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101. Interview with Romaldo Jimenez

Creator:
Jimenez, Romaldo
Date Created:
1976-07-26
Description:
Romaldo Jimenez was born in Jalisco, Mexico, in 1912 and left the country in 1926. He worked in Texas and Kansas and arrived in Walters, Minnesota, in 1933. At the time of the interview he was living in Albert Lea. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Working in the beet fields - renting land to plant his own crops - and raising his 13 children. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: In Spanish, transcribed into English.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

102. Interview with Rudolph F. Runez

Creator:
Runez, Rudolph F.
Date Created:
1979-01-17
Description:
Rudolph Runez was born in 1902 in the city of Caba, in the province of La Union, in northern Luzon, Philippines. He was the third of seven children of a government official in La Union, and although the family was not wealthy, all the children had good educations through secondary school, and several of them later went to the United States to continue their studies. Rudolph's older brother Sixto arrived in Minnesota with a cousin and two others from Caba in 1918, and Rudolph arrived in 1922. After three years of study at the University of Minnesota and the College of St. Thomas, Rudolph married Ruby Knutson, whose parents were Norwegian immigrants, and soon afterward left college to support his family. Even with several years of college education it was difficult for Filipinos to find employment in the Twin Cities, and with the onset of the Depression in the late 1920s almost the only employment open to them was service work in hotels or jobs as butlers in the homes of wealthy businessmen. From 1928 to 1938 Runez worked as a butler in the home of the John Pillsbury family in Minneapolis, and later he also served as butler in the home of the John Ordway family in White Bear Lake. With the onset of World War II he found a job in defense work at the Gray Company in Minneapolis, and he continued to work for the company until his retirement in 1967. While Runez was a student at the University of Minnesota, he was active in the Philippinesotans, a club organized by Filipino students, and the Cosmopolitan Club, which included a variety of foreign students. In 1925 he was one of the organizers and the first president of the Cabenan Club, a regionally based organization comprised of immigrants from Caba, and later he was the first president of the Filipino American Club. Both Ruby and Rudy Runez have been active participants in the First Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake since 1939, and since his retirement has been on the church's board of trustees and board of deacons. He has also been active in the Masonic Fraternity. The Runezes have two daughters, both of whom married men of Scandinavian heritage. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Runez points out that every year from 1918 to about 1928 several Filipino immigrants arrived in the Twin Cities from Caba, La Union, and that many of them were relatives or friends of the Runez family. He also points out that among those who remained in Minnesota, a large number eventually married daughters of Norwegian immigrants who had arrived in an earlier era. Runez discusses racial discrimination that caused interracial couples to experience severe hardships in finding jobs and housing, and the rude remarks and stares of bigoted individuals when the couples appeared in public. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Runez and his many relatives and friends who eventually immigrated to the Twin Cities illustrate the system of chain migration common to many immigrant groups, a system in which those who arrive first encourage others to join them in the new land through letters and offers of assistance. He also exemplifies the many Filipino students who were not able to complete their studies in the United States because of economic hardship. In the Twin Cities many of them married women of Norwegian or Swedish ancestry and became permanent residents of Minnesota. They were denied American citizenship until after World War II.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

103. Interview with Rudolph Saucedo Jr.

Creator:
Saucedo, Rudolph Jr.
Date Created:
1976-08-09
Description:
Rudolph Saucedo, Jr., was born on the West Side of St. Paul in 1951. He was an active member of the Brown Berets, an organization of young Chicano men, from 1968 to 1973. He died in 1979. Subjects discussed include: History, goals and activities of the Brown Berets - community feelings toward the group - police harassment and other problems encountered - leaders - and the group's future.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

