THẾ HỆ KẾ THỪA CỦA NHỮNG NGƯỜI VIỆT NAM TỴ NAN CỘNG SẢN SAU NĂM MƯƠI MỐT NĂM

Today, our 8th-grade VDLI students performed at the Black April Commemoration at the City of Westminster. The speech you will watch below is entirely written by them based on their interviews with their parents and their reflections. In class, we worked on inserting figurative language, imagery, historical connections, and narrative components in order to enrich their abilities as writers in Vietnamese. Always proud of the students.

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Part I: April 30 and the Journey to Freedom

TN: Dear honored guests, we are 8th grade students from the Vietnamese-English Dual Language Program at Warner Middle School in the Westminster School District. In remembrance of April 30, we completed a project in which we interviewed our parents, grandparents, and family members about their journey to freedom. This is our Oral History Capstone project.

LP: The clock moves: tick-tock, tick-tock. Its hands pointed to exactly 11:30. The date on the calendar was April 30, 1975. The streets were filled with the roar of tanks, the crack of gunfire, the sound of shouting, and the voices of people calling out to one another in fear and confusion.

TN: When Saigon fell, the whole country was thrown into chaos. In that moment, my grandmother did not know whether my grandfather, a police officer, was still alive or had already been killed. She had lost everything: her future, her homeland. She had to make a choice: to rise again, or to sink into sorrow.

ID: My mother told me that, on that night, the sky was pitch black, as if it were holding all the sorrow of the world in its arms. Waves crashed against the fragile wooden boat, making my mother tremble with fear. Death felt close. Despair surrounded her. But deep in her heart, there was only one dream: to survive, to reach the shore of freedom, and one day to sponsor my grandparents.

Part II: Generations of Refugees

BH: Before our country was divided in 1954, in the North, anyone who owned property could be labeled a landlord and denounced by the Communists during the Land Reform campaign. They were dragged before crowds, criticized, condemned, beaten, and killed. More than 100,000 people were denounced and robbed of their lives. Because of this, my grandmother had to leave her village and migrate to the South by boat when she was only five years old. Then, on April 30, 1975, my grandfather was arrested and sent to a re-education camp, and once again, my family had to search for every possible way to escape.

LT: All three generations of my family are refugees. Before 1954, my great-grandfather served as a soldier for the State of Vietnam. On the night of April 30, 1975, because he did not want to be arrested and sent to a re-education camp, my great-grandparents led their children in an escape to Bình Thuận. Later, my great-aunt found a way to flee by boat to America, seeking refuge and freedom.

KT: Fourteen is the age when I am able to enjoy some of the most innocent days of student life. But many years ago, also at the age of fourteen, my father had to gamble with his own life. In the middle of the vast ocean, on a boat crowded with people, the only thing he had left before the violent waves was a fragile hope: the hope to live.

LT: Even when hardship piled upon hardship, my parents never gave up. Day after day, they did not merely survive; they moved forward. Through everything, my parents taught me the values that matter most: to live with kindness, to love others, and to follow my passion.

Part III: The Legacy of Freedom

TN: This is not only the story of my family. It is also the story of many refugee families who sacrificed so that their children and grandchildren could have a brighter future.

ID: The story of my parents is not only a story of the past. It lives on in every opportunity I have, and deep within my heart.

LT: My parents are not only the people who care for us. They are two precious gems, the two most treasured people in my life.

KT: I am not only my father’s daughter. I am also the child of a boat person, someone who drifted at sea for ten days, through hunger, suffering, and despair. My father’s journey did not end with him. It has continued, and it continues brightly, through me.

LT: Even far from their homeland, my parents have held on to their identity, like a small flame always burning in their hearts. And that flame still lights the path before me today.

LP:

A parent’s love rises higher than the clouds;

Their care and tenderness fill our lives.

The example they built before us

I promise to remember all my days.

BH: Dear honored guests, on this day of remembrance for April 30, we honor all the soldiers, officials, and public servants of the Republic of Vietnam who sacrificed for a just cause, including the generation of our grandparents.

LT: Because of them, we have freedom. For more than fifty years, this community has struggled to preserve the Vietnamese language and Vietnamese culture, so that we may stand here today with what we have inherited. We promise to continue preserving the legacy that our grandparents, elders, aunts, uncles, and community members have worked so hard to build.

All Students: We thank you. Chúng con kính cảm ơn!

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