A Very Long Engagement: 400 Years of Sino-Latin American Relations Alex McAnarney - Fair Observer
go to original December 9, 2012

Chinese immigrants have a history in many Latin American countries that vastly predates China’s demand for the region’s resources.  Their presence has been a point of cultural enrichment, as well as social tension.

From wandering under the red paper lanterns that decorate the Barrio Chino on Calle Dolores in Mexico City to tasting the rich, ginger-laced fusion cuisine served in Peru, China’s historic influence in Latin America is culturally and deliciously clear.

Yet, amid the history of mutual beneficence, relationships with immigrants from China have been fraught with uneasiness and at times outright xenophobia. Amidst a complex 400-year history, residual ties and tensions between diasporas continue to impact social relations today.

Mexico: The Silk Road of the Sea and Sinophobic Backlash

Historians claim Sino-Latin American relations go as far back as 1575, when the “silk road of the sea” saw 20 to 60 ships sail between China’s coastal regions and Mexico’s Acapulco every year. Via a stopover in the Spanish colony of Manila in the Philippines, goods like silk, cotton, jewelry and gun powder were shipped to the New World in exchange for shoes, olive oil and wine, creating a trade route that persisted until 1815. During the late 19th to early 20th century, Chinese immigrants arrived as indentured manual laborers known derogatorily as “Coolies.” Beyond their toil, these immigrants came to further shape the societies they inhabited.

The history of the Chinese in Mexico remained relatively unexplored until the publication of Roberto Chao Romero’s The History of the Chinese in Mexico 1882-1940. Chao, an Assistant Professor in Chicana and Chicano studies at UCLA, chronicles a fascinating yet dark chapter in Mexico’s history.

The book notes that many Chinese nationals arrived in Mexico as personal servants of Spanish merchants. These servants later went on to establish their own shops, restaurants and trades in segregated areas of major cities. However, the boom in Chinese migration did not occur until the late 19th century, after which Chinese immigrants were legally barred from entering the United States, following the Chinese exclusion act of 1882.  About 60,000 Chinese immigrants drifted to the “Big Lusong” – a nickname given to Mexico – with hopes of entering the US illegally.

The Mexican government saw the wave of migrants as a source of exploitable labor and signed a treaty with China to recruit Chinese peasants to work the agricultural sectors of northern Mexico. By 1920, Chinese immigrants comprised one of the largest immigrant groups in the nation at 26,000, second only to natives of Spain.

The story of the Chinese in Mexico was soon tainted by an emerging sinophobia, which inspired a wave of persecution. As nationalist fervor swept through Mexico in 1910, outsiders were seen as a detriment to Mexico’s development. Against the backdrop of the political turmoil that would eventually devolve into the Mexican Revolution, mounting xenophobia sparked a bloody anti-Chinese mob in the city of Torreón, Coahuila, killing 300 Chinese immigrants.  Five years later, in the neighboring state of Sonora, malicious propaganda, enforced segregation and violent repression, drove Chinese immigrants from the town of Magdalena. By 1940, despite a loosening of immigration restrictions by the Mexican government in response to an exodus of refugees fleeing Communist rule, anti-Chinese violence deterred many immigrants from staying or further migrating from China.  Since then, few new Chinese migrants have landed on Mexican shores.

Today, descendants of Chinese immigrants can be found in Mexico City, Tapachula and most predominantly in Mexicali. Only 500 meters south of the U.S. border, Mexicali claims the highest concentration of Chinese residents in Mexico to date.

Read more at Fair Observer

Alex is a graduate student at the University of Chicago's Latin American Studies Program. As part of her field research, she lived at a migrant shelter along the Mexico-Guatemala border.

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