Immigrant Report is an online publication celebrating the immigrants of this country through their stories, art, and ideas.
All tagged Returning Home
Vietnamese who live in-country refer to those in the diaspora as Viet kieu – sojourners, those that wander. I was the first in my family to return to Vietnam since we fled in 1975, on an ill-defined quest to claim what I could of my early childhood memories of Saigon, and the family history that my parents could not share with me growing up in America.
It was springtime. The sweet perfume of the wisteria dominated the whole street. I approached the house and climbed stairs that were covered by the wisteria in full bloom. The canopy was still intact. The grape- like flowers dangled from the canopy like lanterns...
Leap, and a net will appear. I had come across this saying a while ago and it has been my motto ever since. My encounter with my newly found sister and what ensued in the following few months were just that. We took a leap and a net did appear!
At the heart of almost every Cuban-American family is a tragedy. Most of us were torn apart from loved ones by the passions of ideology. In some cases, this included fear of reprisals and imprisonment. Many also lost personal property. Wounds like these do not heal easily. So my first visit to Cuba after 52 years in exile began with heavy apprehensions...
American-born to immigrant parents, I was always trapped in the white space between a traditional Arab lifestyle and the American dream...
