Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother's Life
SynopsisPlot
Born in 1961 in war-torn Laos, Tswb’s childhood was marked by the violence of America’s Secret War and the CIA recruitment of the Hmong and other ethnic minorities into the lost cause. By the time Tswb was a teenager, the US had completely vacated Laos, and the country erupted into genocidal attacks on the Hmong people, who were labeled as traitors. Fearing for their lives, Tswb and her family left everything they knew behind and fled their village for the jungle. Perpetually on the run and on the brink of starvation, Tswb eventually crossed paths with the man who would become her future husband. Leaving her own mother behind, she joined his family at a refugee camp, a choice that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Eventually becoming a mother herself, Tswb raised her daughters in a state of constant fear and hunger until they were able to emigrate to the US, where the determined couple enrolled in high school even though they were both nearly thirty and worked grueling jobs to provide for their children.
Story
About this book
Where Rivers Part tells the life story of Tswb, mother of author Kao Kalia Yang, who was born in 1961 in Laos. She grew up during America's Secret War, in which the CIA recruited Hmong and other ethnic minorities to fight for the United States. After the US withdrew, the Hmong were labelled traitors, and the violence that followed drove Tswb's family into the jungle.
Survival there meant constant movement, scarce food, and fear. During this period Tswb met the man she would marry. She joined his family at a refugee camp, a decision that meant leaving her own mother behind, and that separation stayed with her long afterward. As a mother herself, Tswb raised her daughters through continued hardship until the family was able to emigrate to the United States.
In the US, Tswb and her husband enrolled in high school although both were close to thirty, while working demanding jobs to support their children. Yang follows that path from rural Laos through displacement to resettlement, keeping attention on the choices her mother made under extreme pressure and on the cost of leaving family members behind.
