Family goes from killing fields to charter school land in PSL

May 25, 2007
By CHRIS YOUNG
chris.young@scripps.com
TCPalm (Florida, USA)

"(Communists) can take everything I own, they killed my parents, but they can't take education from me" - Rithy Nau, former refugee from Cambodia

PORT ST. LUCIE — Walking through orchards of Asian fruit trees, Rithy Nau looked at the progress of his mangoes and lychees, still too early in the year to be picked.

Only a short unpaved road connects his 8-acre island of farmland to the surrounding city, buffered by a smattering of homes and undeveloped lots.

But Nau wants to surrender to the inevitable rooftops and development other residents in the southwestern frontier of the city have retreated from.

He and his wife, Sokona, escaped the killing fields of Cambodia in 1979, came to the United States the next year and decided to settle in Florida because the climate was similar to their homeland.

They bought 22 acres near Becker Road and Port St. Lucie Boulevard in 1997 and gradually sold off all but 8 acres. Recently, the private nonprofit firm Imagine Schools proposed buying 6 acres from them to build a K-8 charter school to satisfy the demand for classrooms in the southwest area of the city, and they agreed.

"Right now, we'll keep the property and make sure the fruit trees stay in good shape," he said.

If the City Council approves annexing 6 acres into the city and rezoning it from agricultural to institutional to allow for a school Tuesday, the Naus will retire on the remaining 2 acres, continuing to grow 30 to 40 varieties of Asian fruits and vegetables for themselves and neighbors.

For years, the Naus worked at Martin Memorial Medical Center as nurses and grew crops on the side, exporting the harvests to Asian grocery stores in Rhode Island and Boston.

"The Communists made everybody into farmers, and you didn't ask questions," he said. They also helped other Cambodian families get settled in the area, even selling them chunks of their property below market price to build homes.

Now they have six Cambodian neighbors living adjacent to them on land that once was all part of Lawrence Becker's 6,000-acre ranch and sold to General Development Corp. to become the western frontier of the city. If the school is approved, the Naus' 2 acres still will include Becker's ranch house, which was built in 1950 is now their home.

Twice a year, for Cambodian New Year in April and for a festival celebrating family ancestors in the fall, the Naus host a party where more than 100 people congregate in their courtyard. A side building contains a Buddhist shrine where they pray.

When he talks about the possibility of selling the land for the charter school, Rithy Nau, 55, talks excitedly. Rithy's parents and Sokona's father and brothers were killed by the Communist regime. Nau said he had to pretend to be uneducated to avoid death, but it was his nursing degree that allowed him to prosper in Florida, even guiding two of his children to become doctors.

"(Communists) can take everything I own, they killed my parents, but they can't take education from me," he said. "A school will be good for the community."