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A Family Business Beached
Buying Bigger Boats
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Nguyen, his wife, Lap, and their two young children left Vietnam in 1975, making their way to a refugee camp in Guam and eventually to the community of Port St. Joe, about an hour east of Panama City, Fla.
"Luckily it was near the coast and they could fish and shrimp," Vuong Nguyen said. "Five families lived in one three-bedroom trailer, and they used one car to drive 20 some people to work." His mother worked at the docks, sorting fish out of the shrimp nets; his father repaired nets.
In the late 1970s, they moved to Panama City to try their hand at the shrimp business. They saved and borrowed enough money to buy their first small boat for $5,000.
Vuong marvels at how his parents made it. "They saved and saved and saved," he said.
Vietnamese dockworkers told Ngo Van Nguyen there were shrimp in Biloxi, Miss., so he went there briefly, eventually moving his family to Bayou Lafourche, where one of his brothers had set up shop.
"I started at the bottom," Nguyen said. "I sold my first boat and used the money from that to buy a little bigger boat and then I bought a little bigger boat. I went step by step by step," he said.
Nguyen gets agitated recalling how some Cajuns regarded him skeptically when he reached Bayou Lafourche. "People would think the government gave us money," Nguyen said. "I would just say, 'No sir. I work for this.' "
Tensions between Cajuns and Vietnamese ran high in the past. Local police recall incidents during the 1990s of Cajuns and Vietnamese shooting at each other to get better shrimp spots off the coast, though no one was seriously hurt. But relations have improved dramatically, mainly because there aren't too many shrimpers left.
"They're very respectful of me and of my wife," said Todd LaBiche, a Cajun shrimper who does business with Nguyen's family. "They made everybody be polite and they really opened their arms to do business with us."
LaBiche evacuated his family from the bayou, but as soon as he returned Friday he raced to check on the Nguyen family's safety.
"You're alive," Nguyen said when he saw the bald-headed, tattooed LaBiche.
"Hey, brother," LaBiche, 43, said. "Good to see you. How's your family and how's your boat?"
