Quy and Randy Hays

Interview with Mrs. Quy Hays (Q) and Mr. Randy Hays (R)

Interviewer: Xueyin Zha (Z)

Interpreter: Trang Pham (P)

Italicized words are transcriber’s notes.

 

Z: Thank you so much for both of you for participating in this interview. Can I have the two of you introduce your name, your jobs, and where do you live?

Q: Okay. So I am Quy: Q U Y V A N H AY S.

R: And your job?

Q: I have a lot of jobs. How do we know… (Randy interrupt: what’s your current one) Every job become over… the same one

R: What’s your job right now?

Q: Uh.  My job... right now.. We work at the War College … Army Bay. And 8 o’clock morning to 2 o clock. So Monday to Thursday. And at 4:30 come back to Dickinson, 4:30 to 8:30.

Z: That’s fantastic. And what about you Randy?

R: My name is Randy Hays and I live in Carlisle, we live about 10 blocks from the campus here at Dickinson. And I do administrative support for IBM’s Lenovo contract. I do various measurements…that’s the work I do.

Z: That’s fantastic. So I’ve hearing a little bit about Qui.. Ms. Qui’s background and her life in Vietnam so, I’m very excited to hear about the stories. Mrs. Qui, can you tell us where originally are you from?

Q: I’m from Vietnam. I am from the Quảng Trị .

Z: Yes

Q: The Quảng Trị, and I’m from the Nha Trang, Cam Rahn Bay and…

R: As a teenager she would have gone there to Nha Trang, in Cam Rahn, so born in Quảng Trị, moving to the coast as a teenager.

Z: Okay. What about your parents, and your extended family are they in America?

Q: No. my family we.. all. Me.. the American.. come to America. But my mom, my all family, my sister, my brother, in Vietnam. All but me but we came here before  me and my son, and I had an ex-husband, Vietnamese husband. And after that we lived together a couple years and we divorced. And I met my husband, Randy. Right now my family three people but now almost one dozen.

Z: One thousand?

R: No, one dozen, one dozen.

Z: So most of them…

Q: I have 3 granddaughters. California I have four. Two daughters California and I have one son, one daughter here. And I have lots of granddaughters, grandsons. And these days my family kept meeting.

Z: So there are mainly your offspring: your children and grandchildren. So among your generation, you are the only one who came to the US?

Q: Yeah

Z: Do you ever miss your family in Vietnam?

Q: Yeah I met them a couple times… 3, 4 times already. So me and him go together one time, and then by myself maybe four, five times being back to Vietnam.

Z: Being back to Vietnam?.... How was that experience like? Going back?

Q: Going back when my mom’s still here, my dad… 15, 20 years ago my dad’s there… my mom… I had to go met her family. And my mom passed away almost two years now. My dad passed away almost 15 years.

Z: When did you come to the United States?

Q: 1998. Oh no 1989. October ‘89.

Z: How did you come to the U.S?

Q: I had an American children. We applied a long time ago. Who have American children, can apply to go to America, for free. So I had an American children, 1967, 1968 I had a couple babies in Vietnam with an American [who] came to Vietnam, so I had a boyfriend, so I had a baby. That’s why all my children are, American children. So two are in California, one here.

Z: When did you come to the United States and had a baby?

Q: No I had baby in Vietnam.

Z: Ohhh, okay!

Q: My children in Vietnam already. I lived here for 30 years. Over 30 years. But we don’t have baby. But now we have grandsons, granddaughters with my family. I really enjoy a lot my granddaughter.

Z: So you gave birth to your children back in Vietnam, and you brought them here. So why did you want to come to the US instead of staying in Vietnam?

Q: Because long time ago at the worst, 1975 in Vietnam we don’t have the Freedom. We want to go to Freedom, so everybody want to go. But I have baby American too, you know. I don’t go to both. I don’t want to go for… maybe something have trouble with my American baby, I applied. I can go.

Z: So, can you tell us the story of how your life was life in Vietnam that made you want to migrate, that made you want to live America… Vietnam? Why do you think you don’t have freedom?

Q: Vietnam? Why I don’t have freedom in Vietnam? I can see something right now I don’t know. But before, you know before 1975 we had the freedom. After 1975, Communists changed everything  so that’s why  they don’t have freedom… they lived in it… so, that’s why, we all don’t have freedom. But right now I don’t know. I don’t go Vietnam too much I don’t live in Vietnam. I don’t know how freedom or no freedom… I now right here only.

