- Little Long Cheng Homes, which will have its first groundbreaking this fall, will assist low-income farmers in owning their own homes.
- The Farming Resource Center will be a one-stop shop that all farmers in the area can visit to receive information from various training programs, the USDA, and the agriculture extension service.
Hmong American Community
May, 2001
Few Americans are familiar with the country Laos or the Hmong ethnicity, to which farmer Wa Meng Lee belongs. With their homeland located in a strategic position west of Vietnam, the Hmong people allied with the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Such high death rates occurred in Laos that the draft age was lowered to age 12. Wa Meng recalls young boys who were shorter than the guns they were carrying. Despite the Hmong-U.S. alliance, when America pulled out of the war, they left no protection for the Hmong as Communists troops overtook their country. Speaking in a tone more of confusion than of bitterness, Wa Meng states, "We allied with America and they left us behind to get killed."
With his family,
Wa Meng fled Laos and spent the next five years in a refugee
camp in Thailand. Others were not so lucky. Wa Meng lost his
sister when their boat overturned crossing the Mekong River.
Tears well up in the eyes of his wife, Ge Xiong, as her daughter
Jany translates Ge Xiong's story of fleeing: "If you were
old enough to understand, 'Run for your life,' then you were
on your own. We hoped that we would meet up somewhere later."
Ge Xiong went with relatives, leaving her mother and immediate
family behind. Unfortunately, her family was not able to leave
Laos. It was not until 1991, when Ge Xiong and Wa Meng were able
to visit Laos, that Ge Xiong was reunited with her mother, who
has now resettled with her in the U.S.
The tragic stories, however, do not end with the war. Over twenty years later, several individuals die each year from uncollected landmines. Despite such after-effects, healing is slowly taking place. The U.S. eventually opened up its borders to the Hmong, who have remained in close communities, spreading out to only a few U.S. cities. Wa Meng first moved to Oklahoma City, then to Fresno, California where many of his relatives lived. Wa Meng and Ge Xiong began to settle down and begin their own family, which is now comprised of eleven children, ranging from the ages of four through 22.
The Hmong have remained rooted in their own culture, which emphasizes the importance of community, loyalty, and a simple lifestyle. Many older Hmong people who have settled in the U.S. have been plagued by poverty due to the lack of English skills and a disjunction with technology. For these reasons, farming has provided a means of survival for many Hmong families. Wa Meng began farming as soon as he arrived in the United States, with only a brief respite while pursuing auto-mechanics. He soon returned to the land, however, where he and his wife raise a mixture of Asian produce to support their family. "At my age, most people farm because they do not know how to speak English," Wa Meng admits. Their daughter Jany, now married with her own child, speaks of her perceptions as a young Hmong individual: "Parents farm because it is a last resort. When I was younger, I was embarrassed. My American friends' parents worked in an office." As she has grown, however, her perceptions have changed: "Now, I respect them, because they are the hardest working people I know."
Farming is not easy for the Hmong people, largely due to their lack of land ownership. Less than 5% of Hmong farmers in the Central Valley area of California own their home or farmland. Banks do not look favorably upon the simple lifestyle of the Hmong and their lack of credit history. Wa Meng acknowledges, "Our people are not getting loans from USDA. They are asking for our credit history and many Hmong people do not use credit cards." As in Wa Meng's case, Hmong farmers are forced to lease their land and frequently must move from field to field. "Our people do not have enough money to operate farms. Most small farmers don't survive. If you lease from acre to acre, it is not enough. If you have enough money to operate 20-30 acres, that is enough." Right now, Wa Meng farms on four acres of leased land.
Another issue is the time-consuming nature of farming. Jany speaks of the problems she sees among her peers due to lack of parental involvement: drug use, gang violence, high dropout rate, and lack of respect for elders. Jany remembers when she was younger and her father was not farming, "We would all work on homework together before we went to bed." Now that Wa Meng has gone back to farming and as the hours of daylight increase, he is seldom home before the younger children are asleep. Jany acknowledges, "I tell my parents, 'Whatever path you choose will be wrong.' When they were home with us, we were limited in income. Now that they are making more money, they are not at home with the children so much."
Regardless, Wa
Meng and Ge Xiong hope that their work will allow their children
to live a life with different opportunities than they themselves
had. Wa Meng insists the children, "must go to school and
get an education, so they will not have to do this. I hope that
they will look back and see how hard we worked." Similarly,
Ge Xiong wishes for their children "to have opportunities
like Americans. To sit in an office and turn on the A.C, not
to have to get sweaty in the fields leaving at dawn and getting
back at dusk."
Wa Meng is the chair of the Hmong American Community Cooperative. The Hmong American Community (HAC) began in 1996 to address economic issues affecting the Hmong people, with an emphasis on farming issues. "We want to enable Hmong individuals to farm for a living, not just a hobby," explains Chukou Thao, director of HAC. HAC focuses on educating Hmong farmers and other minority farmers on marketing, loan assistance, and farming techniques. To address the lack of land ownership, HAC educates farmers on record keeping to assist in the loan process. They also work with the younger generation to change their negative stereotypes surrounding farming and to teach them respect for farmers. Chukou finds that much of the younger generation will come back to farming: "The Fresno job market is not abundant. The general trend has been that they work through their 20's and 30's, then return to agriculture."
Wa Meng is hopeful for the way technology, particularly the Worldwide Web, is aiding the Hmong farmers, helping them move food directly from the farmer to consumer: "We have moved a step up. We have gotten to know more people and have a place to sell produce." Thank you for supporting the Hmong American Community through your subscription to the virtual CSA!
. . . . .
The HAC works on behalf
of the over 600 Hmong farmers in the Central Valley and has approximately
40 active members. They are expanding their work with two new
projects: