♪ making noise with the alligator boys 20 miles east of gauttier ♪ [ spanish radio chatter ] >> radio: rise and shine, it's a beautiful day in houston, but it's gonna be a hot one! ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪ ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this

beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la la ♪ >> anthony: close-minded, prejudicial, quick to make assumptions about places different than where we grew up. i'm not talking about texas. i'm talking about, well, me. and people like me, who are way too comfortable thinking of texas as a big space filled with intolerant, invariably right wing white people waddling between the fast food outlet and the gun store. that, of course, is wrong. ♪ but then, i'm used to being

wrong. texas, houston in particular, is a very different place than you might imagine from the stereotypes and the sound bites of its national political figures. immigrants, refugees, and non-white americans have, in fact, been transforming the city, the food and culture of houston for years. welcome to america, people. ♪ just another day at the supermarket, a sleepy strip mall on houston's hillcroft avenue. keemat grocers, serving the community since 1994. today, they're hosting a quiet, low-key affair. >> sunil: good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! how are we doing today? [ cheers ] we're here in little india in keemat grocers, and i think this is the best little india in all

of usa, right? [ cheers ] dj zee, i wanna throw a party right now. everybody, let's start this party! ♪ ♪ put your hands up! ♪ ♪ put your hands up! everybody! ♪ ♪ >> anthony: how large is the community here? >> sunil: 200,000 people. >> anthony: 200,000, and that's india and pakistan -- >> sunil: yeah. indians, pakistanis, some

bangladeshis, very few nepalese. >> anthony: so, 200,000 and rising quick. >> sunil: yeah. >> anthony: sunil thakkcar is an owner of masala radio, 1320 on your a.m. dial. himalaya is a beloved indian pakistani restaurant run by karachi native kaiser lashkari. >> sunil: so, the food here is amazing. it's like indian and pakistani mixed together. >> anthony: right, now how does that work? because over there, the relation's not so friendly. uh, here does everybody -- is it all peace and love? >> sunil: yeah, you know, there is no boundaries here. now you see so many homes, new homes, new subdivisions, and people just buy them up, and on my street, 18 homes, 12 out of them are from other countries. india, pakistan, malaysia, indonesia, and once you live together, it just sort of -- you just become family. how many brown people here? [ cheers ] any non-indians? i wanna see non-indians. do we have any non-indians? [ cheers ] what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna see how good this asian guy can do a bollywood step.

move like this. move like this. yeah! ♪ >> anthony: how old were you when you moved here? >> sunil: i was 17 when i came here. >> anthony: wow. >> sunil: and growing up, i wanted to be a bollywood star. i wanted to be a movie star, but my mom didn't want to do anything with this whole movie business. >> anthony: right. >> sunil: when i came here, something about this country, something about the openness got me kind of doing what i wanted to do. and i said, "i always wanted to be an entertainer. i always wanted to be a comedian." and radio was perfect for me to bring bollywood in people's cars. houston's got the biggest drive time. >> anthony: so people listen to the radio here. >> sunil: i couldn't do this back home. but here, you get a chance to just be a new you. you can just be a new person. you know, they say, "oh, hindus reincarnate thousands of times." i feel like i reincarnated live when i came here. >> anthony: an intensely aromatic biryani. goat marinated in yogurt, garlic and ginger, then slow-cooked with cumin, cardamom and star

anise. green curry chicken done texas desi-style with a blend of tomatillos and green chilies, cilantro and cumin. steak tikka, and hunter's beef, sort of an indian-inflected pastrami, an invention of the chefs. brined for ten days, cooked and served with homemade mustard sauce. what about your kids? do they feel american, or do they feel indian, or do they feel indian-american? >> sunil: so they are definitely indian-american. you know? they eat indian food. >> anthony: right. >> sunil: but if you give my son an option, he wants to go to taco bell. they speak gujarati, they like bollywood dancing, but yet they're not as indian as i am. i want my kids, and i want all of the kids to come in and feel that these are our traditions that we've gotta continue. we got a panipuri eating contest coming up. who can tell me what a panipuri is? >> akshay: it's like a little dumpling, and it has a hole in it and filled with potatoes and chickpeas, and then it has a spicy -- >> sunil: all right, on the count of three, what i'm gonna do is, i'm gonna give you 30 seconds. and i'm gonna see who can eat