104. Interview with Sang H. Lee and Young Kim Lee

Creator:
Lee, Sang H.
Date Created:
1979-12-19
Description:
Sang H. Lee was born in Taegu, South Korea, the first of six children. His father was a college teacher in Seoul during most of Sang's childhood. Sang finished college in Korea and then came to the United States for graduate study in engineering in 1969. He studied at Washington State University for two years and later at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston from 1971 to 1976. After completing his studies he accepted a position at Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M) in St. Paul, where he is presently a supervisor of research and development of engineering materials. Young Kim Lee was also born in Taegu, the third of four children. She graduated from Yonsei University and then came to the United States in 1973 to study to be a medical technician in Philadelphia. She met Sang at a Korean church in Philadelphia and moved to Boston after their marriage. The Lees are active members of the Korean Presbyterian Church in Minnesota. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: The Lees discuss the favorable social climate for Asians in Minnesota, the history of the Korean church and community in the state, and the problems of bringing up their children with an appreciation of their Korean roots. They also mention the Korean Association and the Minnesota chapter of the Korean Scientists and Engineers Association. Kim Young talks about the changing roles of men and women in the Korean immigrant community. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: The Lees represent the many professionals among recent Korean immigrants to Minnesota, and the concerns of this group to develop a well-organized, active ethnic community in the Twin Cities.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

105. Interview with Santa Mies

Creator:
Mies, Santa
Date Created:
1976-07-02
Description:
Santa Mies was born in 1945 in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, and arrived illegally in the United States in 1953. She lived and worked in Texas until 1963, when she contracted to work for the Jennie-O turkey company in Litchfield, Minn. She became a permanent resident of the United States in 1969. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Loyalty to the company - difficulties in becoming a United States citizen - help she received from her employer in making her residence legal, and cooperation of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service - assistance she gives to non-English-speaking employees - and limited involvement with the church. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: In Spanish, transcribed into English.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

106. Interview with Sebastian J. Hernandez

Creator:
Hernandez, Sebastian J.
Date Created:
1975-07-08
Description:
Sebastian Hernandez was born in 1930, served in the military, taught in St. Paul schools from 1961 to 1971 and became the Mexican-American consultant to the school system in 1973.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

107. Interview with Sebastian R. Jara

Creator:
Jara, Sebastian Ramon
Date Created:
1976-08-08
Description:
Sebastian Ramon Jara was born in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, in 1906 and immigrated to Texas a year later with his mother. He spent his next seventeen years on a ranch, "Los Quinientos Acres," near Edinburgh, Texas. He and his mother left the ranch after a feud, and he worked as a chauffeur in Edinburgh for some time. After another controversy, they ended up in North Dakota, where Sebastian Jara worked the beet fields for one year and later worked in a mill. Next they came to St
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

108. Interview with Sen and Helen Fan

Creator:
Fan, Sen
Date Created:
1979-12-01
Description:
Sen Fan was born in 1927 in Haimen, a rural village in Jiangsu Province, near Shanghai. He was about ten years old when the Japanese invaded China, and his father died during the Sino-Japanese War. After the war he went to Shanghai for about a year, and in 1948 he moved with his mother, sisters and brothers to Taiwan. He attended normal school in Taipei, and after he received a bachelor's degree he taught mathematics and ecology at Ching Kung University in southern Taiwan. In 1958 he accepted a position at Nanyang University in Singapore, where he taught mathematics until 1960. He then decided to continue his studies in the United States. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1960 and 1961 and received a master's degree, and late in 1961 he accepted a job at the University of Minnesota at Morris. With the exception of about three years, Fan has continued to teach in the mathematics department at Morris. In 1965 and 1966 he furthered his graduate studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and from 1966 to 1968 he taught at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. In 1958 Fan married Ying Ying Hsu (Helen Fan) in Taiwan, and the couple moved to Singapore together. Helen Fan was born in 1931 in the city of Changzhou in Jiangsu Province. Her father was a clerk for the railroad in Jiangsu. In 1948 she moved to Taiwan with her sister and brother. She attended normal school there, and after receiving a bachelor's degree she taught elementary school for three years. After the couple's marriage and move to Singapore, their first son, Paul, was born. When Sen Fan decided to go to the University of Illinois, Helen Fan and Paul remained in Taiwan until arriving in Morris in late 1961, by which time Sen had finished his studies and taken the job at Morris. Another son, Robert, and a daughter, Grace, were born after the family was reunited in Morris. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: They discuss problems they have encountered in raising their children in an isolated town in central Minnesota where few other Chinese live - differences in Chinese and American child-rearing practices - and adjustments they have made. They also point out that they and their children have been well-accepted in Morris, aside from some name-calling in elementary school. Although they would like their children to interact with other Chinese with whom they could identify, both agree that in the larger university settings such as the University of Illinois and Brown University, where there are many Chinese students and faculty, they found far less social intermingling between Americans and Chinese than occurs at Morris. The Fans point to the fact that they are frequently invited to the homes of faculty and other staff as an indication of the warm reception they have had in the university community in Morris. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Sen and Helen Fan are representative of the many professionals among the Chinese who have settled in Minnesota since the early 1960s. As the first Chinese to live in Morris, they provide an interesting commentary on the process of acculturation in an environment very different from what they had known in China.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

