Thuy (Mary) Hong oral history interview

Thuy “Mary” Hong was born in the Go Vap district of Saigon in 1988. Her mother ran a pho noodle restaurant and her father drove cyclos prior to his death by motor accident in 1994. Hong grew up in Go Vap, attending public schools with an interest in mathematics and Japanese language. She spent her free time working, usually at her mother’s restaurant or other local food and coffee restaurants. Hong met and married her husband Stephen Le shortly after completing her secondary education. Stephen was visiting Vietnam from the United States where he had immigrated with several members of his family under the Amerasian Act. The couple married in Vietnam, and shortly after the birth of their first daughter, Mai, Stephen returned to the United States. Hong immigrated to the United States in 2013, leaving her second daughter, Ngoc, in Vietnam with her mother. She began working as a nail technician with the Le family, initially in the Vietnamese community of Dorchester, Massachusetts and later in Hanover, New Hampshire at the Nefertiti Nail Salon. Hong currently resides in Lebanon, New Hampshire with her husband, two daughters, and extended family.