History 10.03 (Winter 2025): The Dartmouth Vietnam Project: Learning Oral History in a Digital Age

About Lai Maccarone

Early Life and Immigration to America

Lai Maccarone was born to Dau Huynh and Lang Nguyen in Da Nang, Vietnam in late 1974. She was the youngest of eleven children in her family. When she was only a few months old, Lai fled Vietnam during the fall of Saigon with her mother, three siblings (Hoa, Yen, and Trai), and her uncle's family. Her uncle was instrumental in their escape due to his career with the South Vietnamese. The rest of her family, including her father and three other siblings (Phuong, Am, and Xi), remained in Vietnam.

After spending several months in a refugee camp in Arkansas, Lai and her family were sponsored by Corrine and Dale Pearson through the First Covenant Church of St. Paul, Minnesota. They arrived in Minnesota in October 1975, where they began their new life in America.

Childhood in Minnesota

Shortly after arriving in the United States, Lai's mother became seriously ill. When Lai was about three or four years old, her mother was hospitalized and could no longer care for her children. Through the support of their church community, arrangements were made for the siblings:

• Lai and her brother Trai went to live with the Pearson family (Dale and Corrine Pearson)
• Her sister Yen (11 years older than Lai) went to live with the Heinrich family (Dennis and Grace Heinrich)
• Her eldest sister Hoa (20 years older than Lai) had already married and established her own household

As Lai grew older, she moved between several homes and families from their church community and beyond. For a significant portion of her childhood, she lived with her sister Hoa's family, where she helped care for her niece and nephew while her sister and brother-in-law worked to support the family.

Higher Education and Career

Lai attended a state university in Minnesota for her first year before transferring to the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

After graduating, Lai began working for Northwest Airlines, which was headquartered in St. Paul.

Cultural Identity and Confronting Racism

Unlike her older siblings, who experienced a more abrupt cultural transition, Lai was raised primarily as an American and didn't experience the same cultural shock. However, she came to recognize later in life that her refugee experience significantly impacted her identity, even though she was an infant when she left Vietnam.

Lai notes that one of her "superpowers" in America is her ability to speak English fluently without an accent, unlike her older siblings, who retained accents after learning the language. This has often allowed her to avoid being perceived as a refugee. However, following the rise of white-nationalist sentiment in 2016 and anti-Asian hate in 2020, Lai began to feel uneasy in her identity and fearful for herself and her children.

Family

Today, Lai lives in St. Paul with her husband Chris Maccarone ’86. They have three children: Will, Hannah ’26, and Luciano.

Lai maintains close relationships with her surviving siblings. Her eldest sister Hoa lives in Minnesota. Hoa's children are now adults with their own families in Georgia and Florida.

Lai's sister Yen passed away 16 years ago after a two-year battle with non-smoking lung cancer. Lai remains close to Yen's children, who are now adults.

Lai's brother Trai has recently started a family of his own. At the time of her 2025 interview, he had a son named Logan and was expecting a second child, a daughter.

2025 DVP Interview Abstract

In this second interview with the DVP, Lai Maccarone moves beyond the chronology of her life to reflect on how her experiences with both her foster families and her biological family have shaped her sense of love, belonging, and identity. A refugee from Da Nang, Vietnam, Lai fled with her mother and several siblings to the United States as an infant, escaping in the final days of the Vietnam War. In her first interview, she recounted the timeline of her life, including her early years in the U.S., the loss of her mother, and her journey of reconnecting with her family in Vietnam. In this second interview, she explores the emotional impact of those experiences, examining how they influenced her relationships with her siblings, foster families, and children. Additionally, she discusses familial bonds, a significant health crisis, and her identity as a Vietnamese refugee during a time of national racial reckoning.

Interview Transcript and Audio Recording

The audio and full transcript of the interview are available here.