Sacramento in December is a flurry of color, as a cool wind of competition blows through the capital. The Miss and Mr. Hmong Central Valley New Year pageant hits the stage, and the exceptionally strong community of Laotian refugees goes full-throttle to put their culture on display and honor their past.

The Hmong are a people displaced more than once in history, originally a sub-group of the Miao people from Southern China. Unrest took many to Indochina, and they settled in Vietnam and the region just north of there, which became Laos in the 1950s. Twenty years later, the Hmong were recruited in Laos by the CIA as soldiers in the “Secret War.” Unacknowledged, they worked at enormous risk in conjunction with the US Army to hold the Ho Chi Minh trail and rescue downed American pilots in enemy territory.

Eventually, when the communist North Vietnamese Army took hold of the area, the Hmong were persecuted for aiding the Americans and fled by the thousands first to Thailand and then to the US. Ironic, since the Secret War for which they lost their own homes, was not actually recognized by the US government until 1997.

A clerk typist for the Embassy in Laos researched ideal relocation sites from his temporary digs in Virginia. Seeing that the Central Valley in California had ideal soil conditions and crop yields, he pioneered a movement toward Merced, and Hmong people came in the thousands in the late ’70s and early ’80s. But it was not the paradise they had imagined: though there was fertile soil, it wasn’t theirs to farm.

Surviving a few tough years, the Hmong were eventually able to buy small shares of farmland and were able to establish themselves in the Valley. As the population has increased substantially, so has their agricultural success and they have become the primary local produce suppliers to all regions of California.

As their businesses sprouted up, so have support mechanisms, both to educate their community and provide knowledge of Western culture in which they live. Shamans in Hmong culture, who were the first stop when illness struck, are now being educated in medical care. The intention is not only to provide immediate means of treatment, but also let the immigrants understand it in their own terms. For the Hmong, when someone is cut during surgery, the spirit is released. As such, fear kept many from seeking medical attention. By understanding the biological process, the shamans act as liaisons between the Hmong and the West, preserving a culture and helping it grow in their new home.