Lana Co was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the US with her family in 1996, when she was twenty years old. In Portland, she attended Mt. Hood Community College as well as Portland State University, where she was a member of the Vietnamese Student Association. Now, she is actively involved in the Portland Vietnamese community and currently works for the State of Oregon.
In this oral history, Co begins the interview by talking about what it was like growing up in Vietnam after 1975 and going to school under the communist regime. She shares how her aunt was able to sponsor the family to come to the United States and settle in Portland. Co also shares about how it was necessary but nonetheless difficult to integrate into a new environment with an unfamiliar language and culture. She then discusses the current Vietnamese community in Portland and how she has been able to make friends through events like Tet and the Mid-Autumn Festival, but also how she hopes that the younger generation will become more involved in the community in order to preserve the cultural traditions of Vietnam. Co goes on to talk about the differences between the Vietnamese and American education systems, as well as her current relationship with the country of Vietnam. At the end of the interview, Co leaves listeners with a message for young people: they should uphold their cultural traditions, get involved in the community, and learn as much as they can about their Vietnamese heritage.