SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Cheng “Charlie” Saephan wore a broad smile and a bright blue sash emblazoned with the words “Iu-Mien USA” as he hoisted an oversized check for $1.3 billion above his head.
The 46-year-old immigrant’s luck in winning an enormous Powerball jackpot in Oregon earlier this month — a lump sum payment of $422 million after taxes, which he and his wife will split with a friend — has changed his life. It also raised awareness about Iu Mien people, a southeast Asian ethnic group with origins in China, many of whose members fled from Laos to Thailand and then settled in the U.S. following the Vietnam War.
“I am born in Laos, but I am not Laotian,” Saephan told a news conference Monday at Oregon Lottery headquarters, where his identity as one of the jackpot’s winners was revealed. “I am Iu Mien.”
During the Vietnam War, the CIA and U.S. military recruited Iu Mien in neighboring Laos, many of them subsistence farmers, to engage in guerrilla warfare and to provide intelligence and surveillance to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail that the North Vietnamese used to send troops and weapons through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.
Related articles:
Related suggestion:
Coronavirus: China to temporarily ban foreign nationals from entering in bid to reduce COVIDRoberto Cavalli: Italian fashion designer dies aged 83HKFP Lens: 'Dear Hong Kong' celebrates city's diversity with new photo bookWoman burned during beauty treatment: 'It was really terrifying'Conservatives set for heavy UK election defeat to opposition Labour, survey showsHong Kong protest: police arrest proSix months into Gaza war, Israel faces deepening isolationCluster fears over new HK virus casesHong Kong protest: police arrest proBonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse Of The Heart soars on music charts during total solar eclipse
3.9918s , 5260.9140625 kb
Copyright © 2024 Powered by Immigrant's $1.3B Powerball win spotlights the Iu Mien community ,Earth Encounters news portal