The Nguyen family, written down
Twelve hours of broth, a house in Alief, and two years of talking on cassette tapes.
This is what a Famvaults wiki looks like once a family has been at it for a while. Read any article — the links, the contents lists and the family tree all work. Every family here is invented, and the pictures are illustrations.
6 articles
Nguyễn Thị Hoa
Nguyễn Thị Hoa (1938–2020), Bà Nội, left Saigon by boat in 1979 with three children and a bag of rice, spent fourteen months in a camp in Malaysia, and arrived in Houston in 1981. Her phở took twelve…
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The House in Alief
A brick ranch house in southwest Houston, bought in 1984, with lemongrass and Thai basil in the beds where the lawn was supposed to be, and the car always in the driveway because the garage was full…
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Bà Nội's Phở
Beef phở, started at five in the morning by Bà Nội and served at five in the evening. The broth is the whole dish; everything else is a garnish.
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Tết, 1990
The first Lunar New Year with the whole family together in Houston, at the house in Alief — lanterns along the porch, a branch of yellow blossom, and red envelopes for every child.
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Nguyễn Văn Tuấn
Nguyễn Văn Tuấn (1934–2011), Ông Nội, taught mathematics in Saigon for twenty years and worked nights in a machine shop in Houston for fifteen, and never once complained about either in front of the…
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The Cassette Tapes
For two years the family was split between Houston and Saigon, and talked to each other on cassette tapes posted halfway round the world. Thirty-one of them survive.
ReadAnd the family behind them
Every person can point at the articles written about them, so the tree doubles as a way into the wiki.
Family tree
- &Nguyễn Văn Tuấn1934–2011
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