Book to recognize 50 years of Hmong contribution to Minnesota culture
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This year marks 50 years since Hmong people started immigrating to Minnesota. Today, the state is home to a vibrant community of at least 95,000 Hmong Minnesotans.
Through the Minnesota Historical Society and the state Legislature, the Hmong Cultural Center in St. Paul and the Hmong Studies Journal received a grant of nearly $25,000 to publish a special issue of the journal that will commemorate 50 years of Hmong people residing and contributing to life in Minnesota.
It may be the first scholarly book collection to be solely dedicated to the range of Hmong experiences in Minnesota.
Txongpao Lee is the executive director of the Hmong Cultural Center. Mark Pfeifer is the director of programs at the Hmong Cultural Center and the co-editor of the Hmong Studies Journal. Lee and Pfeifer joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about the importance of marking 50 years of Hmong people in Minnesota with a book.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
Our guests believe it may be the first scholarly book collection to be solely dedicated to the range of Hmong experiences in Minnesota. Joining us to talk about the project is Txongpao Lee, the Executive Director of the Hmong Cultural Center. Thank you for being here, Txongpao.
TXONGPAO LEE: Thank you.
NINA MOINI: And also on the line is Mark Pfeifer, the Director of Programs at the Hmong Cultural Center and Co-Editor of the Hmong Studies Journal. Thank you for being here as well, Mark.
MARK PFEIFER: Thanks for having us.
NINA MOINI: Really appreciate both of your time and you coming on to share this with us. Txongpao, I want to start with you. For people who may not be familiar with the history, Hmong people started coming to Minnesota at the end of the secret war as refugees from Laos. Why is it important to mark this anniversary and the history?
TXONGPAO LEE: I believe it is the most important to the Hmong, who, after they escaped from Laos through Thailand and come to this United States. And we landed in Minnesota here, myself also coming directly to Minnesota here. I live here for a long time.
NINA MOINI: Mm-hm.
TXONGPAO LEE: The reason is to keep in the beginning Hmong coming to Minnesota, just a few soldiers and commanders and educator people only. But later, the Hmong parents, brothers and sisters, they coming to Minnesota here. That is one of the best place that Hmong can restart their new life from the old country to a new country. So this is one of the most important places in Minnesota, in here.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, there are generations now and people in all walks of life and all career paths-- so much growth. When you started applying for this grant, Txongpao, did you have in mind doing a book collection like this and chronicling history? Was that something you already had in mind?
TXONGPAO LEE: That is the most important that Mark and I have been discussing about it, the history of the Hmong lived in Minnesota. Since the day Hmong began move to Minnesota and up to 50 years was the Hmong life moving along the times to 50 years. So that was the most important that we need to keep Hmong history, that when we came here, more likely, we come from the stone age. And now, we are more or less far beyond what we have envisioned for our children and the next generation, that who we are and we are coming up, very important role to the Hmong people who come here and dying for what we are here for.
NINA MOINI: And Mark, what types of articles and research will be included in this special edition of the Hmong Studies Journal? And who will use it once it's ready?
MARK PFEIFER: Yeah, we're going to put out a call for papers. And the Hmong Studies Journal has done special issues in the past. We did a special issue last year with the Hmong and the 2020 census. So yeah, we'll put out a call for papers. The primary target for the authors will be scholars.
It could be some community members-- actually, graduate students as well. There will be a stipend, which I think will hopefully encourage submissions. So yeah, we are very excited about this project. As you mentioned, we think it's a first. It's certainly, the first special issue of the journal, but also, we think it's the first book length project to focus on the different experiences of the Hmong in Minnesota.
NINA MOINI: And when the journal comes out, is it for the public to read through? Will it be used in other academic settings, perhaps? Or what do you envision?
MARK PFEIFER: Yeah, the journal, it is online. It's a open access journal, so it's available freely to the public. But we do have relationships with several of the academic aggregators, like EBSCO databases where people look up scholarly articles. We actually have relationship with about four or five of the major scholarly databases as well. So the articles will get out as well to the broader scholarly community through those databases.
