Vietnamese Set High Bar in Recovery

NEW ORLEANS – The view from Kinh Nguyen’s front door these days is nothing like the “abandoned cemetery” she saw upon returning to her New Orleans neighborhood two months after Hurricane Katrina.

Gone are the blue tarps and plywood boards that covered storm- damaged homes in Village de l’Est, a mostly Vietnamese-American neighborhood. Ms. Nguyen’s lawn, which turned dark brown after briny floodwaters killed her grass, is now a lush green. Streets once littered with storm debris are as clean and pothole-free as any in the city.

“They’re all back,” Ms. Nguyen, a 45-year-old mother of four, said of her neighbors. “Every home looks nicer, newer.”

Village de l’Est’s rebound has been a remarkable success story in this misery-stricken city. At the same time, for better or worse, the hurricane has brought profound political and cultural change to the community.

Language and cultural barriers long kept Vietnamese-Americans on the sidelines of the city’s civic scene after they began flocking to New Orleans after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Since Katrina, however, they have been emerging as a force where politics is customarily viewed in black-and-white terms.

“In a short period of time, they’ve had a major impact in the community,” said Jefferson Parish Councilman John Young, who represents a suburb with a large Vietnamese population.

The resilience of the Viet-namese-American community in New Orleans is a bright spot for a city still missing roughly one- third of the 455,000 residents who lived here before the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.

An estimated 90 percent of the 25,000 Vietnamese-Americans who lived in southeastern Louisiana before Katrina had returned within two years of Katrina’s onslaught, according to community leaders. They were among the first to start rebuilding their homes and reopening their businesses, and their community is recovering much more rapidly than other parts of New Orleans.

Like many of her neighbors, Ms. Nguyen didn’t wait for the government’s help to repair her home, a modest, ranch-style house. She moved her family back in March 2006, about 18 months before she received a federal housing grant.

To save money, she gutted the house and removed the mold herself, using directions she found on the Internet. Friends and relatives helped with some of the most grueling labor. Even the Catholic priests from her church, Mary Queen of Vietnam, pitched in and helped her fix her kitchen.

Adversity is nothing new to New Orleans’ Vietnamese. Many families lost everything before they fled Vietnam 30 years ago.

“Katrina itself is almost like a bug bite for us,” said Anh “Joseph” Cao, a lawyer who ran for state representative this year in a district that includes part of eastern New Orleans. “It’s sort of bothersome. It itches. But it’s not something we’re terrified of.”

Mr. Cao is a prime example of the community’s newfound political activism. Knocking on voters’ doors one recent evening, he introduced himself as the first Vietnamese-American to run for office in the city. Mr. Cao, one of six candidates on the Oct. 20 primary ballot, finished in fifth place in a tight race.

Residents of Village de l’Est aren’t content just to rebuild what Katrina destroyed. Some see an opportunity to turn the neighborhood into a destination for tourists looking for an alternative to the French Quarter’s excesses.

Originally published by Associated Press.

(c) 2007 Augusta Chronicle, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.