Immigrant's $1.3B Powerball win spotlights the Iu Mien community
Time:2024-05-22 10:44:30 Source:politicsViews(143)
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.
Previous:Pogacar extends Giro lead to over 7 minutes after winning altered Stage 16 amid protests at start
Next:Trump says he is open to restrictions on contraception before backing away from the statement
You may also like
- Germany and Real Madrid great Toni Kroos to retire after Euro 2024
- Pope urges Italians to have babies as a measure of hope for future
- Suns fire coach Frank Vogel after getting swept out of the playoffs in the opening round
- New evidence further proves crimes of Japanese germ warfare unit
- Congo names third American in a foiled coup plot as mourners gather in Utah to remember plot leader
- A Florida man is recovering after a shark attack at a Bahamas marina
- Jeremy Allen White shares a FIRST LOOK of The Bear's third season
- Marcus Armstrong pays tribute to cancer patients with special paint job for Indy Grand Prix
- France hits go