Amina Sen-Matthews

Amina Sen-Matthews is the Health Programs Director for The Cambodian Family, a Santa Ana based nonprofit promoting the social health of refugee and immigrant families by offering mental health support and cultural and linguistic specific care. In this interview she discusses her family’s immigration story, growing up in Santa Ana, and intergenerational connections within Cambodian and Cham communities.

KEYWORDS: Cambodians, Santa Ana, Cham, Khmer Rouge, mosque, religion, Muslim, Buddhism, family, resilience,

Interview Transcript

So my family [are] all from Cambodia. We escaped the Khmer Rouge in the late 70s, early 80s. And we were sponsored to a family out in San Jose, to come out to California. So when we were first sponsored, we were brought out to San Jose, California. And when my parents found out that there were a lot of Cambodians and Cham—which is another ethnic minority group within Cambodia—and found out that there were a lot of Cham people and there were a lot of Cambodian people out in Santa Ana, he [my father] packed us all up in the car and drove us out here to Santa Ana to live. Because he found that not only were there a lot of people who look like him, who’s able to speak the language out here in Santa Ana, but they were also community centers, like the Cambodian Family and the mosque and the temple. So there were these religious institutes that were already out here. So my parents found out about that, [and] he brought us all out here and that’s how we came to live in Santa Ana. 

[Growing Up in Santa Ana]

When I first came to the United States, and we came and we lived out here in Santa Ana, we lived in an ethnic enclave where it was just, when I looked around, everybody looked like me, spoke the same language as I do. And that was what I knew of Orange County growing up, because we didn’t really venture out further than the Santa Ana area. And that’s what I knew. I thought everybody was Cambodian or Cham or from Mexico. I didn’t realize that there were others out there. Because my parents were living out here in this community and it really you were almost in a bubble. 

[Cultural Landmarks in Santa Ana]

The majority of the Cambodian population are Buddhists. So that’s where they go for their prayer services, and that’s where they go for guidance for religious [and] spiritual guidance. And then for the mosque, the majority of the Cham people—again, they’re the ethnic minority, which I also belong to, I’m Cham—are Muslim. And as Muslim we go to the mosque for our prayers, and for our spiritual activity [and] wellness. In Santa Ana, The Cambodian Family—I keep mentioning that not only because I work there, but it’s really prominent in the community because The Cambodian Family has been in the community for 40 years, since the first wave of refugees came to the United States. It was a family. A couple families got together to create The Cambodian Family to what it is today, a human service agency to help people look for work, to help people translate letters, take them to the doctors, and what not. 

[Final Thoughts on the Community]

For my parents and community members [I see] just how courageous and how strong and resilient we are. Just to see what they have gone through just to get here. And a lot of the elders don’t really talk much about it, because they don’t want us to rehash what they’ve gone through. But for those who did, our generation is learning a lot from them and realizing, “Wow, our parents, our grandparents were very strong, were very resilient. And that they did what they had to do to come out here to make a life for them in the United States.” I mean, [can] you imagine coming here [at] 30 years old, 40 years old, and not knowing the language, not knowing the culture, not knowing the landscape? And then making it and having your children go on to college and go on to become nurses, teachers, lawyers and doctors. Those are things that we need to be proud of.

Interviewers: Mimi Eang and Marilyn N. Xiong

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