Photo Credit: Tom Jenz
Ser Thaou is 60 years old and a vegetable vendor at the Fondy Farmers Market, a Saturday morning oasis in the central city. He grows his vegetables on a 3-acre plot in Mequon, and he also works a full time job at a transformer factory. During the Vietnam War era, he grew up in the country of Laos until the Communists invaded. Fearing torture and death, his family escaped over the mountains into Thailand. When Thailand proved dangerous, his family moved to Milwaukee in 1975.
Fifteen years old at that time, Ser Thau spent six months in a refugee camp where he learned to speak English before being turned loose to live on his own. Presently, the Lao People's Democratic Republic is one of the world's only socialist states openly endorsing communism. Ser Thau told me that he is grateful to be an American.
