Global Chain of Marianism: Diasporic Formation among Vietnamese Catholics in the United States and Cambodia

Although Vietnamese Catholics in the United States and Cambodia have been isolated from each other for at least thirty years (1975–2005), this paper argues that they have recently established diasporic ties with each other through a global chain of Marianism. Both groups have experienced racialization in their host countries, which are in turn inflected by their local church hierarchies. These experiences have motivated them to establish ties with each other. Their US-Cambodia relationships are mediated through the Vietnamese-looking Our Lady of Lavang and Our Lady of the Mekong, which make up a global circuit of distinctively Vietnamese Marianism.