Daily Life in New Mexico

Originally, Life in New Mexico for Vietnamese refugees is full of hard work. If they weren’t working hard and trying to support their families, they were going to language classes and trying to understand how to work and live in a completely new place to them. Many Vietnamese people got assistance from the Catholic churches around the city. Although it would take some more time, Vietnamese people were trying to stay afloat and intergrate themselves into New Mexican culture.

Community Building

Community building went very well for Vietnamese refugees in New Mexico. Vietnamese refugees from different parts of Southern Vietnam, quickly came together in New Mexico and created tight-knit communities that allowed for later Vietnamese refugees to more easily integrate to New Mexican society.This adaptation of life in New Mexico made it possible for Vietnamese refugees to express their culture far away from home.

Vietnamese people would bond over shared experiences in Vietnam and during the war. This keeping together mentality made for a Vietnamese community to quickly develop in New Mexico. Once new Vietnamese people arrived in New Mexico from places like California, they were quickly welcomed and helped with getting a job and finding their families. For many Vietnamese families, it was not uncommon for them to give silverware, plates, and bowls to newly arrived or struggling Vietnamese families. The closeness of the Vietnamese community in places like Albuquerque and Santa Fe allowed for Vietnamese culture to remain alive and well thousands of miles away from home.

Soon after the arrival of Vietnamese people in the United States, their family owned businesses became a part of Vietnamese social life. In places like beauty salons, Vietnamese women and girls could gather to talk about family issues, living in the United States, and other topics. While these salons existed to make a living for Vietnamese people and their families, they gave Vietnamese women a place to have a good time and catch up with neighbors, friends, or family members.

Vietnamese Resilience and Identity

In the period immediately after arriving to the United States, many Vietnamese professionals got to working hard and creating a better life for all Vietnamese people. Although there were people like doctors, mechanics, and lawyers among the first Vietnamese refugees to New Mexico, they abandoned their original practices to become hard laborers to create a new life in this new land. Although over qualified, these Vietnamese laborers created an image of hard-working, diligent workers that gave other Vietnamese people hope that they could create a living in New Mexico.

Fleeing from Vietnam was traumatic in more ways than just fleeing the violence. Many Vietnamese people hopped on boats, helicopters, or planes without knowing if they would ever see their families again. The trauma that comes with fleeing war and having to begin from zero, had a profound effect on Vietnamese workers. This trauma soon became a refusal to accept tragic circumstances and created this idea of hardworking, relentless Vietnamese people that encouraged other newer refugees to try hard and gain a stable life.

Vietnamese people were not only hard workers, but they carried themselves with humility and did back breaking work without complaining, because they knew that the only thing they could rely on was their hard work. This combination of humility, dilegence, hardwork, and determination kept Vietnamese identity strong thousands of miles away from their home country. This perseverance not only became important for survival, it became cultural preservation and aligned perfectly with the hardworking nature of many of the inhabitants of major cities in New Mexico like Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Health Issues

Vietnamese resilience is a result of the traumatic events that transpired because of the Vietnam War and the violence they experience. While it is a good motivator for a better life, many Vietnamese people experienced physical and mental conditions as a result of the traumatic experiences they went through. From the violence in Vietnam to the boat rides in the ocean, Vietnamese people developed some conditions.

Unsurprisingly, there are large numbers of Vietnamese refugees who have varying degrees of PTSD from the violence they experienced in Vietnam. Many Vietnamese people who were tested and questioned years after they came to New Mexico were found to have conditions like depression and anxiety. Many of the people who were tested were found to have at least one condition caused by the forced moving from their hometowns or as after effects of the War that they witnessed.

Vietnamese people health is interesting because of the ways that it is accessed and assessed. As previously stated, beauty salons are a social space for many Vietnamese women. These women can with family members or friends at these salons and are places that many Vietnamese women frequent. However, salons also have a lesser known use that helps with gauging public health. Since many Vietnamese women enjoy spending time at the salon with their familiars, salons have become very effective ways to survey and conduct health research. Since salons are seen as social spaces for many Vietnamese women, they often talk to their cosmetologist about health related issues. Using salons as ways to reach out to Vietnamese women is an interesing way to get people more aware of their health and learn about how to identify issues like cervical cancer.

Sources: -https://unmm-my.sharepoint.com/personal/kleong_unm_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fkleong%5Funm%5Fedu%2FDocuments%2FDocuments%2FSpring%202026%2F1105%2FFinal%20project%2FThe%20Range%20of%20Symptoms%20in%20Refugees%20of%20War%5FThe%20New%20Mexico%20Refugee%20Symptom%20Checklist%2D121%20SEA%20NM%2Epdf&parent=%2Fpersonal%2Fkleong%5Funm%5Fedu%2FDocuments%2FDocuments%2FSpring%202026%2F1105%2FFinal%20project

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