The Latehomecomer

From 1980-1987, Kao Kalia Yang chronicles her evolving identity as a Hmong person living in Thailand, a land that is hostile to the displaced Hmong people. Being born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp, Yang emphasizes the importance that her family places on understanding the Hmong heritage. Before she can even speak, the adults around her constantly tell her that she is Hmong.

In January of 1987, Thailand starts closing its refugee camps. The American government is willing to take any Hmong people who pass an exam “stating they had fought under American leadership and influence during the Secret War in Laos from 1960 to 1975” (2). In preparation for this move to America, Yang and her family go to the Transition Camp to America where the adults take English classes, eat American foods, and dress in American clothing. Seeing her family say goodbye to their heritage makes Yang understand what it truly means to be Hmong. As she “watched the preoccupied adults around her preparing for a new life, trying to end a yearning for an old one that she didn’t know—she saw how their eyes searched the distance for the shadows of mountains or the wide, open sky for the monsoons, one last time before it was gone forever” (2).

She recounts how the Hmong people never had a country of their own and were always forced to leave places behind. At first the Hmong lived in China, but the Chinese took away their language and tried to enslave them. They then moved to Laos, but the Vietnam War occurred, resulting in two-thirds of the Hmong population being killed and the rest hiding in the jungle or surviving in refugee camps.

In 1987, Yang moves to St. Paul Minnesota with her family. There are no traces of Hmong culture or history in America, and as a result she feels as if the Hmong inside her has fallen silent. This is why she is writing her memoir, to give voice to the Hmong story.