the most panipuris. dj zee, you've got some music ready? on the count of three. one, two, one, two, three, four! ♪ 30 seconds. most panipuris in 30 seconds. come on! eat the puris. i'm gonna give you 30 more seconds, 'cause i think you guys are a little slow. ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! [ cheers ] out of 20, you got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7! 20 minus 7! >> crowd: 13! >> sunil: she is the winner! >> anthony: wow! [ cheers and applause ] >> sunil: i find houston to be probably the most accepting place for me. >> anthony: right. >> sunil: i love it here. i love, i love, i love being indian in houston. it's not one of those towns that you say, "oh, i wanna live in houston." but once you come here, once you live here, you don't want to move out of here. you know, i always consider

india as my motherland. but houston's my home. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ singing in spanish ] ♪ >> anthony: it's saturday night in houston, and at the acapulco ballroom in the city's pasadena neighborhood, tonight

is all about 15-year-old evelyn arana. if you're mexican, or mexican-american, or anywhere in between, and you've got a daughter turning 15, you better be throwing her a quince, or a quinceanera, to be precise. quinceanera, what is it? >> elizabeth: it's the becoming of a young lady, whenever they turn 15 years old. >> anthony: if you're of mexican heritage in houston, i gather you kind of have to have one if you've got a daughter, right? >> elizabeth: in houston, yes. >> anthony: in houston, yes. >> elizabeth: it is an honor to have a quinceanera, and for your parents to be able to give you one. ♪ >> anthony: the quinceanera business is a multimillion dollar a year industry around here. the competition is fierce. it is a big deal, is what i'm saying, and the style and budget can vary enormously depending on means and ambition.

friends, relatives and neighbors gather to eat, drink, dance, and acapulco owners elizabeth and ezequiel ortuno are keeping a close eye on the action making sure everything goes according to plan. who gets invited to these things? i mean, this is a lot of people. i don't have this many friends. >> elizabeth: friends and family. >> eziquiel: friends and families and from the school, too. >> elizabeth: yes. >> anthony: right. oh, so you gotta invite all the girl's friends from school? do you have kids? >> elizabeth: yes. >> anthony: any girls? >> elizabeth: four girls. >> anthony: four girls, so they all had these? >> elizabeth: all of them have had their quinceaneras, and a couple of them have had their sweet 16s. >> anthony: you get a quinceanera and a sweet 16? >> elizabeth: yes. >> anthony: oh, my god! i was really happy about having a girl, but it's expensive! what do boys get? >> elizabeth: a soccer ball. >> anthony: yeah, that's -- that's cost effective. [ laughter ] ♪ ♪

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♪ >> anthony: the way we think about houston, texas, today is very much stuck in the past. in the late '70s, early '80s, houston was the boom town of popular television and movie imagination. oil, shipping, nasa, and football combined to create a big spending, big-haired, quasi-cowboy stereotype that, to some extent, still lives with us today, even if the reality is different. though the oil is not gone, a massive glut in the mid-80s sent prices into freefall, more or less killing the city's oil industry. the resulting economic downturn and lower cost of living made houston, however, and probably it might seem to you yankee trash, much more welcoming to people with less means. people getting away from bad situations. people from somewhere else.

what that means is that now houston, you know, houston is a place where minorities are now the majority. ♪ at the end of the war, jonathan trinh escaped vietnam on a makeshift raft with his family. after serving in the united states marine corps and attaining a masters degree in education, he became the principal of this school -- lee senior high, the most ethnically diverse school in the city. what percentage of your student body, english is not their first language? >> jonathan: i would say about 80% of them. >> anthony: do those kids get sent here specifically, or is it just -- >> jonathan: oh, no, no, no, no. >> anthony: that's just reflective of the community? >> jonathan: it just went like it -- >> anthony: so 80%. >> jonathan: -- by chance, you know, in the city of houston and the surround suburban area. it's very well integrated. like, it's not -- >> anthony: why? how did that happen? >> jonathan: i think one of the main reasons is the strong economic base here. it's because of the variable that you could get a job and

