{ "id": "p16022coll554:53", "object": "https://cdm16022.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/p16022coll554/id/53", "set_spec": "p16022coll554", "collection_name": "Immigrant Stories", "collection_name_s": "Immigrant Stories", "collection_description": "
Immigrant Stories is a research and archiving project run by the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) at the University of Minnesota. Immigrant Stories helps immigrants, refugees, and their family members create digital stories: brief videos with images, text, and audio about a personal experience.
\n\nThis project defines \"immigrant\" broadly. Our collection contains digital stories from people living outside their country of birth as well as stories created by their children and grandchildren. Immigrant Stories also welcomes stories from international students, international adoptees, and people who do not feel that their stories fit a particular, or just one, category. All stories are important, and we invite you to make a video and share yours with us.
", "title": "Sengchanh Manivanh", "title_s": "Sengchanh Manivanh", "title_t": "Sengchanh Manivanh", "title_search": "Sengchanh Manivanh", "title_sort": "sengchanhmanivanh", "description": "Sengchanh (Tony) Manivanh 1960 was born in Vientiane, Laos in 1960. As a young man, he worked across Laos but was ultimately forced to leave his village, so he crossed the Mekong River into Thailand, where he lived in a refugee camp for two years. He resettled in the United States with the help of a sponsor in Michigan, but he resettled in Minnesota to join a cousin.", "creator": [ "Manivanh, Molly" ], "creator_ss": [ "Manivanh, Molly" ], "creator_sort": "manivanhmolly", "types": [ "Moving Image" ], "format": [ "Oral histories | http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300202595" ], "format_name": [ "Oral histories" ], "dimensions": "0:06:49", "subject": [ "Origin Lao Pdr", "Origin Lao Pdr (Vientiane)", "Ethnicity Lao" ], "subject_ss": [ "Origin Lao Pdr", "Origin Lao Pdr (Vientiane)", "Ethnicity Lao" ], "language": [ "English" ], "state": [ "Minnesota" ], "country": [ "United States" ], "continent": [ "North America" ], "parent_collection": "Immigrant Stories; https://cla.umn.edu/ihrc/immigrant-stories", "parent_collection_name": "Immigrant Stories", "contributing_organization": "University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center", "contributing_organization_name": "University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center", "contributing_organization_name_s": "University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center", "contact_information": "University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center. 311 Elmer L. Andersen Library, 222 - 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455; https://cla.umn.edu/ihrc", "local_identifier": [ "cla-ihrc-is-0204" ], "dls_identifier": [ "cla-ihrc-is-0204" ], "rights_statement_uri": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/", "transcription": "file:///F/Immigrant%20Stories%20Transfer/Manivanh,%20Sengchanh/Sengchanh%20Manivanh%20Transcription.txt[7/31/2017 4:35:55 PM]\nMy name is Sengchanh Manivanh. I was born in Vientiane, Laos in 1960. When I was five years old, my\nparents separated and I had to leave with my brothers and live with my grandma. My grandma had a small\nmarket in front of her house where she sold meat, vegetables, and street food. I had to help her by working\nat the market after school. I started working from sixth grade and even after I graduated high school. I\nworked at gas stations, where I pumped gas and changed the oil on cars. After I finished high school, I\nworked around different states in Laos. Around this time, the Vietnam War was ending, but there was still a\nlot of danger left behind. The people in my village had warned young men to not fight back against anyone\nwho came, or they would go to jail or be brought to an island. The people who were taken never came back.\nI didn’t want to listen to them, and my friends didn’t want to either. I was lucky. I was kicked out of\nthe village instead of being taken. After that, I had hoped to reach a refugee camp because I had nowhere\nto go. But, the only place known to have a refugee camp was in Thailand. The only thing keeping me here\nwas the Mekong River. I was scared, because many people who were crossing would be shot and killed, but\nmy friends were more scared because they couldn’t swim. I swam one mile across the river, against\ncurrents, pulling my two friends behind me with a line of plastic wrap. One of them got a clam on their leg\nand I had to pull them farther across the river. I was able to reach the refugee camp and stayed there for\ntwo years. While in the camp, I was allowed to leave and work in Thailand by fixing cars. I only had enough\nmoney to travel back and forth from the camp.\nAfter all that time, I was able to gain a sponsor who paid for me to come to America and let me live\nwith them. I was alone and worried, but had arrived in California to a camp to be moved to Michigan to meet\nher, my sponsor. Somehow, my cousin had heard about me coming to America, and before I could even\nmeet my sponsor, I was on my way to Minnesota. I still haven’t met her, or remembered her name, but just\nthat she lived in Michigan and she was the reason I was able to be here.\nWhen I first came to America, I couldn’t speak any English and was not able to receive any\ngovernment assistance because of so many law changes. I lived in a one-bedroom house with nine other\nmen who I was related to.\nI spent many years working at different hotels and assembly jobs for no more than four dollars an\nhour. In my spare time, I would teach men how to fight in a park. That is where I met Leah, the only\nwoman who came to also learn from us, and had a child named Marlina with her. Eventually, I met\nDouangta Sengsourinhet and stayed with her for 13 years and had two kids: Molly and Tiffani. I went\nthrough a lot of ups and downs and was able to find better work at a company called Waymar, where I\nworked for 27 years. I was able to buy three different kinds of sports cars. One of my favorites was the\nCorvette, but I had to sell it when I had kids because you can’t fit a car seat in the back. Eventually, I got\ndivorced but met my current and beautiful wife Praiya soon after. I spent the next years of my life\nsupporting my family. Eventually, I even changed my name to Tony Manivanh, received my American\ncitizenship, and now live in Prior Lake, Minnesota.", "kaltura_video": "1_4jedil0y", "page_count": 0, "record_type": "primary", "first_viewer_type": "kaltura_video", "viewer_type": "kaltura_video", "attachment": "357.pdf", "attachment_format": "pdf", "document_type": "item", "featured_collection_order": 999, "date_added": "2021-01-26T00:00:00Z", "date_added_sort": "2021-01-26T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2021-01-26T00:00:00Z", "_version_": 1710337983821905920, "type": "Moving Image", "collection": "p16022coll554", "is_compound": false, "parent_id": "53", "thumb_url": "https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/p/1369852/thumbnail/entry_id/1_4jedil0y", "thumb_cdn_url": "https://dkp5i0hinw9br.cloudfront.net/f0e9c0e8be9cc5a576af30e3fd6388e776ff691c.png", "children": [ ] }