Vietnamese

Vietnamese

San Jose business owners, nonprofit help provide COVID relief in Vietnam

As COVID-19 infections engulfed Vietnam and killed 10,000 people in September, two local Vietnamese-American brothers and a nonprofit sprung into action. David Duong, CEO of California Waste Solutions and a community leader in San Jose, has split his time doing business between the South Bay and the Southeast Asian country. A refugee who fled Vietnam as a...

Mentor program sows seeds for San Jose Vietnamese youth

Alexander Nguyen was asked at the first session of a summer mentorship program why he was there. Seven weeks later, standing in the backyard of the Viet Museum on a blazing hot Saturday, he said he finally found an answer. “For 10 years, I have shut out my community,” he told a crowd of about 20 people. “This...

Will San Jose’s Vietnamese Heritage Garden ever blossom?

When a group of Vietnamese leaders came up with the idea of a heritage garden almost 40 years ago, the vision was grand. The Viet Heritage Garden in San Jose was supposed to be a cultural oasis featuring mini-replicas of different historical Vietnamese landmarks, a reflection pond and a pathway to a community center. Today, the garden...

San Jose’s Vietnamese community struggles with its political voice

In a city with the largest Vietnamese population in the nation, Vietnamese Americans are still struggling to find their voices in politics. The lack—and loss—of Vietnamese representation in San Jose politics is the result of a number of factors, community leaders say, including an inherited distrust in politics and a generational and ideological division in the...

Amid anti-Asian violence, San Jose’s Vietnamese residents embrace COVID-19 vaccines

Despite a fear of anti-Asian violence hanging over their heads, some Vietnamese residents lined up as early as 4 a.m. to get a COVID-19 vaccine at a new mobile clinic this week — a chance to defend themselves against a virus that’s disproportionately infecting them. “We initially expected around 700 people but now there’s about 1,000,” said Asian...