Z: What was your family background when you were back in Vietnam?

Q: My family? They were farmers… we don’t have a company, we all were farmers, do some work at home, you know. So I come to Vietnam, I wish to, meet my family, there, maybe one month or month half, and I come back here. I have my sister in Vietnam. Right now I still have a sister in Hanoi, and my brother is from Hanoi. And all of them, in Vietnam.

Z: Um...did your family had any experience with the Vietnam War?

Q: My dad. My dad he in 1975. He came to Hanoi, but he get another wife, [that’s] why he coming there. So my family, we don’t have nobody.

R: So the family split on both sides of the partition. You have a southern family you have a northern family. The northern children going on and being educated, going to universities, getting jobs in the government. You have the Southern family, which she returned to after the war, and made the best adjustments as he could for their well-being. But she was aligned with the Americans, so it created a lot of tensions. And uh.. she went to the highlands, which is another whole ten chapters. There she’s dealing with miners, and building raw material, precious metals, taking it into the cities and take back dry goods and pots and pans or whatever the minors  needed because mining in Vietnam is like a claim. You have a parcel. Mining in Vietnam is, you are in a hole. As long as you are in that hole, you own that hole, but if you go away from it someone else will own the hole. So she would go back and forth and trading with a family in uh…(asking Ms. Qui) Mr. Cao, is he related?...(low-voice communicating)

Q: Mr. Cao? He lived.. Mr. Cao? Oh he made the, Nha Trang.

R: So they would extend her credit to then haul all this stuff up into the mountains and then trade. This is post-communist consolidation. She did not embrace the father’s good will.

Z: What do you mean by that?

R. Well.. he was um… what’s his nickname: Dom Dom?

Q: my name? My dad’s name? I don’t know… Van?  Zazan

R: But the nickname. My point is the nickname is the same as DOM. But his nickname was Dom Dom right?

Q: Yeah first, first name.

R: Like a firefly… He’s a railroader. He drove the train, cause the train is critically important in Vietnam you can imagine: just transporting people. That’s what he did: he was a railroader

Z: But from the North?

R; Well he started. He was a railroader… (Q: uh….) because they split the country, right?

Q: I, I don’t know, Because that… my daddy home, you know, I, my grandmom said my daddy… because uh… he married with my mom. He told me too he told me .. that he joined the train, he tried to go school with the friends together. He do lot of thing. And after he 25, 26 something like that than he go to Hanoi. Then he had a girlfriend from Hanoi he lived another girl, then uh… look at the… (Start talking in Vietnamese with the interpreter Trang)

T: Her father he went to the north of Vietnam. And at the time the country was split and the North was communist and the South invaded by the Americans. So when her father went to the North. He met another girl and had a girlfriend and he married and he has a new wife in the North so, it’s very hard for him to come back to the South. Yeah because the country was split in half.

R: In the South he was wanted as a criminal, even though I think Dom, even after he moved to the North, your mom still had a baby right? (Asking Qui)

Q: um….

R: I think there was a visit which created all these..

Q: But then he had my sister. Then he come… my sister was 4 or 5 year old. Then he come to Hanoi. He come to my aunt, you know, he go to my aunt. He came from Mỹ Tho, but Mỹ Tho didn’t believe him. (R: right, right). Then he come to my aunt, you know, he talked to my aunt. He wanted to call my mom (R: right) No telephone, no do anything (R: Just knock on the door) We all thought are we going to go see him, look at my mom. And my aunt, you know, would talk to my mother you heard him come here. And my mom heard her to come see him. Then, I don’t know, so they had me later.

R: Right this was after the partition, after he was already split from the Southern family. Now, and everybody knows who he is. Yes, and his wife is now pregnant, which means he would have visited.

Q: They were, my mom, lot of them, my mom… (start talking in Vietnamese, and R: It is this, terrible treatment..)

T: When her mother was pregnant and she was put to prison in the South because they don’t know that… she doesn’t have a boyfriend but she’s pregnant. That was considered a crime back, that time in Vietnam, especially in the South. Yeah, so her mother was put to prison while she was pregnant.

Z: So she was kind of a held, don’t know to induce your dad to come visit so they would arrest your dad? So she would be the bait, to be in the South?

