Chinese Cuban
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A Chinese Cuban is an ethnic Chinese born in Cuba.
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Chinese immigration to Cuba started in 1847. The first group of Chinese immigrants to Cuba was imported by Spanish settlers by a ship from Guangdong Province as contract workers. Only 206 out of 300 survived to work on sugar fields. Other Chinese workers came from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Most of them were males. They were brought to progress and finish the labor of African slaves. After the 8-year contract, the Chinese settled for the rest of their lives and lived together in Havana’s Chinatown, known as (El) Barrio Chino de La Habana. It has been the largest Latino Chinatown and is one of the 2 earliest Chinatowns in the Western Hemisphere. Many Chinese also married African slaves and their children were the first Chinese-Cubans. Their children also married Spanish settlers. Present-day Chinese-Cubans are offsprings of the intermarriages between Chinese, Spanish, and Africans. Many of them have Spanish surnames. A popular person who is a product of Chinese and Cuban marriages is Wifredo Lam.
Between 1860 and 1875, the second group of Chinese immigrants to Cuba came from California. These Chinese Americans numbered about 5,000. They went abroad to get rid of the discrimination caused by Chinese Exclusion Act. These were the first wealthy Chinese immigrants to Cuba, where they improved the economic condition of Barrio Chino de La Habana. The former contract workers also promoted family businesses — like factories, groceries, and stores — to Chinatowns of other parts of the world.
Chinese Cubans, including some Chinese-Americans from California, joined the Spanish-American War in 1898 to achieve independence from Spain, but a few Chinese, who were loyal to Spain, left Cuba and went to Spain. Racial acceptance and assimilation would come much later.
The third and last group of Chinese immigrants to Cuba came from the time of Sun Yat Sen's administration in 1912 to Communist republic by Mao Zedong in 1949. They also included some refugees of World War II and Korean War. These came from other places in mainland China, and again, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, and also from Chinese communities in Japan and Korea. Chinese Cuban population numbered about 40,000 during that time.
When Fidel Castro ruled in 1959, the economic and political status changed. His opponents, including Chinese, were often jailed or killed directly. Many Chinese business owners, having had their properties seized by Castro, left Cuba. Most of these settled in the United States, particularly nearby Florida, where they and their U.S.-born children are called Chinese-Americans or Cuban-Americans of Chinese descent, while a relatively few to nearby Dominican Republic and other Latin American countries, and also to U.S.-ruled territory of Puerto Rico, where they are called Chinese Puerto Ricans, Cuban-Puerto Ricans of Chinese descent, or Cuban-Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese refugees to United States include people whose ancestors came to Cuba 10 years before Castro regime and those from United States. These Chinese American refugees, whose ancestors had come from California, were happy to be back in the United States. As a result of this exodus, the number of pure Chinese dropped sharply in Havana’s Barrio Chino. The Barrio Chino de La Habana today is not the largest Latino Chinatown. Most Chinese Cubans, who number only about 500, live outside Barrio Chino. Some of the Chinese, mostly Castro supporters, stayed after the start of his rule. Younger generations are working in professional jobs, being lawyers, doctors, and engineers. There are also some song composers and entering show-business: actors, actresses, singers, and models. These are mostly children of intermarriages who have adjusted to modern culture, and these must regain their lost culture. Today, mixed Chinese-Cubans marry other Chinese Cubans so that their race will be passed on to next generations.
Several community groups, especially Chinatown Promotional Group (Spanish: El Grupo Promotor del Barrio Chino), worked to revive Barrio Chino and the faded Chinese culture. Chinese Language and Arts School (La Escuela de la Lengua y Artes China) opened in 1993 and has grown since then, helping Chinese Cubans to strengthen their knownledge of the Chinese language. Today, Chinese Cubans tend to speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and a mixture of Chinese and Spanish, in addition to Spanish and English. They also promoted small businesses, like beauty parlors, mechanical shops, restaurants, and small groceries, provided to them to create a view of Barrio Chino. Havana’s Barrio Chino also experienced buildings of Chinese architecture and museum with backgrounds about China. As a result, the Chinese Cuban community has gained visibility.