Hmong leader advocates for self-determination and empowerment

The following is the sixth in a seven part series where we share stories of people from abroad who have made the Chippewa Valley their home.

EAU CLAIRE — True Vue was just a baby when her family came to the United States.

"I was just a year old; I was actually born in a refugee camp," said Vue.

Vue and her family are Hmong, an ethnic group originally from an area in Southern China pushed into Vietnam and Laos by Chinese expansion. The group was recruited for assistance by American during their efforts in the Vietnam War.

Once American troops pulled out of Vietnam, the Hmong minority faced retaliation in the form of political targeting, imprisonment, torture and even death. This led many Hmong to flee, with over half of the Hmong population in Laos forced to seek asylum elsewhere. That included Vue's family, who fled Laos to Thailand, where thousands of Hmong immigrants remained before moving across the globe.

Life in the refugee camp was tough for many, including Vue's mother, who struggled with being severely underweight. Vue remembered being told she was very sick as an infant when her family, along with many others, arrived in the Chippewa Valley to begin life anew.

Things did not start on the right foot.

"We got to the United States in January, and so that was when it was winter time. And in Laos and Thailand, it's very tropical so they've never experienced snow before," said Vue. "So my parents, they had to get used to that."

She said that her parents had to make many adjustments from their life in Laos, like having running water or the food available to them in this country.

"The cuisine is very different and at first they didn't really care for the food, they didn't really understand what a burger was and so they were dissecting it.

"Now it's my mom's favorite thing," she added with a laugh.

Because of the large number of Hmong refugees that came over a community was quickly built in Eau Claire. Vue said that she was very fortunate that she and her family had that support network, even thousands of miles from where they once considered home.

"We lived in downtown Eau Claire and we lived with a lot of our Hmong relatives around us so we never really felt alone. But I've just been really fortunate that, when I went to preschool, it was with all Hmong kids in my class."

She remembered that teacher as being kind and compassionate, and cared enough to check in on her students even after they continued their education past her class.

"I think just having wonderful support with our educators and with family ... we never really felt like we were discriminated against; however, I know that that's not how it is for a lot of other folks."

One of those people was her own father. She recalled her father coming home angry from a job where he repaired computer equipment in the early 1990s. When she asked him why he was so mad he explained that, while repairing a printer, a woman asked Vue's father if it was true that Hmong ate dogs.

"He was just so appalled, and then he said, 'Well, is it true that white people eat humans?' She asked, 'What are you talking about?'" she recalled. He continued asking if white people ate humans, since he saw it on the news happening in Milwaukee, referring to the Jeffrey Dahmer case that made headlines at the time.

"That made me really think as I grew up: how many times did people say to my father for him to come up with that comeback?"

Vue said that, when the Hmong first arrived in the United States, they faced significant language barriers, which led to an initial hesitancy from employers in hiring them. It wasn't until the Chippewa Valley Technical College began offering English classes specifically for Hmong speakers and that language gap was reduced that employers recognized the Hmong community's strong work ethic. This push extends to formal education, a door that was not open to all Hmong back in Laos.

"My parents would always say, 'You have to listen to your teacher, you have to get straight A's ... because we risked our lives for you. We didn't just come to this wonderful country so that you guys can slack off and not have a better life than we had,'" said Vue.

Vue is currently the executive director of the Eau Claire Area Hmong Mutual Assistance Association, an organization that is committed to the empowerment and self-sufficiency of the Hmong population in the city.

"We're celebrating 50 years of the Hmong people here, and it's still hard for us to be at the table with decision makers, but because we've been here for so long and we are the largest minority group (in the Chippewa Valley), you can't really push us away, so we're going to have to be into conversations now too," said Vue.

Vue has seen how integral the Hmong community has become in and around Eau Claire, and she stresses the importance of self-determination within her community that has allowed the Hmong to succeed in the Chippewa Valley.

"I think in the past, our Hmong folks ... we were so nervous about speaking up and we are people-pleasers. That's our culture. We just let people make decisions for us, but I think that we see how that can actually harm our community if we are not there speaking up.

"So I am happy that we have built such a good relationship with the Chippewa Valley. There's still a lot that needs to be done, but I think we're all moving in the right direction — not just for the Hmong people, but for all BIPOCs."