Week5_Vanesa Guillen_ASA114

The reading called Whose Community is it Anyway? Overseas Vietnamese Negotiating their Cultural and Political Identity: The Case of Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen by Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde first states how the Vietnamese American community is dealing with challenges to form a community. According to the reader, a community is formally established following the "community-building process" (Valverde, p.115), although it is complicated to form a successful community. The author demonstrates how the diaspora community is involved politically and culturally. She gives an example of a council member named Madison Nguyen who was being exposed to corruption or accused of being a communist by the Vietnamese American community with her decision of the labeling of "Little Saigon" (Valverde, p.114). With that example, Valverde further explains how the Vietnamese American community has different views and understandings of their home country after the Vietnam War. The aftermath of the war and settlement into America gives them an idea of "imagined communities", a complex understanding of its history and strives for political and cultural representation in America (Valverde, p.114).

In this time, are there more political leaders in America that are taking political action for a more beneficial representation of the Vietnamese American community?

Kieu-Linh Valverde. “Whose Community Is It Anyway?: Overseas Vietnamese Negotiating their Cultural and Political Identity –The Case of Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen.” ​Transnationalizing Viet Nam.

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