Vietnamese American scholars, artists, and organizers reflect on migration, memory, and the future of their community.
By Viri Garcia Gallardo, Executive Editor
The Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, marked the end of the Vietnam War and sparked a mass exodus of Vietnamese refugees. Many fled by boat or on foot, risking their lives to reach safer shores. That painful history remains foundational to the Vietnamese American experience. What came after was not just migration, but the birth of a new community, in an exile that rebuilt itself across continents, specifically in Southern California.
Five decades later, Cal State Dominguez Hills convened a panel on Apr. 16 to recognize and reflect not only on what was lost but what lies ahead. The event, titled “Fifty Years Forward: Imagining the Vietnamese American Future,” served both as a remembrance of loss and a call to action.
Panelists offered perspective on migration, resilience, and reinvention, and how those forces continue to shape Vietnamese American identity, particularly in communities like the Little Saigon neighborhood in Orange County. The conversation centered on the ways Vietnamese Americans have perceived their culture while navigating systematic barriers, political challenges, and intergenerational shifts.
“We mourn the loss of a nation,” said Châu Thųy, director of the Vietnamese Heritage Museum. “If I make it to a freedom land, I have to remember family,” he said.
Thųy, who fled Vietnam in 1980, shared stories of the “boat people” who escaped by sea and the “land people” who crossed into Cambodia and Thailand on foot. The museum, he explained, preserves these experiences through artifacts as a living testimony to survival and identity, including the actual boats people used.
While the discussion was rooted in history, panelists focused on the future, addressing the challenges of intergenerational communication, political advocacy, and cultural preservation within the Vietnamese American community.
After the war, a 2008 repatriation agreement between the United States and Vietnam protected those who arrived before July 12, 1995, from deportation. The Trump administration reinterpreted the agreement a decade later, leading to the deportation of thousands of long-time Vietnamese American residents.
The policy change ignited a new wave of grassroots organizing in Little Saigon. Organizations like VietRISE quickly became a hub for advocacy around housing rights, immigration protections, and economic justice.
Hang Nguyen, executive director of the Boat People SOS Center for Community Advancement (BPSOS), said the fight today is about visibility and relevance. The organization was founded by refugees, Nguyen said, “and we’re still here.”
However, Nguyen acknowledged a growing generational gap in her community between elders who lived through the war and the younger generations who inherited its legacy.
“Newer immigrants may not share the same historical memory of the war,” Nguyen said. “That makes it harder to engage them in advocacy unless we also teach them what it is to be part of history.”
Even in food and business, the challenge of bridging generations persists. Software engineer Kelvin Nguyen and his wife are the owners of Quán Cà Cän in Garden Grove. The couple wanted to preserve the traditions of Vietnamese food while appealing to new customers.
“A lot of our customers are from District 5 in Saigon,” he said. “But we also have to think about how to pass this on to the next generation.”
Panelists didn’t shy away from this topic during the event at CSUDH. Ysa Le, executive director of the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA), said that her community has “so many stories to tell,” but few Vietnamese American voices present in U.S. mainstream media.
VAALA was co-founded by Le’s father alongside other artists and journalists. The organization faces challenges common to nonprofits—limited space, staffing, and burnout. Le estimated that 20,000 to 50,000 square feet would be needed to build a true space for the community. Le warned of what she called a “dark future” without the platforms to elevate Vietnamese American narratives
Asian Pacific studies professor Y Thien Nguyen agreed, saying Vietnamese Americans experience erasure in mainstream public discourse.
“When there’s no venue or forum for Vietnamese students to express themselves, they—and our history—become invisible,” he said.
Nguyen of BPSOS echoed Le’s sentiment, noting that newer immigrants often don’t know about the war or its aftermath, which leads to cultural loss and generational leading to cultural loss and generational disconnect. Other panelists mentioned that the Vietnamese language must also be cared for to preserve its various dialects and traditions.
Across industries and generations, the panelists returned to the same idea: that the future of the Vietnamese American community depends on how its stories are carried forward. Whether through media, memory, food, or advocacy, preserving the past while engaging the next generation remains both a challenge and a responsibility.
Nhien Nguyen, a journalist with Nguoi Viet News—one of the oldest and largest Vietnamese language dailies published outside Vietnam—discussed the role of ethnic media in unifying the community.
As younger audiences turn to social media, Nguyen said the publication has expanded to platforms like YouTube and Facebook to stay connected. “We’re trying to bridge the gap from the old to the new generation.”