A Change of Guard

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Monday 16 April 2012

Festival heralds in 'Cambodia Town' in Lowell



Top: During opening prayers, from left are Suzy Smith of Billerica, Serey Diep of Tewksbury and Sovuthy Pav of Lowell.
Bottom: Cambodians celebrate the opening of Cambodia Town and Cambodian New Year at Clemente Park yesterday. Going past the stage are local combo bands,Reaksmey Khmera and Tedniyum Band. SUN photos/David H. Brow

By John Collins, jcollins@lowellsun.com
Updated: 04/16/2012

LOWELL -- Welcome to "Cambodia Town." Close to 3,000 members of the city's Cambodian-American population of about 30,000 were joined by a dozen state and local dignitaries at Clemente Park Sunday for a food and music festival and ribbon-cutting celebration that officially designated the Highlands neighborhood at Middlesex Street by Pailin Plaza as the first Cambodia Town on the East Coast.

"I will probably never have the fortunate opportunity to go to Cambodia, but you brought Cambodia here to the people of Lowell," said City Councilor Rita Mercier, drawing cheers and applause from the large crowd that surrounded the main stage next to the park's volleyball courts.

"When the Cambodian people throw a party, they know how to do it."

The Cambodian population in the Highlands has grown steadily over the past 20 years due largely to a combination of hard work and ingenuity, said Cambodia Town Committee Chairman Sengly Kong, who acted as the event's master of ceremonies.

"This is truly a wonderful day, not just for the Cambodian community here, but for the city of Lowell," said state Sen. Eileen Donoghue. "We are so blessed, enriched and lucky to have right here one of the largest populations in the country of the Cambodian community."

Lowell Mayor Patrick Murphy also addressed the festival crowd, pledging that the official naming of Cambodia Town is "really only the start of the city's commitment to invest and reinvest in this neighborhood and community as an economic center," said Murphy.

Murphy read an English translation of a Cambodian poem written from the perspective of a Cambodian child who wishes that instead of a world filled with "war, starvation and pestilence," he may live in a world of "peace, love and harmony."

"I hope this neighborhood, this small piece of the universe, is an ever-evolving place which continues to speak to the experience of the Khmer community, and is a place where people seeking peace may find it for years to come," the mayor said at the gathering.

City Councilor Vesna Nuon thanked the mayor, councilors and members of the Cambodia Town Committee for making the event happen. Nuon also praised Rithy Uong, the city's first Cambodian-American city councilor, elected in 1999, for blazing the trail that Nuon followed.

Sunday's celebration coincided with the conclusion of the three-day Cambodian New Year celebration, which marked the onset of the Year of the Dragon.

Mercier and Murphy wished the throng a happy Cambodian New Year from the stage in Khmer.

Male and female dancers, attired in brilliantly colored Cambodian-native garb made of saffron and silk, entertained attendees, including a large number of families with young children. Two Buddhist monks led several hundred participants in a New Year's prayer. Food served included teriyaki beefsteak, papaya and mango salad, egg rolls and noodles.

Watching the ribbon-cutting from near the front of the main stage, a wide-eyed Winston Van, 3, stood with his father, Tooch Van.

"My son will be able to tell his own children that he was here to see this day," said Tooch Van.

Lowell holds the second-largest urban concentration of Cambodian-American residents in the U.S. after Long Beach, Calif. The first Cambodian immigrants in Lowell in the early 1980's included many refugees who had survived and escaped the brutal genocide by the Khmer Rouge regime.

By 1990, they were 10,000 Cambodian-Americans in Lowell. Today, the number is around 30,000, representing about 30 percent of the city's population, estimated Kevin Coughlin, president of the city's Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association.

The Cambodians who escaped death in their homeland before coming to America were not able to carry photos or any other tangible records of their ancestors, noted Coughlin, who has visited Cambodia six times.

For the older refugees, the opportunity to begin history anew with the naming of Cambodia Town in Lowell was of special significance, Coughlin said.

"It's something that I love about the Cambodian culture -- they have great respect for their elders," said Mercier to CMAA Executive Director Rasy An Sunday before the ribbon-cutting. "I'd really like the rest of America to catch on with that."

Follow John Collins on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/johncolowellsun.

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