Root strength

Sotha Chea arrived in the U.S. at 23 years old with nothing but torn clothes, broken shoes and a backpack full of books. The refugee was fleeing the destruction and violence of the civil war in Cambodia to start over in Denver, leaving behind the only life he had ever known.

Chea was still a child when the Communist regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia in 1975. He lost almost all of his family when they were shipped off to the labor camps. His parents were executed, his three sisters and one of his two brothers disappeared, and he was tortured with no food and no access to medicine. He had to teach himself how to steal food in order to survive.

“I was lonely,” he says. “I kept myself in the closet. I had no trust because where I came from, my family, we work together and the Communists cut that and killed them. I saw thousands of dead people during those years. I saw executions in front of me and beside me. It has been a long time but it feels like it was yesterday because it was so difficult.”

His only surviving family members were one brother and an aunt who safely fled to the United States.

But Chea stayed behind and fought the communist forces. When he was about 16 years old, he was hit by a chemical smoke attack and while he was fortunate enough to evade capture, he fell unconscious and was badly injured from the toxic fumes.

Luckily, he recovered from his injuries. “I guess that chemical made me smarter here in the United States,” he jokes. “I tell people I was a dumb kid. Trust me. I helped people but I was a dumb kid. I couldn’t study anything.”

Chea escaped through the jungle with a group of other soldiers to Thailand but quickly found out that the country was not accepting refugees.

He and his group were told that if they stayed in the country, they would be sent to prison or to hard labor camps, so they escaped again into the jungle, heading to the Philippines.

Of the 50 or so members of the group, only 24 were left at the end of their journey. Most were killed by booby traps or land mines. “You had to walk on top of dead people because we didn’t know what the mines looked like,” he says.

They took to the trees to hide. “Everything was to protect your life and the enemy would walk under you with guns and you only have a bamboo stick to stick them with so we had to survive by outsmarting them,” he says.

Thanks to the native tribes in the area, the group learned what to eat, how to dig up roots and how to find water. Chea survived malaria and hid from the local soldiers by hiding in the trees and tying himself to the branches in order to sleep safely.

“The jungle taught me you cannot teach the jungle anything so I realized the job will teach me. I can’t teach the job.”

Coming to America.

Chea made his way to a refugee center in the Philippines. While at the camp, he met an American counselor who told him he was a bright kid, and that he should try to obtain refugee status in the U.S.

It was then that he realized he didn’t know where his brother and aunt had gone. The last time Chea had seen his brother, they had been separated for five years and met briefly before he disappeared for another two or three years.

One day, Chea saw a notice board at the camp with pictures and letters from those who had escaped abroad and were trying to find lost friends and family members. “I found a name because I was able to read the letters of my name and I found my auntie looking for family,” he says. “I could no longer recognize them because they were able to have nice clothes and food and their complexions had changed.”

Chea stayed at the camp for three months, learning things like how to use a stove, catch the bus and use indoor bathrooms. He had to be proficient enough to pass a test and then he was allowed to leave for the U.S.

When he was 23, he arrived in the U.S., however he didn’t know any English and the culture shock was overwhelming for him.

“Back then I didn’t know what a penny looked like. And that’s what got me here today. I’m a curious person. I constantly push myself to help.”

His older brother worked for Swingle Lawn, Tree & Landscape Care in Denver and told Chea the company was hiring. Chea was still learning English so his brother did the introductions and since he was such a good worker, Chea got a job in 1984. There was just one problem. Chea was paid $4 an hour instead of the standard $6 since he didn’t speak English and he had to learn the basic terms of the trade like raking, chainsaw and others in English or he would be fired.

“So he gave me two weeks,” Chea says. “Thirty two years later and I’m still here.”

Starting over.

Chea had his family in Denver, but he was completely lost and didn’t know what to do. “I thought I was in the jungle once again because nobody spoke my language and it was difficult,” he says.

“I thought about asking them to go back or put me back in the jungle or kill myself. So I had constant depression and I didn’t speak to anyone.”

But then Chea had a realization. He began to see his new life as another challenge to overcome. In his past life, he had to learn how to steal and how to kill, how to use weapons and evade capture. In his new life, he had to learn a new language, understand a new culture and build a new life.

So he started to read. He didn’t go to school and had very little education, but he dedicated himself to learning the language, studying two to four hours every night.

He threw himself into the job, taking every opportunity to learn what he could. During training, his foreman was teaching new employees how to use a rope and saddle to climb trees. Chea asked if he could try, the foreman eventually agreed and Chea took off about 60 feet up the tree since he had a lot of experience climbing trees to hide when he was in the jungle.

“That’s what’s great about America and what we love about America – opportunity,” Chea says. “And so the foreman saw I could climb and he went back (to the office) to talk to someone and the rest is history.”

He let the job teach him everything it could because, as he says, “The jungle taught me you cannot teach the jungle anything so I realized the job will teach me. I can’t teach the job.”

Now, 32 years later, Chea is an enhancement services foreman at Swingle. He’s well known for his artistic talents, creating beautiful displays on trees at the Denver Botanic Gardens Trail of Lights, Hudson Gardens and Castle Rock.

“That’s what’s great about America and what we love about America – opportunity.”

He takes what he has learned and tries to pass on his appreciation of education and hard work to others at the company. “I use the trueness of my life to wake up people,” he says. “I encourage people to never take any handout.”

And he doesn’t see his employees as just laborers. He talks to them, teaches them and prepares them for the future. “Determination and knowledge of surroundings can push you,” he says. “If you can’t educate yourself, the other half has to be physical and you have to use that physical to make a living.”

He tells his coworkers to never stop learning, and it seems to work. He has trained employees who have been with Swingle for 20 years. “Back then, I didn’t know what a penny looked like,” he says. “And that’s what got me here today. I’m a curious person.

“I constantly push myself to help. In my blood, in my family, we always help others to be better and every kind of character, every kind of test that we’re put on to be.”

That determination has helped him build a successful career, start a family and a create a new life. When he put his mind to something, he gets it done.

“I committed to pay off my house so I set the goal and I put every nickel and dime into it,” he says. “Last year, I finally paid off my house so I can call America home now.”