The Late Homecomer Book Review

In the state of Minnesota after World War II built in what they called projects homes is where they lived. They were small, close and all looked like. This was America living on welfare and government funds. Far from the life they knew of in Thailand. The American people didn’t give the Hmong people the warmest of welcome to them. By the 1987 sometimes they would yell out, “Go home” or give the middle finger at them.   The sadness about all this is they didn’t have a place to call home. They came to America looking for a better place to live. Were there was freedom but it didn’t seem like they felt free.
It seems family is very import to this culture. Even to a little girl wanting just to see her grandma. They have very close family ties. When new Hmong people come to live in their area they stick together and help each other as they feel they need help to survive. They don’t feel they are Americans but that they need help to survive in America. The Hmong people question how could they live in America as Americans but still lover each other as Laos?
The Hmong seem to have the right ideas… (On page 137 at the top of the page) it sad, Life without money became more than the things we wanted or could not do. It became the things I smelled and touched the people I loved. The Americans have the best car and house, nice clothes. They have lost what’s really important being a family, working together and loving it. She seems to have a feeling of pride in her family and own culture but does not have a good understanding of the other cultures and ways of people she comes across. She and the family had big dreams of finding a new place in the world where they would belong.  
After reading this book and watching the movie “Grand Treno” I have a better understanding of what the Hmong had to go through for what they thought   and dreams of a better life. This opened my eyes to be aware of different cultures as in California we are a melting pot. We are all from somewhere...