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Cao, Joseph

CANDIDATE DETAILS

Affiliation


	2009-01-03

Name

Joseph Cao

Address

4371 Murano Rd.
New Orleans, Louisiana , United States

None

Website

None

Born

March 13, 1967 (57 years)

Contributor

RBH

Last Modifed

samir7243_ATL
Nov 07, 2021 10:00am

Tags

Asian - Vietnamese - Married - Catholic - Straight -

Info

Anh "Joseph" Quang Cao, 40, was born in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, the fifth of eight children. He grew up in Vietnam during the most turbulent years of the Vietnamese Civil War. During the chaotic days after the fall of Saigon in 1975, Anh fled Vietnam for the U.S. with his older sister, Thanh, and his younger brother, Khanh. He had to leave behind his father, who was imprisoned in a North Vietnamese re-education camp for being an officer in the South Vietnamese Army, and his mother, who single-handedly raised his five other sisters.

After arriving in the United States at the age of 8, Anh spent his first fours in Goshen, Indiana, where he attended primary school and learned the English language and culture. He eventually settled in Houston, where he would graduate from Jersey Village High School and proceeded to study physics at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He earned his Bachelor of Science in 1990 then entered the Society of Jesus, when he finally arrived in Louisiana at Grand Coteau to begin his Jesuit training.

During the first two years in the Society, Anh was sent by his religious superiors to various parts of the world to help the poor and indigent. He spent two months in Brownsville, Texas, working with poor Mexicans fighting for social justice; he spent three months in Montgomery, Alabama, working with mentally challenged children; he spent seven months in Tijuana, Mexico, working at La Casa de los Pobres to assist poor Hispanics; he also spent three months in Hong Kong to work with Vietnamese refugees.

PERSONAL HISTORY

• A law degree from Loyola University
• A former Jesuit seminarian
• A Vietnamese refugee
• A small business owner
• Fluent in English, Vietnamese and Spanish
• Married, two daughters
• Member, Mary Queen of Vietnam Church

In September of 1992, Anh was sent to New Orleans to study theology and philosophy in his training for the priesthood, and subsequently, he studied philosophy at Fordham University in New York, where he obtained his Master of Arts in May, 1995. He returned to New Orleans to teach Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics to undergraduates at Loyola University. After spending one year at Loyola, he left the Society of Jesus and moved to Falls Church, Virginia, where he taught Religion and Math at St. Agnes School for one year.

It was in Virginia, that Anh volunteered at Boat People S.O.S., Inc. ("BPSOS") to assist poor Vietnamese in their quest for social justice and enculturation, and to lobby the U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill on issues concerning civil and religious rights. He eventually became a board member of Boat People S.O.S., Inc. and served in that capacity from September 1996 to March of 2002.

In September of 1997, Anh returned to New Orleans to resume teaching philosophy part-time at Loyola and to study law at Loyola School of Law. In May of 2000, he obtained his Juris Doctor from Loyola and began his legal career as an associate at the Waltzer Law Firm. He left Waltzer & Associates to become in-house counsel for BPSOS and open a New Orleans office to assist poor minorities on social and legal issues. He initiated programs to help victims of torture, and to provide social and cultural developments for poor minorities.

Six years ago, Anh married Hieu Hoang at Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in New Orleans East, and subsequently had two daughters: Sophia and Betsy.

He opened his private law practice in 2002, which he continues to operate to the present day.

In 2002, he was also selected by Archbishop Alfred Hughes of the Archdioceses of New Orleans to be a member of the National Advisory Council ("NAC") to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wherein he is a leader in helping the Catholic Church address many issues such as women’s rights in the U.S. Church, social justice, pedophilia and children protection, the Catholic response to Hurricane Katrina, and education.

A KATRINA SURVIVOR

• Has helped restore energy and telecommunications service to District 103 in timely fashion
• Rebuilt his home and law practice from scratch
• Helped protect District 103 neighborhoods from illegal and hazardous dumping of Katrina debris
• An involved volunteer in rebuilding greater New Orleans

On August 28, 2005, he and his family fled from their home in Venetian Isles located in New Orleans East to Panama City, Florida, as Hurricane Katrina was bearing down in New Orleans. Anh, his wife and two daughters spent three days in Florida watching news coverage of the devastation caused by the hurricane and wondering whether their house in Venetian Isles survived. On September 1, 2005, Anh and his family drove for eight hours through the wreckage and devastation left behind by Katrina in Alabama and Mississippi to reach Baton Rouge, where he spent three weeks searching for ways to re-enter New Orleans. When he and his wife finally returned to the New Orleans Metropolitan Area about one month after the hurricane, Anh saw that everything he possessed was destroyed, including his home and his law offices. But determined to return and rebuild, in October of 2005 he moved his family from Baton Rouge to Westwego, and began the rebuilding of his Orleans home and law office. His office would take three months to repair, and his home a year and a half.

Like the many people of Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes who were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, Anh has endured countless struggles against insurance companies and the political leadership to protect his home and community. He assisted the residents in New Orleans East in their successful fight against a landfill that threatened to change the social fabric of their community. He fought energy and telecommunication companies to have basic necessities restored in a timely fashion. He has suffered the pain caused by Katrina and experienced the struggles of the rebuilding process, and shares the hopes and desires of the people.

His is a life of determination to not give in to adversity and to always seek social improvement and justice.

ANH "Joseph" QUANG CAO

A personal history of fighting the odds

[Link]
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