Day 299: Thai Xuan Village, Houston, Texas
📌APIA Every Day (299) - Houston’s Thai Xuan Village, founded in 1993, is an apartment complex that has historically been home to the city's Vietnamese community. After the Fall of Saigon in 1975, waves of Vietnamese refugees immigrated to the United States in the 1970s and ‘80s. Many of these immigrants settled around Gulf Coast cities in order to find working class jobs that didn’t require English proficiency. With its rapidly growing Vietnamese population, Houston in particular became home to a number of residential communities like Thai Xuan Village. Over time, these housing complexes became informal community spaces for Vietnamese refugees to connect and preserve their shared culture.
The Thai Xuan Village complex was originally constructed in 1976 under the name of Cavalier Apartments. Father John Chinh Tran, a Vietnamese Catholic priest, later bought the complex in 1993 and renamed it Thai Xuan after his old village near Saigon. Tran invited local Vietnamese refugees to occupy the building and units of the complex were sold as condominiums in 1966. During the next 15 years, the complex faced issues of proper maintenance as the building conditions deteriorated. Following complaints from neighboring community members, city officials threatened the complex with demolition in 2007. In response, the residents formed a tenant organization and successfully raised $250,000 for building repairs over a period of two years.
Safe from demolition threats, Village residents continued to cultivate a dynamic community space. Over the years, former apartment units functioned as hair salons, schools, and stores selling basic necessities. Microfarms growing various Vietnamese fruits and vegetables began springing from fenced yards and balcony spaces. In the complex’s courtyards, both a Virgin Mary statue and Buddhist shrine were dedicated to serve the community’s primary religious affiliations.
Three decades after Father Tran’s arrival, Thai Xuan Village remains a lively apartment complex today, housing as many as 1,000 individual residents. A testament to organic community-building, the Village represents the Houston Vietnamese population’s success in fostering a sense of belonging in an unfamiliar country.
Written by Avneet Dhaliwal
LEARN MORE:
Rice University: The Beautiful Projects
Bao Mai: Là ng Thái Xuân: In south Houston apartments, a piece of Vietnam flowers
CHRON: Life at Thai Xuan Village
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