Writing from These Roots: The Historical Development of Literacy in a Hmong American Community

by John M. Duffy

Writing from These Roots documents the historical development of literacy in a Midwestern American community of Laotian Hmong, a people who came to the United States as refugees from the Vietnam War and whose language had no widely accepted written form until one created by missionary-linguists was adopted in the late twentieth century by Hmong in Laos and, later, the U.S. and other Western nations. As such, the Hmong have often been described as "preliterates," "nonliterates," or members of an "oral culture." Although such terms are problematic, it is nevertheless true that the majority of Hmong did not read or write in any language when they arrived in the U.S. For this reason, the Hmong provide a unique opportunity to study the forces that influence the development of reading and writing abilities in cultures in which writing is not widespread and to do so within the context of the political, economic, religious, military, and migratory upheavals classified broadly as "globalization." Drawing on life-history interviews collected from Hmong refugees in a Wisconsin community, this book examines the disparate political and institutional forces that shaped Hmong literacy development in the twentieth century, including, in Laos, French colonialism, Laotian nationalism, missionary Christianity, and the CIA during the Vietnam War. It further examines the influences on Hmong literary in the U.S., including public schooling, evangelical Christianity, ethnic self-help organizations, and media discourses about Hmong refugees. In relating the particulars of the Hmong story, the author asks broad questions--still urgent and unresolved--about the nature of literacy How do people learn to read and write? What are the forces that nourish, compel, sustain, deny, or redeem literacy? What processes are at work when a majority of people within a given culture, begins, for the first time in its history, to acquire and use written language? And, finally, in what ways do minority peoples--refugees, immigrants, and others--claim the possibilities of literacy for themselves, using it as an instrument to compose identities, cultures, and conceptions of the world? Writing from These Roots offers a theoretical perspective on these and other questions concerning literacy development, one rooted in the symbolic interactions of peoples, cultures, and nations.

Genres: Textbooks

241 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

John M. Duffy is the Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine Philology and Literature, Emeritus, Harvard University.

Reviews

[CTEP]

In Writing from these roots: literacy in a Hmong-American community, John Duffy explores immigrant cultures and their pathways to literacy in new nations. I chose to read Duffy’s book because a librarian friend recommended it to me. Sumner Library partners with the Minnesota Literacy Council and many of the immigrant populations that attend my classes come directly from their ELL or GED classes. Hmong-Americans represent about a quarter of the population that frequents our library in North Minneapolis and the language barrier is often significant.

Duffy makes compelling arguments for the need of more inclusive ESL and ELL curricula, more opportunities for bilingual learning, and community outreach. His interviews with Hmong refugees from the Vietnam War provide a compelling view of their life experiences in Laos and the dramatic change to middle-American life in the Midwest. I was pleasantly surprised that Duffy’s evaluation of globalization was not the typical far-fetched, proto-liberal, lecture from another boring white guy with a PhD. His arguments were well defended and his call for change was rational. Duffy’s realistic claims for literacy easily relate to CTEP’s mission for promoting digital literacy in underserved communities. I would recommend this one to book nerd AmeriCorps members with coke bottle glasses (the best kind) interested in diversity and community advocacy.

[Sarah Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who holds power in literate practices? What happens to an oral literacy when social, political, and religious powers have forced transnationalism? This is a fascinating study of the Hmong people and their history. I am looking to have this work frame some of my current MLL/ENL mindsets and classroom practices, in addition to guiding my research into translanguaging.