Minnesota is home to the largest concentration of Hmong people in the United States (U.S.). According to the American Community Survey, over 100,000 Hmong individuals reside within Minnesota, encompassing 1.8 percent of the state’s population, with the Twin Cities being a center of Hmong culture in the U.S.
Though the culture is prevalent in the greater Twin Cities, many Hmong students do not feel the same sense of Hmong belonging at Macalester.
“On campus, since there’s only 10 Hmong [students] … having that sense of [Hmong] community is quite limited,” Kalia Thao ’29 said.
The Hmong population refers to an ethnic group descending from Southeast Asian countries including Laos, Vietnam and parts of China. Hmong people have lived in these countries for hundreds of years and developed their own distinct culture and identity within the region.
Hmong people were also persecuted during the Vietnam War. During this time, Laos broke out in a civil war that was known as the “Secret War.” In this conflict, the CIA recruited Hmong individuals to spy on the North Vietnamese and their allies.
Thousands of Hmong people were killed during these wars, and in 1975, many of the remaining of Hmong population in Laos were evacuated to Thailand.
“My grandparents and my parents came to America after the Secret War,” Calla Lee ’26 said. “They crossed the Mekong River and they went to the Thai refugee camps. They carried my dad across the river into the refugee camps [and stayed there] until eventually they came to America.”
Many Hmong evacuees eventually immigrated to the United States, specifically to the greater Twin Cities metropolitan area. Today, the Twin Cities are home to a robust Hmong diaspora.
“We have [people from all] the 18 [Hmong] clans and we have Hmong-American partnership [in the Twin Cities],” UX/UI Designer and Frontend Developer Shouayee Vue ’22, said.
Vue, who grew up in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, Minn. said that she spent her childhood attending school and Courtesy of Kalia Thao ’29. Hmong cultural events with other Hmong children in the community.
“The Twin Cities had a large impact on me,” Vue said. “I don’t think I could live anywhere else because our culture is so integral.”
St. Paul specifically boasts a Hmong cultural center, multiple Hmong-owned supermarkets and other Hmong-owned businesses that help contribute to its unofficial title as the “Hmong Capital of the World.”
However, Macalester’s campus sits in a “bubble” that exists outside of the vibrant Hmong culture within St. Paul. Many Hmong students note a lack of access to Hmong gatherings and community on campus, compared to that of the Greater Twin Cities.
At Macalester, the Hmong student organization Ua Ke, meaning “together” in Hmong, supports Hmong students. It has five active members among Macalester’s 10 current Hmong students, according to C. Lee.
“I didn’t realize that there was a Hmong org on campus until maybe a week or two before school started [my first year],” C. Lee said. “I actually didn’t get involved until I went to the org fair and talked to them. My first year, there [were] only three members [of Ua Ke] … and when you have such a small group like that, it means so much to you, and you have to just put in so much more effort.”
Over the past few years, Ua Ke has created a bigger presence on campus. Ua Ke aims to meet Mac students — both Hmong and not — at their level of understanding about Hmong culture and history. The organization has also invited all students to partake in events such as their annual Hmong New Year celebration, first held jointly with Hamline University’s Hmong Student Association in 2023.
“We had over 100 people come to our Hmong New Year [celebration] this year, and we were only expecting half of that,” Thao said. “That is very meaningful to us, because what it tells us is [that] our community wants to learn, and that’s the biggest thing that we want. You don’t have to be an honorary Hmong person — just be open to learning about our history and also being able to share [your own] histories with us so that we can connect with them.”
In addition to their Hmong New Year celebration, Ua Ke plans multiple “In the Kitchen with” programs with the Lealtad-Suzuki Center for Social Justice (LSC). Ua Ke also participates in the Asian Pacific Islander Desi in America (APIDA) organization’s annual night market and gala to educate Mac community members about Hmong culture. The organization meets on a semifrequent basis to create a community space for Hmong students looking to connect with others on campus.
“[Ua Ke] felt very homey,” Vue said. “We didn’t really have a set schedule, we didn’t really have set things we wanted to do. It was more whoever wants to [get together and] has time to drop in, have some bread from Breadsmith and just talk. It’s like a de-stress community group.”
