Ye Yang Moua lived in Souapham in Laos. She farmed and had daily chores. She came to Wausau in 1998. She has nine children and works at Fiskars.

Today is January 18, 1998. 

What’s your name?

My first name is Ye. My last name is Yang.

What country were you born in?

I was born in Ling Chieng.

What year were you born?

I was born in the fourth month on the sixth day in 1963.

How was life in Laos?

There were a lot of things. We farmed, killed pigs and chickens, cleaned the house, carried water, burnt wood, there was a lot to life in Laos because we were just farmers.

How long did you live there in Laos?

I lived there till I was about ten years old.

When war came in Vietnam, how old were you?

When the war came I was about ten or eleven years old.

What do you think about the war? 

It was a long time of heartache because my mother and my father and the old and the women and children were living behind the good things. But the men became soldiers with America helping the country fight against Vietnam so I have a lot of heartache talking about our life when the war was there, and being poor and without a lot of food.

Did you go live in the jungles?

We did go through the jungles.  Living in the jungle you ate bananas only.

While living in the Jungle, how was it trying to find food? How was it living in there?

You were poor and you didn’t have a house to live in. You just had a banana leaf shelter to live in.

Was life in the jungle hard or easy for you?

Living in the jungle was one of the hardest things in the world, and I didn’t like it at all.

When did you go to Thailand or cross the river to Thailand?

We had war until the end when we left the country. Our leader came to Thailand. That is why we ran through the mountains until the end. Then we decided to cross the river to Thailand.

Who took you to Thailand?

It was the soldiers who fought; that is how we came to Thailand.

What was Thailand like?

Getting to Thailand was not easy. It was very hard.

How did you cross the river?

It was a very hard thing. The people who had rubber tubes used rubber tubes to cross. The ones that didn’t, had ones cut out of bamboo and used it to cross. Some cut banana trees instead. It just depended on how you prepared. Some made it across the river some didn’t.

When you got to Thailand how did you live? How were you living in Thailand?

When we got to Thailand we went to Ya Ta Na. They did help with food. We became people of Ya Ta Na.

How long did you stay in Thailand?

We lived there for about eighteen or nineteen months.

Why did you come to America?

We didn’t want to come, but then the Americans came and started a war in our country. The Americans promised us if we lost our country, then they would help us. In the end, the Americans came and helped the soldiers and the officials to come, and we didn’t have a country anymore. That is why we decided to come to America.

Who sponsored you or who was your guardian to come to America?

It was our relatives and cousins that did the paper work and sponsored us to come to America. 

What city did you move into? 

We moved only to Wausau, Wisconsin.

How long have you lived here?

We have lived here six or seven years.

Is life in America harder or easier than living in Laos or Thailand?

Here in America, there are things that are hard and things that are easy. Coming to live America has been easy for the young people, but for older people it is hard because we don’t know English and learning it is hard.

Have you gone to school to learn or to a schoolhouse?

I have gone to school at church or at ESL, but I am old. And I can’t learn well, so it is hard.

Is learning in school or speaking English hard for you to do?

School is hard for us old people because we speak differently.

Have you ever worked?

 I have worked a little.

How are the American children different than the children in Laos?

The children in America and the children in Laos and Thailand are very different because in Thailand and Laos we told our children to go work. They listened and helped their parents. But when we came to America the children came to a carefree country where you can say anything or hurt them. You can’t teach them a lesson. At is why they don’t help their parents, and they don’t listen in the house or listen to their parents. In America we have a bigger heartache for the children than we did in Laos and Thailand.

What do you think the Hmong traditions or the children will be like in twenty years?

In twenty years, I don’t know how it’s going to be, but I look at the children today and think that they won’t know Hmong traditions and our language that much anymore because right now they don’t even speak our language anymore. I think that our Hmong traditions will eventually die.

Do you think that Hmong children should learn Hmong, Hmong traditions, or how to write in Hmong?

I think that it is a good idea for them to learn, but our children in America don’t do what we want, the ones who want to learn go and learn, the ones who don’t want to learn, don’t learn; that makes it hard on us Hmong parents.