Passage IV

The Nguyen Family Restaurant

For my friends Tran and Maya Nguyen, the distance between Vietnam and California is more than it's measure in miles. Although immigrants, Tran, Maya, and their four children left much behind, including their family restaurant. Now they want to run a restaurant in Los Angeles just as they did in Da Nang.

When Tran visited Vietnamese restaurants in the Los Angeles area, he was impressed, with both, their decor and their menus but shocked to learn how much it costs to rent a suitable building. (51) He knew that himself and Maya would have to apply their energies to the activity of labor for the money needed to sign a lease.

During their first year in the United States, they found jobs and began to save money. Tran worked as a hospital clerk, and Maya was an assembler in an electronics factory. Nevertheless, they were a long way from what they would need. They knew their jobs would help them to raise the necessary funds. After two years,56they had more than doubled their savings but were still short of their goal.

Tran worked hard at his job. He decided to rent a food vendor's cart that he could manage on his days off from the hospital. He knew the perfect location on a busy street corner. In less than a week, Tran was selling cha gio (egg rolls) on that corner. Soon they rented a second cart for Maya to operate. This undertaking wasn't their dream but perhaps their dream would lead to it.

Recently, Maya saw what seemed to her the perfect building for rent. The neighborhood was friendly, with lots of foot traffic. She envisioned their restaurant fitting in nicely here. But she was disappointed when she talked to the real estate agent—the building wouldn't be available for six months. Maya went home and discussed the situation with Tran. They were discouraged but realized that they could use this time to acquire much of the equipment they would need. Last night they decided to name their future restaurant after their son, Haing. That was also the name of their restaurant back in Vietnam.