While Ua Ke represents Hmong students, Macalester does not have a defined campus identity group for Hmong staff members and faculty, another small yet significant population on campus. However, some staff and faculty are part of ongoing efforts to educate the broader Macalester professional community about Hmong culture and identity, such as in the Equity Education Cohort led by equality specialist and Ua Ke advisor Mayzong Lee.
“I [was] asked a question: ‘How do you build community with people?’” M. Lee said. “Hmong people, we are [a] very collectivist culture, and so seeing how we supported each other upon [our] first arrival to the United States as refugees, right from Thailand, really impacts how I show up for others in my community.”
Historically, many Hmong individuals in and outside the Twin Cities ultimately do not end up pursuing higher education, particularly not at private, small liberal arts colleges such as Macalester. That’s one of multiple factors contributing to the low Hmong population on campus. According to a Pew Research Center study, only 26% of Hmong Americans ages 25 and older have a higher education degree. Additionally, Hmong individuals in the Twin Cities report lower incomes, with Hmong full-time workers earning an average annual median income of $39,000 compared to $58,000 average for all Twin Cities residents.
C. Lee said that many Hmong high schoolers are not pushed into academia as heavily as their peers.
“To many Hmong families, college may be an opportunity,” C. Lee said. “But most of the time, college is … an expensive route to take. So instead, [Hmong families] encourage their kids to take jobs right out of high school, to start making money. I think that stems from the fact that our grandparents and some of our parents came to work here … so they feel like they need to make money and make a life for themselves.”
Some local Hmong students found out about Macalester through Breakthrough Twin Cities, a college access program to support historically marginalized students in the Twin Cities. Others, including C. Lee, were directed to Macalester through the Posse Foundation partnership established in 2021.
“[Posse’s] partnership with Macalester is special because Macalester wanted students specifically from the Twin Cities area,” C. Lee said. “[Before] applying to come to Macalester, I didn’t realize that the school existed, despite living here in the Twin Cities, and despite Macalester [being] right next to all these other private colleges that are well known [and] where there are a lot of Hmong people. Macalester never came up.”
The Breakthrough Twin Cities program also helped some Hmong students find out that Macalester was a viable option for higher education. According to Vue, Breakthrough Twin Cities students are encouraged to look at all higher education institutions in Minnesota.
“I went to Highland Park Senior High down the road … and even though I live in the area, the only reason why I knew about Mac … [was] because [of] my advisor from Breakthrough [Twin Cities],” Vue said. “Most [Hmong] students end up going to the [University of Minnesota], even to St. Olaf, Carleton, or like [St. Catherine] down the road [or] St. Thomas; but then Macalester, [there] is some sort of wall between [them and us]. There’s a lack of outreach to the community.”
To help navigate around college access barriers for Hmong students, Ua Ke has prioritized creating more accessibility for prospective Hmong students applying to Macalester. This summer, Ua Ke will participate in a Brown University webinar dedicated to helping Hmong high school students find options for colleges that they could attend. They will attend on Macalester’s behalf.
“I think this webinar is going to be super beneficial and give other prospective students an access point,” Thao said. “Because just even learning about Macalester, or who we are, what we do, it’s something that shows them that ‘you can do this, and this is an option for you.’”
Some Hmong individuals on campus believe that the key to creating a better relationship between the Hmong community in the greater Twin Cities and Macalester is for campus organizations such as the LSC and the Community Engagement Center to create and promote events in which Mac students and staff collaborate with the wider Hmong community.
“I think we could look at [having] a lot of mutually beneficial [events],” M. Lee said. “Not just visiting Hmong Village as [an] excursion where I get to go eat Hmong food, or I get to buy Hmong things, but actually learning about how Hmong people end[ed] up here in Minnesota?”
Because so much of the student population is from outside the Twin Cities and is less likely to be aware of Hmong people as a cultural group, many students will have questions about what the Hmong history and culture.
“There’s still a lot to learn when you’re not Hmong,” Bigelow, Bowman and Wallace Hall Residence Hall Director Johnny Yang said. “[It is important] to do that in a natural way — not burdening Hmong people to tell their stories, but actually being in community and learn[ing] the culture.”
