12 Feb 2012
Miss Minnesota 2012: A Lao-American refugee
"Ask most folks in my home state to conjure up an image of Miss Minnesota and they will most probably come up with a tall, blonde, blue-eyed beauty who looks something like this:
This year, however, Minnesotans chose a woman named Nitaya Panemalaythong, who was born in a Thai refugee camp into a large family that had fled the war in Laos.
Although she's not the first person of non-Scandanavian origin to hold
the title, Nitaya is the first Asian-American immigrant. Living in a
home she helped purchase to house nine other relatives, Nitaya reports
that she entered the contest in order to get a shot at the $45,000
scholarship money that is granted to the winner, enabling her to resume
the college education she was forced to put on hold. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports
that Nitaya experienced a life familiar to so many immigrant kids -
acting as the family translator and working hard to support a large
brood of extended relatives. Finally, with that prize money, she says,
she can "focus on myself instead of worrying about everyone else."
Even though I'm not normally a fan of beauty pageants I find this story
delightful for a couple of reasons. First, even though Nitaya was
initially told when she tried to get a job modeling that she didn't have
"the Midwestern look", it shakes loose a few of the stereotypes about
what a Minnesota gal headed for Miss America should be. Second, on a
larger scale it reminds us that even the American heartland has evolved
to become a place rich with diverse immigrant stories. Minnesota, in
particular, has a large re-settlement community, with 25%-50% of its
immigrants arriving as refugees (as compared with 8% nationally). Home
to one of the largest Somali and Hmong communities in the country,
Minnesota has made some remarkable demographic changes in the past
couple of decades.
Of course, there are still some things that never change, such as
Minnesotans' passion for ice hockey. Nitaya, as Miss Minnesota, can be
seen here doing her bit for the state by pulling on her woolies
and cheering on the team. Go Minnesota!"