I would say I am interested in so much when it comes to the Montagnard Dega people. I'm curious about their culture, their history, their food, their music and dance, but I would say I feel passionate about the women of the Montagnard Dega. I actually stumbled upon articles of the forced sterilization of the women by the Vietnamese and it remained of age old stories of forced ethnic cleansing too familiar to many of the people of the world, including Puerto Ricans. As a teenager I decided to undertake the study of the history of Puerto Rico and it's inhabitants by the United States. You could say I stored the information in the back of my mind only to be resurfaced by learning of recent genocides of the Montagnard. Somewhere deep inside I feel this is where my efforts need to be.
In order to be successful I feel that I need to know personal and historical accounts of the Vietnamese include a statement about what you think you still need or want to learn in order for your project to be successful, and
I can't identify one person I would like to reach out to in the Montagnard community but rather I feel I need to reach out to at minimum 3 people. One being a Woman whom may have been personally affected by the sterilization, or one whom was present during the government's efforts towards the "ethnic cleansing". My second subject would be an elder man, who was either personally affected but the governments actions. And lastly I would love to speak to a member of the Dega youth who grew up in the US and has heard personal accounts of their families or friends accounts of life in the Highlands.
