A Minnesota PBS Initiative
Taste the Rain
My mom is definitely my solider, my hero. She is worth more than anything. She is the strongest woman I know and she’s got so many things, so many challenges and obstacles in life wish she could actually sit here, replace me and tell her story.
I wrote this song called “Taste the Rain” and it was for my mom. It’s like telling her story but it is also based on experience. And it’s around the fact that she was a single mom and she raised me and all my siblings and how she almost gave up.
My mother
When she was still pregnant with me, she actually was very indecisive in terms of whether she was going to keep me. So she made that decision. Her ultimate decision was to continue on with life.
"Taste the Rain" Song Lyrics
Note- this song contains explicit lyrics
Yo, check it.
Trace back to how I came to be
Mamma was young and naïve
Married a dude who she thought she had fell in love with
Three kids, one in the belly
Such a burden for her to carry
Grandmother pointing fingers,
saying her son could do better
Calling her bitch and s***, f*** her
Father was never seen
Vong cried daddy where you been
We were not to claim, mother was to blame
Feeling like the whole world was coming down on her
Prayed to God to please help her
Afraid to leave because ain’t nowhere to go
So she decides to stay and go with the flow
Didn’t want to ruin her fam’s reputation…
My mom is definitely my solider, my hero. She is worth more than anything. She is the strongest woman I know and she’s got so many things, so many challenges and obstacles in life wish she could actually sit here, replace me and tell her story.
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My name is Moua Kong Vue. I was born in a small town in northern California called Crescent City and I was raised in Seattle, Washington and that’s where my family currently resides. I live here in St. Paul and I went to school here at Concordia University. I am the product of the Hmong immigrant experience here in the United States. Both my parents are immigrants. They came here a very young age with very little, but I give them both a lot of credits for what they have been able to provide me.
My mom got married at a very young age to my dad. She didn’t actually get the chance to go to school and get a formal an education. I’ve actually never met my real dad so they didn’t have a lot of opportunities for them and they had four of us, so, myself, two older sisters, and my oldest brother. And my dad was part of the Xiong clan and all of my older siblings have my dad’s last name.
And for me, my mom and my dad separated when she was still pregnant with me. So actually, when I was born, my mom actually gave me her last name instead. So I actually was raised by my mom’s side of the family. And my mom remarried to my step dad. He is a Vang, so all my younger siblings are Vangs.
Biographical Details
Submitted From: St. Paul, MN
Story Subject: Immigrant
Affiliate Organization: Concordia University; Immigrant Stories
This story is part of the Immigrant Stories collection. Immigrant Stories invites immigrants, refugees, and their families to create digital stories about their experiences. Each story is preserved in the Immigration History Research Center & Archives at the University of Minnesota, where we have collected materials related to immigration in the U.S. since 1965.
Story Themes: Family, Hmong, Immigrant, Immigrant Stories, mother, Refugee, Video