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Expression of support for the Center for Hmong Studies.  

Statement for Concordia University-Saint Paul’s Center for Hmong Studies Open House

Good evening everyone. It is indeed a great honor to be in the presence of our great leaders, General Vang Pao, President Robert Holst, and other distinguished guest of honor.

Let me be the first to thank you all for setting some time out of your busy schedule to be with us here tonight. This is a beautiful night for everyone that has been involved with the Hmong community and the Concordia University-Saint Paul, especially those of you who are interested in the area of Hmong Studies.

My wife and I are thrilled and honored to have been asked to be the initial donor toward the challenge fund for the seed money to further develop the Center for Hmong Studies here at this great university. This will give the general public an opportunity to have access to resources in conducting their researches and studies related to and about my humble Hmong people’s way of life, culture, custom, economic, justice and so on…

For nearly three decades I have been serving the Hmong community as a liaison doing all sorts of works through out the Greater Twin Cities Metro Areas and Greater Minnesota. Early on and through out all of those times I felt that there is a great need for a resource center such as this Center for Hmong Studies to research further the specific information about our people. Many times many people had asked me for resources that might contain information relating to Hmong decision making process pertaining to the justice system. But I could not refer them to any place because there was no such place. Today I am happy to say that we are truly blessed to have passionate individual here at the university who had helped so much in shaping and putting together this once in a life time resource center, the Center for Hmong Studies.

President Holst! May the Hmong and I say "thank you to you, your board of regent, the anonymous donors that had contributed before and in the future, and the communities and families of this great Concordia University-Saint Paul tonight" for your care and kindness. May what you have given to the Hmong be blessed many times more over by your almighty God. May the Center be just as successful as wished. Thank you for your trust and faith in asking my wife and I to be a part of your work and this historic adventure.

My fellow Hmong! Please understand that I am not a rich person and that I do not want to just get rid of my money. I am a very poor person due to my commitment to my helpless fellow Hmong around the world. My family and I cannot even afford to live on with just our regular jobs. We have to farm and sell the left over produces at the local Farmers Market to make ends meet. We are still struggling with 16 hours a day and seven days a week. We had no vacations as other families have enjoyed theirs for the last 29 years. But I cannot resist a request to build a Hmong Study Resource Center. Once this request was brought to my attention, I have to find a way to help out. I always had. My hope is that with the contribution made tonight it will attract and gain your supports as well. I wish each of you can contribute at least ten to twenty percent of what my struggling family and I was able to share. My Hmong friends, we are here to live. Not just to visit. America is our home now. We were welcomes and have shared with for about 30 years. Now, it is our turn to contribute back to our new society.

General Vang Pao! Thank you for your care, leadership, and proper guidance and decision making in leading the Hmong to a better life. There is no doubt in my mind that without your patience and guidance there would not be a Hmong like myself able to donate a $20,000 to an American University such as this great Concordia University-Saint Paul. But most importantly there would not be a room full of Hmong intellectual, Business individuals, and Hmong Studies supporters like this crowd here tonight.

In the past, back in our motherland, the CIA had asked to use your hands to pass their money to the CIA foot soldiers, the Special Guerrilla Units (SGU), so that they would be proud to carry on in completing their missions. Tonight, may my wife and I ask once again to use your hands to pass along this check of $20,000 to President Holst, the Dean of Concordia University-Saint Paul to build a Center for Hmong Studies. It with my greatest wishes that the Center for Hmong Studies be further built to meet the needs of the whole communities internationally and not just for the Hmong.

Thank you!

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First of all I want to give a special "Thank You" to Dr. Holst, Lee Pao Xiong, and Concordia University for making this event today possible.

Dr. Holst, your friendship with the Hmong community, your leadership and vision for the Center for Hmong Studies is truly remarkable and needs to be commended.

As you know, the history of the Hmong is long, rich, and exciting. But before the Vietnam War era…the Hmong’s history and the Hmong were "little known" to anyone in the civilized world. We lived very simple lives throughout Southern China and into Southeast Asia.

Mostly, the Hmong were farmers who worked the land that Mother Nature supplied to provide food for their families. They lived mainly in the high mountainous regions of the country. There were few roads and less modern amenities such as: a) schools;

b) hospitals; c) medicines; d) and modern utilities.

And to the younger Hmong and Hmong professionals in this audience tonight…I share this little bit of history with you…not so much to remind you of how difficult life was for your parents and the elders. But more importantly so that you can have a "clear and firm" point of reference for gauging the importance of the Center for Hmong Studies, which Concordia University is working hard to develop.

