Cindy is the proud owner of Cindy’s Nail Salon and Spa and an immigrant from Vietnam.

Eladia Micheals: First, could you tell us your name, your age, and when you came to New Orleans from Vietnam?

Cindy: My nickname or my real name?

Eladia: Your real name.

Cindy: My real name, not Cindy?

Eladia: Your real name. Who you are.

Cindy: Nobody knows my real name. My name is Cindy. I came from Vietnam in 2004, and my husband lived in the United States long ago. When he returned to Vietnam, he saw me, liked me, and married me.

Eladia: Married you in Vietnam or New Orleans?

Cindy: In Vietnam. And we stayed there five years after we got married. I have one kid over there and one kid over here. When my daughter was two and a half, I got two tickets for me, and my daughter came here.

Eladia: Wow.

Cindy: My daughter, she… student of Tulane, yeah. She graduated. And now, my second baby has come to Tulane.

Eladia: Before you came to America, could you talk about your experience growing up in Vietnam? Where exactly were you from in Vietnam? Just talk about what your life was like there.

Cindy: So, in Vietnam, my family was a business family. When I am still little, my mom and my dad were business people, and when I grew up, I knew I wanted that. I know what they run the business, and when I’m a teenager and the company too, we get my-

Eladia: What was the business?

Cindy: My dad has many kinds of business. We have the… they sell the shop, the car shop, and that look like the bird company for the car, look like, yeah, look like the bird. But in Vietnam, the business is different here; I don't know how- I just say look like, and they have the shirt that looks like the when the people from littles and all the, you know, many kinds visited my dad. So, we live in the family business. That's why I work with them.

Eladia: Where's the rest of your family right now?

Cindy: In Vietnam. I have one sister here, but she has a nail salon.

Makenzie Sanders: Are you able to visit?

Cindy: Yeah, I went to Vietnam every year. See my family over there.

Eladia: So, I have a question: How do you maintain your culture in New Orleans? What do you do to keep your Vietnamese culture with you here?

Cindy: When I come to New Orleans? I don't even know English, even a sentence. I don't know ABCD, and I didn't know it. I was uncomfortable with that language when I came, but I say I have to be strong. I have to learn. I take an ESL class, and I go to church. Every Sunday, I cry. I say to God, you taught me instant English, and no… English looks like- they talk, and I talk a little bit. And for me, when I live here, I will be strong in learning English, and I have the book. I want to read and translate. You know, when my baby was born, the second one, and I stayed home, I had to learn. I watched the cartoon for the kid, and I learned from that, too.

Eladia: How has the church, going to church here, really affected you and your environment in terms of feeling comfortable? What role does the church play in your life, living in New Orleans?

Cindy: The church on the West Bank.

Eladia: On the West Bank?

Cindy: Yeah, we have a Catholic church, but my family, my family Tam Bảo. My family not Catholic. When I marry with my husband, I have to go his side.

Eladia: Which is…

Cindy: Catholic, yeah, Catholic.

Eladia: And what's your family's side?

Cindy: Tam Bảo.

Eladia: How have you found your community after coming to New Orleans? How did you build all of this?

Cindy: And so when I came, first thing, I came to New Orleans, my husband lived in the Buras, you know, Buras?

Eladia: Bluegrass?

Cindy: No, Buras, it’s probably about one and a half hours from here, and because he lived there. So when I came over there, no women apply no jobs over there, just the ocean, good for the fishermen. People there, they don't have any job. And I don't feel comfortable because in my life I want work, the business and so I was sad. And my husband, he didn't want to go in town. He want live in the country over there. And kind of good Katrina come in.

Eladia: What was that?

Cindy: Katrina.  And after that, I moved to Houston, Texas for- to recover from Katrina.

Eladia: To recover?

Cindy: Yeah. And when we get back here, I get back here in town here, we live in the apartment for a couple of months. My husband he wants to move back there again. I say no, I don't want to go back there because no job there, nothing for work, and me and him talk together like that [Cindy makes a clashing gesture with her hands here]. And so I'm win, we live here. He follow, he follow me. He stay here with me.

Eladia: How does that make you feel?

Cindy:  I go, I went couple nail shops, and they don't accept me, and to give a shot. And one day I went to one myself, the people, they good people. Why? They saw me and we talk, I tell her my history, you know, and they love, oh, they help me. They will send money for me to help me. And I will, I say, ‘just let me work. Don't have to pay me. When you see me work good, you have to pay in future. I don't need the money, but I need the job,’ I told them.

Eladia: How have you balanced being a mother and a successful business owner?

Cindy: You know, yeah, that time, you know, think we have my daughter, my baby, seven months, I let them go to the babysit. But I really love my kids and I take care them, very good. But you know, after work, I have to cook for them, to take care everything good for them.

Eladia: Do you ever feel disconnected from Vietnam while living in New Orleans, or how do you maintain your traditions here?

Cindy: I love it here. I love being here more than at home. Yeah, because here, you know part of the reason when we come with I came. I don't feel comfortable with the language, but we go up, and so now we love here.

Makenzie: How do you keep your culture alive here in New Orleans?

Cindy: Yeah, so now I want to work harder, harder and, you know, I keep like that, go up. You know, I think forever, and I want stronger, more bigger. My family, they tell me to work hard, and my mom and her dad said, ‘too sharp and up, don't open the third one, okay?’

Eladia: I have a question. Where do you think you would be if you had not opened Cindy's nails and this had never happened?

Cindy: I don't know what. I don't know what I think to do.

Eladia: Would you still live in New Orleans?

Cindy: Yeah.

Eladia: How have you been able to stay so positive?

Cindy:  I think I’m working hard and following my husband. You know, since I went to New Orleans, we don’t have a car, no house, nothing. When I babysat for my baby in Vietnam, my family looked good. My mom and my dad had many companies and looked like they had a company when I came here. [My mom was a] little bit sharp because my husband had nothing, no car, no house, nothing.

Eladia: What do you like to do outside of work?

Cindy: No, after work, I cook and care for the family.

Eladia: Do you garden?

Cindy: I don't have a garden, yeah. I just have plants in the home. We don't have time for a garden.

Makenzie: My last question is, what do you wish more people knew about you?

Cindy: I love that, you know, sometimes the customer says, ‘Who Cindy?’ It makes me feel warm and so happy. It looks like they know me, and I feel so excited.

Eladia: Thank you.

Cindy: I don't want to make anybody sad. I want to make everybody happy.