Lou Phung
Born in Saigon, Vietnam | West Valley City, Utah
Lou was born in Saigon, Vietnam, but grew up primarily in the United States after his family emigrated to Delta, Colorado. Lou has fond memories of walking to the small town’s local ice cream shop, spending days at the recreation center, and grocery shopping with family. The family eventually moved to West Valley City, Utah, where some family friends also decided to move. Lou connected with many kids outside of his own culture, and regards his transition to living in Utah as an opportunity to build up his resilience as a first-generation and adapted easily to new life in Utah.
Making Utah Home
What is your family’s story behind making Utah your home?
One thing that I’ve learned that I think we could pass down as first-generation immigrants is the importance of family and your parents. No matter what the situation is, whether they immigrated or not, we all have our own story. Just understanding how much your parents love and care about you and all they do to sacrifice for you and your behalf is special. I’m grateful that we landed here in Utah [since] the culture fits well with our values, the desires we want[ed], the goals we wanted for our lives and our future and the future that our parents wanted for us as well.
New Life in Utah
What makes Utah home?
Growing up, we didn’t always have everything but looking back… I think that taught us a lot. One of the things that my parents have done great with us is establishing the importance of family. That’s something that I’m trying to carry on in my own family, being able to take some of the things that they taught me from their culture, integrating that with American culture and being able to help my children understand the importance of family. One thing that I was always jealous of, [was] some of my friends. We didn’t have cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles and… seeing those gatherings [my friends had] as a child… made it a goal for me. I’m truly grateful that my kids have grandparents who are an integral part of their life that love them, teach them and that are helping to pass that culture onto them through customs, clothing, food… I’m truly grateful [they] have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and now we have these large gatherings of family that I used to always look at and wish for.
Building the Next Generation
What hopeful message would you like to share with others as a first generation Utahn?
What’s beautiful about the time and age and area that we live in is there’s so many different cultures, and there’s cultures that my kids really look at and think that they’re neat. What we’re trying to do is teach them the beauty of their own culture. As things get lost with each generation, we hope to be able to maintain certain things, and hope that [those] things that we teach them will inspire them to learn more about their heritage, learn more about their grandparents and great grandparents and what life was like in Vietnam.
HOME IS HERE
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