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The Spirit Catches You

Many Hmong parents felt that by their child assimilating to American culture they were insulting the family and the traditions. Teens no longer wanted to eat traditional Hmong food, many of the teens rejected learning about early Hmong culture. Family was the most important priority to the Hmong's, when children started adapting western ideas of independence the parents could not understand and viewed it as disrespect. "My sister's don't feel their Hmong at all. One of them has spiked hair. The youngest one speaks mostly English"(207). The parents were also putting an extreme amount of pressure on the children. Due to the language barrier children had to take on these extra responsibilities in order for the family to survive.
             The United States of America played a huge role in the war in Laos. "The Hmong had a four-thousand year reputation as scrappy fighters"(127). It is for this reason that the American CIA asked the Hmong to take part in the War. The CIA inherited a highly trained gang of Hmong guerrillas to help aid America in the War in Vietnam. The Hmong agreed to help for fear that after the War their opium trade would be taken over by the Vietnamese. Also the Hmong believed they were likely to gain status if they came out victorious over the Vietnamese. The American's didn't have access to Laos because it was neutral land, by configuring a secret Hmong army to fight for the U.S.A there didn't appear to be any treaties broken. Furthermore American's weren't dying because the Hmong were fighting for them. The C.I.A. was also saving money by hiring the Hmong to do the job for roughly three dollars a month. Ninety percent of the villages were affected by War. The Hmong men were dying in mass numbers and the women couldn't farm the land alone. Villages were destroyed; cattle had no food source, the Hmong women and elderly couldn't maintain what was left of the land. This war had a huge impact on the Hmong, with many of the population dead and the land-destroyed families were forced to move.


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