H. Phillip Nguyen, senior custodian of the Vietnamese of Community of Houston center, is pictured with the Hoa Mai, which some call the Morning Flower

 

Community center is connecting point for Vietnamese in Greater Houston and Vicinity
 

By Albert C. Jones
America, The Diversity Place

HOUSTON, Texas — At the community center for Vietnamese Community of Houston and Vicinity Inc., everyone has an “uncle” in H. Phillip Nguyen. Uncle Phil is a lively spirit who labels himself as MOM (Misbehaving Old Man).

Nguyen, wearing a felt fedora, puts you at ease creating moments of levity. He has never met a stranger and this first meeting is not an exception.

In South Vietnam, he was an adjunct professor and a Green Beret. Nguyen, who will turned seventy-one in April, describes himself as the senior custodian of the community center, running day-to-day operations. He is quite knowledgeable about what is going on in the Vietnamese Community of Houston and Vicinity and elsewhere, one might add, in the Lone Star State.

“Refugees came here from throughout Vietnam and they came from across the spectrum,” Nguyen said. “Some were intellectuals, some very wealthy, some penniless, some young and energetic to feeble old men. The former soldiers who came here in their late twenties and thirties are now senior citizens,” he said.

After the fall of Saigon, the Indochina Migration and Refugee Act of 1975 granted refugees special status to enter the country and established a domestic resettlement program. Vietnamese refugee centers in California, Arkansas, Florida and Pennsylvania matched new arrivals with resettlement agencies and sponsors. The original intent of the Indochina Migration and Refugee Act of 1975 was to scatter refugees throughout the U.S. to avoid creating “ghettos.”

Television images are easily recalled of “boat people” in fishing junks and trawlers being scooped out of international waters away from the coast of Vietnam. Escape, by whatever means necessary, would eventually see refugees resettled in Israel, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Nguyen relocated to Houston from Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he knew the state was limited in resources, especially when compared to Texas.

“Arkansas was one of the poorer states,” he said. “We knew there would be more opportunity in bigger states. Most favored coming to places with warmer climates like Texas and California. As word spread, we helped each other as best we could to relocate from other places in the country mainly to Texas or California.”

There have always been issues of adjustment from Vietnam to the United States, even more so all these years later now among a certain population of Vietnamese refugees. Even this many years later, it remains pertinent to ask questions related to adjustment and adjustment issues?

“I am glad you asked that question,” Nguyen said “It is a difficult journey for a lot of people. When I say a lot, I mean a vast majority. It is not easy being uprooted and come to a different culture with different traditions. Vietnam is tropical. The first time I ever saw snow was here in the U.S. Our youngsters have found it much easier to adapt.

“There was a humanitarian operation in which sixty thousand to eighty thousand prisoners and former prisoners were allowed to come here in the late nineteen eighties,” he said. “Some had been incarcerated thirteen, fourteen and fifteen years in Vietnam. They were usually in their fifties and sixties and some suffered from malnutrition and brutal treatment.

“Physically they were in very poor condition,” Nguyen said. “Add insult to injury, they had been separated from their families. In fifteen years, it was the first time they saw their wives. Fifteen to twenty years left an indelible mark on their psyche and made it hard to adjust. It was a brutal reality. Some were former civil servants and others are soldiers.”

On November 15, 2005, according to entries on the State Department Web site, the United States and Vietnam signed an agreement allowing additional Vietnamese to immigrate who were not able to do so before the humanitarian operation program ended in 1994.

“What we are seeing is they need help with mental health,” Nguyen said. “Asians tend to keep things in. They don’t like to lie down on the couch and discuss their problems, so they are suffering in silence. We desperately need help at all levels to help them with their problems. These are mental problems indicative of ethnic groups like African Americans and Hispanics.”

Joe Hoc Phan, a businessman, is president of VNCH. He succeeded Al Hoang, who was sworn in on January 2, 2010 as the first Vietnamese-American elected to Houston City Council.

VNCH is a nonprofit that operates as an umbrella for programs and services available to its habitués. It is illustrative of “People Bridges to People” and has connecting tentacles that reach Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and Tarrant County. There are no fewer than six Vietnamese senior organizations scattered throughout Houston.

“We provide information on requests for social services and medical services,” Nguyen said. “We help people gather information. Upon request, we can connect court interpreters and those who provide translation services.

“We also work in collaboration with different entities like the City of Houston and Harris County,” he said. “The Vietnamese Community of Houston and Vicinity hosts symposiums and workshops that include information on credit and credit cards, how to get a mortgage and medical services.

