Vietnamese and Latinos Connect Through Art

His contemporary pieces utilize found objects in the community in imaginative ways — with prisms, video, and kaleidoscopes — plus framed speaking interviews with seven of the area’s residents. In a gallery walk in early December, he told of hearing the stories of immigrant residents such as Linh Nguyen who came escaped Vietnam by boat, surviving the dangerous journey to Malaysia, then resettling in America in 1980. In turn, the artist would tell his own saga of immigration from south of the border.

Yet sharing stories between Latinos and Vietnamese was not an instant process.

MACLA, also known as Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, spurred the exhibit as one of 10 organizations nationwide with a grant from the Ford Foundation to interpret neighborhoods in transition. Its members immersed themselves in this enclave with workshops, events, classes — even free Slam Nights for young poets. Its staff worked with another San Jose organization, Viet Arts, to bring one of their board representatives, Maria Nguyen, to go door-to-door with Lidia Doniz, a Latina education and outreach assistant, to translate at interviews with Vietnamese residents.

“Breaking the language barrier immediately was the key to people agreeing to be photographed and interviewed, both Vietnamese and Spanish” she told Nguoi Viet 2.

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