Q: Uh no, he can come to come uh.. look at the.. over 30 years, okay, so 1975 the wars we they get together: South and North they all get together. Then my dad he can come, he had the freedom, he can go and come, you know. With the freedom, he have the freedom, he can come to my town, and he visit to my mom, so that my mom, she could marry for now. But she, too much trouble, she arrested, somebody hit her  She lived to her boyfriend, so another of her friend, even that… uh… I don’t know how to say (Vietnamese, then Trang translated it as: comrades) so, he look at the.. he hard to believe something like that. My mom, very pretty, so, she very pretty. Then lot of, you know because a lot of, and she lived with a couple the guys, then, then, that’s why, the guy take care of…. She can’t go there anymore. And when my dad come back, she had husband already. Now they got friend together. So 1975 my dad come back to my town, my sister live there, my mom still lived to here too. Then uh… they lived the friend together and later maybe one, two year later, I think my stepfather, little bit he had it, he told my mom to move, to move to Cam Rahn Bay, don’t live Guantei (?) anymore. So they had to move together, Cam Rahn bay.

Z: So they moved?

Q: They move. So my dad leave Guantei (?) with my sister. So my dad had another wife, so they back right now I have a sister from Hanoi. Uh father.. same father but … different mother. And my mom had two brothers: same mom but different daddy. So I had a lot of family from them now.

Z: So you suddenly had a lot more family.

Q: Yeah, and all every family, all but me from America: nobody here. Yeah, my left, no left… all but me. That why I come Vietnam. Some family, lot of people come to America, people from Vietnam, they spent too much money. But for me I come back to Vietnam everybody look for me, maybe think I have a lot of money, you know. But really, you know, I have to work lot.. but I come Vietnam I had to give money, give lot of people little bit, little bit, little bit. And the brother, uncle, everybody come look to me, you know. So that’s why sometimes, right now, right now, feel, uh, sometime my aunt maybe passed away, maybe uncle, maybe, at the same time, not too much, sometimes one, two hundred dollars. But that, nobody in America, all but me, you know. Sometimes (starting talking in Vietnamese)

T: It’s kind of a tradition in Vietnam. So when your relatives passed away or are sick, so especially when you are away and  especially when you are in America, so it’s always considered that America is a rich country, so it’s kind of very like, it’s kind of expected of you  to send back money to help support your relatives.

Q: Continue Vietnamese

T: Besides sending back money when relatives pass away there are also a lot of things happening back in the country. So for example, it’s part of the tradition in Vietnam. So we.. you build the house. It’s like, it’s kind of like, the home of all of the family members, family ancestors have passed away not very long. So it’s just kind of like, the shrines or the temple, just like it’s Vietnamese culture. So, the process of building that house is considered, kind of religious and have significant meaning to the whole family. And then, like back in Vietnam in like, I think its in the rural area in the countryside. And then different family has different.. can I call it shrine or temple, for the family, kind of like that. And then like, Ms. Qui’s family, and everybody knows that, she is in America and then like, it’s kind of like, it’s normal for people to expect that they gonna build a very large and big… and rich and grand family house like that. So that’s why they always expect her to like, send back money to Vietnam. It’s a lot of things, just the way that people back in Vietnam like, have expectations: you have relatives living in America.

Z: You had this split from your extended family back in Vietnam. What, do you still feel close to them or do you feel like there’s something that, that separate you from them?

Q: No I still, um, I still close with them because I still here you know, because, we all have the, we all talk on the phone, you know, sometimes we had money, we sometimes, we borrow lot of money, so we owe some money. We talk maybe every week, maybe one, two, maybe nighttime, maybe half hour talk together. We still yeah, we never forget that my family forever.

Z; Wow,

R: Then there is cell phone communication and she maintains kind of a family shrine, on the fireplace mantel, and her parents photographs, and incense. So it is as close as the cellphone. I mean, communication now is all very instant and very quick.

Z: There’s this very interesting war experience that kind of separate your family in a very, uh, significant way. Um do you feel like that creates a gap or division in your family now, or, do they just came together afterwards?

Q: No we come together, when I come, I come to see, I don’t come to Vietnam to live. My family right here now, I live here, I die right here. But uh, right now I still free to go back Vietnam a couple time, when I’m too old, no can’t go.

Z: Right. In your family back home, are they separate, uh, still according the North and South in Vietnam (Q: yeah). Are they friends now….

Q: My father, uh.. my mom live in South, but my sister live in North. I have another sister live in Hanoi. They live all over. No same…

R: But those two groups, like the North and the South, they may know each other’s phone numbers (Q: yeah), but they don’t, they don’t do anything together, right (Q: Yeah, no). They don’t have.. I mean, the shrine, it is like, graveyard for daddy, and then maybe they all come together.

