“Reaching Across: How We Build International Community” 

Anh-Thu Pham

Vietnamese | Minneapolis, MN | she/her/hers | Public Sector

In 1997, I went to Havana, Cuba for a conference centering youth activists. During my stay, I went on a bus tour, and unfortunately our bus driver got lost. There were a lot of people from around the world joining the conference, and the route we were on was unfamiliar to our bus driver. Many of us from the United States didn’t speak Spanish, making navigating the city by ourselves complicated. 

Even though our U.S. group on that bus was large, no one spoke Spanish. Luckily, there was also a group of conference attendees from Viet Nam on the bus with us, and one of them spoke Spanish. Through our tri-lingual communication we were able to make it to our destination quickly. On the way back, we were all able to talk about our experiences at the conference. While translating everything into three languages wasn’t quick, it was rewarding and became the norm during the trip. It didn’t matter what country our name tags said we were from – we were all working towards a better world for our communities.

For the first time ever, I understood the true value of my Vietnamese language skills, which my parents taught me. At that moment, I was allowed to be both Vietnamese and American. It reinforced the internationalist values that I was raised with as an Asian American. It was the first of many moments and lessons that being in community with other Vietnamese and Asians, I was able to be my true, authentic self.

I’ve been a community organizer since the 90s, and have been privileged to be a part of many amazing moments – from national marches of tens of thousands of people protesting war, to witnessing the collaboration between oppressed communities fighting police brutality. The moments that stood out for me have never been the bright or loud moments. It hasn’t been the moments where I’ve been up on stage speaking to a crowd. Rather, it’s been the quiet moments where I have been able to connect to another person, and have deep conversations about the world we want to live in. Those have been the moments that made a difference.

That day on the bus, we could have remained separated by nationalities. It would have made for a long and uncomfortable ride finding our host homes, but the brief moment it took to connect to another and reach out across made all the difference. It meant that I as a Vietnamese-American (birthed from ex-pats raised after the fall of South Viet Nam) could talk to the Vietnamese (people from the Communist country that was my childhood version of the bogeyman). We not only found a quick way back, but discovered the humanity in each other, laying the groundwork for the future.

I resolved during that trip to never stop reaching out and across as I continue to build the world that I, and we, deserve.

#MinneAsianStories Series