In Laos, it is customary to bribe the police. The practice, however, is not acceptable in Elgin, and the cultural misunderstanding almost resulted in the arrest of some newcomers to the northwest suburb.
“Laos is under communist rule, and the police are corrupt,” explained Mac Douangchandy, a community outreach worker for the Elgin Police Department. Bribery was a fact of life for many of the Laotians who now call Elgin home; in their home country, the consequences could be quite severe if money didn’t exchange hands, she said.
“I had to explain to one woman the other day that she was not going to be deported because of a traffic ticket,” said Douangchandy, an Elgin resident.
Nearly 4,000 Laotian nationals live in Elgin, and although the first immigrants arrived more than two decades ago, Laotian assumptions still sometimes clash with American expectations. But both sides are working toward change and understanding.
“The cultural differences have helped educate the community on Asian traditions,” said Elgin Mayor Kevin Kelly. “And the Asian community in Elgin has brought with them an entrepreneurial spirit (that is) reflected by a number of small businesses.”
Elgin is home to the largest Lao community in Illinois, and Asians–including those of Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese and Korean ancestry–make up 3.9 percent of the city’s population, according to figures from the Chamber of Commerce. A small business district has established itself near the intersection of Raymond and National Streets and along Chicago Street and includes such Laotian-run businesses as a financial services office, three restaurants, four groceries, a dry cleaner and a video rental store.
Laotian nationals have also settled in nearby Hanover Park, Bartlett and Streamwood.
Fewer newcomers arrive these days, but when the communist Pathet Lao overthrew the coalition government of Laos in 1975, as many as 200 refugees a month arrived in Elgin. The initial group settled in the northwest suburb because their sponsors, both individuals and churches, were located here. Elgin also had an informal sister-city relationship in the mid-1960s with the Laotian city of Vientiane, which provided a link for many refugees from the city.
“When the communists took over, we decided to come to Elgin,” said Jay Rasavongxai, 48. A former police officer in Laos, Rasavongxai was arrested by the communist forces and imprisoned for more than a year. It was another three years before he and his family followed his wife’s brother and moved to Elgin. Their journey began with a dangerous nighttime swim across the Mekong River from Laos to Thailand by Rasavongxai, his wife, Vone, who was eight months pregnant, and the couple’s young son, Saya (now 20).
“I knew only a little English when I arrived, but I studied and worked until I graduated from Elgin Community College,” he said.
Rasavongxai today works as an electronics technician, and he is a founder of the 1-year-old Laotian-American Organization of Elgin, which sponsored a float in this year’s 4th of July parade. His family also includes daughter Nilamone, 17, and 15-year-old twins Willson and Billson.
“Almost 50 percent of the Laotians are American citizens,” he said. “We participate in true American activities.”
“(Laotian nationals) have obviously assimilated, but they have also retained their religion and customs,” Kelly said.
Some of those customs, however, have continued to cause misunderstandings, and it is Douangchandy’s job to explain the differences in culture. Although she ostensibly works for the police department, her job is to interpret, translate and explain not only the various U.S. legal codes to the Asian community but also the myriad Asian social traditions to longtime residents.
“I just had an officer come in here to tell me another Laotian tried to offer him money,” she said. “He just smiled and shook his head about it.”
Douangchandy has spent many hours explaining the situation in Laos to local police officers, and she has also educated officers about certain cultural responses that are at odds with American culture. “A police officer may think you are lying if you do not look him in the eye,” she said. Although Americans place a high value on eye contact, “looking someone in the eyes is disrespectful to a Lao.”
Douangchandy, 27, has coordinated the community outreach program since 1993. Of Chinese-Laotian ancestry, she and her family arrived in the United States in 1980 after five years in a Laotian refugee camp.
“My father was in the military, but we left when the government ordered the execution of all army officers,” she said.
Douangchandy has lived in the U.S. longer than she did in Laos, and she said it was hard even for her to gain the trust of the Laotian community. “It took me four years to break the ice,” she said. “The Lao community is very close-knit.”
Elders, such as Rasavongxai, are often called in to mediate disputes within the community because many Laotians are still wary of dealing with government or social service agencies.
“Unfortunately, they don’t want to report anything until it is very serious,” Douangchandy said.
Douangchandy also works with state agencies and recently put together an educational program for Illinois Department of Children and Family Services workers explaining certain Laotian folk remedies. “Sometimes you see a child with a red mark on the back. It is not a bruise, but an old traditional medical treatment,” she said.
