This year marks 50 years of Hmong refugee resettlement and immigration to Minnesota. MPR News will feature Hmong Minnesotans in a variety of careers through the month of May as part of our “ChangeMakers” series. This series highlights Minnesotans from diverse and often underrepresented backgrounds who are making an impact.
Painter and politician Cy Thao was born in Laos in 1972. After the United States military left Vietnam, his family lived in a Thai refugee camp for five years, then immigrated to Minnesota in 1980. He was among the first generation of Hmong people to grow up in the state.
Thao is a painter best known for his project called the Hmong Migration, a collection of 50 paintings documenting 5,000 years of Hmong history, from life in southern China, to alignment with the U.S. during the Vietnam War, to resettlement in the U.S. His goal was to educate younger generations of Hmong Americans about where they came from and help others understand the story of the Hmong people. The collection was featured in the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
For eight years, Thao also served St. Paul as a lawmaker in the Minnesota House of Representatives. His election in 2002 made him the second Hmong American lawmaker to serve in a state legislature anywhere in the country. Another Minnesota lawmaker, Sen. Mee Moua, DFL-St. Paul, was the first. She was elected to the Minnesota Senate during a special election earlier in 2002.
Minnesota Now producer Ellie Roth spoke to Thao about the path he helped carve for Hmong politicians in Minnesota and the pressure that comes with being a “first.”
You were elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2002 and served until 2011. What type of responsibility did you feel to the Hmong community here in Minnesota, as one of the first Hmong lawmakers in the country?
If you understand our community, we’ve been oppressed almost everywhere, every country we’ve been to. This was the first time in the history of our people where we’re given the full opportunity to run for office openly.
A lot of people were really, really excited that America had kind of accepted us, allowing us to be part of the institution and to be lawmakers. It boosts our self-esteem and allows us to say, “Yeah, we’re American just as much as anybody.” I mean, you don’t get more American than being part of an American institution like the Legislature.
There are currently more than a half dozen Hmong American lawmakers serving in the Legislature. Do you ever reflect on the path that you carved for the Hmong communities, specifically in politics here in Minnesota?
I think there’s some momentum for them, and I think it allowed them to dream big. You know, as the first guy to be in the House, I always had to be extra, extra careful of what I say or do, because the last thing I want to do is look incompetent. If people think that, “Oh my god, these Hmong guys are incompetent. They come in, they don’t know what they’re doing, can’t pass laws, don’t understand.”
That’s all I was thinking for those eight years. I didn’t want the next Hmong person to have to answer that question. Now that we’ve been here more than 50 years, I don’t think we feel like that anymore. We kind of graduate to that point of not even questioning qualification anymore. I think at a point in our history that was a big deal.
We’re nearing the 50th anniversary of Hmong people being in Minnesota. How are you reflecting on this moment in time?
When you say 50 years, that’s a really long time. But it doesn’t feel that long for a guy like me, who kind of went through the whole thing, but it is long. I think, the transformation of the community when my parents first came, they worry that they don’t speak enough English to get a job. Now my daughters, they don’t speak one word of Hmong. And for sure, my grandkids, they probably can’t find Laos on the map.
It’s kind of sad, but in a way that’s just kind of the history of America anyway. It doesn’t matter which group, who comes from where, I think the minute you step foot in America, you’re going through this transformation. And your community will have a hard time at the beginning, but eventually they’ll find their footing. And then once they find their footing, they’ll start doing amazing stuff.
Then eventually they won’t even be Hmong, they’re just gonna be Americans. One day, eventually, I don’t think they’re even gonna say, “I’m Hmong American.” They’re just gonna say, “Yeah, I was born in America. I’m American. My ancestor came from here.” That’s no different than anyone else. We’re just like one little blurb in that whole story of America now.