109. Interview with Shepsel (S.R.) Roberts

Creator:
Roberts, Shepsel R.
Date Created:
1976-03-05
Description:
Shepsel Roberts was born in Russia in 1914 and came to Minneapolis in 1921 with his parents and older brother and sister. He was educated at Yeshiva (Jewish school) in Chicago, married his wife Tibey at age 21 and has four children. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Immigration and poverty - his family's chicken business - selling newspapers as a boy - peddling - the Depression - his work as a shochet (ritual butcher) and mohel (ritual circumciser) - and the role of religion in his life.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

110. Interview with Sinmin and Betty Wu

Creator:
Wu, Sinmin
Date Created:
1979-12-02
Description:
Sinmin Wu was born June 1, 1931, in the city of Yixing in Jiangsu Province, China. Betty Wu (Yun Aur) was born December 15, 1938, in the city of Tianjin, in Hebei Province. Both left China for Taiwan during the Communist Revolution in the 1940s. They were married in Taiwan in 1959 and soon left for Malaysia, where Sinmin became a teacher in a Chinese girls' high school. Their first child was born in Malaysia. Sinmin went to the United States in 1961 for graduate study in mathematics at Southern Illinois University. He received a master of arts degree and accepted a teaching position at the University of Minnesota, Morris, in 1965. Betty and their daughter arrived in Morris in 1966. Two additional children have been born to the family in the United States. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: The Wus discuss the experience of Chinese Americans in small towns outside the Twin Cities area - their activities and sense of acceptance in university and community affairs - development of their children's identities in an area where few other Chinese live - and the role of Asian families in resettlement of a Vietnamese refugee family in Morris in late 1979 and 1980. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: This interview focused on acculturation in a small town as opposed to an urban area, on family life, and on the concerns of a transplanted Chinese family for the future of their children. It should be noted that although they have no worry about the Americanization of their children, they also want their children to know their own cultural heritage and language.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

111. Interview with Stanley V. Chong

Creator:
Chong, Stanley V.
Date Created:
1979-06-28
Description:
Stanley Chong was born in 1912 in Yakima, Washington. His father, Sam Chong, had immigrated to the United States from a rural village in the Taishan District of Guangdong Province in South China. His mother, Yut-tai Lee, was an American-born daughter of a Chinese pioneer immigrant to Portland, Oregon. Stanley lived on his parents' ranch in the Yakima Valley until the age of about seven, when he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents and a widowed aunt in Portland. He attended Shattuck Elementary School and Lincoln High School in Portland and graduated from the University of Oregon in 1933. In 1934 Chong moved to Minneapolis, where his aunt operated a small enterprise known as the Chinese Gift Shop. Later he managed the shop with the help of Marvel Hum, whom he married in 1941. (See interview of Marvel Hum Chong, also in this oral history project.) During World War II the shop was closed when Chong was drafted into the army and the couple moved to the West Coast. In 1944 they returned to Minneapolis and opened the International House of Foods, a successful wholesale and retail business in Asian and Middle Eastern foods that they operated until 1981, when it was destroyed by fire. Chong was one of the organizers of the Chinese American Club in the Twin Cities in the post-World War II years and became the first president of the Chinese American Association in Minnesota (CAAM), organized in the 1960s. He was also active in the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, organized in the early 1970s. The Chongs have one daughter, Sui-linn, born in 1946. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Chong compares the differences in childrearing methods of early immigrants such as his parents and maternal grandparents, and those used by himself and his wife in rearing their own daughter - he also describes the Chinese community in Minnesota from the 1930s to the 1970s, including community organizations of the post-World War II years. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Stanley Chong is one of many Chinese from the West Coast who have settled in Minnesota. He makes several observations about the differences between the West Coast and the Midwest in terms of discrimination and business opportunities for Chinese during the pre-World War II years.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

