Oral History Project Documents Myanmar Refugees' Journey to San Diego

Noah Lee

(Editor's note:  Noah Lee is a high school student from the Class of 2026 at The Cambridge School.  Noah is a recipient of 2024 API Internship in Journalism. )

SAN DIEGO — The Karen Organization of San Diego hosted an oral history exhibition titled “Our Voice, Our Power” on June 21, concluding a year-long effort to collect stories from Myanmar refugees resettling in the United States.

Taking place on the organization’s 15th anniversary, the exhibition at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park involved the presentation of documents containing first-person stories of refugees fleeing from political tumult in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and their journey to the U.S. It concluded with a documentary produced by the Karen Organization (pronounced kah-REN) and other cultural performances.

“Our community members from Burma carry a lot of stories — stories of happiness, stories of struggle and stories of their journey — and we’ve realized people are not really listening, and there’s not much opportunity for people to share these stories,” Nao Kabashima, director of the Karen Organization, said in an opening statement.

The importance of the exhibit was elevated by its timing. In recent years, Myanmar has experienced political and economic disruption, most recently due to a military coup in 2021. As a result, Myanmar refugees have fled to other countries, including the U.S., in increasing numbers in recent years. Kabashima said that the project began in response to the coup and was meant to “tell the story of why refugees needed to flee, and why they are here in San Diego.”

Although the coup happened in 2021, the instability in Myanmar ranges further back. Ever since Myanmar officially gained independence in 1948, the country has experienced internal turmoil, with numerous coups leading to little peace in the region. As a result, a significant portion of Myanmar’s population has fled, many of them to the U.S., and some to San Diego. Kabashima described the immigrant population in San Diego as relatively sizable, estimating that more than 2,000 refugees from Myanmar have settled in San Diego, many in City Heights or El Cajon.

The Karen Organization, a registered non-profit, was founded in response to the struggles faced by Myanmar refugees attempting to settle in San Diego. “When they started to come here, 2007, 2008, there was a huge gap between what San Diego could offer and what the needs of the Burmese community in San Diego [were],” Kabashima said in an interview. “Our community tried to find a solution for our struggle and decided to found this organization.” As the local Myanmar community has grown, the organization has as well, now containing a 15-person board and 15-person staff.

The project was a community-wide, year-long effort. Many refugees “shared some of their most difficult and intimate stories with us to make this exhibition possible, and even while in school our students volunteered their time to make these art pieces,” said Prosperity Land, a community organizer for the organization.

Because of the wide age range of contributors to the project, both youth and elders were in attendance, and presenters spanned all ages. The conclusion of the event saw the difficult Burmese alphabet recited by elders and young children alike. The Karen Organization’s Civic Engagement Manager April Moo said the event was important as a “celebration of the Burmese community here in San Diego.”

The exhibition drew a range of people of many different roles and backgrounds in the San Diego community, including Jefferey Nguyen, a community representative for San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera. Nguyen said he hoped that his office’s attendance at the event would be an important show of support for the Myanmar community in San Diego.

Perhaps most importantly, San Diegans of all origins, not only Myanmar, having heard of the event while visiting Balboa Park, came to learn about Myanmar culture, being served traditional Myanmar cuisine and looking at the artwork hung on the walls of the exhibition.

Hosted on an exclusive lower floor of the Mingei, the event featured several elements of Myanmar culture. It served traditional Myanmar food, most prominently lahpet thoke, or Burmese tea leaf salad. The participants all sported traditional clothing, and toys from Myanmar culture were spread throughout the exhibit. As the presentation portion of the event progressed, the entire room began to fill with curious visitors; by the end of the presentation, approximately 100 spectators filled the room.

Overall, the organization hopes first and foremost that the exhibition would help the large Burmese community in San Diego feel acknowledged by others. “Lots of people think I might be Korean or Chinese when they first meet me. Being able to be recognized is something that we want,” Moo said.