TRAVERSE

STATELESS
Above: Hmong communities in the US continuing to
commemorate their culture through festivals and events
the Hmong became self-sufficient. They now grow large
quantities of previously scarce vegetables, like lettuce, and
tropical varieties of fruit like cupuaçu, which is oblong, has a
white pulp and is found in the Amazon basin.
And academic studies have shown the Hmong here to
have more robust physical health and less pessimism
about their circumstances than their brethren in the
United States, where some Hmong communities have
had difficulty adapting to cities or suburbs and have been
plagued by suicides and health problems.
The rhythms of existence here seem far removed from
the cities where many Hmong have settled in the United
States or France. On the weekends, young Hmong play
pétanque, a game that, like bocce, consists of pitching
metal balls at a target. Older men, sipping bottles of
Heineken, boast of jungle hunts for peccaries and tapirs.
As in any small village, some younger Hmong
complain of boredom and isolation. Hmong Lee, 40, who
moved to mainland France for 10 years before returning,
decided to settle for something between the farm
founded by his parents and the bustle of a European city.
He now works at a furniture store in the capital, Cayenne.
Hmong Lee says that it isn’t like Paris, but being in
South America has allowed him to be more free to be
Hmong, and away from the discriminations that Hmong
in the countries like the France, Australia and U.S. might
be facing.
44 TRAVERSE