112. Interview with Stella Alvo

Creator:
Alvo, Stella
Date Created:
1975-07-24
Description:
The main interest of this interview was Ms. Alvo's organization of Mi Cultura, a bilingual and bicultural day care center for children in St. Paul. Subjects discussed include: Mi Cultura Day Care Center - the human resources to be found in St. Paul's West Side community.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

113. Interview with Sung Won Son

Creator:
Son, Sung Won
Date Created:
1979-12-19
Description:
Sung Won Son was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1944. He was the fifth in a family of six children. His father was a banker. Son arrived in the United States in 1962 to study at the University of Florida. After his graduation in 1966 he entered a graduate program at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and completed a master of arts degree in economics. He also earned a doctorate in economics at the University of Pittsburgh. From 1969 to 1974 he taught economics and business at Slippery Rock State College in Pennsylvania, and in the 1970s he served as senior economist on the President's Council of Economic Advisors in Washington, D.C. In 1974 Son joined the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis, becoming the senior vice-president and chief economist in 1977. Son was married to the late Barbara Stevens and is the father of two daughters. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Son discusses the reasons he came to the United States, and to Minnesota in particular - the harsh Minnesota winters as a factor in the open social climate for Asians in the state - the unusually high number of large business corporations with headquarters in the Twin Cities - the lack of significant discrimination against Asians - and the unique situation of the early Korean community, considered to be well-organized and stable compared to larger Korean settlements on the West Coast. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Son is well-known in Minnesota and elsewhere as an economic forecaster and has made numerous television and radio appearances. His analyses of national and state economies also appear frequently in the press.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

114. Interview with Teresa M. Munoz

Creator:
Munoz, Teresa M.
Date Created:
1975-07-17
Description:
Teresa Munoz was born in Mexico in 1919, immigrated to the United States in 1944 with her husband, David L. Munoz, and settled in St. Paul in 1945. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Family and community life - the art of making pi
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

115. Interview with Tony Martinez

Creator:
Martinez, Tony
Date Created:
1975-06-18
Description:
Tony Martinez was born in St. Paul on Oct. 31, 1932, and attended Lafayette, Franklin and Lincoln schools in St. Paul before graduating from Johnson High School. He worked in the fields with the Cortez family, entered the military in 1950, and worked with a private mapping company and the state highway department's mapping department. Later he established the Martinez Orthography Company, of which he is owner and president. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: His life as a worker in the fields - schools - the armed forces - and his start as the owner of a business.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

116. Interview with Vera Nissenson Lyons

Creator:
Lyons, Vera Nissenson
Date Created:
1976-02-11
Description:
Vera Nissenson Lyons was born in 1912 and came to Minneapolis in 1924 from Privarog, Russia, with her mother and father, an Orthodox rabbi. She married Arnold Labowitz (Lyons) in 1935. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in social work and worked during the first years of her marriage. She has been a local and regional officer of Hadassah, a women's Zionist organization, and served as a resource person for Judaism and Jewish holidays for the Minneapolis public schools. She also teaches kosher cooking. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Anti-Semitism in Russia, including a graphic description of a pogrom - flight from Russia to Minneapolis - life as an immigrant child - the 1930s Depression - working her way through college - the Jewish community in Minneapolis - and Jewish cooking.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

117. Interview with Viola Hoffman Hymes

Creator:
Hymes, Viola Hoffman
Date Created:
1976-05-10
Description:
Viola Hoffman Hymes was born in Chicago and moved to Minneapolis at age 10 in about 1916. Her mother was born in Sweden, and her father was born in Romania and came to the United States at age 20. She graduated from West High School and the University of Minnesota, with a degree in education. She taught high school for five years before marrying Dr. Charles Hymes in 1930. They had two sons. Hymes was national president of the Council of Jewish Women and was elected to the Minneapolis School Board in 1963. She was an unsuccessful candidate for alderman in 1970 and was a founding member of the Citizens Committee on Public Education (COPE). She died in 1991. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Early family life and family history - friendships - education - anti-Semitism - community service activities - the Depression - politics - marriage and family - and religion.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

