Vietnamese Shrimpers of Houma

In the 1970s, South Vietnamese refugees arrived in south Louisiana following reunification of Vietnam and settled to work as shrimpers, just as they had at home. Houma received a significant share. The parallels were precise — the boats, the nets, the marsh geography, the seasonal rhythms — and Vietnamese families built a parallel shrimping economy alongside the Cajun one already there. Many ethnic Vietnamese families continue to work in shrimping today, a tradition passed down through their families for decades. The story of Houma's waterfront is not one culture but at least three — Houma Nation, Cajun, Vietnamese — all working the same bayous.