make a decent wage, it allows for immigrant families coming over and build a nest egg, to own their own home or go to a better neighborhood. it has to be a strong economic variable base for them to quickly overcome that part and it allows them -- >> anthony: right. >> jonathan: -- to make a life for themselves. >> garry: good morning! >> students: good morning! >> garry: all right. repeat after me. positive affirmations -- today is a beautiful day. >> students: today is a beautiful day. >> garry: i will work hard. >> students: i will work hard. >> garry: i am important. >> students: i am important. >> garry: repeat -- i will succeed. >> students: i will succeed. >> anthony: more than 40 languages are spoken among the 1,700 students here. many of them from conflict zones where the alternatives were stark. leave quickly or die. often, their first exposure to the american educational system is here, esl. english as a second language class, where teacher garry reed, a 30-year veteran, does his very best to get them up to speed and

ready for the next steps. >> garry: do you see these people? what did they do? all of these people, right here, they came to houston from salvador, vietnam, iraq, syria, just like you. they came, no money, no home, and what happened? >> students: they graduated. >> garry: yeah, they graduated. so don't say, "oh, i can't do it, i can't." you can do it. >> anthony: what part of the world are most kids coming from now? >> jonathan: currently, it's central america. >> anthony: guatemala. >> jonathan: guatemala, el salvador, nicaragua. el salvador is the major one. >> anthony: in many cases, if you were to send these kids back, it's a death sentence. >> jonathan: mm-hmm, yeah. >> anthony: i mean, let's call it what it is. >> jonathan: yes. >> anthony: other classes. math, history, are taught in their own language or in english? >> jonathan: no, no. they're taught in english. >> anthony: so this class is absolutely essential. >> jonathan: mm-hmm. >> garry: now, we were working on personal introductions. who's brave enough to introduce themselves? >> romaric: hello, my name is romaric. >> garry: hi, my name is mr. reed. >> romaric: nice to meet you.

>> garry: nice to meet you, too. now, what are the things you do? what do you do with your eyes? repeat -- eye contact. >> students: eye contact. >> garry: good, good. what about his hands? you can do that. and grab it firm. firm handshake. it's a first impression. stand up, stand up. okay? this is side a. you present to side b. ready? one, two, three, go. [ talking over each other ] >> students: nice to meet you. >> garry: good, good. so it's -- you shake, look in the eye, like that, okay? that's expected. girls. ana. in america, you can do it. it's okay to get a nice handshake. >> anthony: what happens if it doesn't work, if they don't have this? what's the future looking like if they don't acquire language skills? >> jonathan: they become a third class citizen then. >> anthony: what kind of work are you getting, what are your opportunities? >> jonathan: oh, yes. the service market in any major city is always there. landscaping, valet, car washes, but our students are very gifted. they are talented kids. they just need opportunity to

learn english, and opportunity opened up to learn. these kids, when they grow up, they will be part of america, and they have kids, they will pick up on this country, just like i expected to do and what i expect my three boys to do. not because someone forced me, but because i believed in it. i believed in the opportunity that it provides. i believe that no matter how poor you are, how uneducated you are when you first come to the united states, if you have the will to educate yourself, work hard at it, you can achieve. ♪ >> anthony: chicken sandwich and french fries, fruit salad, carton of milk. welcome to america, kids. well, i haven't had one of these in a long time. so what country is everybody from? >> romaric: i'm from africa. very, like, ghana, cote d'ivoire. >> melissa: honduras. >> moamin: iraq. >> anthony: where in iraq? >> moamin: baghdad. >> bibi: pakistan. >> anthony: and you've been here how long? >> bibi: one year. >> anthony: one year.

