Reflection on a New Season by Peter Xiong

By: Peter Xiong, Sacramento Community Organizer

Nyob zoo xyoo tshiab! Happy New Year!

33 people pose together for a group photo inside the Industry Commerce building at the Fresno Fairground. Some are dressed in their colorful traditional Hmong clothes. Some are looking in different directions with different hand gestures creating a fun silly pose for the camera.

To our partners, our supporters, collaborators and friends we thank you for your efforts building and believing in us. Winter comes to an end, it teaches us that again and again, year after year one lesson might be to take a moment to pause, and reflect on the moments of the past year. A lot has happened, we mourned our loved ones, we struggled to survive a pandemic and as if that wasn’t enough–Capitalism is eagerly rushing us back to live a ‘normal’ life. Despite all this, we have continued to plant seeds for positive change and sought balance by celebrating the obstacles we’ve accomplished in a myriad of ways. In collaboration with Queer Hmong Intersectional Pride, Hmong Queer Suab and with the support of Health Net LLC, HIP was proud to host our first ever intersectional gathering during the Fresno Hmong New Year Celebration Festival.

Hmong New Year can be a symbolic celebration widely known to most Hmong folxs as a time to get together and celebrate through shared food, fashion/attire, music, performance arts and culture. It is an opportunity to witness the resilience of Hmong diaspora and the ever-evolving nature of our community.

Our Hangout

“Reflecting on this past year, 2021 and beyond we are encouraging you to write down, journal, draw, or list ‘things’ meaning anything from actual things to personal relationships that you are wanting to let go of.”

— Quynhthy, HIP Youth

We had about 40 amazing guests who were able to join us that afternoon. Youth and young adults and all ages were present and had the opportunity to connect, volunteer, mix it up with a little karaoke and share a meal catered from Seng’s Kitchen and Taste of Asia.

The purpose of the event was to celebrate the end of a year, and welcome the start of a new one. Many of us may have not gathered or seen each other in a couple years due to the ongoing pandemic, but fortunately this celebration allowed us to come together in community for a brief but gorgeous moment. We wanted folxs to leave the event feeling a sense of belonging, experience joy, and to have fun, celebrate ourselves and honor those who come before us.

People lined up to get lunch. A table full of white boxed meals.

A plate of grilled chicken with Hmong herbs and spices on a bed of garlic rice.

7 People pose for the photo sitting around the table. Gesturing the signature two finger peace signs.

Delicious plate of purple sticky rice with Hmong sausage as foodie dunks one piece into the red pepper sauce.

4 people sitting at a table across from each other during lunch. Candid photo.

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The event kicked off with ice breakers so attendees could learn about one another and continued with a guided question socializing activity. Quynhthy, a youth leader led the group into a writing exercise that involved reflecting upon the year 2021 – instructing folxs to answer the prompt provided on a single sheet of paper:

Group of 7 sitting around a blue cloth table, writing down on a sheet of white paper.

After taking a moment to reflect, everyone crumpled their sheet of paper and threw it into the trash. As Katherine Moua described, “It was empower to just write things down and throw it away.” The event continued with a manifestation exercise led by Laura Vu.

As Fresno Director, Katie Moua described: “That my value is not tied to productivity and I need to trust in my community, that we’re all beautiful and I’m going to allow the process to flow next year especially with the pandemic happening and I think, just this (points to the circle formed by everyone) is a great example of us trusting in each other and in the relationships that we build. That we all showed up today. That we all want to cherish and love each other “

“It was empowering to just write things down and throw it away.”

— Katherine Moua, HIP Youth

I was thankful for the huge amount of trust everyone in the circle offered– I could rely on others, that they were willing to take, lub kawm off my back, for a short moment, to lighten the weight, as I recuperated and took a deep breath. Many of the attendees collectively voiced their excitement and happiness to see our beautiful community thriving and expressed appreciation for the HIP organizers and planning team members who put in the work to hold space in a way that was intentional and celebratory to bring people together.

Belonging as we like to say and when it comes to healing, hixstory, and identity or as Pheng Lor and Vasmer Vang state so eloquently:

“I was born and raised here. I have a lot of love and passion for Fresno and want to come back. One thing I have is community anxiety around the idea that if there’s not active work going on that I see, that the progress won’t continue. Today everyone’s presence here is proof of our community showing up. It doesn’t need to be like for example, just Queer identifiyng folxs doing the work. That I can also rely on allies and other community members to step up and also support all this kind of work. Shout to everybody and thank you all for being here and uplifting my spirit and my faith in the community. And a huge shout out to HIP, QHIP, Hmong Queer Saub I think most of my first Queer Hmong outings have been with Hmong Queer Saub. They’ve done so much in Sacramento. And have really led and pioneered this kind of work for the Hmong community. Its important and I’m grateful for Hmong Queer Saub folxs who have foster community that have inspired QHIP to be where it is today with HIP. Super, super want to affirm everybody here and much love to y’all. “
“I been with HIP since I was 18, I had a horrible experience when I came out as a gay person but then the very first day, my first interview, I came out because I told myself I’m not going to go to another horrible work experience where I've been through before. I became a part of Hmong Queer. That’s how I know these clowns. It was hard actually because I didn’t know if the Hmong community would support people who are Queer and I didn’t know that existed until I came to this space – I always love to see it grow and see the different faces I meet and the different people QHIP, HIP and Hmong Queer Saub impacts.”

I had the opportunity to meet and organize with Youth Lead Community Builder, Quynhthy who guided the participants through multiple activities and closed the event. She commented on the openness of the whole experience. Folxs were not just speaking about community but being about it. Being open to speak on gender and sexuality was an uplifting feeling. Also how Matthew handed over they’s necklace because I shared how everyone else had their outfits on – it warmed my heart to feel that someone was willing to give up a part of themself to make me feel welcomed.

“I’m the youth lead community builder. I wanted to thank everybody for coming out. I had such a good time meeting all of you, especially for the first time. Since I haven’t met all of you, at least not in person and maybe through a screen on zoom, but I had a great time creating new relationships with you. I hope that you enjoyed letting go and manifesting all these things into your life cause I know all you deserve it. You are so deserving of all the love. Thank you Matthew for letting me wear your necklace, cause I felt left out that I didn’t have anything cool to wear.” - Quynhthy

A drone picture of the fairgrounds may look and feel chaotic but a closer look reveals there exists “silver lining moments”, jingling. Matthew showing Quynhthy how to put on a NECKLACE without snagging hair, ouch! Planning committee team synergizing like clock work to keep the event going. Chefs chopping, prepping ingredients all packed together in a tent. Staff opening chairs. Glistening. Like shining precious metal threads woven into the fabric of our community strengthening bonds, an armor made of love.

Before the event concluded, Quynhty grabbed the mic and shouted: “I’m Vietnamese, and never been to a Hmong New Year before like ever and so this is my first one and thank you for making it so fun and I really really enjoyed it and will definitely be returning again, again, and again. (points to necklace) How do I get one of these?”

And the folxs in the crowd responded.

“You buy one!” “Do you want one? Cause I will buy you one.”

“No I don’t want to you to buy it for me”

Kat shouted, “No I will!”

The laughter filled the room, the mic was unplugged and the afternoon came to a close.

Our Hangout

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Breaking Down the Model Minority Myth from the Eyes of a Hmong American Student

You belong here. ♡