Editor's note: Part 1 of a 3-part series: This three-part series will present stories of immigrants from Asia, Europe and Latin America, which are the areas from which most Bay County immigrants arrive.
PANAMA CITY — Anthony Nguyen barely saw the sun for a year.
His domain was a 10-story former factory on a Hong Kong island. About 5,000 people were stuffed into an area, floors two through seven, meant for no more than 3,000, with 90 people sharing each toilet. His only knowledge that it was day or night was the faint, yellow glow emitted from covered windows.
“I saw a lot of children and women sick because they could not see the sun,” Nguyen said. “A U.S. prison would be like heaven” in comparison.
Nguyen did not do anything wrong — except perhaps not wanting to live in Da Nang, Vietnam. Actually, he chose those bleak confines over staying in Vietnam, hoping that freedom was around the corner. He was not alone. Nguyen was among about 800,000 Vietnamese people that left the country after the fall of Saigon in 1975, the symbolic end to the Vietnam War. As of 2010, there are 1.5 million people of Vietnamese descent in the U.S.
A Catholic and youth minister, he said he was persecuted by the communist government, a reality the church still faces in Vietnam, which has no connection to the Vatican, although the discrimination is not as severe as when Nguyen escaped. He left in 1987 with 52 other people on a boat he described as about 25 feet long and 9 feet wide.
“There was enough room for 50 people to sit,” he said. “We lived like chicken on a chicken farm.”
They rationed enough food for four days at sea. The engine lasted two days and choppy seas contributed to a boat ride that lasted 15 days. Starving, Nguyen was too weak to walk when he arrived in Hong Kong and was carried ashore.
“I could see death approaching, slowly,” he said.
He spent two-and-half years at the British-occupied island. His first refugee camp was actually a renovated prison, where manufactured huts held 700 people and he shared a 2-by-4-foot bed with another person. Personal hygiene was difficult; during his entire stay in Hong Kong,he was allowed to shower only once.
He was allotted more room in the former factory but was afforded sunlight at the former prison. He said women and children were allowed to sunbathe.
On to the U.S.: Nguyen’s faith provided a reservoir of confidence — he did not particularly worry that he would never leave. He probably did not know at the time that by the late 1980s some Vietnamese refugees had been in Hong Kong for four years. He knew God had a plan for him; if he had left Vietnam a year later, he might have been sent back home.
“I knew for sure why I left,” Nguyen said. “The communists would not have given me a chance to live my life with freedom.”
In 1989, Nguyen was transferred to the Philippines and from there it was a short wait before a flight to San Francisco. He stayed in California for five years, partially to help pay off a debt because his parents had to pay for the boat ride. His first job was waiting tables at a Chinese restaurant, where he regretted the decision to study French when he was younger, having to start English with the A-B-Cs. Then he worked for Apple as a mechanical assistant and made decent money.
Eventually he was able to repay his parents, allowing them to leave Vietnam through the U.S. government’s Orderly Departure Program, which favored Vietnamese immigrants with relatives in the country. His parents lived in California with a brother and sister in the same state. Nguyen also has two brothers in Ohio and one in Washington, D.C.
Nguyen later traveled to Nebraska where he worked as a machine operator for three years.
By 1995, Nguyen had paid his debt and wanted to enter a seminary in New Orleans. After a trip to Switzerland in 1997 to study German and philosophy, Nguyen was back in the Big Easy finishing up his education from 1998 through 2006 at Nicholls State University, Our Lady of Holy Cross and Notre Dame Seminary. Following ordination, his first assignment was in Portland, Oregon, where he stayed for seven months before being transferred to Panama City.
Nguyen feels the trial of escaping Vietnam helped him become a better priest, especially serving the 300 or so Vietnamese families in Panama City.
“Your experience in life, it shapes your perspective. For me, it’s easy for me to pour out my heart for someone in a hard situation; it’s easy for me to have compassion,” he said. “You say, ‘You are in the same boat.’ We were actually in the same boat.”
Also from Vietnam: Nam thi Le and Muoi Huynh also left Vietnam by boat, but they avoided the long layover in Hong Kong.
Leaving April 30, 1975, the mother, son and 75 other people were picked up by a U.S. Navy ship and were transported with 1,000 other refugees to Guam. From there, Le and Huynh waited five months for United Nations sponsorship; potential destinations included England, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland and the U.S.
Eventually they went through immigration services and went to San Francisco. Vietnamese women in Catholic Services taught them just enough English to be able to ask for food, water and Coca-Cola.
After another Delta flight, they were on their way to Panama City, where they have been for the past 40 years. They started out working part time, building sailboats. Huynh has owned a seafood market on 15th Street since 1991.
Huynh said that after learning the language, adapting to American culture was not difficult. They had been exposed to American culture routinely during the war. Like Nguyen, they enjoy the freedom allotted by their adopted home.
“You can say what and do what you want to do,” Huynh said.
Where They’re From
Total Bay County population: 167,259
Foreign born residents: 8,339
- From Asia: 2,916
- From Latin America: 2,790
- From Europe: 1,773
Top nationalities in Bay County
- Mexican: 3,226
- Puerto Rican: 2,125
- Arab: 850
- Filipino: 819
- Vietnamese: 806
Source: 2010 U.S. Census
Foreign-born residents of the U.S.
- Total: 39.9 million
- Asia: 11.5 million
- Europe: 4.5 million
- Mexico: 11.6 million
- Other Latin American: 9.5 million