everybody's english is pretty, pretty good! very good! >> jonathan: it took me at least two years just to be brave enough to open up, you know? no, they are progressing very, very well. you know? >> romaric: mister, do you ever eat african food? >> anthony: yeah, i've been to africa a lot. i have not been to burkina faso, but i love the food in ghana. the food in senegal is very, very nice. >> romaric: oh, you've already been to senegal? >> anthony: oh, yes, fantastic. your first day in school, was it frightening? >> romaric: i didn't know nobody here. and nobody here from my country. so, i feel scared, but step by step, i start to learn english and then start to talk with people. >> anthony: so after school, when you graduate high school, what do you want to do next? >> bibi: i want to be a fashion designer, and i want to go to college. i want to study more. >> anthony: what are you going to do? >> melissa: i want to go to college, and i want to study medicine. i am between medicine and engineering. >> anthony: what do you want to do? >> moamin: i play soccer. >> anthony: soccer is not a plan, my friend. [ laughter ]

♪ ♪ pearland is the quintessential sprawl of suburban americana, and more and more these days, this is the quintessential american family. jonathan, his salvadoran-born wife sylvia, along with his sister kim and her husband, ron, jonathan's mom nina, and sylvia's mom, ayala. so, if you have, like, a, on christmas or fourth of july or a big holiday, how many extended family? how many people are coming over? [ laughter ] whoa, everyone's laughing. oh, wow, okay. >> sylvia: a lot. >> anthony:: i mean, what's a lot? how many? >> sylvia: 40, 50? >> anthony: wow. >> sylvia: i mean, i don't even see us as interracial until people point it out. >> anthony: well, it's a typical texan family at this point. >> sylvia: mm-hmm, yeah.

>> anthony: ayala cooks tamales de gallina from scratch. outside, fresh pupusas are being made on a hot griddle. jonathan's mom nina makes a dish of jellyfish, shrimp and pork, tossed with mint, carrots, red onion and peanuts, dressed with nuoc mam, the pungent vietnamese fish sauce. and mee kang, a rice noodle dish from central vietnam made with pork ribs, shrimp and chilies. very mixed up meal here. >> sylvia: yeah! >> anthony: awesome. [ laughter ] did you speak english when you arrived here? >> sylvia: oh, not a word. i couldn't even say hi. so i learned it literally within a year. >> anthony: yup. >> sylvia: because i had to. by fifth grade, this one teacher miss spikes just made me feel like i was the smartest little thing in the whole world. she built up my confidence that i could do anything. >> jonathan: you know, we learned how to speak spanish first before we learned how to speak english. >> anthony: of course. so you came over in '78, did you say? >> jonathan: late '77. i was 10 years old. and we literally left on -- i wouldn't call it a boat, it was more like a raft. >> anthony: a raft. >> jonathan: there was a hole in the boat.

we sat in water the entire time, just sitting soaked in water. they let us come here as refugees to the united states. we lived in the government housing projects. me, my sister and my brother all were placed in the same category for esl. we were probably one of the first waves of boat people resettlement of houston. >> anthony: now what was the urgency to take such a tremendous risk? >> kim: our parents felt we needed to take a chance on freedom and opportunity than to live under communist rule. ♪ >> anthony: ain't nothing more american than viet bayou-style crawdad steamed with sriracha, orange juice and beer. and gotta have corn, of course, and potatoes, and sausage, and beer. did i mention beer? ♪ >> jonathan: texans, we get the bad rep of that we are not compassionate, and i think that's the wrong portrayal. >> anthony: right. >> jonathan: texans, as a whole, when a crisis comes, are the most generous and the most compassionate people that i

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show me sports. it's so fluffy! look at that fluffy unicorn! he's so fluffy i'm gonna die! your voice is awesome. the x1 voice remote. xfinity. the future of awesome. >> anthony: it's hot in houston. so things move a little slower

around here. maybe that explains this. ♪ ♪ ♪ l.a. may have low-riders, but houston has slab, its own car culture, with its own accompanying sound. its own chopped and screwed hip-hop style. ♪ ♪ >> slim thug: this is pretty much, like, one of the most classic signs of a slab. it's the cadillac. see i got the insides custom with the stitching and all that, so you know this is a complete slab, you know. >> anthony: full reclining is, uh -- >> slim thug: full reclining. it's a lay back thing. >> anthony: houston musical artist slim thug and his friends bone and david called some people to bring their cars over to macgregor park in the southern part of the city.

