A Hmong Family Memoir

In the memoir, The Latehomecomer, we are told of the struggle the Hmong people and a family have gone through to find a home. The author Kao Kalia Yang tells her families story of the journey and struggle after the Vietnam War. They must relocate to Thailand refugee camps, and soon after to the United States. During these events Kao Yang searches for a home that she has never really known.

In the Prologue she tells of her childhood a search for what Hmong truly meant to her. Since they never had a home, because of war and persecution Hmong meant contained for her. Being kicked out of one country to the next being able to call somewhere home is what she wanted. Eventually learning they have no country, and must find a new place to call home.

Kao Kalia Yang still lives in St. Paul, MN where she was relocated as a child. Now calling this place home she understands her culture and is proud of where she came from. Today the story of the Hmong people is very unknown, and not taught in most schools. Through writing this Memoir she hopes to tell the world of the struggle of the Hmong people and their fight to find a home. So that it may not slip through the pages of our history books, as if it never happened.