The Latehomecomer

Kao Kalia Yang was born in Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in 1980 and immigrated to St. Paul, Minnesota when she was six years old. She is agraduate of Carleton College and Columbia University and co-founder of Words Wanted, an organization committed to helping immigrants with writing, translating, and business services.

In her memoir, The Latehomecomer (2008), Yang explores what it means to be Hmong. By remembering her time in Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee camp, and compiling the stories of her family, she strengthens her identity as a Hmong woman living in America. Across a prologue and fifteen chapters, Yang chronicles the lives of her family as they move from place to place, displaced by the aftermath of war, and her own life, as she moves from the refugee camp to America. While the lives of her family are often marked by starvation, running from gunned soldiers, and facing poverty in America, it is clear that their familial bonds give them hope to keep going. Yang’s parents wanted to move to America so that Yang and her siblings could have a better life, and once they’re in America, her parents work night shifts so that they can afford the amenities their children need to succeed, such as school supplies and clothing. Yang and her older sister are acutely aware of the sacrifices their parents have made to bring them to America. Education is seen as the key to success, so Yang and her older sister strive to do the best they can in school and college. 

One of the primary motivations for Yang to write this memoir was that she wanted to commemorate her Hmong heritage. Since the Hmong don’t have a traditional written language, most of Hmong history was passed on orally. However, as the Hmong were displaced after the war, much of that history stood in jeopardy. Yang is afraid that the lives of her family members and their history will be erased once they pass away. This feeling is amplified by the fact that when she moves to America, she doesn’t see any Hmong stories in the history books. Yang’s memoir is an attempt to document the history of her family, to share the Hmong story with the world.

The power of myth and story play an important role in this memoir. While Yang chronicles her family’s journey from place to place, she intertwines these stories with Hmong myths, which are often dark tales of loss. The myths serve as metaphors for the Hmong experience.

Other works by this author include The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father and Somewhere in the Unknown World: A Collective Refugee Memoir.