Q: And then my family come together…

R: right. And when your mom died, that’s gonna be a South story, the North, they are not in that story.

Q: They come, they come. My mom, yeah my mom, they still come together. They come to my mom: they call my mom  “mom” too (R: Oh! Okay, okay) They get together even, even my mom no bond there, they still.. we all sister together. That’s why when my mom died, they all sisters in Hanoi they come to visit, they come to live a couple day, before they go.

Z: So you are on friendly terms with them. You are very friendly with them?

Q: Yeah, we all family, we good together. I have uh.. my niece, see five.. couple years before.. In the past couple years.. here to school

R: International student at HACC.

Q: She go back Hanoi already (Z: uh huh)

R: It was disrupted by the challenge of a love interest with a young man in Cornell who I guess had a weakness for Asian girls. So he went on an international program to Taiwan, which she obsessed about and then went to Taiwan. But unfortunately he was with a new girlfriend and was… how crazy is all that?

Z: You are talking about Ms. Qui’s….

R: Ms. Qui’s niece. She was here in Carlisle. She was studying at HACC. But, well.

Z: So do you consider yourself uh.. and your children and grandchildren very integrated.. a part of America, or do you feel like you still keep your Vietnamese identity and, and tradition in your family, in America?

R: Do they think that they are really more Vietnamese, or do they think they maybe 50% Vietnamese 50% American? You know it, it depends on the generation. I think like, Ms. Quy it’s like her heart is split evenly she’s got one foot in America, one foot in Vietnam. But her adult children, quite frankly, I think they think they are more Vietnamese right? (Q: yeah). They are ghettoized, they are not joining the Rotary club, they are not volunteering for the PTA things like that, they don’t do that. Yeah then the grandchildren of course, they live in a Vietnamese household, but they aspire to American things. So um, the further down the chain you get the more American they are. But that middling group is rather strange, because typically they are not as, as isolated, but this group is in their own kind of cocoon.

Z; You are talking about Ms. Qui’s children?

R: Ms. Qui’s adult children.

Z: Her adult children. They are not completely integrated..

R: Not, not really I mean they did businesses and they do very well but uh…. If you have an extended conversation you will instantly hear notions or things that are just simply… kind of, unscientific let’s just say, just kind of, just, things that um.. keep in mind that they grew up during the Communist era in Vietnam, where they were pushing out the religion, everything is secular, uh…. So it’s not a time of free thinking

Z: What about, what about Ms. Qui, do you agree with this, do you agree that growing in up, or spending most of your life in Vietnam has influenced the way you think, or as um.. as Randy just said, of being, more..

Q: No, my life is here

Z: Your life is here?

Q: Yeah.,

Z: What do you think about your children, your daughter, for example.

Q: They all right here. Nobody in Vietnam.

T: I can help translate.

Z: Yeah absolutely.

(Trang started talking in Vietnamese then Quy replied in Vietnamese)

T: She always like things about Vietnam, like her hometown, home country and also family but um.. she never thinks about she would go back in Vietnam in like old age.. like there’s like conflict, there’s um.. a lot of people like, living abroad thinking about going to Vietnam in the old age, in the Vietnam land. She just thinks her life is here. Yeah she still like cannot forget Vietnam and her family back home, yeah, but like her life is her.

Z: Can you tell us, what is you’re feeling about Vietnam right now. Do you feel.. um, you mentioned before that they don’t have freedom, so what exactly do you mean by that, can you..(Asking Trang to translate)

T: Yeah sure. (Start talking in Vietnamese)

T: In 1975 when the Communists take over the Southern part, so, um the Communist party kind of marched down to the South and oppressed the people from the South especially women who bear American child, yeah American children. So they were just kind of force them into the forest, into the wood like living in Highland, and they take all the houses, the land, the farm, and give them to the people that is coming from the North. Yeah that when the Communist marched down and take over the South so the Southern people get oppressed and forces you to be marginalized..

Q: Yeah and we go to look for freedom.

T: Yeah and that’s what she, that’s what she means by having no freedom: being oppressed.

Z: And how was that experience like, so, the turmoil of war and being oppressed with the armies coming down, I’m imagining. How was the situation like, can you describe it?

R: Well critical, critical part that occurred was, before 1975, you were living in Quảng Trị (?) right? (Q: yeah), by 72, to 75?

Q: 72, 75 I lived in Nha Trang (?)…

R: you uh, you moved back to Quảng Trị?

Q: I moved back, I moved again

R: Yeah I know, but what year did you move to Quảng Trị

Q: I came back 1972.. the war..

R: The timeline there 72 to 75 Quảng Trị is the push off point for the north (T: yeah) So they were just rolling right through that province, so she goes from living a fairly good life in Quảng Trị to being instantly a refugee. Tell us the story where you are carrying your children! Tell that story, tell that story where you are running down the road (Q: okay, so, so). This is like…

Q: So, we had, my mom’s children.. no came all day, no (?) no… a little bit … that’s why I go to, I was a sixteen….. or a fourteen year old, and I’m baby, you know, so my, my.. we don’t have uh my dad, my dad had go to Hanoi, we uh, we don’t have a dad yet, my mom had a boyfriend, the guy right now, so we don’t like him because he uh…. We say “we don’t like you”, you boyfriend, I want my mom to live with us. My mom had to visit her boyfriend we don’t like. So we had to go to Nha Trang and we walking…(Start talking in Vietnamese)

R; That transition right now to Cam Rahn is the embarkation point, for here is the American army, rolling down the road ten, fifteen mile, cause it’s like beach party, okay, girls, beers, cars, cigarettes, you name it, that’s where they want to go, (Q: interrupted with Vietnamese)

Z: The northern army?

R: No the Americans, this is all, this is her teenage. So she goes down there and joins the girl posse. To…

Q; Then uh, after that I go to Nha Trang to.. I um, I was sixteen year old and fall in love with a Vietnamese army. So we had baby with him, 1970 I was 17 I had born my son.

Z: So that was with an, an American guy.

Q: No, no we… Vietnamese,

Z: So what about the, the episode you said that the, the American army was embarking, that’s a, that’s a different story?

R and Q talking at the same time:

Q: nineteen, nineteen sixty…

R; Okay, the story is separate from that: when you were in Quảng Trị. We could go for five hour on this part. The part where the army is coming to Quảng Trị, and the bombs went off, and then you decided to go..

Q: No, I go, 1967..

R: No this is after you move back to Quảng Trị

Q: That’s right, 1967 I lived in Nha Trang. I have work with American already (R: right) So I born Amelia I born to, uh.. 1966 I lived together a boyfriend already (R: right) so born Dum 1966, and I born Dum 1966 and 1968 I born Amelia. (R: Right) and I born Amelia and I… so 1970 I born Mindum, so 1972 I had Mali already (R: right), I go back Vietnam, and (R: that was in Quảng Trị, right) Vietnam in war again, so I come back and I have a.. …(R: that’s the invasion) so born Lam  1972 (?).

R: That’s uh, that’s when she was refugees, and she’s lost everything. What’s the story where you got a baby in one arm, and a baby in the other arm? Right? (Q: yeah) and you are running down the road. (Q said something unclear) How did that feel?

Q: 1972 so I go Vietnam, so Lam and ?? (  (R: in Quảng Trị) yeah, I tried to move (R; right), and go back Vietnam and I said okay, we don’t like to go out too much. We were in 1972 before the happy new year, we go Vietnam, Vietnamese New Year, that uh.. 1972. We go back Vietnam we lived there, we buy house, we buy ??(unclear).. and then , and then (R: This is Quảng Trị, right? Right, right) yeah, yeah, my mom, we lived together same house, same, with my mom, couple more… that was June, so war was all of the …(in Vietnamese) we stayed home and my mom was still in the market. So I go home, I cooking, then one bomb “boom!” So my stepfather said “oh move, move!” Said “no, no wait for mom, there, we had to move with mom, we had to go, everyone, mom”. So my mom come home too, so we all get together. My, I had uh.. my aunt, Milum and aunt to go, and my mom, my stepfather: “Give me the ??” He but ?? in the hair (R: Sure…) And I had to… We don’t have anything. We don’t go, so we die right here. My stepfather “no, no why? why over here? ..” And my uncle behind me, and one bomb “boom!” So we can see my uncle die. (R: This is minefields) you know, My, my family (R: she’s she’s walking with …) We don’t, we don’t wear .. shoe, we walking only the. The (start talking in Vietnamese).

T: Yeah, yeah so uh, the minefield right? (R: yeah there’s two groups, she’s in the first group) So they were running like barefeet, yeah, and they ran through the minefield 25 kilometers, and she describes it like, running on blood and flesh and dead people were just like, lying, in the minefield.

