- 1975 marked a significant chapter in Southeast Asia, the fall of Saigon, which signify the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a four year genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime and neighboring Cambodia.

There they faced starvation, forced labor, torture, and other forms of violence.

Women and children weren't spared.

- I just remember the stories that my older sister would tell me, and she would tell me, you know, when we were captured, the things that she would see is there was, they would just kill this little girl right in front of her because she took a cucumber and she was probably three or four years old.

- You gotta work from six in the morning until six at night.

If you don't do what they tell you to do, they'll kill you.

The - Turmoil sparked a large scale migration of refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia into the United States from the mid seventies until the mid nineties.

Dallas was one of 10 US cities to serve as a relocation - Site for those fleeing the violence.

In 10 years, the Dallas area, Southeast Asian community, has swelled to 30,000, nearly one third of the state's, Southeast Asian population.

- For many, their introduction to life in the United States began here in this one mile square block of East Dallas that became widely known as little Asia, just two miles from downtown.

O East Dallas is a section of the city rich in culture and history.

Before, as part of the city, this 1400 acre triangle of land, known as East Dallas, was its own thriving town, known for its posh events in upscale homes.

The success of the town was partially thanks to William Gaston, a banker and former confederate officer who convinced the railway to pass through East Dallas, bringing with it business and opportunity.

The allure of this booming town caught the eye of its neighbor, and in 1890 Dallas annexed East Dallas, a move that made it the largest city in Texas at the time.

Decades later, east Dallas will become home to relocated Southeast Asian refugees, - 4,000 Southeast Asians, most of them.

Cambodian live in a one square mile area, dubbed little Asia.

- So the neighborhood was not as what the movies would say, say, you know, like, oh, it's a friendly neighborhood.

It, it really wasn't, you know, you really have to watch your back.

You really, - SHTA or TTA and her family were featured in the 1986 KERA documentary starting over in America, a film on struggles.

The refugees in East Dallas faced though pockets of the legacy wealth, old East Dallas remain today.

The reality for the refugee community was a much different picture.

Tta is just an infant here, but she and her brother Vanny remember the area Well, - It is scary because you hear like, oh, there was a shooting here, there was a fight there, there was a kidnap here.

So I'm like, I don't know if I wanna go outside anymore, but walking to school every day, you know, like it toughened me up because I'm familiar with the, the neighborhood at that point.

Yeah.

- At the time, the Dallas Morning News reported that the crime rate in the East Dallas neighborhood was two and a half times the rate of the rest of the city.

Refugees were often targets of crime due to the language barrier and a mistrust of police.

- When I first got to United States, I saw the police 'cause they weren't black look like Meru.

I was scared I was, when I saw them, I kind of run in high.

But take me at least 10, 15 year to, you know, to feel like, okay, it's normal idea.

- Even with the high number of crimes, the neighborhood was a refuge compared to the atrocities.

They escaped Under the Khm Rouge, an estimated one and a half to 3 million Cambodians were murdered.

In the span of four years, those who could fled to neighboring Thailand, often leaving behind children and other family in the chaos of war.

Refugee camps were established along the Thai border, a temporary solution for an overwhelming problem.

- This wooden bridge marks the arrival of these camper chi and refugees into Thailand.

Less than an hour away by bus.

Ka camp offers a temporary refuge from the continuing conflict along the camper chi border.

- Oh, yeah.

Very, very hard in the, when we live in the camp, we try to buy day by day and, and food.

We don't have much food - Coming to Dallas.

It was culture shocked.

Of course it was.

It was different from how they lived back then, you know, living in a hut or in a, in a tent when they were in, in Thailand during the refugee camp.

But it was a culture shock when they arrived here, that was difficult.

We didn't have any transportation.

So going into the store or doing laundry is all by foot - Starting over in the United States.

I mean, acclimating to an entirely different experience.

From cooking with gas stoves to learning the language.

Every faction of this life was foreign.

You turn this knob down to make it less hot.

See, it's just like taking some wood out of your fire back home.

And while their life in Cambodia was behind them, it was far from forgotten.

- Is this where you take a bath, you can see the sadness in her face, but she didn't really talk about it.

She would sit there and talk about like, oh, I remember your sister and my sister.

We ended up leaving her behind.

We had to leave her behind.

So I didn't grow up with her.

I didn't even know anything about her.

And she was like, your sister, you know, she used to help me in my garden.

You know, we had at home, or the rice patties, they would, you know, do their own, have their rice patties and they would, that was what they did every day.

And of course their backyard garden - Gardening.

It was a skill that many Cambodians brought with them to the states back home.

It was a source of income and food a way of life.

Soon an organized initiative blossomed in the heart of their neighborhood.

- Gardening, farming was something they were expert at and what they really wanted to do.

The East Dallas Community Garden was formed because amongst this refugee population, there were a large number of people that were trying to grow stuff, you know, in their apartment complexes that upset the landowners, the landlords, and the local community, you know?

And so that's one of the reason this group of people got together and started the garden because they thought that would be something that was needed.

And it was.

This is a, at another garden up the street that we did, it was mostly with Lish and families.

- Don Lambert is the executive director of Gardeners in Community Development.

The East Dallas Community Garden became one of the projects he oversaw.

- My role from the very beginning was to let them do as much as they could for themselves, by themselves.

- I helped build this stage back here, right behind me, beside me.

It's still standing, which is amazing.

After 20 years, I think I was about 10 years old when I helped put this together.

Over - Time it became so much more than a space to grow vegetables.

The community garden became a centralized location for the Southeast Asian community to connect.

They received vital services, hold cultural events and celebrations.

More importantly, it was a space for them to heal together.

- There was no such thing as therapy for them, you know, as for, so it was having each other is what was therapy for them, you know?

And of course this community, this garden was therapeutic for them.

That was kind of like what they did to get to maintain, you know, their sanity.

Because that's a lot for somebody to go through.

To witness all of that, - The garden, it means everything.

This is my life back then, you know, before leaving Dallas.

This means a lot.

It's my life pretty much - For it to be standing here.

Like I feel super proud of what my parents did.

You know what, what they've done and what they've done for the community.

- TTA and Vanity's parents have since passed away.

They visit the Buddhist temple every new year to place incense next to their ashes, sending a prayer to their loved ones through the rising smoke.

- I am thankful for the things that I've learned.

Like I took it for granted when I was younger and then especially, you know, when, when they end up passing sooner than you expect.

Like, I wish I would learned this.

And I tell my my kids all the time, I'm like, you know, learn what you can from me.

You never know what's gonna happen.

- The neighborhood looks nothing like it once did, when those families stepped off the planes from the refugee camps of Thailand, many of the families who settled here have since moved.

Almost 40 years later, the still flourishes in the heart of what was once called Little Asia.

It remains the oldest community garden in Dallas today.

Like many overlooked spaces around Dallas, it's a reminder of the people and cultures that have shaped the city.