was okay to let us marry.

Our cultures collided when it came to marriage. In the Cambodian culture, the husband is expected to pay for the wedding and to join his wife’s family so he can care for them. In the Chinese culture, I was expected to become a part of his family. In the end I said, “We are Cambodian.” He agreed.

I prayed so hard to Buddha while we were engaged, because I didn’t know him well. I prayed for him to be the right person. Now we’ve been married for 23 years and have three beautiful children. In those 23 years, he learned Cambodian but I still don’t speak any Chinese.

Now I don’t want my children to be like me. I’m lucky I found the right husband, but I want my daughter to know her future husband before she gets married. She should love him before she marries.

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Emeryville, California | Hmong | She/Her/Hers

I met Pete Kane on Tinder in February 2015. We frequently hung out. Eventually he introduced me to Nick Powley, whom he met at the Hackers and Founders group on Meetup. I needed a place to stay and Nick had an open room. I lived with him and Simon, another roommate. A few months later, I was laid off. I collected a few personal items from my work desk and headed out of the office. I was told I could work for the remainder of the week if I wanted to say my goodbyes, but my heart was heavy and I couldn’t get out of bed.

Pete had been looking on Craigslist and saw retired yet functional Metro Transit buses being sold for $3,500. Pete asked, “Will you go in half of the cost of the bus? Since you don’t have a job anymore, we can take it on the road.” Having just received my severance check I said, “Okay.”

We drove to St. Cloud with a couple of friends and made a swift decision to purchase it. The gas tank was filled with about 150 gallons of diesel, and burned at 4 miles per gallon. I couldn’t wait to gut the 1999 Gillig bus and convert it to an RV.

We borrowed tools from my roommate Nick to dismantle all the seats. Almost half of the metal framed seats were rusted on the bottom. We laid the metal framed seats, seat cushions, and metal bar handles on the front lawn of Nick’s house on Burns Avenue in St. Paul. At last, after several weeks, all of the seats were finally removed. It took many buckets of water and rags to wipe the dirt from that 15 year old bus. We went over each area at least a dozen times before there were any signs of progress.

Pete named the bus Chao Moua, and we furnished her with rugs, a bed frame, a mattress, two couches, a coffee table, and a large mirror. We parked Chao Moua outside of Pete’s parents’ house in West St. Paul for two weeks, which annoyed the neighbors. Pete’s father had all the tools we needed to complete the project. I custom built two benches to cover the front wheel wells and taped the edges of the windows to prep the exterior body for the spray paint. Pete and his father built the back shelves and seats and spray painted the exterior.

“Let’s take Chao Moua to the Bay Area and live on the bus,” Pete said. He wanted to be close to the startup scene there. I, on the other hand, had no interest or any connections to that area, but I caved in. I had invested more than half of my savings into the bus already so why not. In the end, I packed up my suitcase and we headed off. I told my parents I was going on a road trip to California. Little did everyone know, I would make the Bay Area my new home.

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Eden Prairie, Minnesota | Asian Indian | She/Her/Hers

A Hindu temple is a house of worship for followers of Hinduism. It’s a very important religious symbol and it’s up to us to make sure that our new temple continues to exist for generations to come. The best way to express this sentiment is to share my story. I am taking you back to 1979 when I got married to Prakash, India. I was 21-years-old and soon after our marriage we moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. As the plane landed in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, I wondered about our future and how our lives will turn out in this new place.

As usual, I took solace in God and assured myself that everything would be fine. A couple of weeks go by, and as we were slowly settling in, I received a phone call from a friend of mine. She asked me if we would like to go to the temple. When I heard the word “temple,” I was so excited since this would be the first time we were going to visit the temple as a married couple. I told my husband that we should wear new clothes and get blessings from the priest. When we arrived, I was quite disappointed to see that the temple looked like a church. I was even more disappointed when I found out that we did not have a priest.

As the years passed we had our children, but I always felt that there was something missing; the opportunity to expose our children to the Hindu religion and rituals. We were fortunate to have our parents who visited us during summer to help us perform the religious activities at home. Even though it was not the same as performing at the temple, this was better than doing nothing. When I was growing up, Hindu festivals, rituals, and culture was woven into my daily life. Who I am today is connected to that rich Hindu upbringing. Unfortunately, I could not provide the same to to my kids when they were growing up.

In 2000, it brought music to my ears when I heard that a real temple was being built. I was excited and wanted to help out in any way possible. The whole community came together and we were able to successfully complete the temple. Now we have a magnificent 42,000 square feet temple with many priests who engage us at a spiritual level. Since we opened the temple in July 2006, priests have performed many weddings, hundreds of different poojas, and thousands of archanas.

I’m happy to see that now we have a real temple that exposes our next generation to Hindu religion. My children are all grown-up and married. Every time they come to visit us, we make it a point to take them to the temple.

