Celebrating the Cambodian Diaspora Through Remembering …

Socheata was born in a Thai refugee camp to Cambodian parents who fled the Khmer Rouge. She was 22 when her parents revealed to her that her older sisters were in fact her first cousins (whose parents perished under Pol Pot). Her older brother was actually her half brother – a child who survived her mother’s murdered first husband.

Eric Gold is a Sr. Project Manager at DDD. He oversees digital publishing, digital library and data entry projects for DDD’s North American clients. Eric also develops and integrates cutting edge technology solutions that keep DDD’s digital services apace with the rapidly changing digital technology field.

In April, I represented DDD at the third annual “Taste of Southeast Asia” fundraiser for Khmer Legacies.

Khmer Legacies is a terrific organization that builds video histories about the Cambodian genocide from the perspective of survivors. The organization enables the younger generation of the Cambodian diaspora to interview the older generation of survivors. The archive is then used as an educational tool to deepen understanding about the Khmer Rouge genocide for researchers, students, and the world.

It was this process of interviewing her own family that led Socheata Poeuv, the founder of Khmer Legacies, to uncover a labyrinth of painful and shocking memories about her family.

Socheata was born in a Thai refugee camp to Cambodian parents who fled the Khmer Rouge. She was 22 when her parents revealed to her that her older sisters were in fact her first cousins (whose parents perished under Pol Pot). Her older brother was actually her half brother – a child who survived her mother’s murdered first husband. Spurred by curiosity to delve deeper into her family’s story, Socheata embarked upon a personal video project. This would become the ground-breaking documentary “New Year Baby.”

The fundraiser was elegant and extravagant. Delicious Asian treats, conversation and Beer Lao (my favorite!) abounded. But just below the surface of the fancy evening gowns and epicurean buzz emanating from this Chelsea loft lie the not yet healed wounds of the generations affected by the Cambodian diaspora, still coping with the pain of fleeing their homeland amidst untold atrocities.