Z: And you saw your uncle die?

Q: Oh yeah.

R: His uncle was in the second group, the following, that group blew up, so yeah… (T: oh okay, yeah)

Q: My stepfather, he know, he know what bomb.. he can feel where they put the bomb (start talking in Vietnamese)

T: There are a lot of landmines on the road so, her step father told her so in order to avoid the mine, in order to survive you had to like, to step on to the dead bodies, yeah, it’s the only way to avoid the mines. You step on the dead bodies so you don’t get caught up with the bombs.

Q: You don’t understand the.. Vietnamese war, you know, you interview me, but you don’t know something like that. (T: yeah) You know what I here.. You hear what I say… nobody know it, even you too (referring to Trang). You never know that. You know bomb yet, you don’t know nothing yet. Yet they very, very… Then 1972, couple month, 1973, then we, we get back, then that why, we hold it, that why, that why no more war. Then 1968, we too, you know, too…

R: The Tet Offensive, of course, she was living with, I think, an American soldier, in 68.

Z: In 68? But that was before.

R: Yeah she’s rolling back to 68 because, Tet of course, is aware.. all these people who were familiar to you, that are Vietnamese, like your Cyclo drivers (need to spell check)  and others, are actually VC.

Z: VC? What does that mean?

R: VC, Viet Cong. They were civilian communist, that are simply living their lives, they do what they do, they’re not carrying guns, but when the curtain goes up on the Ted offensive, they suddenly become, para-militaries. So you can have…

Q: But, but right now, you know… I don’t know

R: The civilian, the VC, in other words they are over one night like they are now soldiers, the next day they are shooting and fighting.

Q: Start taking Vietnamese to Trang

R: Are you talking about the Cyclo driver who told you to go away? Are you talking about the Cyclo driver? This is great because this is because the Cyclo driver brings the note that she needs to go visit her relative.

Q: Start Vietnamese with Trang again ….  In 1968, back home American husband….(switched back to Vietnamese) …. Cause I lived with him, that’s why nobody come to check you. I had a paper to live with him, that was America, so that’s how, look at the, 20, 30 people, I get to look at their room, look at their dorm, you know.

R: So like a court-guard there?

Q: Back to talking in Vietnamese… (R: the Cyclo driver… this is the Cyclo driver)

T: So, yeah, he was one of those who was under disguise. So like, um, in daylight he rides, um Cyclo? Cyclo, yeah, and during night he just kind of become one of the soldier and fight the Americans.

Q: Talk in Vietnamese.

R: He creates a ruse for her to go to another place at the same time as the attack. So she’s away from all the shooting. But on her return, did she explain that? (T: well, not, not too much). Okay well, talk about the CID because the..

Z: (Asking Trang) Could you translate what she just said?

T: The Cyclo driver, or the Cyclo cycler? She was very kind to him. So he saved her on the night because he was one of the Viet Cong and he was about to bomb the house on that night.

Z: And you were from the South and were not Communist.

Q: Yeah, and I lived in the house. I lived American.

T: Yeah, she lived with the American, and, he is the Viet Cong, and he was about the bomb the house and he just told her to like go away, on that night. And after when she came back she found out that the whole house was blown up and everybody died.

Z: Everybody died, so your family, your family also died?

R: No it was the military, the military… okay, now…

T: yeah she was living with the American.

Z: Did you…

Q: They, they, some died, some no died.

Z: So you didn’t lose your American husband?

Q: No, yeah we still happy..

R: But the Cyclo driver is dead.

Q: Yeah..

Z: How did he die?

R: I think they shot him

Q: They shot him. They know it because he come inside the house and somebody… American have a camera. The Viet Cong don’t have camera but the American have everything. He come inside the door they know, they know already. So he but the bomb that door but we don’t have, we don’t believe it, the that door .

R: So how did the CID, that’s the internal army of investigation office.. how did the CID, how did they think about the fact that you went away? What did the CID say?

Z: CID was on the side of America?

R: Right. And they were curious, why she would disappear, during the attack. What happened then? I think you got an interview on that, didn’t you?

Q: No, no, they know that the Cyclo and I don’t have… I don’t know him.

R: They didn’t have question on that? (Q: no) Okay.

Z: So, Ms. Qui. Knowing all these stories of the Vietnam war that us as that us as new generation don’t really know, do you think that in America the history of Vietnam war in America was told fully, or properly? Can you translate that? Do you think that the history taught in America is the right one, or is there anything missing?

