Celebrating Hmong American Experiences Through Illustration

A scene from childhood. Every year my mother would dress me up in a pair of newly sewn Hmong clothes to attend the local Hmong New Year.

Celebrating Hmong American Experiences Through Illustration

An interview with Duachaka Her

INTERVIEW BY BRENDA TRAN

DUACHAKA HER is a Hmong American cartoonist and illustrator. Her love for drawing and storytelling started at a young age from watching animated cartoon shows to reading comic books at the library and bookstore. As a child of Hmong immigrants, she struggled with the balance between being Hmong and American. These difficulties led her to become fond of her culture and create works about her experiences growing up.

Duachaka graduated from the University of Wisconsin — Stout with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Entertainment Design and concentration in Comics and Sequential Art. She is the creator of graphic novels The Collection and Then and Now. She also illustrates picture books and is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Today she resides in Wisconsin and enjoys reading and watching movies in her spare time.

In our conversation, Duachaka talks about her journey as a cartoonist and illustrator, her mission to celebrate Hmong American narratives through her work, and the importance of representation, among other things.

Sisters Duab and Muaj, characters from The Collection, dancing to their favorite songs.

What’s your story?

Where do I begin with this? I feel like my journey really began with my parents’ journey of coming to America. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today. How they lived and raised my siblings and I played a role in my values, experiences, and the work that I do now.

My parents lived in Thailand and moved to the United States in 1992. My family settled in Fresno, California, which was where I was born. Shortly after, we moved again to central Wisconsin, which is where we resided most of our lives.

I feel like I grew up in a pretty traditional Hmong household. When I mean traditional I mean my parents and grandparents practiced traditional Hmong values and beliefs. The girls in my family were expected to learn how to cook, clean, and were not allowed to go out that much.

Since I wasn’t allowed to go out, I spent most of my free time at home drawing, writing, watching anime and cartoon shows, and reading manga. This was pretty much how I entertained myself and drawing and writing served as a creative outlet for me to express myself.

Throughout high school I drew a lot and took some art classes, which helped me improve my craft. After high school, I enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Stout where I majored in Entertainment Design and concentrated in Comics and Sequential Art.

During my time in college I was trying to look for artists like me and realized the lack of Hmong artists that were out there. I knew a few, but there weren’t a lot.

In my senior year of college, all the art and design students were required to do a capstone project that reflected everything they’ve acquired throughout their years in school. Since I was a comics student, I decided to create the graphic novel The Collection, which reflected my experiences growing up as a Hmong-American. After creating the story, I launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the first print run of the book, and it was successful.

When I graduated from college, I took a few months off to enjoy and reorganize my life again. Eventually, I got a day job doing screen printing and worked on my personal projects and portfolio after work. Not long after that, I received several freelance illustration jobs to illustrate children’s picture books.

Currently, I am illustrating a children’s picture book for the Saint Paul Public Library and working on a new middle-grade graphic novel with Avenue A Books.

How did you get your start as a cartoonist and illustrator?

It’s kind of hard to define a particular moment. I started making my own comics as a kid, but didn’t take them too seriously until I went to college, where I was making comics more intentionally. For me, I officially felt like a professional cartoonist after making my graphic novel The Collection, since it was something I was really proud of.

In terms of illustrating, when I was in college, I took a course where I learned about children’s literature and realized how books can be used as tools to aide a child’s growth. That course got me into children’s book illustration and the children’s literature community. My final project for that class was to write and illustrate my own children’s book. I started doing illustrations for others after I completed college. One of my first freelance jobs was when I illustrated The Greedy Couple children’s book for author and educator See Lor. I met the author through a Facebook group and offered my illustration services after seeing her post about her first children’s book. From there, I received referrals from professors and individuals to illustrate more projects.

A scene from The Collection showing Duab getting dressed in Hmong clothes alongside her sister Muaj.

At what point did it go from a hobby to a serious career decision?

I think I decided to take my illustrations and comics more seriously when I was in college. For me, I felt like since I was going to be spending a lot of money and time in college, I needed to choose a field that I would be serious about and one that I would not regret spending four years pursuing. I knew drawing and storytelling was something I always loved to do and I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else, so I went for it.

What were some difficulties you encountered starting your career in a field where Southeast Asians are so underrepresented? How did you move forward in spite of these obstacles?

When I was in college I remembered taking a drawing class where my professor showed us an example of how a Native American artist incorporated

aspects of his culture into his artwork. At that moment, a lightbulb lit inside of me and made me curious about the Hmong artists in my community. I remembered doing some online research and realizing that there weren’t a lot of Hmong artists out there, or if there were, they never really made a career out of it. At one point, I even questioned myself if people wanted to invest in art created by Hmong artists since I did not see a lot of it out there.

Being an artist can be a very lonely journey, especially when you don’t see a lot of other artists who look like you. I remember spending hours on my art projects on the weekends while some of my other friends went out to have fun or partied. I envied them sometimes because I felt like I was missing out on so much. However, I knew if I spent too much time having fun, I wouldn’t be able to take my art seriously and make it the best it can be. Even today, I find myself staying inside on weekends rather than going out.

