|
New Orleans' Vietnamese draw
strength from past
04 Feb
2006 23:50:57 GMT
Source: Reuters
|
By Russell McCulley
NEW ORLEANS, Feb 4 (Reuters) - While a large swath of
eastern New Orleans remains desolate and without power,
hundreds of Vietnamese-Americans in one flood-ravaged part
of the district are busy rebuilding their once-thriving
community and rallying around the church that anchors it.
Every year, parishioners at Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic
Church gather to celebrate Tet, the beginning of the
Vietnamese lunar new year, with fireworks, dragon dances and
music.
This weekend's festival, the first since Hurricane Katrina
struck on Aug. 29, has more significance than ever following
the floods that killed more than 1,300 people and displaced
two-thirds of the city's population.
"Psychologically, it acts as a stabilizer," said Mary Queen
of Vietnam's pastor, Rev. Vien T. Nguyen.
"Every mark that we set has some symbolism to it, to show
people that it is business as usual, that we are home and we
are continuing."
About 1,000 of the church's 6,300 parishioners have returned
to Versailles, an eastern New Orleans neighborhood carved
out of swampland, Nguyen said.
A further 2,000 or so come in on weekends to work on
flood-damaged houses and to help restart the businesses that
serve the tight-knit community. Few residents or businesses
have returned to other parts of eastern New Orleans.
The revival of flood-prone neighborhoods has become a
politically contentious issue. City officials have suggested
that certain areas cannot be rebuilt unless enough evacuated
residents demonstrate an intent to return.
UPROOTED BY WAR
Kimberly Nguyen, who was busy preparing vermicelli, shrimp
and herb-stuffed spring rolls for sale at one of the
festival's food booths, said she was happy to be home after
evacuating to Lafayette, Louisiana, even though the early
days were difficult.
"When I came here we didn't have lights or water," said
Nguyen, who is not related to the pastor. "But we survived.
And we made it back."
Before Katrina, New Orleans and its suburbs were home to an
estimated 20,000 Vietnamese immigrants and their U.S.-born
children.
The first wave of Vietnamese arrived in 1975, many at the
invitation of the Roman Catholic archdiocese. About
two-thirds of those who settled in the region are Catholic,
with Buddhists and ancestral worshipers making up the rest,
Rev. Nguyen said.
Many in Versailles can trace their roots to three North
Vietnamese clans who fled to South Vietnam during the war
with the United States before relocating to eastern New
Orleans.
That shared history has been key to the neighborhood's
resurgence, Nguyen said.
"Not only just by being neighbors, but also by being clans,
being all family, we are obligated to lend each other a
hand," he said.
Most homes in the area took on between 5 inches and 1 foot
of water -- substantially less than harder-hit sections of
eastern New Orleans -- when breached levees inundated 80
percent of the city.
The church and an adjacent school served as a refuge for the
400 neighborhood residents who rode out the storm, Nguyen
said. When evacuees began returning in early October, the
parish used church property as a distribution center for
food and emergency supplies.
"The factor that plays into the tightness of this community
is that these people have migrated several times in their
life, first from North to South Vietnam," Nguyen said.
"People who are 60 and older, they know each other's
families, each other's ancestors and relatives."
|
|
Reset