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Thursday, February 19, 2009
Call It 'The American Dream Zone,' Not 'The War Zone'
By Jim Scarantino
Associated Press
Albuquerque City Councilor Rey Garduño wants the neighborhood sometimes referred to as “The War Zone” officially named “The International District.” I would like to suggest a subtitle: “The District of All-American Heroes and Dreams Come True.”
This is the neighborhood of Lily Nguyen, one dreamer and hero who in her small way helped turn this area around. For five years she and her husband Hue have operated their family restaurant, Pho #1, on San Pedro between Central and Zuni. Her path to becoming a successful American businesswoman begins in the jungles of Vietnam near the Cambodian border.
She shares her tale in broken English. It comes with tears. “I cannot tell my story without crying,” she says. “I am so very happy.”
Lily's father was an American soldier she never knew. While war still raged, her mother moved the family from the outskirts of Da Nang to the interior. At age 10, Lily was orphaned. She took over the job of raising her younger brother and sister.
Her country was struggling to recover from 30 years of fighting France and the United States. The Khmer Rouge were slaughtering a million people across the border, only a few mountains and rivers away. “We saw so many bad things,” she says, but refuses to elaborate.
To survive, Lily worked 16 to 20 hour days in a sleeping pad factory. Then she would head home to care for her family. Two hours' sleep was a luxury. But no matter how hard she worked, the young trio never had enough to eat, never enough clothes, and never enough money for medicine.
When her brother and sister got so sick they neared death, all Lily could do was pray. She contemplated suicide at the prospect of their dying. She couldn't face life without them.
Lily sacrificed her education so her siblings could learn. They were extraordinarily bright and diligent. But they were too ashamed of their poor clothes to attend a ceremony recognizing their accomplishments. Teachers brought the awards to their home and conducted a discreet celebration for these hungry, ragged honor students.
A Catholic mission relocated Lily and family to the United States in 1991. She landed in Albuquerque and immediately fell in love with the city. “The people are so nice, not like Boston,” which she once visited. “People there are scared of each other.”
Here she met Hue. With only a sixth-grade education he is nonetheless a skillful mechanic, having acquired his craft in Vietnam from his grandfather.
Lily and Hue operated an auto-repair business for 15 years. Lily took on additional jobs to earn extra money. Five years ago, they opened Pho #1 without a single loan or government handout.
Algebra and American history texts and notebooks crammed with class lessons are scattered on a table near the cash register in their restaurant. Their three school-age sons study here in between cleaning tables and delivering orders. All three have been placed in gifted classes.
Lily's 2-year-old boy tags along at her side as she greets regular customers by name.
“I always tell my boys,” says Lily, “to seek honor, take responsibility, and pay attention to everything you do,” lessons as important as anything they will hear in a classroom.
Lily's brother who almost died from lack of medicine now studies to be a pharmacist. Her sister who once lacked suitable clothes to attend a ceremony in her honor received her high school diploma with the rest of her class.
Lily and Hue Nguyen are not the only all-American heroes in this neighborhood. In each neat house with fresh paint, in the scores of small businesses and the ethnic restaurants that are a joy to discover, live and work people who dug in and stood their ground when this was, indeed, the War Zone.
Now it is the International District, a place where dreams come true. By hard work and perseverance, by seeking honor and taking responsibility, these heroes have created something to inspire an entire city.
Jim Scarantino concluded his 25 year legal career as the ACLU-New Mexico's lawyer of the year in 2006. E-mail: jimscarantino@gmail.com
Copyright ©2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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