Nguyen, Nam (Michael)

Father Michael Nam Nguyen describes his experiences living in a Catholic community under communist rule during the aftermath of the Fall of Saigon. His family escaped by boat to a refugee camp in Malaysia before being resettled in the United States. He recalls the culture shock of coming in to a public school system as a teenager and the choice he made to enter the seminary instead of following a career in football. He also describes the destruction to his ethnic community and parish caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and his current work leading a parish as the sole pastor in a mainstream Catholic church. Even so, he is still tied to the Vietnamese community and regularly attends weddings, funerals and holiday celebrations.

2013-02-10

Interviewer: Nancy Bui

Audio and Video Recorder: Nghia Tran