♪ Cambodian music ♪
[DONUT PEOPLE]
[Samoeurn Phan]
[Affectionately known as Pou Sam (Uncle Sam)]
[Sam has opened over 20 donut shops for Cambondian families across Houston.]
(Uncle Sam) Well, when I came here in 1994
to eat one donut you didn't realize how much work goes into one donut
until you actually go into doing the donuts.
You know, it takes quite a bit just to make one donut.
I start off by finding a location.
If I find a location,
I get a family that needs a donut shop to go to look at the location,
and if they like it, we negotiate the price,
and if the price is right, I build it for them and [inaudible].
You know, most of them already know how to make donuts.
They work for a family member,
[and] they've already worked for like two, three or five years
to save up the money to start up the business.
[Chandara Meas Owner of Snowflake Donuts, Galveston]
[Cambodian Immigrant]
(Chandara Meas) That's what I'm saying, when I came to the States,
I don't have no relatives with me, I don't speak that much English,
I gotta start to learn English
and start to work to support myself...
and I don't have chance to go back to college,
so I end up at a donut shop.
Most Cambodians who take us,
they own a donut shop, they run a donut business...
yeah, you know, it's hard to do it,
not many people want to do that job as I'm doing right now.
[Countless Cambodians were tortured]
[and more than a million were killed]
[under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.]
[More than a million Cambodians fled and became refugees.]
From 1975 to 1979,
there's Khmer Rouge ran by Pol Pot.
At that time I was 10 years old...
I still remember the torture,
lot of people died by starving and sickness...
most of [the time] they were killing people.
That was a hard time
and that was the worst thing that happened in the world.
Most Cambodians escaped from the war in 1981after the Khmer Rouge regime,
and when they started to come here, people don't speak that much English,
so that's why they started working at donut shops
because most of them what they do are family business --
This is my wife's nephew.
He just came to the USA last year.
He came in a special case that they call "Lottery Visa".
He's a lucky one that won a lottery green card.
The business we just opened-- it is kind of slow, it's brand new.
Hopefully, we can stay for a long time until we get some profit...
to take care of my family, my kids...
go to school, go to college...
I have a beautiful kid.
It's like, if you work for a company,
you have a different schedule than the donut people.
So the donut people, we wake up at 2:00 or 3:00 am,
and we'll be done by 12:00 or 1:00 pm, and take a couple-of-hours-nap,
and, you know, get together and then, go to sleep, and wake up,
and go to make some more donuts!
(man singing Karaoke in Cambodian)
[Tao Ngo Vietnamese Restaurant North Houston]
[Cambodian Karaoke Party]
4:10