[HN Gopher] In Vietnam, an unlikely outpost for Chicano culture
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In Vietnam, an unlikely outpost for Chicano culture
Author : donnachangstein
Score : 32 points
Date : 2025-05-27 20:09 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.latimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.latimes.com)
| pvg wrote:
| https://archive.is/XyxeB
| pipeline_peak wrote:
| If you've ever been to SoCal or Dallas, the embracement isn't
| that surprising.
| caycep wrote:
| agree; haven't been to Dallas, but in Westminster/Garden Grove
| and San Jose, where latin american communities and Viet
| immigrant/vietnam communities happen to live in close
| proximity, the cultural mashups and innovation have been
| striking in both ways. Some of the most remarkable dishes in
| one of the most remarkable restaurants in SoCal that I've eaten
| in the past few years were conceived of and cooked by a
| Mexican-american chef who grew up surrounded by Vietnamese food
| in Garden grove
| anon291 wrote:
| Because they're both very Catholic. My Catholic parish was
| filled with this exact mixing. Easter Vigil Mass would be
| said in three languages -- English, Spanish, Vietnamese,
| complete with Mexican-Vietnamese Catholic hymn mashups
| (singing versus of the same song in different languages, with
| each choir taking a verse, one verse would be accompanied by
| mariachi, and the next by an organ, etc... fun times)>
| kingo55 wrote:
| When a buddy and I used to go out to bars, he would dress and act
| Mexican too. I think he enjoyed the style but, on some level,
| also the attention when girls would mistake him for being Mexican
| rather than his Chinese heritage.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| Latin America actually has a very significant Asian population.
|
| Everyone can be Latino, white , indigenous, black, Asian, etc.
| xhkkffbf wrote:
| A significant part of Peru's government, for instance, has
| Japanese heritage. And that's just one corner.
| keybored wrote:
| Like the wonderful Alberto Fujimori.
| kwk1 wrote:
| A neat fact I share in this regard: the country with the most
| Japanese people besides Japan? Brazil!
| mc32 wrote:
| People of Japanese ancestry top out at around 1% of all
| Brazilians. That's not a lot or significant portion of the
| population. If you get to 5 or 7% we can talk about
| significance. On the other hand they tend to have outsized
| influence on the country, so you may be projecting that onto
| pop size.
| mc32 wrote:
| I think that's overstating it. There are pockets in the largest
| cities, but that's about it. Very few Latin Americans would be
| like, hey let's go get some Chinese food, outside of the
| largest cities. It's not like Canada or the US where even in
| towns in the middle of nowhere you can find a Chinese joint.
|
| Now, some do call nannies "Chinese", so presumably, many
| decades ago, some very poor Chinese took a voyage across the
| sea to poor countries because China was even more desperately
| poor. Also some Chinese as well as Philippine folks were
| brought over to Mexico as slaves and they were all labeled
| 'Chinese' kind of like how chino fabric originated in the
| Philippines but is called 'chinos.'
| piuantiderp wrote:
| Look up Chaufa, and yes, you can get Chinese food
| everywhere...
| mc32 wrote:
| Ok but Asians or people with Asian ancestry don't even add
| up to 1% of the Mexican population. It's miniscule. There
| are probably more middle easterners than Asians living in
| Mexico.
| alephnerd wrote:
| Cholo culture is not a mainstream culture in Vietnam though, and
| is very overstated in the article - it's more counterculture and
| a mix of Cali Kieu who "returned" to Vietnam or people who are
| cult fans of content like the Fast and Furious franchise
| ("familia")
|
| Hallyu is the primary mainstream culture having impact in
| Vietnam. Can't walk a meter without bumping into something
| Korean.
|
| > particularly among older generations of Vietnamese, who are
| inclined to associate tattoos with gangs and violence
|
| Younger generations too excluding the Thao Dien or the D3 type.
| You see plenty of heavily tattooed lecherous older Japanese men
| in D1, and everyone knows the implications of that.
| ch4s3 wrote:
| That's a shame, I was hoping for a pozole blanco/pho mashup. I
| feel like that should really work. And carnitas on banh mi
| would be fantastic. The coffee culture would probably also be
| excellent.
| alephnerd wrote:
| You can get that in Anaheim, Houston, or East SJ.
|
| If you ever want some sort of fusion culture, the only places
| you can discover that tend to be the US or Canada.
|
| There are some Mexican fusion places in Saigon, but they are
| extremely overpriced and mid.
| layman51 wrote:
| A text search for "cholo" yields no results. I found that kind of
| surprising. That is the type of aesthetic that seems to have
| spread the most but I would hope that all these people learn
| beyond more than gang-life stories. I'm thinking the stories of
| Rudolfo Anaya, "Corky" Gonzales, Sandra Cisneros, etc.
| cdelsolar wrote:
| That was definitely an interesting ese.
| anon291 wrote:
| I grew up in SoCal (Westminster in particular), which is highly
| vietnamese, and in the context of SoCal, which is VERY Mexican.
| So, honestly, this aesthetic is very familiar to me. Most of my
| school friends(mexican and vietnamese) growing up were very into
| it. My Catholic parish was basically run by the Mexicans and
| Vietnamese communities. This combination is very common in LA /
| Southern California.
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