if you're gonna do it, what do you have to have? what are the rules? >> slim thug: candy paint, gotta have these type of rims, these are the elbow swingers, a fifth wheel and grill is mainly, like, for slab. that's what make it a complete, you know, and the music, you know how they got the popped trunk with the custom music, you gotta have that -- [ loud bass ] ♪ >> bone: you hit the block, it's not a bunch of dudes just standing up. it's a bunch of everything. >> slim thug: you know, take the old and mix it with the new, you know what i'm saying. >> bone: these two pink cadillacs are awesome. that's a married couple. a man and woman, and they have their kids with them. these trunks, if they something, that's your autograph. you see it coming, and you see the car and the grill, and you see the two-two prongs, it's like, oh my god, here come, whoever the guard is of your neighborhood. >> anthony: right. >> slim thug: they're basically like legends in the streets. >> anthony: are all of these, like, are they works in progress or are people constantly --

>> slim thug: i think it's gonna forever be a work in progress. i think that slab, you know, they have to be doing something -- >> david: they're always changing them. >> slim thug: they get expensive, real talk, like, all these cars out here, they probably spent the bankroll on all of them. ♪ ♪ >> anthony: you're not eating pizza hut in the back of that car either, are you? >> bone: really, you barely see people in the backseats of somebody's car out here. >> anthony: he's shaking his head, he's like, "nobody's getting in the backseat." >> bone: 'cause you got the lean. so you got the lean thing. so that means, whoever back here can't be long. >> anthony: i'm thinking about my lincoln now. you know? maybe, i'm thinking, like, crocodile skin on the outside. would that be alright? >> bone: i'm thinking about pony. >> anthony: pony! >> bone: form a cross, or cows. >> anthony: like palomino kind of a thing going on? >> bone: yes, sir. yes, sir, that'd be fresh. that'd be evil. >> slim thug: pay him no mind. ♪ >> anthony: acres homes is a predominately black community where many of the original slab pioneers come from.

it's also where you can find the legendary family-run burns barbecue, a place not unfamiliar to me. i first came here 15 years ago on some long lost travel program on a network far, far away. founder roy burns has passed on to the great open pit in the sky since last i was here, but his son and his grandchildren carry on the tradition of making some of the best east texas style barbecue you can find around here. it's been awhile. i believe last time i was here the grandfather was here back then. >> slim thug: well you're in the right place for some barbecue, man. burns barbecue. >> anthony: so, what do you do? ribs and brisket or uh -- >> slim thug: i do all of that. >> anthony: you do all of it, okay. >> slim thug: all of that. what is that? >> bone: moonshine. dukes of hazzard. boss hog. [ laughter ] >> anthony: wow. i could drink a lot of that. okay, that's gonna work. a torpedo size baked potato filled with cheddar cheese and chopped barbecue beef and homemade link sausage. slow-cooked pork ribs.

big ass beef ribs. and brisket. >> bone: whoa. okay, i got a baked potato. >> anthony: this baked potato is yours. >> bone: it's, it's marvelous. >> anthony: that thing is, like, gigantic. my mother always said, "never eat anything bigger than your head." that is about the size of a human head. >> slim thug: that look good though, i ain't gonna lie. >> anthony: so, everybody, born here? >> slim thug: born and raised. >> anthony: the town changed at all? >> slim thug: a lot. >> anthony: yeah, in what way? >> slim thug: you know, it was like a big small town at first, and now it's becoming like a real city. you know. >> anthony: is that good or bad? >> bone: it depends on what you do. >> slim thug: good and bad, kinda. a lot of the stuff we was really into back in the day, these new kids or these people from out of town, they ain't into. even the music, like back in the day, houston was so independent, like i was selling so many records out of the trunk that i didn't want a major deal. ♪ ♪

>> anthony: is there a distinctive houston sound? >> slim thug: very. you know, the whole culture from the cars, to the sippin' syrup and the music itself. >> anthony: first of all, what's sippin' syrup? >> slim thug: syrup is, it's promethazine and codeine; it was a cough syrup, but then they mixed it with soda out here. >> anthony: why is that the drug of choice here and not -- >> slim thug: maybe because, you see the idea is that everything is so chill and laid back. in atlanta, everything was turnt up. out here everything is slowed down because i guess we're a more laid back culture. >> anthony: so, at various points in your career, clearly somebody said, "well look, why don't you move out here? l.a. is good. the money out here, the deals are out here." >> slim thug: right. >> anthony: but here you are. why stay? >> slim thug: i tried to go to l.a., and the people out there are so thirsty to try to be a star that they're fake and they're crooked. you're just like -- i don't wanna be around those types of people. i wanna be around good, genuine people. >> anthony: is houston a good place to live? >> bone: yeah.

