Houng Baccam: Transcript

Tai Dam musican
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That is a kind of musical instrument that most of the Tai Dam used to play with that. Now in our custom, we didn’t have a dating, like here. In dating you must go to the girl’s house. And the girl couldn’t get out of the house during the night. So the boys, if they wanted to talk to the girls, they had to go to their house and play the music and wake them up so they can open up the door for you. And you can go in. You adapt your tone with idea like a “Dear darling, it is very late. I was waiting for you. Please wake up and come and chat with me.” That kind of thing—so you must be good poem writer.

Since 1947, the war started in our area—Tai Federation. We—when we was refugees for almost two years, then Vietnam divided too. Then we evacuate refugee in Laos from 1954 until 1975. The communists came again to Laos, and we fled Laos to Thailand. We asked the Thai government to allow us to stay in Thailand because we have the same language. But the Thai government said that they won’t be able to take any refugees and they were sorry. So we look up a friend who formerly a teacher in Laos. So we ask him to help us to write 30 letters. But luckily at that time in 1975, Governor Ray got a call from State Department to get help for refugees from Indochina. So we was lucky Governor Ray to take us to Iowa.

Every refugee came to this country must have a sponsor, so they sign a paper agreement with a bill, and take their family with them and teach them how to live in this country. So our life start from there. And most people they don’t speak English, so they learn a lot of language. And we settled in an apartment to get started. You never treated fairly, cause when you a refugee your future was that in the dark. Living in miserable condition, so your hope was how to get out as quick as possible. But at that time, nobody knows you are living in a camp, a refugee camp. Until you get a visit from the United Nations—that is the representation for the refugee.

When we move from Hanoi to Laos, then the Lao government took us to an isolated area, and we had to build our village. When we came there to build a village, we had to help each other. “Today I finished your house. Tomorrow you finish my house,” and so on. So, we stick together, because when—in our letter, you want to settle in a group because of the tie of the family. And we don’t used to live separately, even when displaced in many countries. But we stay the same culture; because of that, we keep the song, and keep the music, and the culture stays.