Little Saigon — located along the stretch of Stockton Boulevard, Florin Road and Fruitridge Road in Sacramento — will welcome a new archway celebrating Sacramento’s Vietnamese community.
The project is funded by $1.6 million in state and local dollars, said Assemblywoman Stephanie Nguyen, D-Elk Grove. Organized by Nguyen and Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, this archway is the product of a 15-year-long endeavor to establish Little Saigon’s official status in the city.
“It’s a way to put everything together, to say formally that a home is recognized,” said Tido Hoang, the president of the Greater Sacramento Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce. “It’s not just a freeway sign, but a welcome sign that people can visually, tangible, look at, touch and see.”
Driving down the Little Saigon district, Nguyen said there are an array of Vietnamese restaurants, supermarkets, churches. Her parents live in Little Saigon, like many of her relatives. The population has only grown over the years. Sacramento has the 10th highest Vietnamese metropolitan population in the country, with more than 40,000 people, according to the Pew Research Center.
“The Vietnamese community has really dug in and said, ‘This is our community. This is where we’re at,’” Nguyen said.
The project is seeking community input, Nguyen said. Throughout the process, from designing the archway to its implementation, they want the Sacramento Vietnamese community to be uplifted, she added.
“We want the community to own this,” Nguyen said. “As leaders, it’s our opportunity to be able to give a pathway and then from there, let our community come in and take part in this, own this, and call this theirs.”
The history of Little Saigon
In the 1970s, many Vietnamese immigrants came to what is now known as Little Saigon, making the stretch along Stockton Boulevard their own.
When McCarty began representing the area as a city councilman in 2004, he said he took part in creating the district’s official designation after seeing the Little Saigon in Orange County.
Later , from 2008 to 2009, McCarty, former council member Robert Fong and a Vietnamese-led committee worked toward creating a Little Saigon district.
“We started plotting how we could organize and do this,” McCarty said. “How we get the community together and embrace it in a great, official Sacramento Little Saigon district. And we did that.”
This area was declared Little Saigon in 2010. At the time, McCarty told The Sacramento Bee it was a “long overdue recognition of the Vietnamese community who’ve helped transform this stretch of Stockton Boulevard.”
Hoang was also part of the decades-long effort to establish Little Saigon. After working on this project for so long, he said he hopes it garners more support from local businesses. During 2020, local businesses in Little Saigon struggled financially as a result of the stay-at-home order.
“I hope that more and more of us can lean our focus on, our attention, and our hearts to this area,” Hoang said. “It’s the pride and joy of south Sacramento, and I hope we can make this a better place for everybody.”
The establishment of Little Saigon is even more meaningful for elders after the Fall of Saigon in 1975, where Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam was captured by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. Nguyen said as Saigon fell, Vietnamese people didn’t just lose their country — they lost everything.
More than 2 million Vietnamese people fled the country by boat, according to the National Bureau of Asian Research. It’s estimated that more than 500,000 people died or disappeared along the way.
Those who survived the Fall of Saigon came to the United States, with some arriving in Sacramento.
Today, Little Saigon serves as a reminder that while the city fell in 1975, its spirit lives on. While Vietnam felt lost for many, this Stockton Boulevard stretch is a second home.
“This is here to remind us that while we have lost, there is another country that accepted us,” Nguyen said, her voice breaking. “That has even taken part in saying that you may have lost your country, but we’ve accepted you here. You are part of us now here, and this is home to you.”
“You can’t call it Saigon in Vietnam right now. You just can’t,” she continued. “For us to be able to say that here. It’s really meaningful. It means something.”
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