>> slim thug: great place. the cost of living is cheap. it stays hot and warm;t's never snowing to where you gotta shovel your driveway. and the food is the greatest out here, and the black women, i don't care where you go, there ain't no better black women, and that's what it is. ♪ ♪ me about your new social security alerts? oh! we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one of thousands of risky sites, so you'll be in the know. ooh. sushi. ugh. being in the know is a good thing. sign up online for free. discover social security alerts. [fbi agent] you're a brave man, your testimony will save lives. mr. stevens? this is your new name. this is your new house. and a perfectly inconspicuous suv. you must become invisible. [hero] i'll take my chances.

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♪ ♪ >> anthony: it's a 90-minute drive south from houston to the town of palacios on the matagorda bay. and, like a lot of the communities down here, the principal industry is fishing, shrimp in particular. it's also where, beginning in the 1970s as the vietnam war ground to its ignominious conclusion, that thousands of vietnamese found new lives and a new home. to have remained would have meant, in most cases, arrest, imprisonment, reeducation camps, or worse. so all you want is shrimp at this point. >> doan: yeah. >> anthony: okay. >> vinh: i got two large several, uh, get shrimp and fish. but i got enough feed for the fish. >> anthony: the shrimp you take. >> vinh: yup, big shrimp. >> doan: big shrimp, big shrimp. >> vinh: the small we don't get

shrimp. >> anthony: you don't want it. >> vinh: we don't want those. >> anthony: the shrimping has declined considerably since the 1980s, but the bay still provides a solid livelihood for people like vinh who made it out of vietnam on a tiny handmade boat. his engine died, and he and his family were lost in the south china sea for nine days before being rescued by a cargo ship. he became a united states citizen in 1990 and raised his family here in palacios. so what year did you come here? how long have you been doing this? >> vinh: i have been -- 1985. >> anthony: and what year did you arrive in this country? >> vinh: i left my country in 1979. >> anthony: how old were you when you got here? >> vinh: 21 years old. >> anthony: you were 21. so why shrimp? how did you come to this business? >> vinh: my cousin. >> anthony: cousin, okay. >> vinh: my cousins are living here. >> anthony: right. >> vinh: and i work -- but they told me, they told me that, they've very good for shrimping. good for shrimp, make money more. ♪

♪ >> anthony: back on dry land, vinh's first stop is the point, the town's general store. it's owned and operated by pillars of the community, yen and bryan tran, who separately came over from vietnam around the same time, met, married and raised three children here. >> bryan: this is my dream. i came here with nothing. 17 years old. first job i had working, washing dishes. so my boss told me and said, "hey, you're a hard worker. you know, maybe one day you're going to be the boss." so i had that thing in my mind. after i get married, i told my wife, i said, "open a restaurant." and she stopped me, and she said, "no, you're crazy!" so after all my kids went to college, they got a good job, i would mention it again, and she said, "okay." >> anthony: aw that's, that's nice. ♪ convenience store, bait shop,

quick stop for a meal. the point is, in many ways, typical in the way it is geared towards serving the immediate needs of its community. food for vietnamese and food for mexicans. yen, bryan, their kids jennifer and kimberly as well as cousin tv and his son, donny. all proud citizens of the united states of america, by the way. >> yen: you know, i really feel fortunate we live in this town and we have a lot of support. when we went to open this store, all my friends said, "i want to have vietnamese food." i know that here you have to have mexican food. so i went and talked to the best mexican cook in town maricela. >> bryan: yeah, this is the, the chef right here. >> maricela: hi. >> yen: yeah. >> bryan: good chef. this is maricela. ♪ >> anthony: the pho here is good.