The treatment involves applying a salve and rubbing it in with a coin. “They use a coin to rub out the sickness,” she explained, and the procedure often leaves a red mark.
“I demonstrated this on one woman (at DCFS), and she said it made her feel better,” Douangchandy said.
In addition to Douangchandy’s work for the police department, school- and community-based programs are available to the Laotian community. Youths can join the Laos Club at Elgin High School, and many participate in the Elgin YWCA’s Refugee Youth Project, an organization for all nationalities.
“We get about 30 kids a day at the drop-in center,” said Kone Chansey, coordinator of the YMCA youth programs. Activities and services are available for youths ages 10 to 21, and the children of refugees are automatically granted membership. The “Y” programs include field trips, sporting events such as a recent Asian basketball tournament and cultural activities such as the annual Lao New Year’s celebration.
Like Easter, the Lao New Year is based on phases of the moon, and the holiday may fall anywhere from early April to early May. The three-day celebration involves various rituals for good fortune, and several of those practices were demonstrated at the celebration held in April at the Elgin Community Center.
Lao children practiced for months with a teacher to learn dances, which were performed wearing traditional costumes, Douangchandy said. The music and dance welcomed the new year and reflected Lao history.
Parents and children also participated in a baci ceremony. In this, parents give children a piece of white string, which signifies prosperity and good luck. The youngsters take the string to an elder, who blesses them as the children ask for forgiveness from their parents and community for any bad deeds they have done. The elder then ties the string around the children’s wrists.
The young dancers taught the ritual dances to other community members who attended the celebration.
Chansey also oversees youth employment and counseling services. “We are working with a new generation of Laotian kids,” he said. “They are dealing with two cultures, becoming Americanized but still bound by tradition. It sometimes causes conflicts and family problems.”
The Refugee Project, which was established two decades ago, was set up to help adults find employment in the Fox Valley area. It provides English classes and job training, helps job seekers put together a resume and makes contact with local employers. According to employment counselor Soukanh Thavisouk, the project has helped 200 people get jobs in the last year.
“I had to learn how to be an American,” said Rasavongxai, who used many of the Refugee Project services. “We want to have our Lao tradition and language, but we have also had to adapt. It is good that we have a community to help each other.”
Thavisouk, who is originally from Laos, used the same services he now administers when he arrived here in 1979, and several other former refugees also volunteer for the project. Thavisit Sayasane came to the U.S. as a teenager and lived in Sturgis, S.D., before his family moved to Elgin, while Boonyod Xayasarn lived in California for several years before joining an older brother in Elgin. The two men, both in their mid-30s, run a financial services group in Elgin that works with many people in the Laotian community. They met while volunteering for the Refugee Youth Project.
“Young people need role models,” Sayasane said.
“Everyone wants to work hard, save money, buy a home and send their kids to college,” Xayasarn said. “It is the American dream.”
FILLING A HUNGER
The only clue that the white clapboard home just off Illinois Highway 19 in Elgin is not your typical suburban dwelling is the red aluminum dragon’s tail at the edge of the roof line.
The Lao Buddhist Temple, located at 50 King Arthur Ct., is one of only two Lao Buddhist temples in Illinois (the other is in Rockford), and it is a centerpiece of the Lao community in Elgin and surrounding suburbs.
“The temple represents spiritual food,” said Thavisit Sayasane of Elgin, treasurer of the temple. “We hunger for our temple just like we do for food and clothing.”
Reconstruction of the temple has been completed after a fire that swept through a part of the building Feb. 15. No one was injured in the blaze, which began in an electrical outlet. Although confined to an alcove, the fire destroyed a 5-foot-tall copper statue of Buddha and caused more than $100,000 in smoke and water damage.
On Aug. 31, nearly 300 people attended religious ceremonies to “invite back the spirit of Buddha,” said temple secretary Boonyod Xayasarn of Elgin. A grand opening is scheduled for November.
During the reconstruction, plans for the temple, which serves 4,000 Buddhists in the north and northwest suburbs, were expanded to include a community center within the building. The center will provide lessons in the Lao language and become the site for special cultural events.
“The goal is to attract the younger generation and to tell them who they are,” Xayasarn said.
“And it is especially important for the elderly people,” he added. “It is a place for them to come and talk about their backgrounds. It is not just religion. It is culture, and it feels like home.”