I realized that I did not want to be the artist that would just start and quit. I wanted to contribute to the Hmong American narrative and share my experiences with others. Luckily in college, I was able to become friends with several Hmong art and design students, and I feel like having that community of artists who understand and share your struggles with you is really empowering and it kept me making art.

How do your experiences growing up as a Hmong American impact the decisions you make as an artist and storyteller?

I think growing up as a Hmong American I realized that life was going to be hard for me. I grew up in a low- income household, nobody in my family ever went to college before, yet my parents wanted me to go because they knew it was the best for me.

I believed art and education was the thing that opened the door of opportunities for me. When I was drawing or writing, I wasn’t afraid of failing. I remembered participating in various illustration competitions when I was younger and even though I wasn’t the winner, I knew that there was going to be more opportunities in the future.

I think having failed so much when I was younger made me not too upset about failing now. Failure isn’t always bad, it’s really a great learning experience. I think growing up I was always cautioned to not go out or pursue something unknown because of the possibility of failing. But with art, I knew I had to put myself out there and do the extraordinary to make it. The odds were already against me, so why not just go for it? I knew I had to be bold, not just in my life, but also in my work. I knew I had to create things that weren’t ordinary.

I went to my library to search for books about Hmong people or stories, but there weren’t many. Therefore, I ended up creating works that reflected my Hmong American experiences in hopes that someone would be able to connect to it.

What’s your process for developing the characters in your stories? Would you say that they are biographical or share similar traits as you or people you know?

Most of the characters in my stories are inspired by myself or the people in my life. I feel like when I am creating characters, I am putting a little bit of myself in them. I think about the characters’ backstory, their likes and dislikes, and their personality. Sometimes I do character sketches and learn more about a character through the expressions or poses they make.

Cover art of The Collection. Book is available for purchase at gumroad.com/duachakaher

Your graphic novels The Collection and Then and Now are centered around Hmong American identity. As someone who consumed comics as a kid, why do you think representation is so important?

Growing up I read a lot of manga. I was always fascinated by the characters and stories and most of them were based around Japanese culture. Reading manga and watching anime really got me interested in the culture, but at the same time, it made me realize why I didn’t appreciate my own culture as I did another.

At that point, I realized that I had the ability to share my culture and experiences with people just like how these manga artists did. I had the ability to show the beauty of my culture. The Collection was based off my experiences growing up as a Hmong American while Then and Now was inspired by my parents and their view of having left their homeland and living in America.

I feel like when you don’t see yourself portrayed in literature or the media, you feel like your voice and narrative don’t matter. On the other hand, when people of diverse backgrounds see themselves in narratives, it is very empowering. When we see characters that look like us and characters that are bold and ambitious, we start to feel the same way. It really empowers us to feel that we too can be bold and chase our dreams despite the obstacles in our lives.

Cover art for Then and Now. Book is available for purchase at gumroad.com/duachakaher

Because there are so few Hmong American comic artists out there, your work carries a lot of weight whether you like it or not. Do you feel pressured to present the Hmong American experience a certain way?

I don’t really feel pressured, I just hope they like the stories I write! Most of the stories I create are based off my experiences growing up. I know everybody’s experience is different, but I wanted to be able to highlight experiences that some people can relate to as a minority.

Experiences like getting your name pronounced wrong, dealing with two lifestyles (American life at school and Hmong life at home), dealing with speaking two languages, and having immigrant parents who don’t really understand you all the time. I do get requests from people to do a story about a certain type of character or a story that involves something specific, but for me, I just make the kinds of stories that I want to see.

Do you have any words of wisdom for all the aspiring Southeast Asian cartoonists and illustrators out there?

My advice would be to just start writing and drawing your narratives today. Don’t wait for someone to do it for you because that day will never come. If you have an idea in your head that is really great, work like hell and make it happen! It also helps to surround yourself with like-minded individuals or other artists and people who are willing to support your work. Make work and put it out there; post it on social media and share it. Attend or table at comic conventions and art events. Submit to contests and call for artists. Then make work again.

Also, don’t expect to be successful right away (however, if you are, that’s great!). I think the majority of us like to see immediate results, and when it doesn’t happen right away, we feel like giving up and moving on to the next thing. Maintaining a career as an artist is really difficult, but I think the most successful cartoonists and graphic novelists are successful because they are able to continue making work for so long despite their successes and failures.

But most importantly, don’t forget to live your life, because most of our inspiration and stories come from life. Travel to the places you want, go watch that movie you really want, marry the love of your life, start a family, whatever it may be. Art will still be there.

One of my favorite dishes to make with my mom is eggrolls. I love its savory aroma and the taste of the glass noodles, meats, and veggies inside the crispy wrapper. I remember my first few times not being very good at wrapping them. They were either too loose or too full and lopsided. She would critique me and show me what to do and not do. The more eggrolls I wrapped, the better I got. I believe cooking with my mother improved my bond with her. She taught me something, I was learned, and we got to enjoy the food together.

Learn more about Duachaka's work at duachakaher.com