brisket, eye round, meatball, tripe and tendon, just like back home. ceviche made from vinh's fresh shrimp. and, of course, tacos, migas style, with eggs, jalapeños, and tomatoes. the kids who grew up in this community -- >> yen: these are the kids -- >> bryan: yeah, these are the kids right here. >> anthony: what are they doing? >> dough: i was born here in '76, so i'm a natural born citizen. working with my dad, right hand man, you know? shrimping, building boats. just kind of seeing what they went through, i mean it's, i definitely appreciate life, you know? >> kimberly: jen here's a lawyer, my sister's an engineer, i'm in the medical field, so there's still that, you know, your parents want you to have practical jobs. >> anthony: right. so you came here, what year? >> tv: 1975. >> anthony: so you came over in the first -- >> tv: yeah. i got on american ship and got the hell out of there. i come over here no shoes, i tell you the truth, i don't have even penny in my pocket when i come over here. no. serious. and now i have a great business, and you know, really, anthony, i say this is a great country.

♪ >> yen: this community of vietnamese people are very fortunate. we always see the generosity of people over here because we lived in what, thirty years of civil war? >> anthony: yeah. >> yen: so, no one trusts anyone, but when you come over here, people take you in, and they trust you, and i, i always say that the united states opened a house for the immigrant and for the refugee. i feel this is my home. ♪ boost. it's about moving forward, not back. it's looking up, not down. it's being in motion. in body, in spirit, in the now. boost® high protein it's intelligent nutrition with 15 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals.

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>> gertrude: my name is gertrude. i'm from congo, brazzaville. i'm married to -- >> albert:, and we have four children. >> it's my dream, my dream, i need to be boss, i need to have my land. >> gertrude: for sure, we like the weather because we don't have snow here.

in summer, i know it's very hot here, but it's good for planting. and people are nice in houston. >> anthony: many of the more recent arrivals in houston come from places where life is unbelievably hard and often dangerous. many come from agrarian backgrounds, arriving here without the skill set needed to compete for jobs in an urban situation. plant it forward, a non-profit urban farming program, provides refugees like gertrude and albert, lombo access to land where they can make a living from the ground. so here we are, middle of houston -- a lush, fertile plot where eggplant, squash, string beans, and other produce is grown to be sold at farmers markets and to restaurants around town. fellow congolese/houston transplants guy mullet and constant ngouala. chefs when not tending their crops, prepare an outdoor meal for the lombos and a group of friends and fellow farmers.

congolese, but with a definite cajun touch. or is it the other way around? a slow cooked stew of sausage, shrimp, dried mackerel, and malabar spinach over fufu. then texas beef brochettes marinated in chilies and cilantro and maggi bouillon with a ratatouille made from produce grown right here. what did you all think when, when you heard that you were going to be resettled in texas? >> constant: in, in -- in my country when people are talking about texas, they know that is where many farmer is. >> anthony: really? and now do you feel welcome? do you feel the community is happier here? >> gertrude: wonderful. >> constant: the first challenge was, eh, the language. >> gertrude: it wasn't easy. even now, it's not easy. >> anthony: but you already speak how many languages? >> gertrude: in congo, principal, we have three languages. >> anthony: of course. >> gertrude: we have french, lingala, and munukutuba. >> anthony: so don't feel too bad. most americans struggle with one. it's okay.

>> i'm a refugee from drc. >> anthony: what did you do in kinshasa? >> i did electrician and construction too. >> anthony: and here? >> i was machine operator. after that, i decide to be farmer. it was my dream. >> my dream it was to get my own garden, and what i harvest, i need to cook. >> anthony: where are you cooking now? >> i work at the four seasons hotel. >> anthony: oh that's not a bad gig. >> yeah, yeah. >> anthony: how african will houston be in twenty years? a lot, right? >> gertrude: i want, all my family still over there. my mom, my sister -- >> anthony: and you'd like them to come. >> gertrude: i want them to come. >> anthony: a lot of first generation and second generation african babies are going to be happening here. >> albert: yeah. >> anthony: houston is going to look real different. you'll hear lingala at the 7-eleven? no problem? >> gertrude: no problem.

