SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Cheng “Charlie” Saephan wore a broad smile and a bright blue sash emblazoned with the words “Iu-Mien USA” as he hoisted an oversized check for $1.3 billion above his head.
The 46-year-old immigrant’s luck in winning an enormous Powerball jackpot in Oregon earlier this month — a lump sum payment of $422 million after taxes, which he and his wife will split with a friend — has changed his life. It also raised awareness about Iu Mien people, a southeast Asian ethnic group with origins in China, many of whose members fled from Laos to Thailand and then settled in the U.S. following the Vietnam War.
“I am born in Laos, but I am not Laotian,” Saephan told a news conference Monday at Oregon Lottery headquarters, where his identity as one of the jackpot’s winners was revealed. “I am Iu Mien.”
During the Vietnam War, the CIA and U.S. military recruited Iu Mien in neighboring Laos, many of them subsistence farmers, to engage in guerrilla warfare and to provide intelligence and surveillance to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail that the North Vietnamese used to send troops and weapons through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.
Related articles:
Related suggestion:
Indonesia's Mount Ruang erupts again, spewing ash and peppering villages with debrisPeople share their partner's most annoying habitsThiago Silva, 39, breaks down in tears as he announces he is leaving ChelseaJessica Alba turns 43! The Sin City actress poses with her miniFaye Dunaway orders crew member off set for being in her eye line in newlyAshley Roberts shows off her incredible figure in a stylish BarbieUnable to get on a WNBA roster, exDecoding secrets behind the rise of China's NEVsWilliams, GilgeousI have 25 tattoos and started regretting every single one of them by the time I was 30
3.6611s , 6605.8515625 kb
Copyright © 2024 Powered by Immigrant's $1.3B Powerball win spotlights the Iu Mien community ,Global Gallery news portal