The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir
Many Hmong have converted to Christianity. This is a Hmong-made Christmas ornament, collection of Patricia Cummings.
I have just finished reading, The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang. While I enjoyed reading about Kao’s family’s experiences in America, I particularly appreciated the heartfelt sentiment of the last chapter. It describes, in great detail, her grandmother’s death and all of the traditional rituals associated with it. Her grandmother had already known over 250 grandchildren before she passed on (from a direct quote of the grandmother on page 259).
An excerpt:
My father and my uncles, Hmong sons, had asked for a man who was well taught in Hmong traditions to preside over the funeral. He had brought with him a selection of men, each specializing in a different part of the ceremony: the dressing of the body; the guiding of the soul to the next life; the beating of the drum of the dead; the playing of the qeej, a huge bamboo instrument played by men that carried the heart’s wishes for happy wedding, bountiful new years, and words to the dead. The man who would teach Grandma’s soul the way back to the place where she was born started chanting …
Hmong life in America is the another chapter in the history of a people who never had a real place to be. They were persecuted in China for centuries and were driven into the mountains where they learned to subsist by farming, using slash and burn methods, and moving about every ten years. I have found the study of the Hmong people, their rituals, their beliefs, their industry with the needle, and so many other parts of their culture, to be a moving (no pun intended) part of World History.
I hope that some of you will get a chance to pick up a copy of The Quilter magazine in July (it will have a September cover date). That issue has the 66th article I have written for a column called, “Pieces of the Past,” ongoing since 1999. It is the 2nd part of a two part series about the Hmong people and their textiles.
Even though those two Hmong articles are “put to bed,” I have continued my studies of the Hmong, and the book I just finished still leaves a pile more for me to read. I try to provide links to amazon for books that I like, and/or have in my own personal library. I will do the same this time. I love learning about other cultures! Today, I received a book about Australian Quilt History that is not available in this country. I have been waiting since the beginning of May for it, so it is most welcome. There has been a lot of quilting in the Land Down Under, something else to explore!
Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications
