{"id":98161,"date":"2025-12-17T11:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/98161\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:11:15","slug":"san-jose-viet-museum-faces-dec-31-deadline-as-leadership-feud-leaves-future-in-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/98161\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Viet Museum faces Dec. 31 deadline as leadership feud leaves future in limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"

PATIENCE IS WEARING THIN amid a battle for control of a museum honoring San Jose\u2019s Vietnamese community \u2014 and both sides of the fight could end up losing.<\/p>\n

History San Jose, a nonprofit which cares for History Park and its historic buildings and resources on Phelan Avenue, has\u00a0kept the Viet Museum closed<\/a>\u00a0since last December. The reason: Two factions of community members have been fighting for control of the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center, the nonprofit that operates the museum. Now History San Jose could ice both sides out of the museum \u2014 and find another organization to oversee it \u2014 if they don\u2019t come to a resolution in less than 20 days.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The consequences would be deeper than a change of hands. The Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center is seen as an extension of its highly-protective late architect, Loc Vu, a war veteran and refugee who also founded the nonprofit. Before his death, Vu announced his retirement as president in January and proposed his son-in-law as his successor. The idea opened a major rift.<\/p>\n

Several board members objected over nepotism concerns, prompting dueling accusations between them and Vu of wrongdoing and a fight over which board members were legitimate.\u00a0Vu died Nov. 29<\/a>\u00a0after months in hospice care.<\/p>\n

History San Jose has set a deadline of Dec. 31 before ending the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center\u2019s contract entirely.<\/p>\n

Councilmember seeks mediation<\/p>\n

In a Dec. 11 letter, District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan\u2019s office asked History San Jose to hold off on the decision and grant a six-month extension in light of Vu\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven this moment of transition and loss, the community needs time to grieve and to thoughtfully consider the museum\u2019s leadership future. Councilmember Doan intends to personally engage in these leadership discussions and help mediate a resolution,\u201d Jonathan Fleming, Doan\u2019s chief of staff, wrote.<\/p>\n

\"\"FILE: Loc Vu in front of the Viet Museum in March 2022. (San Jose Spotlight file photo)<\/p>\n

Quinn Tran \u2014 who was recognized on Vu\u2019s side as the cultural center\u2019s new executive director \u2014 interprets an end to the contract as an end to the museum itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision would effectively evict the museum \u2014 our community\u2019s center of history, heritage and culture \u2014 from the Historic Park and force it into precarious uncertainty,\u201d Tran told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cMy sincere hope is that this matter will be resolved by then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Schroh, History San Jose\u2019s president and CEO, said his organization would never kick the museum out of the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will always be a Viet Museum at History Park in San Jose,\u201d Schroh told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cWe just need to have an official governing organization in charge of it. Both sides of the dispute claim to be the official one, yet neither has the official proof.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schroh said if the deadline passes without resolution, History San Jose will seek out a different governing group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will always be a Viet Museum at History Park in San Jose. We just need to have an official governing organization in charge of it. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Schroh, History San Jose\u2019s president and CEO<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a family dispute,\u201d Tran said. \u201cHistory San Jose has no right to decide on the fate of the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Tran, the organization filed a lawsuit in August against five people Vu claimed to be illegitimate board members, but still sought control over the organization. Yet there may now be signs of unity under the threat of the December deadline.<\/p>\n

Rivals show unity as deadline nears<\/p>\n

Members of the dueling factions came together at the Dec. 9 Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting to speak on Vu\u2019s passing. Among them was Vu\u2019s son-in-law, Minh Le, who described the refugee community as one large family that may often get into spats, but comes together in times of need.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies may have disagreements, but they reconcile,\u201d he said at the podium, with dueling board members standing together behind him.<\/p>\n

Vu developed the\u00a0Viet Museum<\/a>\u00a0over the course of three decades and opened it in 2007. The old farmhouse in History Park stores hundreds of photographs, documents and art about the experiences of the Boat People. Vu kept it alive with his own savings. He even mortgaged his family home.<\/p>\n

By founding the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center, Vu is credited with helping resettle more than 20,000 South Asian immigrants in Northern California after the Vietnam War.\u00a0San Jose has the largest Vietnamese population<\/a>\u00a0for a city outside Vietnam.<\/p>\n

Community organizer MyLinh Pham is another board member caught in the dispute because the lawsuit deemed her illegitimate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe the future of the Viet Museum should not be jeopardized by internal conflicts, especially while legal and procedural reviews are still underway,\u201d Pham told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cOur priority is to safeguard this historic cultural institution, and we remain committed to working toward a resolution that upholds the community\u2019s trust and the integrity of the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.<\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PATIENCE IS WEARING THIN amid a battle for control of a museum honoring San Jose\u2019s Vietnamese community \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,25055,53592,53593,53594,1253,38420,418,53595,38729,53596,14,1846,4307,1071,2311,53597,53598,37991,40306,88,5500,90,89,881,198,53599,53600,516,53601,31668],"class_list":["post-98161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-bien-doan","tag-board-dispute","tag-boat-people","tag-community-history","tag-community-organizations","tag-cultural-heritage","tag-history","tag-history-park","tag-history-san-jose","tag-immigrant-resettlement-and-cultural-center","tag-immigration","tag-lawsuit","tag-leadership-transition","tag-local-government","tag-museums","tag-nepotism-concerns","tag-nonprofit-governance","tag-preservation","tag-refugees","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-city-council","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-spotlight","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-succession","tag-viet-museum","tag-vietnam-war","tag-vietnamese-americans","tag-vietnamese-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}