Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam

This chapter returns to the story of Pham’s family settling in America. After nine months in Louisiana, they moved to California to be closer to other family members, renting a house in San Jose “smack in a den of poverty, alcoholism, drugs, and domestic violence” (190) because that’s all they could afford. There was a huge dump at the end of the street, and the other kids on the block were a tough crew. Pham writes that they lived on welfare, and his father studied 18 hours a day, every day, toward an Associate’s degree in computer programming, while his mother opened a small business in their house styling hair. His father impressed upon the children that they were different from their neighbors, who did not work hard to get ahead; they would only be there temporarily if they studied hard.

On weekends, they all piled in the car and drove to the beach, a free kind of entertainment. They packed their own food and spent the day there, but Pham could tell they didn’t fit in: “The good-looking people—tall blond folks of sandy, burnished skin, long legs, and jewel eyes, the locals—gave us a wide berth, and gave us the eye” (194).