118. Interview with Virgil Andrada

Creator:
Andrada, Virgil
Date Created:
1979-02-01
Description:
Virgil Andrada was born in Minnesota in 1933, the son of Benigno and Thina Andrada. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Mr. Andrada's father is Filipino and his mother is Norwegian. He discusses growing up in the Twin Cities with the influence of the two cultures, his family and discrimination against the Filipinos.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

119. Interview with Vu Khac Khoan

Creator:
Khoan, Vu Khac
Date Created:
1979-19-09
Description:
Vu Khac Khoan was born in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 19, 1917. His father was a literary scholar and his mother a devout Buddhist. Khoan was the fifth of seven children, most of whom are still living in North Vietnam. As a child he studied Chinese classics with his father, and later he was educated in French in elementary and secondary schools. In 1940 he enrolled in Hanoi University, first in medical school and later in the school of forestry, where he earned a bachelor of science degree. Next he enrolled in law school, but he quit to concentrate on writing, acting, and producing plays with a group of students around the university. In 1946 he joined the anti-French resistance movement along with many other students. After the division of Vietnam in 1954, he fled to South Vietnam with his wife and two children. There he was employed as an editor in the Information Ministry for a time, but he quit when he realized that President Diem was a dictator. In about 1955 he formed a group of writers and published a magazine, the title of which may be translated as Point of View. It was banned by the South Vietnamese government after a few months of publication. The group continued to publish many books, however, and another magazine, Propaganda. Khoan was also associated with the Third Force, a peace group which favored seeking an alternative governing force that was neither communist nor capitalist. After 1963 this group included many Buddhists. Khoan was professor of drama in several Vietnamese universities and professor of drama and literature at Dalat University in the highlands. His play The Last Three Days of Genghis Khan" was produced by students at the latter university and quickly became well-known
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

120. Interview with Vy Pham

Creator:
Pham, Vy
Date Created:
1979-07-07
Description:
Vy Pham was born in 1932 in a small town called Sept Pagodes, near Hanoi, North Vietnam. His father was an elected mayor of the town, named for its seven pagodas. He attended elementary school in Sept Pagodes but went to Bac Ninh, a larger city, for high school. He joined the anti-French resistance in the post-World War II period, but after the country was divided in 1954 he fled to South Vietnam with thousands of other Catholics in fear of religious and political persecution. He arrived in South Vietnam with his wife and child in 1955 and began to work on the French-owned rubber plantations. He became one of the early labor union organizers on the plantations and later was nationally and internationally known in labor circles. For five years he served as Vietnamese delegate to the International Labor Organization's annual conferences in Geneva, Switzerland, and visited the United States several times to meet with AFL-CIO leaders. He also served as economic and social adviser to the South Vietnamese government under both Diem and Thieu. When the South Vietnamese government collapsed in April of 1975, Vy and his family escaped the country with other labor leaders aboard a barge carrying about one thousand people. They were picked up by the United States Seventh Fleet and take to Guam, where they were visited by AFL-CIO leaders from the United States. Later they were sent to a refugee camp at Fort Chafee, Arkansas, to await resettlement. Vy and his family chose to settle in Minnesota, where he had a friend, and arrived in the state in October of 1975. Since then he has worked as an interpreter for Indochinese refugees at the Hennepin County Community Services Department and has also been called up to mediate strikes involving Indochinese refugees in California and Louisiana. Vy and his wife have nine children ranging in age from six to twenty-four years. Three are students at the University of Minnesota, one is at Augsburg College, three are in high school, and two are in elementary school. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Vy discusses the long struggle of the Vietnamese for independence - the organization of the labor movement - the differences between the Vietnamese and American labor movements - Vietnamese family life - and his impressions of Minnesota. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Vy Pham provides valuable information on the labor movement in Vietnam and its ties to the international labor movement. He also provides insights into the refugee experience.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

