Her win is being celebrated across the U.S., but it’s especially meaningful for the Hmong community.

People are finally interested in learning more about the Hmong community.

“I can’t find the words to express how happy we are, how important that was to me and my family and to the whole Hmong community throughout the world,” her father, John Lee, told The Associated Press.

Hmong people — an ethnic group with roots in China — have been in the United States for more than 45 years, but their story largely remains unknown in the wider population.

But after the United States withdrew from Laos, Communist forces retaliated against the Hmong for being American allies.

Scores of Hmong families eventually resettled in other countries, including the United States.

To this very day I run into people who have no idea why the Hmong are even in the United States.

The Twin Cities has the largest urban Hmong population in the nation and yet to this very day I run into people who have no idea why the Hmong are even in the United States.

They have no idea the role we played in American history.

In Minnesota, it was just in 2019 — about 44 years after the first Hmong family’s arrival there — that a new state holiday was approved recognizing Hmong veterans of the “Secret War:” “May 14 of each year is designated as Hmong Special Guerilla Units Remembrance Day in honor of Southeast Asians, Americans, and their allies who served, suffered, sacrificed, or died in the Secret War in Laos during the Vietnam War in the years 1961 to 1975 in support of the armed forces of the United States.”.

Your Hmong brothers and sisters are so proud of you and what you’ve accomplished for yourself, for your family and for our community