T: Yeah sure. Start taking in Vietnamese.

Q: Answered in Vietnamese but switch to English: Yeah everything true, no lie.

R: So how about in 1950 when you were a little baby? (Q: How I know?) And the, the French troops came to the village? And your mom took you to the rice?

Q: Yeah, I don’t know. I heard my mom said, she had wrapped her baby(unclear), look at the, Francais? I don’t know, my mom would say…

R: Teah yeah the French colonial troops would come through and so…

Q: They tried to do everything bad the war.

R: There was a lot of recreational patrol. Okay, they were just chasing, chasing the neighborhood women. But she went out to the rice, and didn’t she do something like that (gesturing). Do you remember that story, when she’s holding the baby?

Q: Yeah she went and hide. She hide the baby in rice. So when they ?? So she say, she say… she born me, maybe one year, two year like that and she kept me in the, you know, sand rice? So she leave me stay here, she go to work, then uh….

R: This time up, it was a bag, with sand in it. They get a little bag and they put sand in it, and they put the kid in it, and tie the bag around the waist, so the kid is anchored in the sand in the bag. And the mom goes to work and when she come back later the kid’s still sitting there, you know in the anchored in the sand

Z: What is the purpose of that

Q: Oh we don’t know.. long long time ago

R: Because the baby is moving, and the mom has to go work. So the kid is exposed from this part up, the sand bag anchored them so they can’t uh.. they can’t…

Q: Start talking in Vietnamese.

T: So this is her childhood. Her mom had to take her to the farm and she was like, she was lying on the…. What is that called? You put the baby… (Q: Quy explaining in Vietnamese.)

R: The cradle, the cradle

T: Yeah, yeah, out in the field, in the scorching sun. So she had a hard childhood.

Z: It was difficult. Do you think that your children here had a lot better opportunities and a lot better life? (Q: right here?) Yeah, in America. Do you think America is the land of opportunity for you?

T: Start interpreting in Vietnamese

Q: Replying in Vietnamese

T: So she said that had she not come to America her life in Vietnam would not be as good as her life in America.

Z: What would that be? Can you imagine, if you’d stayed in Vietnam?

T: Translating

Q:  Answering in Vietnamese

T: She said that is going to be like, a lot more difficulties and disadvantages if she living in Vietnam, compared to the U.S.

Z: What kind of disadvantages would that be?

T: Translating.

Q: Answering in Vietnamese.

T: The difficulties of getting a good education in Vietnam at first, so in Vietnam the education is not as good as in America. Even if you like, you passed the exam and get to a good university, and when you graduate, you still have to pay money to get a job. It’s just like, the system is not clear and fair like how you will get a job in America. So you will have to like, so some kind of person like, in the county and you have to like, pay some kind of money to get a job. Yeah, so she talked about even if you want to go study in America you still have to pay a lot of money. So that will be like, a huge, a huge…

Z: Was the lack of opportunity the same, as when you were in Vietnam? (Asking Trang) Was the situation just as problematic as when she was in Vietnam, or did it get worse?

T: Um, so I guess she just talked about like, in general.

R: Probably a different is… probably differences, in degree in… you know obviously the country has changed quite a bit but there’s always been the I forgot what they called the payment but, but when you are asked earlier for when they were holding the mother in jail, a lot of that is just extortion, when you are looking to give payments to either have access to the person, or payment to give them food, um, various extortionary. We had a friend who had two sons, in prison in Vietnam and the..

Z: In prison?

R: Yeah yeah it was very difficult … and now, I think they are both dead, because there were difficulties…. There were drug addictions and some other problems, but their dad was um, Vu Tui’s husband, was he an army captain or police captain or..

Q: Yeah he, he captain…

R: Yeah so their dad was a former South Vietnamese officer so, so the kids had no future there, and so they fell into drug addiction and jails, and things like that.

Z: And that was when?

R: At least within the last ten years (Q: yeah). Part of, part of her problem was, when her kids died and she didn’t know where the body was. She had to pay a fee to get the body from the jail.

Z: So these were the two sons who didn’t come to the United States

R: With, with her friend. These, these are not her sons, these are her friend’s son.

T: She is just talking about situation and the difficulties in Vietnam, in general

Z: I see, well. Is there any other important stories that we need to hear? Is there anything else you would like to add?