121. Interview with William Mayberg

Creator:
Mayberg, William
Date Created:
1976-01-15
Description:
William Mayberg was born in Russia in 1887. He married in 1911, came to the United States in 1913, and had two sons. He was self-educated but was a teacher most of his life. He also operated small grocery stores in Minneapolis and St. Paul. He died in 1978. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Jewish children's education in Russia and the United States - poverty of immigrant life - history of the Zionist movement - a Zionist farm and school in Champlin, Minnesota - and religion.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

122. Interview with Wing Young Huie

Creator:
Huie, wing Young
Date Created:
1979-03-25
Description:
Wing Young Huie was born May 3, 1955, in Duluth, Minnesota. He is the youngest son of Duluth restaurateur Joe Huie, who emigrated from China to Duluth in 1909 at age 17 and operated the widely known Joe Huie Cafe from 1951 to 1973. Because of restrictive United States immigration laws, Joe Huie's family remained in China until after World War II. Wing Young Huie, born after their arrival in Duluth in the early 1950s, is the only American-born member of the family. Wing Young Huie spent his childhood in Duluth, where he attended public elementary and secondary schools. After graduation from high school he enrolled at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and received a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1978. Since then he has been engaged in freelance writing and photography. He has had articles with his own photos published in Lake Superior Port Cities and Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine. One of his photos appears in a 1981 book published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, They Chose Minnesota: A Survey of the State's Ethnic Groups. He also contributed photographs for an exhibit on Asians in Minnesota that opened at the Minnesota Historical Society in May of 1982. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: He discusses the experience of growing up in a Chinese immigrant family, his sense of loss in knowing little about his own heritage, and his searching for roots by enrolling in Chinese history and language courses at the University of Minnesota. He also discusses the isolation of his mother, Lee Ngook Kum Huie, who does not speak English, and the cultural barrier between Chinese students and Chinese-American students at the university. He points out that although racial discrimination was relatively mild in Duluth, his father had a difficult time getting a haircut in the early years, and he himself encountered problems in interracial dating in high school. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Wing Young Huie is an articulate member of the second generation who grew up in the Chinese community in Duluth, and his interview is particularly valuable for the insights into this experience. Part of the tape is marred by poor audio quality, but most of it can be understood.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

123. Interview with Yung Lyun Ko and Shuk Ko

Creator:
Ko, Yung Lyun
Date Created:
1979-12-19
Description:
Yung Lyun Ko arrived in the United States from Korea in 1972. As a young assistant professor at Kun Kook University in Seoul, he had decided to further his career through graduate study in educational statistics at Illinois State University in Bloomington, Illinois. After his family arrived in 1973, however, he could no longer afford to continue his study, and he went to work as an aspiration therapist in a hospital in Chicago. In 1974 Ko and his family moved to Minneapolis after Korean friends persuaded him to do so by saying that the Twin Cities provided a better environment to work and raise a family. Although Ko was a professional in Korea, his training was not transferable to American society, and he had to take a blue-collar job working at Crown Meat Company in Minneapolis. Frustrated by this situation, Ko threw himself into working for the Korean community through the Korean Association of Minnesota. In 1974 he was instrumental in establishing the Korean Institute, a Saturday school for Korean children of immigrants and adoptive parents, where classes in Korean language and culture, as well as social activities, were provided on a weekly basis. In 1979 Ko began a two-year term as president of the Korean Association. He and his family are also active in the Korean United Methodist Church in Oakdale. Shuk Ko arrived with the children in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1973 to join her husband. After they moved to Minnesota she also became active in Korean community organizations in addition to full-time work outside their home. As the wife of the president of the Korean Association she was expected to organize and persuade the women to do much of the work for special events in the Korean community, such as cooking meals for large numbers of people, and arranging children's activities. Shuk and the children are also active in the Korean United Methodist Church. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: The Kos discuss the dynamics of the Korean community in the Twin Cities, and the cultural and religious organizations in the community. They also discuss the problems of childrearing in the immigrant situation and their concern that the children will develop a Korean or Korean-American identity. Yung Lyun discusses special events, such as Korean Day, that are organized annually by the Korean Association, and Shuk describes the changing family structure and extensive work of the women in community activities. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Because he is president of the Korean Association, Yung Lyun Ko is in a position to know a great deal about the Korean community and to provide information on all the community organizations. Shuk Ko is also in a position to know about the contributions of the women to community events and programs.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories
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