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Oral history interview with Van Tran

 Collection
Identifier: SR 12330

Scope and Contents

This oral history interview with Van Tran was conducted by Shea Seery and Sankar Raman in 2019. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States.

In this interview, Tran discusses her family background and early life in Saigon, Vietnam, including her education, particularly learning languages, and her love of music. She shares her experiences during the Vietnam War. She talks about her father’s work with the U.S. military and his imprisonment in a North Vietnamese camp. She shares her memories of the fall of Saigon in 1975, and describes her family’s attempts to escape to the United States. She then describes the process of emigrating to the U.S. in 1985, including a stopover in the Philippines, where she taught English and met her future husband. She talks about her marriage in 1987, about raising a family in Stockton, California, and about opening Phở Lê, a Vietnamese restaurant in Camas, Washington, in 1991. She talks about the restaurant’s success, about opening other locations in Portland and Vancouver, and about her and her husband's reasons for closing the Camas location. She also looks at photographs and talks about them.

Dates

  • Creation: 2019

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and The Immigrant Story. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/

Biographical note

Van Dung Tran was born in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1957. Her father worked for the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, and later spent five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp. After the 1975 fall of Saigon, she and her family attempted several escapes. In 1985, they were finally able to emigrate to the United States. She first lived in Portland, Oregon. In 1987, she and Thuong Le were married; they later had two children. The couple moved to Stockton, California, where Le worked in his family’s restaurant. In 1991, the couple opened Phở Lê, a Vietnamese restaurant in Camas, Washington, while they lived in Portland. They later opened locations in Portland and Vancouver.

Extent

700 Megabytes (1 audio file (WAV, 1 hr., 3 min., 44 sec.))

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Oral history interview with Van Tran conducted by Sankar Raman and Shea Seery in 2019 for The Immigrant Story. Tran discusses her experiences as a young woman during and after the Vietnam War, and talks about operating Phở Lê, a Vietnamese restaurant now located in Vancouver, Washington.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of The Immigrant Story, June 2021 (RL2021-057).

Bibliography

An article about Van Tran, "Putting Passion Into Work and Play" by Shea Seery, was based on this interview and published on The Immigrant Story website at https://theimmigrantstory.org/putting-passion-into-work-and-play/
Title
Guide to the oral history interview with Van Tran
Status
Completed
Author
Sarah Stroman
Date
2022
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library Repository

Contact:
1200 SW Park Ave.
Portland OR 97205 United States
5033065204
5033065240