The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir

Kao Kalia Yang’s autobiographical novel, The Latehomecomer chronicles the journey of a Hmong refugee family as they flee from the jungles of Laos to Thailand refugee camps and the processes of transition and assimilation in the United States. Yang explains that as she becomes aware of her cultural heritage she is motivated to preserve the endangered stories of the Hmong people. Her grandmother serves as the author’s largest resource, but the memoir also includes recollections from other family members as they recount the arduous and horrific odyssey of a Hmong refugee. Terrifying descriptions of escape from Vietcong soldiers, the atrocious conditions of refugee camps, transit to the United States, and experiences as first-generation immigrants help to inform our understanding of Hmong in the twentieth-century.

The fragility of life is a common theme in the novel. Generations of Hmong people have spent their lives in the company of death. Yang explains that the Hmong are a people without a country, first driven out of China, and then out of Laos. From 1960 to 1975, the Secret War in Laos devastated the Hmong population, “A third of the Hmong died in the war with the Americans. Another third were slaughtered in its aftermath.” Living as refugees in Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee Camp, death was still ever present. Yang was born in the refugee camp and describes it as a place where “death cries in familiar voices.” Hmong lives in the camp were lost to illness like dysentery and polio, or infection from spoiled food and unsanitary living conditions. The camp population was also reduced by suicide, especially around the New Year when Hmong saw the new beginning as an opportunity to escape their abominable conditions.

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...y to America was not an easy one for Hmong refugees. Prior to their arrival in America, they encountered starvation, illness, death of loved ones, and inhumane conditions. The elder Hmong watched helplessly as Hmong culture and traditions dissolved away. Once in their new home, life for the Hmong would be a constant struggle to assimilate into American culture, and most families depended on their children as translators and guides. For first-generation Hmong immigrants, escaping poverty seemed impossible, and most could only hope that education would provide their children a better life.

The Latehomecomer is a remarkable and moving story. I was ignorant of the suffering endured by Hmong refugees prior to the book. I enjoyed reading Kao Kalia Yang’s memoir, The Latehomecomer, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in Hmong culture or American immigration.