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♪ >> anthony: the crack of the bat. the roar of the crowd. two teams locked in struggle. take me out to the ballgame, man. though the smell wafting from behind the bleachers is not hot dogs or popcorn or roasting peanuts, it's a hell of a lot better actually. >> kuldeep patel: basically, it's practically like baseball. first international game believe it or not was u.s.a. versus canada. >> anthony: really? >> kuldeep patel: yes, in 1844. >> kuldeep patel: yeah, i don't know if you knew, but cricket is second most watched sport in the world. yes. >> anthony: i, i just read that. >> kuldeep patel: india is number one. u.s.a. is number two. >> anthony: i do like a sport where you can aim at somebody's crotch though. i think that's sort of awesome. >> anthony: i'm not even going to try and explain the sport of cricket to you. there's a ball and there's bats,

and i think you run to, like, base. go out to sardar patel stadium in houston's richmond neighborhood and ask league president of the houston indian cricket club -- he knows. he was once a big cricket star himself. >> kuldeep patel: let's go. let's go! >> anthony: who's winning? >> kuldeep patel: the first team scored 120 runs. they're chasing right now. >> anthony: i see, so you can't really say cause they haven't had an opportunity yet. >> kuldeep patel: exactly right. >> anthony: see, this is why it didn't happen in america. we need, we like winners in america. we like to know whose winning at all times. >> kuldeep patel: but this is a very high energetic game. baseball, when we watch baseball, it's kind of slow to us when we -- >> anthony: well, even to us it is. >> kuldeep patel: right? it's a slower game. >> anthony: it's really all about the snacks. >> kuldeep patel: yes, hot dogs. >> anthony: but, they're [ bleep ] hot dogs here. and the beer is even worse. now for a hot dog. oh no, right. now for some tandoori chicken cooked to perfection, some spicy, tender, and totally

delicious curried goat, and made to order potato masala dosas. >> anthony: are there fewer rules here? the caste system, you lose that right away. >> it's not right away. you gotta understand because when i'm coming, somebody comes from a rich middle class family, it's going to take a minute to get used to that culture shock over here. it's going to take them about two years. >> kuldeep patel: like, when i got married, back then in the 90s it was like i was supposed to marry a girl from my caste. it was an issue then but now it's not an issue. now, you know, twenty years later it's changed. >> anthony: what about white houstonians, welcoming? nice? >> like, my experience, i moved from singapore. first six months whenever we used to go anywhere and said we recently moved to u.s.a., everyone, "oh, welcome to texas. welcome to houston. welcome to u.s.a." and, like, that made us very comforted. >> anthony: i mean that's not the stereotype. the stereotype is that this is an intolerant state filled with, you know, right wing cowboys who don't like foreigners. not houston? >> definitely not.

in the beginning you might feel like texans are, like, not that friendly to you but once you know them they are really friendly people. >> we see this is the best place to dream and achieve the dream. >> the same opportunities in india i get, i won't make as much of my life as i would over here. >> kuldeep patel: you work hard in this country and if you put your mind to something, you know, it is achievable then, i think. so, america is land of opportunity and best place to stay in the world. >> anthony: some people say, "make america great again." i say, "america was great all along, some of us just forgot why." it's great because your grandfather and my grandfather and everybody's damn grandfather or great grandfather crammed themselves, snuck, bought their way, or was dragged onto a boat and one way or another, allowed themselves eventually to dream. you still can. there's still room and, in some places in america, apparently

you are still welcome. welcome stranger, this land is your land. ♪ ♪ you could end up dead there, the houston rockets red flair ♪ ♪ the finals, they might get there ♪ ♪ houston, they hustle very clever ♪ ♪ ♪ they can't deport us all ♪ bumping that bollywood

♪ -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> anthony: some time ago, something crawled, or slithered, or grew like a fungus. something that started small, got bigger, lurched like a swamp thing out of the mud and moist earth and humid nights of the delta. thenit took over t world. so next time some smart ass foreigner, horrified by our latest ham-fisted foreign policy blunder wonders out loud, "what good is america?" well, you can always pipe up that the blues, rock 'n' roll, r&b, and soul all came out of this place -- one state --