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Los chinos en Puerto Rico
En este libro de recuenta la historia de los precursores, aquellos chinos que resistieron los abusos del sistema laboral de las haciendas azucareras cubanas del siglo XIX y fueron penalizados en el presidio de Puerto Rico. Condenados a trabajos forzados, laboraron en las obras públicas, especialmente en el tramo de la Carretera Central entre Cayey y Coamo. Sus expedientes detallan sus conflictos en Cuba y su desempeño en Puerto Rico. Muchos murieron antes de alcanzar la libertad, otros salieron de la Isla al lograrla, pero también otros se quedaron, fundaron familias, establecieron negocios y dejaron huella en la memoria colectiva.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
501 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 22, 2018
I bought this book because I was curious about Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico. It's a very small population and I always wondered why they would choose to settle here instead of the mainland U.S. or elsewhere with larger numbers of their ethnicity. This book needs a second part because it sort of cuts off at the beginning of the 20th century and there isn't much post World War II. It’s very academic and sometimes it is literally one news clipping or judicial procedure after the next, making it tedious for the average reader. It took me months to finish.
Here's what I learned:
1. In the 1800s when PR was still a Spanish colony and slavery was slowly being abolished in the Americas, British and French vessels transported “excess” impoverished indentured laborers from the weakened Chinese empire to the Americas and created a sub-class of workers laboring under pretty awful conditions.
2. In the Caribbean most Chinese workers ended up in Cuba, another Spanish colony. Puerto Rico, never a huge slave importer, was facing the abolitionist movement, slave rebellions, and cholera so the hacienda owners needed more workers and tried to get the government to import Chinese or any other available group. But no dice. This was not a government operation like African slavery was but a business arrangement. The British didn't see it as profitable as importing to the richer Cuba, and PR business owners didn't have the financial clout of their Cuban counterparts.
3. Indentured laborers were given names in Spanish and in case of repeated names got surnames like First, Second, Third (Primero, Segundo, Tercero). This besides being offensive lacked so much imagination but apparently is good for historical research purposes.
4. Cuban hacienda owners treated their Chinese laborers terribly and some rebelled, got murdery, and were incarcerated. Some were transferred to prisons elsewhere including Puerto Rico starting in 1865. Here they were assigned mayor public works like roads. Of those prisoners that survived most stayed in PR after finishing their sentences. Some eventually established humble guest houses and eating establishments.
5. The Spanish American War of 1898 and the change in sovereignty to the United States expedited prisoner sentences. Also Puerto Rico became an alternative for Chinese immigrant families that could not go to the United States because of the Chinese exclusion laws over there. The federal laws did eventually apply to PR in 1904. In 1943 the exclusion law was abolished and in the 1950s with the industrialization boom in Puerto Rico, many Chinese businesses opened, especially restaurants and ice cream shops. Chinese (along with non-Chinese) fleeing the communist regime in Cuba also came to PR to a place similar to what they left behind.
6. The third immigration wave after 1990 is of young, mostly male workers, some undocumented, via other regions of the Caribbean and Latin America. Some end up owing enormous fees and have to pay off their debt. After the Dominicans they are now the second largest group of workers arriving illegally. Because of the nature of this immigration it is hard to know exactly how many ethnic Chinese are in PR.
What this book is lacking, and why I mentioned it needs a second part, are personal stories of current Chinese families living in Puerto Rico. There are a lot of facts and figures and a dry retelling of historical events but not much else.
Here's what I learned:
1. In the 1800s when PR was still a Spanish colony and slavery was slowly being abolished in the Americas, British and French vessels transported “excess” impoverished indentured laborers from the weakened Chinese empire to the Americas and created a sub-class of workers laboring under pretty awful conditions.
2. In the Caribbean most Chinese workers ended up in Cuba, another Spanish colony. Puerto Rico, never a huge slave importer, was facing the abolitionist movement, slave rebellions, and cholera so the hacienda owners needed more workers and tried to get the government to import Chinese or any other available group. But no dice. This was not a government operation like African slavery was but a business arrangement. The British didn't see it as profitable as importing to the richer Cuba, and PR business owners didn't have the financial clout of their Cuban counterparts.
3. Indentured laborers were given names in Spanish and in case of repeated names got surnames like First, Second, Third (Primero, Segundo, Tercero). This besides being offensive lacked so much imagination but apparently is good for historical research purposes.
4. Cuban hacienda owners treated their Chinese laborers terribly and some rebelled, got murdery, and were incarcerated. Some were transferred to prisons elsewhere including Puerto Rico starting in 1865. Here they were assigned mayor public works like roads. Of those prisoners that survived most stayed in PR after finishing their sentences. Some eventually established humble guest houses and eating establishments.
5. The Spanish American War of 1898 and the change in sovereignty to the United States expedited prisoner sentences. Also Puerto Rico became an alternative for Chinese immigrant families that could not go to the United States because of the Chinese exclusion laws over there. The federal laws did eventually apply to PR in 1904. In 1943 the exclusion law was abolished and in the 1950s with the industrialization boom in Puerto Rico, many Chinese businesses opened, especially restaurants and ice cream shops. Chinese (along with non-Chinese) fleeing the communist regime in Cuba also came to PR to a place similar to what they left behind.
6. The third immigration wave after 1990 is of young, mostly male workers, some undocumented, via other regions of the Caribbean and Latin America. Some end up owing enormous fees and have to pay off their debt. After the Dominicans they are now the second largest group of workers arriving illegally. Because of the nature of this immigration it is hard to know exactly how many ethnic Chinese are in PR.
What this book is lacking, and why I mentioned it needs a second part, are personal stories of current Chinese families living in Puerto Rico. There are a lot of facts and figures and a dry retelling of historical events but not much else.
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December 26, 2024Esto cuenta por Chinos PR (del mismo autor), que me leí a principios de año
February 11, 2024
Librazo
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews