Anh-Van Truong: A Real American

by Charles McGuigan 06.2025

Immigrants are the life blood of America. And always have been. They transformed us, despite some of our ugly blemishes, into a great nation envied by the free world, and enriched our culture on every conceivable level.  Unfortunately, every so often, intolerance, fomented by ill-educated racists wearing the masks of populists, leads us into periods of nativism. Fortunately, these interludes are short-lived.

A truly great American will exhibit her work on July 4 at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Her name is Anh-Van Truong, and her art show, titled “America the Beautiful,” is an homage to her adopted homeland, but she might not be alive for the opening of that show.

Anh-Van was the oldest of eleven children and grew up in war-ravaged Vietnam. After the Fall of Saigon, her parents and grandparents lost everything they had to the new communist regime, and lived in a state of constant fear, where every movement was closely watched by Big Brother.  Thousands of Vietnamese were deported to “reeducation” centers in order to be “rehabilitated.” And more than 300,000 South Vietnamese were sent to camps and forced to perform hard labor. Many simply vanished.

Four years after the Fall, Anh-Van, who was 27 at the time, joined the ranks of the thuyền nhân Việt Nam, the Vietnamese boat people. In a daring and dangerous escape, Anh-Van took her three younger brothers and boarded an overcrowded vessel bound for the Philippines, where they would spend the next year and a half in a refugee camp. Anh-van had a degree in art from the Hue Academy of Fine Arts, and another college degree in French literature from the University of Hue. On that long boat trip, Anh-Van, who is fluent in three languages—English, French and Vietnamese—acted as the interpreter during the voyage and later in the refugee camp. It was one of the skills she possessed that would help her professionally when she finally arrived in America.

Anh-Van left the Philippines in 1981 and made her way to Canada, settling in Montreal, where she would remain for a time before she reach her ultimate destination—the United States—in 1983. She would live for a period in Maryland and then move further south to Herndon in Northern Virginia. 

Over the years, Anh-Van put her trilingual skills to use professionally. She worked as an interpreter for the ambassador of Gabon, and was later hired by the French Embassy in DC. She also served as a marketing specialist for a telecommunications firm.

About a decade ago, she moved to Richmond. Through it all, Anh-Van has always pursued her creative talents before an easel. She comes from a family of artists, and since since her retirement has been able to commit more time to her passion for painting. Not too long ago, Anh-Van decided on an art project that would serve as a sort love letter to the country of her choice.

“My mom was on a mission to paint fifty pieces, one for each of the fifty states,” says Valerie Truong, Anh-Van’s daughter.  “It’s meant to be her personal reflection of the country that means so much to her. It’s kind of her ode to her new homeland.”

Anh-Van had watched her country slip slowly into a divisiveness that reminded her of the country of her birth. “It stirred up a lot of difficult memories for her,” Valerie says. “She thought, ‘This is what I call home. This is my country. This is how I see home through my eyes. It’s a beautiful place, it doesn’t have to be filled with so much turmoil.’”

And that was the birth of the show called “America the Beautiful” that opens at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden on Independence Day, which is fitting for two reasons. Of course that’s the day we celebrate the birth of our nation. But it also marks another day, one in the life of Anh-Van Truong, a dark day. 

“July 4 feels very important because it’s essentially a year since her diagnosis with stage IV gastric cancer,” says Valerie.   

Not long ago Anh-Van began receiving home hospice care, and her days among the living are numbered. But the vibrancy of her life and her spirit are alive and well in each of the paintings that are a testament to her love of this land. They will all be on display at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden through the month of July, beginning on Independence Day.