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Tag: Community

Unit 2: Resilience and Resistance – Hmong Resilience and Resistance

Time Frame

  • 1–2 class periods

Materials

  • Hmong Politicians Profile Assignment worksheet
  • Green Card Entrepreneur Voices – Bo Thao-Urabe’s story
  • Hmong Town Marketplace and Hmong Village images

Connections to the 7 Cs of Ethnic Studies

  • Celebrate: using Hmong counter-stories and community narratives through storytelling
  • Challenge: understanding how Hmong individuals and organizations contribute toward action, organizing, advocating, and healing in their local communities

Instruction (ICCR)

Ignite: Qualities for Success

  • Display on the board an image of either Hmong Village or Hmongtown Marketplace in St. Paul, Minnesota.
  • As students are looking at the visual, share with them: 
  • Hmong immigrants arrived in the US with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and simple pots and pans. Look at the bustling marketplace on the screen, and think of what qualities are needed for survival and success. 

Turn and Talk

Ask students to brainstorm with an elbow partner what three qualities (bravery, hard work, etc.) they would need to survive and eventually open a store like the image on the screen, if they had to move to a new country with no knowledge of the language and no money.

  • Ask a few students to share out loud with the class.

Chunk: Resilience

Acknowledgement: This was the shared journey for many Hmong Americans. There are other Hmong narratives that may contrast this one, such as Hmong Chinese, Hmong Laos, Hmong Vietnam, and other groups with their own different experiences. Some may have fought along with the communists or with the Pathet Lao for their own survival or by choice. Similarly, not all Hmong followed the refugee journey or chose to migrate to the United States, as many chose to remain in Laos and Thailand, and some even migrated to different countries throughout the world. This lesson will focus mainly on the shared experience of Hmong Americans. 

Explain that the Hmong were an ethnic minority group from China. Throughout history, the Chinese and Hmong fought many wars against each other over land and resources. Eventually, Hmong fled China into Southeast Asia. In Laos, the CIA recruited the Hmong to help fight against communism and the Pathet Lao during the Secret War. They were recruited due to the Hmong being familiar with the land; many joined out of necessity to survive during wartime. When the US withdrew from the Vietnam War, they also abandoned the Hmong in Laos. The Hmong faced persecution and genocide by the Pathet Lao and had to fend for themselves in the jungles of Laos. 

The journey to get across the Mekong River to Thailand was in itself a journey of resilience. The Hmong had to hide in the jungle, forage for food, travel in groups, and often move under the cover of the night sky to evade the Pathet Lao. Along the way, some had to abandon personal belongings, some had to leave behind family members, some elders had to be carried, some crying babies were drugged with opium to keep them silent when the enemy was nearby, and some babies did not make it. It was their mental and physical resilience that helped them to reach the river and to cross it into Thailand to gain their freedom. (Background Information)

  • Resilience is the ability to get through an incredibly hard time and keep going. 
  • Quick Check-In: What is one example of how the Hmong showed resilience?
    • The Hmong had to hide, travel at night, and look out for each other in the jungle to reach safety across the Mekong River. 

Chunk: Resistance and Power

Transition from history to community, by introducing the clan system and political representation. Explain how Minnesota is home to over 90,000 Hmong immigrants, with St. Paul being the largest urban concentration in the US. 

Cultural strength

  • Explain how the clan system is a strength for the Hmong. Use a team analogy to help explain a clan; if one member of your team wants to start a business, everyone on the team pitches in to help.
    • Turn and Talk: Who is a part of your clan, or “team,” or the people you can always count on? 
  • Connection to Resistance: Explain to the students that resistance doesn’t always mean fighting, and can also mean organizing to make sure your people or community have a voice and receive fair treatment. 

Politics

  • For a long time, the Hmong community in MN did not have anyone in city or state government who understood their history or culture. Hmong lacked political representation until Mee Moua came along in 2002. Mee Moua was the first elected Hmong state senator.
  • Not only did she use her voice to make sure Hmong were heard, she also opened the door for Foung Hawj and others to follow, attracting Hmong Americans to participate in politics.

Chew: Bo Thao-Urabe’s Story

  • Provide an excerpt from “Bo Thao-Urabe” from Green Card Entrepreneur Voices, pages 11–12.
  • Have students read the passage of Bo’s experience with creating positive changes.

Group Task

  • Paragraph and Summary: One partner reads a paragraph; the other summarizes the paragraph in 5 words. Switch halfway through the reading.
  • Discuss and Analyze: 
    • Recall: What challenges did Bo face when she was growing up?
      • Sentence Starter: Bo faced the challenge of . . . 
    • Concept: How did Bo use her resilience to help her start her own projects?
      • Sentence Starter: Bo showed resilience by _____________; this helped her because ___________.
    • Connect: How does Bo’s story show resistance, using her power to create a positive change for others?
      • Sentence Starter: Her work created change for the community by __________.

Optional Extension Assignment: Hmong Politicians Profile Assignment

  • Create a list of Hmong politicians; have students pick one to research and complete a worksheet on.
    • Possible politicians: Kaohly Her, Fue Lee, Jay Xiong, Nelsie Yang, Samantha Vang, Mai Xiong, Susan Pha, etc.
    • See the worksheet.

Review: Exit Ticket

Have students fill in the blank to answer this question prompt: “The Hmong community united together and drew on their strength of ______________________ to challenge ____________________, and created a lasting change by _____________________.”

Multilingual and ELL Support

  • Provide a graphic organizer for the Hmong politician profile assignment.
  • Provide sentence stems for reflection questions:
    • A quality one would need is _______ because . . .   
    • I noticed that  . . .
    • I think / I believe Hmong American Day is important / not important because . . . 
    • I think many Hmong became interested/involved in politics because . . . 
    • We can celebrate / critique _______________ because . . .

Vocabulary and Definitions

  • System: the organized way of doing something based on the way it was set up and meant to work
  • Resilience: the ability to bounce back after a tough experience or time
  • Clan system: a large extended family connected by both a shared last name and shared ancestors
  • Change: the process of something becoming different than what it was before
  • Politician: a person elected to help run a government and make decisions for the city, state, or country
  • Entrepreneur: a person who starts their own business or projects to help solve a problem or provide goods or services

Resource List