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Articles by Pao Lor
Bamboo Son, by Pao Lor
Pao Lor left Laos when he was five, but the country of his birth followed him to Wisconsin. His family were Hmong, an ethnic group mobilized to fight Laotian Communists in the Vietnam-era wars. When Laos fell to Communism, tens of thousands of Hmong fled to refugee camps in Thailand and from there, to the U.S. With Bamboo Son, Lor recounts his Green Bay adolescence and Wisconsin adulthood (he’s now associate dean of education at UW-La Crosse).
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Reconnecting with ancestors in a turbulent time
Over the last three decades, unlike some of my siblings and clan members, I haven’t been very good with spiritually keeping in contact with our ancestors and my parents. In other words, I don’t have a spiritual altar set up for them, I don’t burn spiritual money for them, I don’t sacrifice animals for them, I don’t burn incense for them, I don’t conduct spiritual ceremonies for them, and except on a few occasions, I don’t ask for their spiritual protection. Well, recently, I decided it was time.
Parks are still our great gathering places
Growing up in Green Bay, in my late teens, there was one particular summer job I wanted: to one day be a “parkee” at one of the public parks. Why this one particular job? Well, at the time, I didn’t ponder why I wanted the job — I just wanted it. Now, in retrospect, I think it had a lot to do with what the parks provided for many of my friends and me during many of our summers. In other words, during the summer, the parks were where many of my friends and I would spend most of our days.
For the Hmong, criminal cases obscure reality
As Chong Lee’s incident in Appleton and the Dylan Yang’s incident in Wausau were coming to a legal end last month, I couldn’t help but be reminded of other similar incidents involving Hmong Americans. In Wisconsin, three similar incidents in particular came into mind. They include the 2004 case of Chai Vang in northern Wisconsin, the 2007 case of Cha Vang in Peshtigo and the 2014 case of Sao Lue Vang in Pepin County.
Images can transform us
Images. Images can define emotions. Images can define identity. Images can define cultural revolutions. Images can be very powerful. Beneath each powerful image lies a story. A story about an individual. A story about a people. A story about humanity. And then if there’s a personal connection to the image, it can even become more meaningful. These are some recent images I’ve found to have affected my humanity. Pictures of first day of school.
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