I hope that the Maple Grove temple will become a landmark for our children and generations to come.

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Paris, France | Hmong | He/Him/His

I was born and raised in France until the age of 17. I am the second youngest of ten. I wanted to live the ‘American Dream,’ although I only saw it on television and movies. My oldest sister left for the United States in 1987. She eventually had nine children. That’s nine nephews and nieces (who were all around my age) that I had never met before.

During the Summer of 2007, my sister’s family visited France. Despite our differences, my nephews and I bonded through our native Hmong language. I still managed to converse with my sister’s family.

For the very first time, all of my family members were together. We were happy, and it was wonderful. It still gives me goosebumps when I think about that time. It was that feeling and that moment that I decided to pursue my dreams and to take control of my life.
In July 2008, I traveled alone to the United States to visit my sister and her kids in St. Paul, Minnesota. At the end of my short vacation, I had decided to stay and restart my studies. I started at Harding High School as a Freshman, even though I was already 17 years old. With only 20 English words in my vocabulary, my sister didn’t want to sign me up for the senior class.
That first year in high school was probably the toughest. I was new to the country, and my sister, who was helping me, was also facing the end of her marriage. I was separated from her family for a couple of months. I stayed at a friend’s house with one of my nephews while she and her other children lived with a relative. Nothing seemed to come easy.

Junior year was the hardest, but also the best year I had in America. I was energized and woke up every morning ready for school. I took my studies very seriously;taking six International Baccalaureate classes, was part of the tennis team, created the Guitar Club, and became a National Honor Society member. I excelled academically, had many good friends, but most importantly, I was a hundred percent myself.
For once in my life I felt free. It was as if I was living in a dream. My class even voted me the Sno-Daze prince. I was living what I only saw in American movies.

I don’t regret leaving everything I had in France to move to St. Paul. Even though I knew nothing about the language or culture here.he things I have experienced, people I’ve met, laughters I’ve had, tears I’ve cried, memories I’ve made; all these things have made me into the person I am today. I now realize that the American Dream is nothing but my own reality.

Maplewood, Minnesota | Hmong | They/Them/Theirs

Arlo is our dog, but sometimes he gets a little crazy. What I like about him is that he knows that I love him and we know that we are together. I chose Arlo because he was a special dog. It all started on my 6th birthday. I didn’t ask for gifts at my birthday party, instead, I asked for donations so that I could get myself a puppy. I raised about $500 from my birthday.

After my birthday party, my parents and I looked up pet places so that we could go look at newborn puppies. We eventually found one nearby. When we got there, I only saw Arlo! He was so small. His sisters and brothers were a lot bigger than him. He looked really sick so no one wanted him. Others probably thought he was going to die, but I chose him!

When I got him, he used to sleep with me on the couch. He’s a lot bigger now and sheds a lot so we don’t let him on the couch anymore. He used to love taking naps. When he’d wake up he is hyper for a few minutes, then he’d fall right back asleep. We used to walk him when he was a puppy and he would try to sit down and take a nap on the sidewalk after every couple of steps. Now he doesn’t do that anymore. Yesterday, he almost ran away, but my sister and I yelled out “Squirrel!” and he ran back right away! Even though he’s a lot bigger now, Arlo is just one year old.

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Saint Paul, Minnesota | Karen | She/Her/Hers

I called my 13-year-old daughter and told her that we were going to California for our first family vacation. I told her, “Maggie, we’re going on a trip.”

“Where?”

“To San Diego, California!”

She was ecstatic because it was her first time going on a vacation out of the state, and stepping foot on an airplane. I told my other two children when they came home from school and they were equally as excited. I have never experienced this before; traveling with my kids.

It’s stressful being a single mother. I worked extremely hard over the last decade; from arriving to a new country as a refugee to gaining the courage to leave a domestically abusive relationship, and continuing my education in a graduate program at the University of Minnesota. I can now finally support my kids on my own. We can think about things like family vacations.

When we began packing, we didn’t know where to start. We didn’t know what to pack since California weather is so different from Minnesota. It was winter here but very warm there. We joked and said we’d just go buy new clothes when we arrived there. So we went on Google and YouTube to search for answers.

After waiting in line for a long time, we finally got on the airplane, but my son got very dizzy and nauseous. After the plane took off, he calmed down and became more excited. I think he realized that this vacation was a reality.

When we arrived in San Diego, we had a family member welcome us. She took us to visit many different places, such as the beach, sea lions, and historical landmarks. We spent five days sightseeing and enjoying the warm weather. The most memorable moment was when we arrived at the beach. We brought snacks and a mat, but forgot our swimsuits. Google and YouTube didn’t help, after all. My children were too excited so they didn’t care about what we were wearing, they just ran into the waves. I joined them. It was a very happy moment for us.

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