South Vietnamese refugees arrived in south Louisiana in the 1970s after the reunification of Vietnam, and the bayou recognized them — the boats, the nets, the marsh geography, the seasonal rhythms were all things they'd worked at home. Houma absorbed a significant share; Gretna and eastern New Orleans took the others. Vietnamese families built a parallel shrimping economy alongside the Cajun one already there, and their seafood markets and restaurants concentrated where the boats docked. Hong Kong Market on Behrman Highway in Gretna is now the largest produce department in Louisiana — 45,000 square feet stocking lemongrass next to filé. Generations on, the waterfront belongs to at least three cultures working the same water: Houma Nation, Cajun, Vietnamese. Same bayous. Same boats.
