LAST BLOG!!

Well here we are guys. This is the "final" blogging assignment of the quarter, and I must say it was a fun ride. Don't get me wrong, it was a major roller coaster ride with many ups and downs but overall, it was a great learning experience. I've gone through periods of time where I honestly did not know where to look for information that suited my research topic. It was pretty frustrating, but like Professor Ivey said, just keep going and don't get frustrated with the lack of sources because that was a given when the topic was chosen. Even now, I'm finding it hard to find sources but I also didn't think I was going to find this much information in such a short amount of time.

During this long process, I've found out many things about my topic. I've learned that I need to sit down with my parents, uncles, aunts etc to find out more about my family history and Iu-Mien people in general. I've learned that I've been fortunate enough to have the life that I have today considering the circumstances in which my family endured back in their era. I've learned that to know what happened to the Mien people, I would have to find out about the rest of the Southeast Asian people (I.E articles on Vietnamese refugees) who immigrated to the U.S because they're more then likely to have experienced the same things that the Mien people did. I've learned that although the Bay Area (the people born here) didn't treat refugees good at first, they've been instrumental in shaping the refugees lives for the better. Through all the struggles and tribulations, the Iu-Mien people and the rest of the Southeast Asian people found a tad bit of peace here in the Bay Area.

The obvious question is where do I go from here? I've found out the basic history of refugees struggle to get to the U.S, and how they've adapted while they was here. What I need to find out is how their lives progressed into the 1990's and 2000's and possibly into this year of 2010 (a bit far fetched but hey, maybe right?). I still want to interview the person who basically described the Mien people in their homeland as cavemen. I would ask her what she thinks of us now? There's so much I want to find out, but I need guidance on where to go from here to find it.

What I walked away from this assignment was that there's so much history to be told even in research topics you'd never thought of having such history. I'm Mien, and I barely knew about my race's past besides the fact that we escaped communism and came here to the Bay Area. There are many people who don't know what Mien people are, and 9 times out of 10 a stranger would guess my race wrong. In doing this research, it enlightened me about what Professor Ivey said in the very beginning, "create your own history". You may find a roadblock somewhere in the process but once you find what you're looking for, there's no better feeling. Have a good one y'all I'm out!!