Laotian Daughters and Monkey Dance

“LAOTIAN DAUGHTERS”

Once again, we are shown that oppression is grounds for resistance, as demonstrated by Laotian women in their efforts to create an effective, yet inclusive warning system for their county, provide bilingual classes to non-English speaking children, and restructure their school’s counseling system.  Besides challenging a variety of institutions’ biases or disregard towards the Laotian community—evident from the way the warning system in west Contra Costa County, an area predominantly inhabited by those of Laotian descent, failed to warn residents of the Chevron fireball eruption in a timely manner—the girls’ activism is an emblem of protest within itself.  These girls’ actions defied the common notion that because they are an ethnic minority and a youth, they would have nothing to do with the pollical and social climate around them.  Furthermore, the focus on trying to rally up enough people behind such efforts as opposing Proposition 227 was especially significant because many of those people were Laotians of older generations who had a tendency to shy away from speaking up against authority.  Not only did this highlight the different values each generation had ingrained into them while growing up, but the importance of youths as the bridge from past to the present was also emphasized.

“MONKEY DANCE”

A common theme throughout most of the featured stories in “Monkey Dance” was that the hardships that Cambodian immigrants faced made the act of succeeding in the US that much more important.  While all the parents wanted the best for their child(ren), there is an apparent conflict between letting these children become more westernized and staying close to their homeland’s culture.  Some, like Linda, choose to obey her parents, and feels that she has to prove that everything her parents went through was worth it.  Others, like Sochenda, wants to take all the opportunities being in America has to offer in order to advance his own independence.  In each of their own ways, these youths express in their journey some form of cultural resistance, whether it be in their own form of Cambodian dancing or spending money on car parts, that essentially declares their own unique presence as immigrants and citizens living in the US.