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Exhibit traces journey of Vietnamese elders to New Orleans [1]

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Date: 2025-04-02

Thom Thi Pham’s journey to New Orleans in 1975 was a harrowing one.

North Vietnam troops had captured Saigon, which ended the Vietnam War and placed the entire country under communism. Pham, her six children and other family members escaped with more than 60 people on a boat built by her husband. A South Vietnam paratrooper, Pham’s husband was left behind as a prisoner of war.

After four days in the China Sea, the group was rescued by a German ship and taken to a refugee camp in Singapore. Catholic Charities relocated the Pham family to New Orleans East. Pham, now in her 70s, never saw her husband again. He was too weak to leave Vietnam after being released.

This story is included in “Making It Home: Vietnam to New Orleans,” a free interactive and bilingual exhibit opening April 4 at the Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC).

“I was amazed by what human beings can go through, and survive and thrive,” said Mark Cave, HNOC’s senior historian and the exhibit’s curator. The Vietnamese people “had been through so much. So many died at sea. So many starved. But they had such resiliency just to keep going no matter what life threw at them.”

Cave spent 10 years researching and interviewing members of the Vietnamese community, which had “enriched the cultural fabric of New Orleans” but had not been well documented, he said.

The exhibit, which began as a series of interviews with Vietnamese elders, includes oral history narratives, family heirlooms and images recently acquired from photographer Mark J. Sindler.

“It’s a good start,” Cave said, “in the development of a more comprehensive history of that community.”

HNOC will celebrate “Making It Home” with a free family friendly Community Day on April 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2025/04/02/exhibit-traces-journey-of-vietnamese-elders-to-new-orleans/

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