For those of us Hmong who can call America home…we are fortunate indeed. We live in the most generous and prosperous nation on earth. We have opportunities that other fellow Hmong throughout the world cannot even dream of…because they have never known it.

Yes, we are fortunate indeed! We have worked very hard and are now witnessing the fruits of our labor. Our children are becoming valedictorians of their schools; we now have lawyers, doctors, engineers, commercial airline pilots, and even politicians!

Yet, with all of this tremendous progress and success…it is still very important for us to keep and preserve our history, our culture, and remember our roots. I’m not saying that we should live in the past…what I am saying though is that we can all learn from the past to make the future much brighter for everyone.

This Center for Hmong Studies is only as good as we make it! What I mean is that we need to utilize it, be involved in it, and support it both financially and emotionally. We cannot and should not just raise money to erect it and fill it with books, pictures and documents to enrich our lives and the lives of others.

And if done right, the Center can prove to be a very important focal point for all Hmong throughout the world to connect and enrich each other’s lives. It is unlimited what we can share. We can share music, history, words of compassions and hope; we can share knowledge to help Hmong farmers in China, Laos, and Thailand increase the yield per each hectare of land they are farming. Thereby increasing the amount of food they put on their tables and possibly some surplus that can be sold in new markets to bring them some much needed cash flow. This cash flow will than provide medicine, clothing, shoes, education, and other necessities for their families. These are the tangibles that we can measure.

I am hopeful that many of you present tonight will step up and make a valuable financial pledge. Your generosity will go to a very worthwhile cause. And will touch the lives of many people.

I usually don’t do this…but tonight I want to applaud the generosity of one Hmong individual who is stepping up in a big way.

I have known Xang Vang for over 30 years. He has proven himself to be someone with a very big heart and unbounded love for the Hmong people. He has been involved with many Hmong communities across America. From the East Coast to the West Coast.

He came to this country pretty much like any other refugee. He didn’t have money. He had to learn the language, culture, and laws. He and his wife have worked very hard to make a living ever since they arrived. And through their hard work and perseverance…they have tasted success. And while there were tough times during the last 30 years…they have persevered.

Today, they have opened up their heats and once again are showing how much they love the Hmong people. They are donating $20,000 to help develop the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University. This is truly an impressive amount! (Let’s all give Xang Vang and his wife a big applause…Thank you!)

And in closing my remarks, I just want to say that I firmly believe that Xang Vang’s generous contribution is just the beginning. That there will be many more Hmong people opening up their hearts and wallets to make the Center a success. I urge everyone here tonight, if they can, to make some type of donation…it does not matter how much…what’s important is that you gave what you can.

Thank you!

And may God bless each and everyone here tonight.

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By Yang Dao, Ph.D.

 Mr. President, General Vang Pao, Honorable Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am delighted to be invited to participate in the open house reception of the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University in Saint Paul. This is a great opportunity for many of us to meet together and to share our ideas about how to preserve Hmong history, culture and traditions for ourselves and for the generations to come in America.

When I first learned that the Center for Hmong Studies was to be created, I was very excited because I have dreamed for a long time to see such a center established in the Twin Cities which have become a new home for tens of thousands Hmong refugees from Laos. I believe, indeed, that the Center for Hmong Studies will contribute to keep our Hmong cultural heritage alive in this land of freedom and hospitality.

The history of immigrants has always told us that those who lost their countries to become stateless, would be gradually assimilated into the mainstream society, and finally be eradicated from their cultural identity. On May 15, 1975, when I left Laos with my family to cross the Mekong River on the road of our exile, I was caught by a sudden sadness caused by the loss of my country and the fear that our Hmong culture and traditions would be forever forgotten by young Hmong refugees who would grow up in foreign countries and by their children who would be born overseas.

Today, the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University has brought a great deal of hope to me and to the Hmong American community by defining its mission of collecting, preserving and perpetuating Hmong history, culture and traditions for our Hmong American community and for the generations to come. Therefore, I have come to join all of you today to celebrate the foundation of this center and to support its noble vision. I will do whatever is in my power to contribute to its development for the benefit of Hmong cultural heritage which is part of the world cultural richness.

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you again for giving me the opportunity to share my concerns about the future of Hmong culture in America, and my hope that the Center for Hmong Studies will become a treasure of resources for everyone, Hmong and non-Hmong, who wants to learn more about Hmong history, culture and traditions.

T H A N K Y O U