Sokunthary Svay is a writer and musician from New York City, New York. Her family fled Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime and relocated as refugees to the Bronx where she was raised. She lives in Queens, New York with her husband and daughter.
New narratives for Khmers in America
Among the narratives in the relatively short history of Cambodians in the United States, the survival story of escaping autogenocide and starting anew in a foreign country pervades. The Khmer Rouge’s invasion of Cambodia in 1975 forced most citizens into labor camps and led masses to flee once the camps were dismantled. Survival stories have served as a form of healing for Cambodian Americans and as a cathartic way of coming to terms with their wrought past.