“The Vietnam Veterans war ended in 1975,” Nguyen said. “The youngest soldiers are now in their mid-50s. There is a list of demands that they need now. We help with services — grants and loans — for first-time homebuyers. If you reside in the house for five years, then the loan becomes a grant for them.”

The Harris County Immunization Mobile Outreach Team schedules regular visits to serve those connected with VNCH. A caseworker comes on the first Tuesday to assist with application for the HEAP program and other county programs that residents might be entitled to.

VNCH, which makes regular cash donations, coordinates with the Food Bank of Houston on different distribution points.

The VNCH was a testing and training site for preparations for the 2010 U.S. Census. There are between 120,000 to 150,000 Vietnamese in Houston. The last census counted 100,000.

“We promote full participation,” Nguyen said. “We want to make sure everyone is counted and we have helped get the word out on the importance of direct participation through radio and television.”

The VNCH, located at 7100 Clarewood Dr., hosts social gatherings, training classrooms, community partnerships, information center and helps to maintain cultural traditions common to Vietnam.

It is a few days since Tet, the lunar New Year in Vietnam that marks the arrival of spring. In the lobby, there is a Hoa Mai, which some call the Morning Flower. It has yellow blossoms and on its branches it is customary to hang gifts of new money. Good fortune and prosperity, for sure, are hoped for in the New Year, as well as the chasing away of evil spirits. Candied fruits and chocolate candy are also typical gifts.

VNCH was formed in 1983 with a small space that served as a mail delivery stop. That place was rented until 7100 Clarewood Drive was purchased. There are also burgeoning Vietnamese communities in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio. Communities in Texas are served by Công Đông, a 10,000 circulation monthly newspaper.

Students are connected to VNCH through a program that helps prevent at high-risk high school students from dropping out and matches mentors and mentees in the Houston Independent School District’s Sharpstown South and Westside high schools.

Vyenquan Pham, a college student studying in the medical sciences, is youth director for VNCH.

“We call upon Vietnamese students from Rice University, the University of Houston and Houston Community College to become mentors,” Nguyen said. “We provide support and make sure mentees stay in the program. We hope to build in them a desire to continue their education after high school.”

The Vietnamese Culture and Science Association holds a citywide luncheon the first Sunday in August that celebrates the academic achievements of all Vietnamese students, with special recognition for those who graduated as valedictorian or salutatorian.

The Moon Festival for Children, an all-day event in August or September is held at Children’s Museum of Houston. The Moon Festival gets nearly full participation from Vietnamese who live in Houston and vicinity.

The spacious VNCH has offices, banquet facilities, multipurpose room and a covered patio. The building was acquired in February 2008, just before the economy went belly-up in March and fund-raising became strained.

This area of southwest Houston that the VNCH has its community center is called Sharpstown. In its heyday, developers held distinction for creating a standard for a master-planned, mixed-use community. That was fifty years ago. Along Bellaire Boulevard, Vietnamese and other Asian businesses moved into once-shuttered storefronts and resuscitated a dying commercial center, creating a demand for more retail space.

The Super Neighborhood Council that represents Sharpstown found solution for more retail space working through the Southwest Houston Redevelopment Authority, Sharpstown Economic Development Authority, Southwest Houston Chamber of Commerce and the Sharpstown Civic Association. Rezoning changes were approved by the City Council.

The demand was met as warehouses and some apartment buildings were converted to retail space. The area has evolved to include Asian restaurants with the finest cuisine to be found in the southwestern United States.

Council Member Hoang is formulating plans for a beautification project for Bellaire Boulevard the main business thoroughfare that runs through Sharpstown.

Economic development is never far from the hearts and minds of the VNCH. However, when the Socialist Republic of Vietnam wanted to open a consul office in Houston, there was push back.

“Ninety-nine percent of Vietnamese people living in the United States are anti-communist,” Nguyen said. “We voiced our opposition to the consulate. The whole community organized. We held a number of demonstrations. We gathered petitions. We made our views clear to the City of Houston and the federal government. We voiced our opinion against the heavy suppression there. We were also mindful that monks and parish priests are being tortured there.”

Nguyen knows of ten people who went back to Vietnam with thoughts of staying.

“Seven came back,” he said. “The expectation of the people there is that they had returned from a place where everyone has the Midas Touch. They expect for you to come back and share your booty. When they discover that you are not wealthy, they make life hard for you.”

Vyenquan Pham, a college student studying in the medical sciences, is the volunteer youth director for VNCH and capital fund donor.