This was not the photograph I originally earmarked for this piece. But this 100 percent captures the subject as she earnestly is. Adorable, seemingly happy and playful. World meet Tuoy (pronounced Twee). My Vietnamese nail salon technician. Her American name...a name she personally chose...is Tina. On one of her first US outings, Tuoy’s husband took her to a casino where she noted a slot machine called Texas Tina. “Tina” she said “is my new name in my new country.” And thus she set about learning English here and there, and from her clients. I asked what brought her to the US. Her husband, she said, moved from Vietnam to the US at age 12. Born to an American soldier and a Vietnamese mother during the Vietnam War. Her husband’s father was deployed elsewhere and to this day...no one knows his name. As a result, her husband, branded a half-breed, was ridiculed and punished by the North. So much so that the American government gave Tuoy’s husband and his mother asylum in the United States. Years later...on his first trip back to his homeland, Tuoy’s husband visited family and went swimming at a local community pool. Where he serendipitously met Tuoy. Together they have two children. Twon (who lamented his Vietnamese name as a curse until his mother assured him it was a beautifully strong and gifted name). And Victoria. “Victoria” said Tuoy. “An American name. Because I didn’t want another child to go through the ridicule my first child did.” #Tuoy #American #Vietnamese #Vietnam #nails #nailsalon #texastina #northvietnam #unitedstates
