Shared pride, drive as four Cambodian-Americans make council bids

Lowell Sun | 20 September 2015

Vesna Nuon

LOWELL -- A year after a massage therapist from the Highlands became the country's first Cambodian-American state legislator, four members of Lowell's Cambodian community are hoping to join the City Council. 

Each of them -- Cheth Khim, Vesna Nuon, Pan So and Paul Ratha Yem -- was born in Cambodia during the regime of the Khmer Rouge, a period of time when many fled as refugees during the deadly reign over the country. 

The group of candidates from what is one of the largest Cambodian communities in the United States follows the run a year ago by Rady Mom to state representative. Mom, whose only previous attempt at office was an unsuccessful run for the City Council in 2005, received a major bump from Cambodia Town in easily grabbing the Statehouse seat after Kevin Murphy resigned to become city manager.

Cheth Khim

Mom moved to the United States at age 12, leaving his native country during the Khmer Rouge, a path like his fellow Cambodians now running for City Council. 

Yem, who lost to Mom in the Democratic primary in last year's state representative race, moved from Cambodia to the United States in the late 1970s, living in California with a family who he said sponsored him while he was attending school. By his late 20s, he was offered a job in the Boston area to work with newly arrived Cambodian families register for Social Security, sign up for school or take English classes. 

"I knew nothing of Massachusetts and how cold it was," said Yem, who is now a real-estate broker. 

Yem said he feels a sense of survivor's guilt, having avoided refugee camps -- or worse -- in his home country.