A group is trying to bring cultural district status to historic Fields Corner in Dorchester, hoping to rename it ‘Little Saigon’ or ‘Viet Town’ to reflect Vietnamese roots
Khang Nguyen, a major voice serving the Vietnamese in one of Boston’s largest neighborhoods, is part of a group trying to bring cultural district status to Dorchester, which means it could be officially called “Little Saigon” or “Viet Town.” Jonathan Choe and Kaitlin McKinley Becker reported on NECN.
There’s a name debate going on in one of Boston’s largest neighborhoods.
A group is trying to bring cultural district status to the historic Fields Corner, considered to be one of the most ethnically diverse areas in Dorchester.
Khang Nguyen is a major voice serving this emerging inter-generational community through his weekly online videos. He’s also vice president of the Vietnamese-American Civic Association of Massachusetts where he helps many refugees and immigrants who fled the tiny Southeast Asian country after the war.
By his organization’s estimates, there are now nearly 5,000 Vietnamese living in Dorchester alone, and more than 100 establishments, including restaurants, grocery stores, a senior center, and a cosmetology school, are all owned and operated by Vietnamese entrepreneurs.
Nguyen says it’s now time for the Fields Corner commercial district to reflect this majority.
“We want the name, that will prove it is current to this situation,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen is part of the working group trying to bring cultural district status to the area, which means it could officially be called “Little Saigon” or possibly “Viet Town” to reflect his people’s roots.
“Just to be clear, we are not renaming Fields Corner or everything that says Dorchester,” said Boston City Councilor at-large Michelle Wu, who is helping all the community stakeholders navigate through this process that is now getting a bit complicated. “We just saw it the year before in Jamaica Plain with a district now called Boston’s Latin Quarter.”
But not everyone agrees with the proposed name change to reflect Vietnamese roots.
Candice Gartley, who leads the All Dorchester Sports League, a non-profit serving the part of Fields Corner that isn’t of a Vietnamese majority, says, “Many of our kids come from Geneva Avenue. African Americans, Cape Verdeans.”