The Cambodian community is one of the most youthful ethnic populations in the United States, with a median age of 19.6.  Refugee youth often find themselves torn between the traditional culture of their parents' world and the freedom and individualism offered by American society.  In contrast, many adult Cambodian refugees have found adapting to the United States difficult and still suffer severe emotional trauma from the cruelties experienced under the Khmer Rouge. 

Mutual assistance associations such as the United Cambodian Community in Long Beach and The Cambodian Family in Santa Ana help to further a successful transition to American life by offering English-as-a-Second Language classes, parenting education, and employment services for adults, as well as after-school activities, Cambodian language and dance classes, and life skills classes for youth. 

While remembering and honoring both their traditional culture and their traumatic past, the new generation of Cambodian Americans is contributing to American society in meaningful ways. 

75. United Cambodian Community, Long Beach, California.  Brochure, 1990. 

76. "Cambodian angels" and "Coconut dance," performed by The Cambodian Family, Inc., Santa Ana youth dance group.  Photographs, 1996-1997.  Donated by The Cambodian Family, Inc. 

77. Minnie Street Neighborhood Festival II.  Flyer, 1996. 

78. "Neighborhood perceptions."  In The Cambodian Family: Minnie Street Neighborhood Community Survey.  Social Science Research Center, California State University, Fullerton, 1966.  Donated by The Cambodian Family, Inc. 

A report on Santa Ana's Minnie Street area, which has the largest Cambodian population in Orange County, residing within a larger Latino immigrant community. 

79. "Cambodian American professor, Dr. Khatharya Um."  In: Suorsday Magazine, 1996 (vol. 1, no. 3). 

Professor Um is an assistant professor in the Ethnic Studies Department, UC Berkeley. 

80. "Doctor fooled death but was committed to serving others."  In the series Cambodians in Long Beach: Beyond the Killing Fields.  Long Beach Press Telegram, December 11, 1989.  Donated by Nadine Selden. 
 

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