My Grandfather’s Story - By: Ha Huynh

Some Americans may wonder why many Vietnamese went to America to live and work. Even when I was a child, and knew that my Dad’s family immigrated to America, I would ask my mom why they did not live in Vietnam anymore. Although she explained it for me many times, I did not really understand very well. Until my family came here, my grandpa told us everything. He had to leave because our country’s condition was disordered at that time. There was a partition between North and South Vietnam. It created two different regimes: the communism and republicanism. Particularly, the communism was for the North Vietnam, and the republicanism was for South Vietnam. In addition, the communist regime was very ruthless; they used to exploit people from the republic regime by forcing them to work and provide foods for them. As a result, the people who could not accept oppression and maltreatment of the authorities, went to find a way that they could escape the dark life.
My grandparent’s family had six children: two boys and four girls total. Everybody in my grandparent’s family was short, except my dad. He looked better than the others did. They lived in a small town in South Vietnam where I was born and grew up. Although it was just countryside, its scenery was very attractive. It had a flock of storks always flying over the paddy field, every day before the sunset. The farmers used to say, it was a time that the stork got out from school and came back to home. Moreover, the smell of the ripe paddy field was very sweet. It made up a flavor of the native land. Besides, there was a sound very clear from the chicken, who used to crow to wake people up every morning. Sometimes, some people used to use it as an alarm clock though. This was very magnificent small town. At a time I was growing up, that was a communistic period, the time when the people did not have any freedoms or possessions. They lived in misery and difficulty. They had to farm day by day, but their harvest did not belong to them. The landowners were the people who owned the certain land. The landowners and communists appropriated a greater part of their harvest and only divided it depending on their ability (if someone worked hard, they would be given more than the opposition). In my grandpa’s family, it was just my dad and uncle who tried to farm all day, because they were the boys in the house. Although they worked hard and exhausted themselves, they did not divide the rice in their favor, it was just enough for meals in a day. At that time, my grandpa joined America’s army, which was why he could not help his family. The purpose he joined America’s army was because he wanted to oppose the communist regime and to bring the freedoms back to the republican regime. Nevertheless, not everything carried out like what he wanted. The communists hated the people who worked for Americans. They were afraid of the Americans would come and fight them. However, Vietnam had not made friends with America yet. Therefore, they tried to find many people easy to arrest and imprison, even my grandpa. While he was in prison, my grandma had to take care of their children and everything in the house. The women used to be weak, but she was a strong mother who took the responsibility to care for the whole family. Yet that was not enough, when my grandpa was not at home, the communists tortured them all the time. They used to come and search the house. Not until six years later was my grandpa freed. That was a long time after he got out from prison and came back home.
In 1989, America’s government sponsored a program, which is the priority for the people who used to work for America’s army. It was called “H.O.” That was really a big chance for the people who wanted to escape a dark and miserable life and to have freedom and possess products for which they worked. However, if they wanted that, they had to leave their native country. It was hard to leave the country where they were born and grew up after a long time. It was a big loss for them too. If they decided to leave, they would lose their possessions like house, land, paddy, etc. Thus, my grandpa wavered a lot about this, but because of his family, his family’s future, he thought America was an open country, so it would be easy to live and work there. After that, he decided to apply to go to America. He waited for 3 years until 1992, when his application was approved. The first time they lived in America, it was very difficult. When they moved from this country to other country, the situations and conditions was dissimilar. On the other hand, my grandparents were old, 52 years. This age could not do anything heavy or hard, but they tried to find jobs, which was just $6 per hour. Therefore, their income was not much. That was why they rented and lived in an old apartment. It was not really comfortable and convenient, because the apartment usually was very cramped and did not have enough furniture to satisfy their needs. In spite of that, they did not give up. They tried more and more, and finally, their lives became better than before. They bought a new house, had everything in the house, and enough room for each person too. When the life seemed come easier for them, my grandpa thought about sponsoring my family. My family had five people: my dad, mom, brother, sister, and me. My grandpa wanted us three siblings to have a better education and life. Doing this, it was not easy for him because he had to pass an examination in English to take his citizenship. At his age, it was very hard to learn English, because his brain seemed not to be active anymore. Everybody thought that he could not, but he passed luckily. We were really surprised and happy. After that, he applied for us to come. Now, I am living here and attending this class. I feel that I am lucky because this is where I can have great conditions for studying and developing my future.
Maybe my story will be boring for somebody, but it is a true one though. Now, all my family is living together. Nothing can compare to that happiness. To me, I always think of my grandpa with the best admiration, and respect. After all that he spent, he always taught me “There are a lot of difficulties in our life, but if we try our best, we can succeed.” That is a valuable lesson that I have learned from him. I will remember this lesson and it will belong to me all the time. I am proud of my grandpa, who is a patient person, who always behaved with kindness to people, who loved his children, grandchildren, and me.