South Bay Vietnamese Americans wrestle with COVID-19, lack of information
December 23, 2020
Linh Nguyen, owner of Paloma Cafe in the Grand Century Mall in San Jose, stands inside his empty restaurant. Photo by Sonya Herrera.
On a clear December day, the glowing sun hit a scant array of faces walking toward the Grand Century Mall in San Jose.
In a plaza once teeming with visitors, particularly Vietnamese Americans, there were mostly shop owners and workers tending to business: distributing supplies, cleaning facilities and fulfilling to-go orders for loyal customers.
San Jose alone is home to more than 100,000 Vietnamese American residents as of 2010 and has the largest population of Vietnamese Americans of any city outside of Vietnam. Santa Clara County as a whole has roughly 140,000 residents of Vietnamese ancestry. Yet, little is known about how COVID-19 has affected the Vietnamese American community in Santa Clara County.