Q: No, it’s okay I come to America, so, I go to work, I look for job, I live America I have too many jobs, I work, work in full-time, two full-time, so twenty four seven I’m working. And now I have a farmer market at Carlisle, and my granddaughter go to school. Uh.. I have two, three granddaughters, so my family, my family ?? right now (unclear).

Z: Very successful.

R: And are you an American citizen (asking Ms. Qui)

Q: Yeah, I’m a U.S. citizen.

Z: When did you become American citizen?

Q: Uh…. How long? Twenty some year, twenty years.

R: It’s been a while

Z: Was it difficult to become American citizen?

Q: I come here five years before I become citizen.

R: Yeah probably um, probably twenty years. She was the first in her family, even before her adult children, but she trained with OIC in Carlisle, and they had, they had professional programs where you, they gave you, the model is, the hundred questions, and you learned these specific questions, and then you went and take the test.

Z: And that test is what?

R: That’s your interview for citizenship (Z: Oh) So she learned about things like, (Q: One hundred questions, yeah) the civil rights, the bill of rights, cause the way she was testing was she waited outside and this young girl came out, sat down, really angry and she goes: “Who is Martin Luther King?” And she goes: “Oh he’s the civil rights guy!” and she goes “Oh I didn’t know that”. If you do the hundred questions you will know exactly, you know, what they are asking. So it was, it was one time to take the test and she passed it.

Z: Yeah, I wish the citizenship procedure is still as easy now. It’s impossible that you can get the citizen… (R laughing). Well thank you both so much, for you both to participate in this.

R: Yeah thanks! It was great.

Z:  I’m sure we could go hours and hours for there are so many stories

Q: Yeah, it’s okay

T: It’s good that she’s sharing the stories

Q: Talk with Trang in Vietnamese.

T: So she’s talking about, so it’s not like easy, being here because she had like, a lot of different jobs but, she never got fired. She’s like, if she didn’t like it, she’s just gonna leave, yeah, but she never got fired. A lot of jobs now.

Z: What, what kind of jobs that you’ve got so far? Like, what are the kind of job you’ve done?

Q: Okay. So, I have the, ??? Shoe, the ??? factory (unclear)

R: It’s the shoes, when she actually makes billion shoes. She also has in ?? made mini-vacuum cleaners.

Q: Nursing home.

R: Right she was cleaning, housekeeping.

Q: Hoffman

R: P. R. Hoffman

Q: Phone company.

R: Phone company that was cleaning also. P. R. Hoffman they made oscillating crystals like uh (Q: Airplane), for telecommunications, and things of that nature.

Q: We lot of jobs.

R: Excel she was a fork lift driver in excel, she drives around in Unilever (need to spell check) and sells things like, downies (need to spell check) and things like that. She would drive the fork lift below the truck and do all that. But yeah she’s done all kinds of and now she’s out with the army base, since she’s at Dickinson.  

Q: And with IBM.

R: With IBM she would run the little robot that store the computer parts.

Q: I come here I work a lot of, you know, so work and go to school, you know, lot of jobs, work and make money, you know, so. No easy to come. So late to come home, you know. So even now I have my own house, I still have two jobs.

Z: You still have two jobs. A productive life.

R: Yeah, yeah

Q: I have farmer market, I have soup, noodle, rice, soup. Uh I grow uh, spring roll, a lot of salad. A lot of thing (Z: Wow). Someday you might go and see?

Z: Sure!

Q: Saturday! Saturday you go and is soup.

Z: Oh! You are selling things at the farmer’s market. Wow.

Q: I met an American guy his name is Steve. He is teacher here. You know Steve? He teacher here.

R: He, I forget his name.

Z: Uh.. Ms. Qui, so Trang has to go.

T: Yeah I have to go, I’m so sorry because I have a..

R: Thanks! Alright Yeah it’s great meeting you! It’s great help!

Q: Yeah yeah, go, go.

Z: Thanks so much!

T: Yeah it’s a great experience for me too, because I’m like the um, the late generation so (R: oh yeah yeah) I don’t know much about the war, just through history class you know, just maybe…

Q: Yeah, you’re young she don’t know nothing! (people laughing)

T: I don’t know the experience of living in the war time, so, you know, it’s a really really good stories from you. So I’ll see you later …

(People saying goodbye)

R: Yeah and she’s on Facebook um, Quis Vietnamese, that’s her… um just bring it up and that will show picture of her.

Z: Do you have a w… Is that your Facebook or do you have a website?

R: it’s Facebook, just Quis Vietnamese.

(People saying goodbye and thankyou… )

The End.