The Hmong are a major ethnic group in Fresno, California. The Fresno Hmong community, along with that of Minneapolis/St. Paul, is one of the largest two urban U.S. Hmong communities. [1] As of 1993 the Hmong were the largest Southeast Asian ethnic group in Fresno. [2] As of 2010, there are 24,328 people of Hmong descent living in Fresno, making up 4.9% of the city's population.
Kou Yang stated that in 1977 Fresno had one Hmong family. According to Kou Yang, this increased to four in 1978 and five in 1979. In 1980 there were 2,000 Hmong in Fresno. In 1981 this increased to 7,000. In 1982 12,000 Hmong lived in Fresno. In 1989 there were about 26,000 Hmong in Fresno. As of 1993 there were about 35,000 Hmong in Fresno. [2]
Many Hmong who arrived in Fresno lived on public assistance in public housing projects; they were unable to work in agriculture due to a lack of technical skills and English skills. About half of the Hmong who arrived in the 1980s wanted to work in agriculture but the percentage who remained interested decreased to 20% after arrival, and they had insufficient funds to make another move. [3]
From 1998 to 2001, eight Hmong teenagers in Fresno committed suicide. [4]
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Mai Na Lee, the author of an encyclopedia article titled "Hmong of Minnesota and California," wrote circa 2013 that "The Fresno Hmong have the highest rate of poverty compared to those in other places." [4]
As of 2013 there were ten Hmong supermarkets in Fresno. Other Hmong businesses included financial service agencies, farms, video rental stores, medical offices, ranches, insurance companies, and chiropractic clinics. [4]
In 2002 Tony Vang received a school board position at the Fresno Unified School District. He was the first Hmong elected official in Fresno, [5] and the first Hmong elected official in California. The Fresno Hmong had advocated for California bill AB78 which established a recommendation for Southeast Asian history education in the California school system; this bill passed in 2003. [4] In 2006 Blong Xiong was elected to the Fresno City Council. He was the first Hmong person elected to a city council in California, and the first Asian elected to the Fresno City Council. [5]
As of 2013 the Fresno Center for New Americans (FCNA), a Hmong nonprofit organization has a yearly budget of over $2 million and 40 employees. It helps to serve as one of the Hmong political and civil organs and assisted with the 2006 election of Blong Xiong to the Fresno City Council. Other Hmong nonprofit organizations include the Stone Soup Fresno, Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries (FIRM), and Lao Family Community of Fresno. [4]
As of 2013 Fresno has two Hmong radio stations. [4]
The radio station KBIF 900 am, located in Fresno, airs programming oriented towards Hmong people. As of 2004 the station staff members state that 95% of the area Hmong community listens to the station. [6]
Hmong Today airs on KIFR.
In 2011, HmongUSA TV was established to serve the Hmong Community as a local TV station broadcasting on Digital Antena 31.9. The Hmong TV station served the surrounding Fresno area to Delano and up to the Stockton, CA. As of 2021, HmongUSA TV became available to all Streaming Platform, and SmartTV, Roku, FireTV, AppleTV, etc. HmongUSA TV is currently streaming through UNISON app. and is the only International TV station offering 24 by 7 Hmong programs.
The Hmong New Year is celebrated in Fresno. The celebrations are held outdoors and collectively it is the largest Hmong New Year celebration in the United States. [4] As of 2013 there are two separate celebrations, the Hmong International New Year at the Fresno Fairgrounds and another at Calwa Park in southeast Fresno. [7] Col. Youa True Vang founded the Hmong International New Year, which has about 100,000 annual participants. The United Hmong Council organizes the celebration at Calwa Park, which has no admissions charge. As of 2013 about 1,500 participated in the UMC celebration. [8]
The Hmong Music Festival (HMF) is celebrated in Fresno annually. [9]
As of 1993 in order to avoid competing with Fresno's Hmong New Year celebrations, organizers outside of Fresno schedule the Hmong New Year celebrations on days different from Fresno's. [2]
The Hmong people are an indigenous group in East Asia and Southeast Asia. In China, the Hmong people are classified as a sub-group of the Miao people. The modern Hmong reside mainly in Southwestern China and Mainland Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. There are also diaspora communities in the United States, Australia, and South America.
Vang Pao was a major general in the Royal Lao Army and later a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States.
Hmong Americans are Americans of Hmong ancestry. Many Hmong Americans immigrated to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s, with a second wave in the 1980s and 1990s. Over half of the Hmong population from Laos left the country, or attempted to leave, in 1975, at the culmination of the Laotian Civil War.
Major Vang Sue was a Laotian Hmong fighter pilot. Recipient of the USAF Distinguished Flying Cross. He flew over 5,000 combat missions as a T-28 bomber pilot. Vang trained briefly with Hmong fighter ace Lee Lue before Lee was shot down and became General Vang Pao's preeminent pilot after Lee's death. He frequently flew 15 days consecutively, and often as much as 15 sorties in a day. Renowned for his daring and bombing accuracy, Vang was shot down by anti-aircraft guns and killed in October 18, 1972.
Mai Neng Moua is a Hmong-American writer and a founder of the Paj Ntaub Voice, a Hmong literary magazine. She is also the editor of the first anthology of Hmong American writers, Bamboo Among the Oaks.
