Back to the future: Mexico and China… global partners since the 16th century
There has been a lot of talk and more than talk about the advantages Mexico has in its trade ties to China… both from “nearshoring”, and through its expanding transportation network, as well as it’s geographical position, with both Atlantic and Pacific access, as well as “north-south” collections.
Which is really nothing new, as explained in this video from the Mexican Cultural Institute, hosted by Brown University’s Dr. Eveyln Hu-Dehart.
I had been aware of Evelyn Hu-Dehart’s books on the Yaquí1 , but less so with her later publications on the Chinese/East Asian disaspora in Mexico. However, her focus for the last several years has been on the Chinese (and East Asian) migration to especially north-west Mexico.
“Chinese” is something of a misnomer when speaking about before the mid-19th century, although Chine is essential to this story. According to Dr. Hu-Dehart, “Chino” — “Chinese” — was broadly applied to east Asians of any ethnicity… at least initially, although that would change in the later 19th century when Chinese expelled from the US in the 1870s and 80s, or denied entry “thanks” to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1886, settled in northern Mexico rather than in Califronia and the US west. .
Dr. Hu-Dehart’s presentation is geared to a general audience, and one might quibble with a fact(oid) here or there (Galleons were sailing ships, and while they might need to be towed if there wasn’t a favorable wind, they weren’t rowed across the Pacific. Depending on the size of the ship,the crew would be very large however, anywhere from 159 to 500 sailors, not always free laborers). and she closes her presentation in the 1930s, missing the important role Chinese emigres — or rather internal refugees from the pogroms and overtly xenophobic attacks in the north — took in Mexico City, especially in the restaurant and… strangely enough “French bakery” sector. And, of course, the recent and noticeable Chinese/east Asian immigrant community, and China’s strong presence in industry, including the automotive sector.
Enjoy.. and learn.
Missionaries, Miners, and Indians: History of Spanish Contact with the Yaqui Indians of Northwestern New Spain, 1533–1830 (1981)
Yaqui Resistance and Survival: Struggle for Land and Autonomy, 1821–1910 ( 1984) ↩︎
mexfiles.net 