Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Grand Century Mall of San Jose
Episode 3044 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about the vibrant Vietnamese community of San Jose. This episode is inspired the contributions to this podcast by a good friend, Andy Pham. The featured story appeared on the M-A Chronical website and is titled: San Jose’s Long Vietnamese Roots. It was submitted by D’Anjou Paul Libunao.
D’Anjou is a junior in his second year of journalism at M-A High School. He enjoys writing movie reviews and about gaming culture. Outside of journalism, he competes in Street Fighter 6 tournaments around the Bay Area.
The M-A Chronicle is a student-managed public forum, dedicated to objective and comprehensive reporting. As the online newspaper of Menlo-Atherton High School, we seek to celebrate the successes of our high-performing school as well as highlight the voices of those living on the margins. Written, produced, and edited entirely by students, we present a variety of stories about our diverse school community in a factual and unbiased manner.
Just over two miles southeast of the modern skyscrapers and trendy shops of downtown San Jose lies a more familiar setting of sprawling strip malls, wide parking lots, and large retail stores. Within this classic American backdrop lies the Grand Century Mall, the heart of San Jose’s Little Saigon. While Vietnamese-American communities exist across the United States, San Jose’s Vietnamese ethnic enclave holds a rich history tracing back to the fall of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, known as Saigon.
2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, a moment to reflect on and honor the lives lost during the perilous journeys of the ‘boat people.’ While around 130,000 refugees made it to the United States, an estimated 400,000 Vietnamese refugees died along the way.
Listen to Episode 3044 and discover more about the San Jose Vietnamese community.
