Integrating the Latino Diaspora

After completing their contracts, many Chinese laborers who had been part of the Coolie Trade moved to major cities and began integrating into local communities. For instance, in Lima, Peru, some Chinese men found work as domestic servants and artisans, and married native Peruvians, leading to the emergence of new mixed-race identities, as early as the 1850’s. As the Chinese diaspora continued to spread and blend into communities across the United States and the Americas, sinophobia—an irrational fear or dislike of China, Chinese people, and Chinese culture—became increasingly prominent.

Justina Hwang of Brown University notes, “While the coolies were referred to as raza amarilla, china, chinos de la Gran China, chinos del imperio celeste, Celestes, or Nación asiática in respectful terms, and los amarillos or Macacos in less polite terms, their mixed-race offspring, who began appearing around 1870, were not assigned any specific name or racial category until the twentieth century.” Hwang explains that the lack of a racial classification for Chinese-Peruvians, a practice that had been common since the early colonial era, was used to further marginalize this group and signal their exclusion from broader Peruvian society. Moreover, discourse surrounding new racial mixing between Chinese immigrants and other ethnic groups in Peru often emphasized the foreignness and "unassimilable" nature of Chinese-Peruvians, framing them as inherently distinct from Indigenous and mestizo populations.

In addition to interpersonal and institutional racism Chinese immigrants faced in their new communities, there are also some documented events in which Chinese immigrants were faced with racially charged violence due to their background. One of the most notable instances of such an event was the Torreón Massacre, which happened in the Mexican city of Torreón, Coahuilla, in 1911. Leading up to the massacre, locals in Torreón were pitted against the Chinese population, with local community members scapegoating the Chinese population for stealing the jobs of Mexican women, particularly in the laundry business. Chinese workers and business owners were portrayed as “dangerous competitors” of the local people, and were attacked for the fact the Chinese population had a strong presence in the grocery, vegetable, and gardening industry. Other anti-Chinese ideas were fueled by accusations of Chinese men “vying for the affection and companionship of local women.” A total of 303 Chinese people were murdered. You can read more about the incident here, and listen to Dr. Mónica Cinco Basurto, who is of Chinese descent and has been an active member of the Mexican Chinese community, as she discusses the experiences of her family as Chinese-Mexicans.

Think about the following questions:

What challenges did Chinese immigrants face in Latin America? How did they overcome these challenges, and what contributions did they make to their new communities? How are Chinese contributions to Latin American history represented in historical records, media, and public memory?

Despite hardships due to racial violence and discrimination, by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, perceptions of Chinese Latinos began to shift as immigrants increasingly integrated into their societies. In Cuba, Chinese immigrants faced less institutionalized discrimination compared to other Latin American regions. Although stereotypes associated with the Perpetual Foreigner concept persisted, Chinese Cubans' participation in the Cuban wars for independence from 1868 to 1898, their successful formation of cross-racial alliances, and the Cuban republic's professed dedication to an ideal of racial democracy created conditions for their inclusion into the national citizenry, as noted by Dr. Kathleen M. López in her book Chinese Cubans: A Transnational History.

In Peru, while some Chinese immigrants became prominent planters or merchants, most established small businesses, such as stores, restaurants, and vegetable stands, or worked as artisans. Chinese immigrants opened affordable fondas (small eateries) in Lima as early as the 1860s, catering to working-class locals. By the 1920s, these fondas evolved into chifas—larger, more popular establishments that served as gathering places for celebrations within both Chinese and Peruvian communities. Today, chifas are an integral part of Peruvian cuisine, celebrated for their unique cultural blend. Chinese-Peruvians further solidified their place in Peruvian society by creating native-place associations and converting to Catholicism, thus forging meaningful and inclusive spaces within their communities.