Being Hmong Means Being Free

Focusing on the immigrant Hmong (pronounced, roughly, "Mung") community in Green Bay, Wisconsin, this tape presents the social life, customs, and history of these Laotian refugees. We take part in a wedding ceremony, New Year festival, and funeral; discover how heartbreakingly difficult things have been for first-generation Hmong and how desperately they want to preserve their culture; meet several successful second-generation Hmong; learn about religious and spiritual beliefs and family structure; and witness incidents of discrimination and racism. Our narrator, a second-generation teenage girl, does a fine job outlining the U.S. Hmong experience, but fails to really explain how her fellow Laotians came to be in the United States, or why, after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the Hmong, who had helped the U.S. in its military efforts, could "never return" to the villages, farms, and homes they left behind during the war years. This is fully explained in the accompanying guide, which actually presents a more detailed accounting of all facets of Hmong life than the video itself. For instance, the tape mentions just one face-to-face cultural "taboo" with which Americans who live amongst the Hmong should become familiar; the guidebook mentions 12 of these important behavioral differences. Still, the tape does provide a decent introduction to this topic, and the guidebook is large enough to circulate on its own if need be, so this is recommended, particularly for libraries with a Hmong constituency. Aud: H, P. (K. Glaser)