The Paj Ntaub Voice is the longest-running literary arts journal focused on Hmong art and culture, containing original literary and visual artwork as well as criticism.
The Hmong and Lao Memorial, or Lao Veterans of America Monument, is a granite monument, bronze plaque and living memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in the US. Dedicated in May 1997, it is located in Section 2 on Grant Avenue between the path to the JFK memorial and the Tomb of the Unknowns, in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, in the United States. The Laos–Hmong memorial commemorates the veterans of the "Secret War" in Laos who fought against invading Soviet Union-backed North Vietnam Army forces of the People's Army of Vietnam and communist Pathet Lao guerrillas. Approved by the U.S. Department of Defense, Arlington National Cemetery, and the U.S. Department of the Army, but designed and paid for privately by the Lao Veterans of America, Inc., the Lao Veterans of America Institute, and The Centre for Public Policy Analysis, the memorial stands as a tribute to the Hmong, Lao, other ethnic groups, and American clandestine and military advisers who made up the Secret War effort during the Vietnam War. The Lao Veterans of America, Inc. is the nation's largest ethnic Laotian- and Hmong-American veterans organization.
The alleged 2007 Laotian coup d'état plan was a conspiracy allegation by the United States Department of Justice that Lt. Col. Harrison Jack (Ret.) and former Royal Lao Army Major General Vang Pao, among others conspired in June 2007 to obtain large amounts of heavy weapons and ammunition to overthrow the Communist government of Laos in violation of the Neutrality Act. The charges were ultimately dropped and the case helped serve to further highlight, instead, major human rights violations by the Lao government against the Hmong ethnic minority, Laotian refugees, and political dissidents.
Gran Torino is a 2008 American drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, who also starred in the film. The film features a large Hmong American cast, as well as one of Eastwood's younger sons, Scott. Eastwood's oldest son of record, Kyle, composed the film's score with Michael Stevens, while Jamie Cullum and Clint Eastwood provide the theme song.
Bee Vang is an American actor of Hmong Thai descent. He is best known for starring in Clint Eastwood's 2008 film Gran Torino as Thao Vang Lor.
The Hmong are a major ethnic group residing in Merced, California. As of 1997, Merced had a high concentration of Hmong residents relative to its population. The Hmong community settled in Merced after Dang Moua, a Hmong community leader, had promoted Merced to the Hmong communities scattered across the United States. As of 2010, there were 4,741 people of Hmong descent living in Merced, comprising 6% of Merced's population.
The Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA), or Centre for Public Policy Analysis, was established in Washington, D.C., in 1988 and describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan, think tank and research organization. The CPPA is a non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on foreign policy, national security, human rights, refugee and international humanitarian issues. Its current executive director is Philip Smith.
May Song Vang was an American Hmong community leader and activist. She was the widow of General Vang Pao, a former member of the Royal Lao Army and prominent Hmong American leader, who died in 2011. May Song Vang became a more prominent symbol of the Hmong American community in California and the rest of the United States after the death of her husband.
The Hmong people are a major ethnic group in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. As of 2000, there were 40,707 ethnic Hmong in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The 2010 U.S. Census stated there were 66,000 ethnic Hmong in Minneapolis-St. Paul, giving it the largest urban Hmong population in the world. Grit Grigoleit, author of "Coming Home? The Integration of Hmong Refugees from Wat Tham Krabok, Thailand, into American Society", wrote that the Minneapolis-St. Paul area "acted as the cultural and socio-political center of Hmong life in the U.S."
The Hmong population in California is the largest in the United States. Most fled to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s due to their cooperation with the Central Intelligence Agency operatives in northern Laos during the Vietnam War, or are a descendant.
Hmong writing refers to the various writing systems that have been used for transcribing various Hmongic languages, spoken by Hmong people in China, Vietnam, Laos, the United States, and Thailand, these being the top five countries. Over a dozen scripts have been reported for Hmong, none of which is considered standard for transcribing the languages in the eyes of the speakers.
The Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 2000 is legislation which granted Hmong and ethnic Laotian veterans, who were legal refugee aliens in the US from the communist Lao government, and who also served in U.S.-backed guerrilla, or US special forces-backed units in Laos, during the Vietnam War, "an exemption from the English language requirement and special consideration for civics testing for certain refugees from Laos applying for naturalization." The initial Act gave these alien veterans eighteen months since the day of the bill's passage by the U.S. Congress, and its signature by the President of the United States, to file a naturalization application for honorary U.S. citizenship. However, the Act was later amended by additional legislation passed by the United States Congress which extended the N-400 filing date by an additional 18 months.
Wangyee Vang is a Hmong-American community leader, educator and elder from Fresno, and the Central Valley, of California.
The Lao Veterans of America Institute (LVAI) is a national non-profit organization based in Fresno, and the Central Valley, of California, with chapters throughout California. It is one of the largest ethnic Lao- and Hmong-American veterans organizations representing tens of thousands of Lao Hmong veterans who served in the Vietnam War in the Royal Kingdom of Laos as well as their refugee families who were resettled in the United States after the conflict.
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