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Village de l'Est: Landfill Battle Reveals A New Generation of Community Leaders
"This new role was a sea-change for the young people..."
By Susan Do
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For months after the storm, Village de l’Est was one of the only places where you could find open businesses and life in the New Orleans East region. More recently, the community has successfully fought to shut down a toxic landfill within two miles of their borders. Youth Radio's Susan Do brings us their story.
The first residents came to Village de l'Est as refugees in 1975, after the fall of Saigon. The New Orleans archdiocese sponsored Vietnamese immigrants to live in a section 8 housing project known as the Versailles Arms, and to this day, many still refer to the neighborhood as Versailles.
Twenty years after immigrating to the United States, many community members were forced to take on refugee status for a second time, when hurricane Katrina battered their neighborhood.
But 60-year-old Ba Sin Ly, a grocery store owner in Village de l'Est, says that being a refugee from Hurricane Katrina was nothing compared to losing ties to Vietnam. Her niece May Nguyen translates for her...
MAY NGUYEN (on tape)
So escaping Vietnam you pretty much you leave everything behind. And you know there's really no turning back, that you leave and that's it. You leave all of your belongings, your family, your country. Where as leaving hurricane Katrina you knew you could come back. That you could come back and fix your home or you come back and fix your store.
Just as a side note, when they were escaping Vietnam they were escaping as refugees, as boat people. So that when you escape, you're pretty much deciding that it's death or something better.
SUSAN DO
And for the next two decades, residents here bought homes and opened small businesses, working hard to make Village de l'Est that "something better." So when the city opened a hazardous landfill for waste generated by hurricane Katrina and located it less than two miles from their community, residents here were quick to oppose it.
And there was much to oppose. According to a geological analysis, groundwater from the Chef Menteur landfill was being pumped into a canal that runs straight through Village de l'Est. Many residents use that canal to irrigate gardens, in which they grow produce for their families and for local markets.
But a language barrier prevented many community elders from leading this fight in the way that they were accustomed to leading.
MINH NGUYEN (on tape)
As youth and as English speakers we thought that we could play a bigger role.
SUSAN DO
That's Minh Nguyen, the Chairman of The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans, or "VAYLA-NO."
MINH NGUYEN (on tape)
We met up like every Wednesday to pretty much educate ourselves and strategize about how to combat this landfill.
SUSAN DO
And strategize they did. Young people registered un-registered residents to vote, petitioned their legislators, translated important materials for elder residents, and led multiple protests.
Father Vien Nguyen, the Pastor of the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church says that
this new role was a sea-change for the young people of Village de l'Est.
FATHER VIEN NGUYEN (on tape)
See Pre-Katrina, the youth were looked upon primarily as a lost generation who were neither Americans nor Vietnamese, who had no directions in life. But now they are looked upon as people who really care for community, and they really want to make the community better.
SUSAN DO
Just when the older generation was losing hope in "a lost generation", the youth proved otherwise...
MINH NGUYEN (on tape)
As youth in this community we've been trying to move up and we didn't have a voice pre-Katrina because they saw us as irresponsible.
Traditionally in the Vietnamese community, the adults pretty much run the show. So fighting in the landfill we proved to the elderlies and the adults that, “Hey, we can do something. Youth do have power and we do have a voice.”
SUSAN DO
By all accounts, the youth were the undisputed leaders of the successful landfill battle. In that role, youth not only convinced the older generation that they were capable of shouldering great responsibilities for the community, they also convinced themselves.
The landfill fight opened a niche for a new generation of leaders to take on a more active role in their community. But May Nguyen, who earlier translated for her aunt, says the scope of these changes extends far beyond the borders of Village de l'Est...
MAY NGUYEN (on tape)
The Vietnamese-American youth are starting to see its roots here in America. Having worked in Vietnam where I expected to feel like I was coming to my homeland or something. I mean I never felt that. It's here, it's here that I feel it.
Vietnamese youth brought up here in Village de l'Est, I think it's the new American generation. A generation that have stood up and taken claim to this land and that's how they're introduced into a country, the moment they take responsibility to it.
SUSAN DO
Today, youth leaders are staying active, conducting after school tutoring programs, helping small business owners apply for loans and grants, and continuing to fight for the removal of toxic waste from the now closed landfill.
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