When I was in my freshman year of college at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, we did a unit in one of my classes about the Vietnam War and talked about the large population of Hmong in Wisconsin and Minnesota.  The class was in the process of reading a book called The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman.

When I saw the book on the reading list, I wasn’t too excited about it and assumed it was going to be another boring read.  Instead, from the first chapter I was captivated by the story about the experience of a young Hmong child, her family, and the various struggles they faced when moving to the US after the Vietnam War.  The story humanizes an experience many people don’t have to deal with.  I found myself enjoying myself throughout the whole story.  The author actually met up with the family to get the story.  The book opened my eyes to another culture in a way that I hadn’t experienced before.

One of our assignments to go along with the book was to go and listen to 3 audio recordings of immigrants telling their stories and transcribe them.  The task was tedious, but hearing people tell their own stories hits differently than reading about it in a news article.  All the stories that were available to listen were about people that lived in and around the La Crosse community.  I will be honest and admit that I hadn’t really heard about the Hmong until this class.  The transcripts we used were on campus at UW-LAX, but you don’t have to be there to access similar stories.

 

The Immigrant History Research Center at the University of Minnesota has a project to collect stories from immigrants.  There are hundreds of people of all ages recording their unique experiences.  You can find them here.  I encourage you to check them out!

For more information about Immigrant Stories: https://immigrantstories.umn.edu/about/show

Link to The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: https://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Catches-You-Fall-Down/dp/0374533407