By Lien Apoux
At the Sacramento Iu Mien Festival, friends could be seen hugging for the first time in years, wearing bright traditional clothing and enjoying home-cooked meals.
Organized by the Sacramento Iu Mien Association, the fourth annual festival, held at Hiram Johnson High School on Saturday, June 21, celebrated Mien culture and brought together community members that wound up in America after the Vietnam War. According to Pew Research Center, Greater Sacramento is home to the largest Mien population in America, after San Francisco.
While events like these help create space for community to gather, there’s still work to be done to preserve the culture in America, especially as more Mien take on more leadership positions locally — from doctors to political staffers — according to Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang, who was in attendance.
“It’s very important to have festivals like this to center the Iu Mien people, and celebrate their contributions to Sacramento,” said Vang, who is Hmong and added that the two peoples have “similar struggles.”
The councilmember said this year marks the 50th anniversary of an important moment when Southeast Asians came to America after the end of the Vietnam War, which included a Secret War. During that time, the U.S. secretly paid Hmong and Mien people to fight communists in Vietnam and Laos, while also bombing Laos and turning it into the most bombed nation in history.
After the war, many Mien people wound up in refugee camps in Thailand, including the parents of Nai Sio Saechao, board member of Sacramento nonprofit Iu Mien Community Services (IMCS).
“A lot of us still have family members there,” Saechao said, adding that her uncle died in training in the Secret War, while her aunt remains in Thailand.
IMCS, which organizes cultural programs and helps older adults socialize to promote mental health, estimates there are more than 15,000 Mien living in Sacramento today. The nonprofit held an interactive workshop at the festival, gathering people on bamboo woven stools to learn culture and history, including the war.
At one booth, Abbey Saetern sold aprons and stoles her mom made. “She wanted to do her own twist on Mien clothing,” Saetern said. Her mom spoke Mien to older customers, English to younger ones and wore her product, a form-fitting black tank top with colorful woven sleeves. Like the clothing, Mien are trying to maintain but also update tradition.
Elsewhere at the festival, attendees were treated to a parade, traditional dance performances, vendors selling crochet dolls in Mien headwear and food like hot sauce and khao soi — a rice noodle dish. Mien and non-Mien attendees came from as far as Seattle, Portland and the Bay.
As a stateless people, the Mien population living in the U.S. today hold on to their heritage by celebrating Mien holidays and practicing the language, according to Saechao. “We’re losing the Mien language because younger parents don’t speak it with their kids, it’s easier to talk English,” Saechao said.
The festival served as a time to reconnect with the culture for youth like Kymani Phan, 15, who attended the festival with three generations of family. Phan is Mien and Black, and proud of Mien culture, but said it can be tiring explaining it to outsiders. “There is pressure to assimilate,” he said.
Phan wore a sash his grandma made with beaded flowers. He also wore a traditional shirt with long black sleeves and blue peacocks. “It expresses how creative Mien people are with embroidery,” he said, adding that the “loud colors” are not just about fashion but diversity. “It matters to color in the shades of gray.”
Saechao said the festival helps spread awareness about Mien people, as well as enables reunions.
“Especially the elders, they see friends and family they haven’t seen in a long time, they dress up,” she said. “We like to congregate, it’s the same in the villages [back home].”
This story is part of the Solving Sacramento journalism collaborative. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Hmong Daily News, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review and Sacramento Observer. Support stories like these here, and sign up for our monthly newsletter.