Valverde, in the fifth chapter of her book, Transnationalizing Vietnam, addressed how Vietnamese diaspora had to negotiate their cultural and political identity—in specific reference to the case of Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen. Madison Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American scholar and politician who ran for the office of Vice-Mayor in the city of San Jose back in 2008. This chapter of Transnationalizing Vietnam mainly discussed the politics behind Madison Nguyen’s campaign and addressed some other political events relating to the Vietnamese diaspora.
Madison’s ambition was to be a strong representative to her ethnic community because San Jose’s population consists of many Vietnamese diaspora. However, issues relating to her campaign for Vice-Mayor rose when controversy hit her political image. When it came time to decide the name of a business district in San Jose, she did not support the choice of naming it “Little Saigon”, resulting in her being wrongly accused a communist and leading to a full-scale recall election (Valverde, 113). I will say more in my presentation this week regarding politics and the week’s reading including this one, but I have to say I was honestly surprised of how blown out of proportion this issue came to be. Growing up, I remember my parents talking a lot about Madison Nguyen and I did not exactly understand what was going on. My oldest brother was even in her campaign and assisted with recruiting volunteer and I was able to go into her worksite once she was Vice Mayor. I have some personal ties to this campaign and I think it was quite interesting to academically read about and understand wha the debacle was when I was younger.
Q: Now I am curious to know: How did Madison Nguyen’s career proceed after all of this happened?
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Works Cited
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.
Madison Nguyen San Jose - Google Search. https://www.google.com/search?q=madison+nguyen+san+jose&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS789US789&sxsrf=ACYBGNR2GOOLOqzzeYAfFAJxreAdAzUS1g:1580630736645&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwirrtCstLLnAhVDEawKHSATCVoQ_AUoAXoECBIQAw&biw=1440&bih=766&dpr=2#imgrc=95iB4SotMjpvbM. Accessed 2 Feb. 2020.
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