Somdeng Danny Thongsy was born 39 years ago in a Thai refugee camp, after his mother and older brother had fled their native Laos following the Vietnam War. His father had stayed back in Laos, and when Thongsy was two, his family left the camp for Stockton, California, where they resettled permanently. Still reeling from the trauma of war, the family found a difficult life in the United States, where they didn’t speak the language and had hardly any money to live on.