In 1991 I had the opportunity to photograph at Site 2, a sprawling refugee camp along the Thai-Cambodian border. Having seen films, photos, and news reports showing Cambodians only as helpless war refugees, starving victims reaching out for western aid, I was surprised to discover a people deeply concerned with rebuilding and upholding their cultural traditions, and desperate for normalcy after nearly 210 years of chaos and brutality. I was frustrated that in the short time I had access to the camp I was not able to document the vitality I witnessed. But when I returned to the U.S. I found something similar in Chicago’s community of nearly 5,000 Cambodians. Despite the problems common to most immigrant populations, the community was vibrant, flourishing, and attempting to move beyond the refugee experience; at the same time it placed much emphasis on the preservation of language, religion, and culture–the things to which poor immigrants must turn for a sense of stability, identity, and of course joy.
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Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Stuart Isett.
