The Stripes

Daily writing prompt

What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?

View all responses

The photo above is of my dad (right) and a friend. The story was that my dad, who was twelve at the time, wanted to wear the costume but his parents didn’t want to help him put it on so he did it himself. Normally, an adult would help a child put the costume on.

I’m not sure I can say I’m proud of my heritage. I think culture and where we come from shapes us only to a certain extent. Being raised in the U.S., I don’t really know much about the “culture.” I try to understand it and I once was fascinated by it all that I even created a blog all about the Hmong (white) culture. This was in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. As time went on, my environment shaped me to be who I am and I’ve learned that I didn’t need the heritage or culture. There are some aspects of it that I do like that have to do with community, but that’s a conversation for another day.

The reason why I wanted to answer this question was because I’m fascinated by the striped design of the Hmong white costume. You can see it on the wrists of my dad and his friend. The men’s stripes are usually low on the wrist. I remember my mom teaching my siblings and I that we were Hmong white and that one of the costumes was the one with the blue and black stripped sleeves. Hmong white also has an all black costume with blue on the wrist, apron, and lapel. The skirt for the Hmong white is white compared to the Hmong green which has a colorful skirt, like this:

The photo above is of my mom (left) and her sister (right). The lady in the middle was a missionary nun from Canada. I can’t remember who the little girl is but I think she’s a friend or a relative. You can see the striped sleeves on both my mom and her sister. The head coverings are also exclusive to the Hmong white costume.

The guy on the right is an uncle (he’s Mom’s brother) and the girl in the middle is his wife. The girl on the left, I believe is a friend. I love this photo because of the stripes.

These guys are my uncles. I think they are all my uncles. Mom had a pretty big family. I believe all of them fought in the Vietnam War in the Secret War (for the U.S.). I don’t know if this photo was taken before or after the war. I know I have an uncle who lived in France, but the rest of them, I believe remained in Laos. You can see the striped sleeves on all their shirts.

I think that’s how they differentiated the different tribes. The language was different too between the tribes. I personally can only understand the Hmong white dialect. I can sometimes pick up some Hmong green, but only the very basic words. As far as speaking Hmong white, I’m terrible at it. And I don’t speak any Hmong green or any other dialects.

To answer the question as to what aspects of my heritage I am proud of, I’d say it’s the clothing—the traditional costume—especially the blue and black stripes on the shirtsleeves. I would love to know how that came to be and who decided on that as the indicator of that tribe.