And the book, we hope to sell the books at our museum. And this project is kind of coming out of our museum. We have a museum we've been building the last few years in Saint Paul. And also, we'll hope to have it at Hmong ABC bookstore in Saint Paul, too.
NINA MOINI: OK, Txongpao, what has the reaction been from people that you know in the community to making this journal and this scholarly project happen?
TXONGPAO LEE: I believe that the community, that an individual community leader I saw is they're so impressed to see what have in the history of the Hmong in the state of Minnesota in 50 years and how far we come up to this point and since the beginning, Hmong arrived in Minnesota up to now, many Hmong have been moved to more like elected official and entrepreneur-- many other very important, [? big ?] role out there. So that is what many Hmong community in the state of Minnesota will look to see-- the positive that Hmong coming to Minnesota have been improved on life.
NINA MOINI: And Mark, how long do you think it will take to compile all of these bits and pieces? And then when would it be ready for the public?
MARK PFEIFER: Well, we have about a year and a half under our grant contract with the Historic Society. I'm hoping that we can get submissions. We're going to put a call for papers out very soon.
And then I hope that by the fall, we're going to start getting those submissions in. And then we [? can have ?] a selection process. And then we'll have a proofreading when those papers do come out in the final editing for the book-- for both the journal issue and the book volume.
NINA MOINI: OK, and I'm curious, Mark, a lot of times, we hear about communities passing on perhaps an oral history or stories or anecdotes. But it's sounding like what you're saying is these are studies-- academic studies. What are some of the topics or what subject matter do you think that these projects would tackle?
MARK PFEIFER: Yeah, I mean, we're going to keep it open. But the journal, it does have a primarily scholarly focus. Sometimes there are community submissions as well. But I'm thinking local community history in Minnesota-- the Hmong community-- but also looking at things like socioeconomic adaptation, political and social movements, educational adaptation, gender, also linkage to transnational Hmong communities, also, perhaps a bibliographical overview of all the research that's been done over the years with major articles on Hmong in Minnesota because it really has not-- again, we said there's not been a volume or a book that really put it all together-- different aspects of the Hmong experience in Minnesota.
NINA MOINI: And why is that so important? What does it help with a community to be able to chronicle its history? Does it help with the future as well?
MARK PFEIFER: Absolutely. And it's kind of surprising. There have been articles about different aspects of the Hmong experience in Minnesota. But there hasn't been, like, a compilation that, again, brings it all together-- different aspects of experience. And that's what we're hoping to do here.
And Minnesota is very important in the Hmong community. It does have the largest metro area in the country of the Twin Cities-- more than 90,000 Hmong in the metro area here and also the second largest state population, after California. So it's kind of surprising there has not been a book like this to date.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, Txongpao, what do you hope that people, both Hmong people and people who are not Hmong, take away from this?
TXONGPAO LEE: Well, I believe that many people will learn what the Hmong history and how far Hmong [? have ?] coming up. And like Mark mentioned about, in the beginning, Hmong coming to Minnesota, we concentrate only Ramsey County and Hennepin County. And us now, Hmong has been spread to other suburban cities surrounding the Twin Cities here. So that's what Hmong has been going and has been making progress [? in ?] our life that we come far away from this country.
And we have been [? married. ?] And we have been survived, but we need to pass our history to the younger generation, how our parents and grandparents, they have been [? made it ?] this far. And this is to promise that we are one of the survivor who come here. And we want to let the younger generation to learn what we are doing and what we [? are ?] passing to the younger generation to keep [? their ?] [? book ?] as we are an refugee from other countries to live in this country in the state of Minnesota.
NINA MOINI: Txongpao, Mark, thank you both so much for sharing your work with us. And best of luck.
MARK PFEIFER: Thank you.
TXONGPAO LEE: Thank you for having us today.
NINA MOINI: Txongpao Lee's the Executive Director of the Hmong Cultural Center. And Mark Pfeiffer is the Director of Programs at Hmong Cultural Center and the Co-Editor of the Hmong Studies Journal.
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